23. The Leader’s Barriers to Change

Leaders challenge what is now: the status quo. And that always provokes resistance from others who prefer, for whatever reason, for things to stay just as they are. As a leader, it’s not about protecting yourself from the barbs. It’s about expressing your vision of change so it becomes meaningful to them too. So meaningful that it quells their resistance, and they willingly help you ignite it. First, though, you have to be aware of where the resistance is right now, and why. And that’s what Jonathan confronts in this episode as he answers the next Amplify question.

01:27 Amplify Card 21: What is preventing this change right now?

04:17 We have built institutions that go against the grain of who we are.

04:44 People don’t want to be measured; they want to be appreciated.

07:56 With our idea of progress, what is the vision the technology serves?

08:36 AI-generated email as a violation of trust.

13:18 Institutions as the embodiment of ideas and assumptions.

14:07 Politics as the idea of working together to find solutions rather than a war between competing interests.

16:41 Given the human complexity of even one individual, how can we as a community only have the choice of a “blue” team or a “red” team?

18:26 Our current system of politics is preventing change because it denies who we are.

19:50 In the real world, complex organizations get things done.

22:36 My vision seeks to defeat, to undo, those institutions that deny the pluralism within each one of us.

23:07 “Today we break with the past. Because we have to.”

23:51 When the assumptions are considered to be true: “this is who we are”

24:55 Crevices within a country create deep fissures that ultimately lead to anger and resentment.

27:22 Katherine’s story of a rollerblading injury analogous to the anger seeping into those living in a fractured world.

30:46 Being on the edge of the abyss with everything at stake.

31:35 Redefining the word “humanity”.

35:25 Final Answer

Produced by NOVA