What I have found is that the order of the things is like this: Principle, Practice, Policy. I don’t think that it can work (really, work) any other way. In short…know what your principles are (at least feel them, sense them) put them into practice and then–maybe then–think about writing a policy to state what it’s all about. In life as in work.
We (whoever “we” is) talk a lot about ‘strategizing’ and ‘accountablities’ and ‘leveraging’ and ‘advocacy’ and all the big phatty words that are so important and necessary and all that jazz that is required to get funding (yes, that is too often what it is really about it appears). My question is this: what about dreaming? When do we get to dream again? When do we get to apply our real talents and imaginations-in-action?
What if: we allowed ourselves to dream BEFORE the big meeting, before the big plea for funding, before we started rooting ourselves into the concrete of policy and “strategery?”
Have you dreamed today?
What has helped you dream a little? Follow that. Support that. Advocate for that. Question those that can’t speak the language of dreaming. Anyone can talk. It takes a special breed to dream and then put it into action. When you find you’re being encouraged to dream and allowed to act on those dreams, first, jump for joy, then, support that source–and then get back to dreaming.
Yes to Know 