Graduation Matters Montana (GMM) was fortunate to have Liz Weaver of Tamarack Institute deliver the keynote address at our June 2016 Summer Summit. Liz shared the findings of her recent paper, “Transformational Change is Possible”. Much of her analysis aligns with the GMM framework, and I was pleased that Summit participants connected with her presentation.
It made me think about “circles of concern and circles of influence,” and how I use this concept in my work. Circles of concern are things we care about, from global warming and presidential candidates to the choices our grown children make and the upturn or downturn of the economy. It’s the “stuff” we read in the paper, or watch on the news. Circles of influence are the things we can actually impact or affect – how we respond to an impatient coworker, whether or not we participate in a volunteer project, how much time we take to dig deeper and connect more dots in our work.
Knowing the difference between what we are concerned with and what we have influence over might at first seem a dispiriting activity: won’t it quickly be obvious that there is much, much more we care about than we can actually affect? Isn’t that immobilizing? Perhaps. But perhaps not.
It’s when we slow down and examine our circles of influence, that we are often surprised at what we find.
We have many levers to pull within our circles of influence. Once we begin to do so, a remarkable thing starts to happen: we discover that our circle of influence begins to expand, increasing our ability to impact our circles of concern.
It’s unlikely that we will ever experience complete alignment between what we are concerned with and what we actually have influence over, but not leaning in to what we actually can impact assures that this misalignment will widen.
So the next time you find yourself in a meeting where people are feeling despondent about how things can change, ask a simple question: “What is it that each of us can do, right now, or right this week, that will have a positive effect on our mission?”
Let me know what you discover.
Consider joining Liz Weaver and her colleagues at the Tamarack Community Change Institute this September