Hero's Journey (Immunity to Change)

The Hero’s Journey Stagen Privileged and Confidential 1

The Hero’s Journey


In a world that combines irresistible distraction

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with constant uncertainty


Your family, your company and your community are relying on you to lead them to a better place

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Leadership is the art of taking people down roads they don’t want to go down to places they do want to be


But, as you’ve accumulated the awards, rewardsand responsibilities of Success

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You’ve found more you need to protect, less you’re able to risk, and an unsettling question you have to answer…

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…am I doing everything I can to make a difference?


Come Behind the Scenes of Your Own Hero’s Journey and Renew the Power and Purpose of Your Life and Work

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A coward dies a thousand deaths, a Hero, but one William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

The Hero’s Journey Stagen Privileged and Confidential 8Academy ILP 2009 8

Act I :The Call to Adventure

There is nothing new under the sun (but there are lots of old things we don't know.) --Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; There is nothing new under the sun. --Ecclesiastes 1:9 New International Version

an unstoppable Death Star sized money machine that has still never been matched in Hollywood history

May 2007

CThe franchise meant big profits

The Empire Strikes Big

I


Cost of first Star Wars film: $13 Million

Total Franchise Earnings: $22 Billion

George Lucas’ Rank on Billionaire List:

243

What was he thinking?




Lucas Unlocked the Power of Myth and captivated the world for decades

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The Hero and His Journey

I

Home

Away

Home(again)



First the Hero must accept the Call to Adventure


Then the Hero must survive the challenges


Finally the Hero returns home victorious

Heeding the Call

I

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

--Mark Twain


If the Hero Refuses the Call, the Journey cannot begin



Warmup: What’s Your Appetite for Adventure?

Calls I have accepted?EducationCareerRelationshipsAdventure

Spirituality

The Memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime

--Roger Waters


Calls I have accepted

1. Starting my first business out of college2. Executive MBA—nights and weekends for 4 years3. Climbing a volcano with my wife on our

honeymoon in Maui4. Completing a half Iron Man5. Accepting deaconship in my church


Warmup: What’s Your Appetite for Adventure?

Calls I have declined?

EducationCareerRelationshipsAdventureSpirituality

Any Patterns?

Any Insights?

It’s never too late to be what you

might have been

--George Eliot


Calls I have accepted

1. Starting my first business out of college2. Executive MBA—nights and weekends for 3 years3. Climbing a volcano with my wife on our

honeymoon4. Accepting deaconship in my church5. Completing a half Iron Man

Calls I have declined

1. Majoring in Military History instead of Econ2. Marrying my first true love in college3. Flyfishing in Alaska with my dad 4. Leaving my secure job and starting the

business I dream about5. Accepting God more deeply into my life


Table Groups – Find a Partner and Discuss

• Find a partner at your table

• Pair off into “A” and “B”

• “A” go first / “B” in listening mode

• “A” share your top accepted and refused Calls to Adventure

• Discuss any insights you had

• Switch roles at bell

• Repeat with “B” sharing

• When the timer is up thank your partner and return focus up front


Look to the Future to inspire action in the Present

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived… This is to have succeeded!

- Ralph Waldo Emerson


Odysseus is the prototype of the Western Hero


Exercise: The Call to Adventure is an invitation to envision a new world

New WorldOld World

I.Write a clear

description of the Future you want

Focus on something ambitious but specific that you can realize in the next one to three years


What I really want is…

To build a high performance leadership team that will grow my company to $100M so that I can create wealth for my family, my employees, and my shareholders.



Life balance. To get back in shape and have more quality time with my spouse and kids.


• It’s important to me

• It will make a difference in the lives of key people around me

• It’s something I can take responsibility to make happen

• It’s framed in the positive

How do I know what I really want? Step I Table


Once he accepts the Call, the Hero leaves his old world behind and crosses the threshold into the Unknown


One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.

- André Gide

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.

-Soren Kierkegaard

Act II:The Road of

Trials

Temptation

II

All men are tempted. There is no manthat lives that can’t be broken down,

Provided it is the right temptation put in

the right spot.

- Henry Ward Beecher

Proverbs from the Plymouth Pulpit



To persevere, the Hero must not be distracted from his path

• Pride• Doubt• Laziness• Pleasure• Safety• Greed• Fear

Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? And did you exchangea walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

- Roger Waters Wish You Were Here


Exercise: What are you pretending not to know?

I.The Future

I WantOld World

II.Temptations

&Distractions

Write a clear description of everything you do and do not do that prevents you from arriving at the Future You Want


What I do and don’t do that undermines What I Want…• I haven’t dealt

with my loyal but incompetent #2 who’s been with me since I began the company.

• I take $750K a year out of profits and run it as a lifestyle business.

• I don’t trust my team to make big decisions without me.

• I don’t hire an experienced President too expensive and he’d never get our biz.




What I do and don’t do that undermines What I Want…• I work 14 hour

days• I eat out 10+

times a week and choose tasty over healthy

• I drink alcohol excessively to unwind several nights a week

• I sleep through early am workouts

• When I am with my family I’m always checking my blackberry

• I work nights at home

• I unwind with latenight TV rather than talk to my spouse

• I treat my kids as a distraction from my laptop



The Belly of the Whale

II

"Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.

What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.” --Henry Miller



Exercise: What might you also want?

I.The Future

I Want

III. Competing Commitment

Old World

“What else might I be committed to that opposes the Future I Want but explains why I’ve been tempted and distracted ?”

II.Temptations

&Distractions


I might also be committed to the importance of…

Being the King of the Hill

Keeping an exec team in place that doesn’t question me

Not making any big changes that might threaten my comfortable lifestyle




• I don’t trust my team to make big decisions without me.






Avoiding real connection with those closest to me (with work as my excuse) and masking the extreme stress of my career with food and drink.













Exercise: What’s stopping you from raising your anchor?

I.The Future

I Want

III. Competing Commitment

Old World

IV.Big Assumption

II.Temptations

&Distractions

“What catastrophic outcome would happen if I weren’t able to uphold my Competing Commitment?”



Being the King of the Hill

Keeping an exec team in place that doesn’t question me

Not making any big changes that might threaten my comfortable lifestyle

I assume that if I fail to uphold my competing commitment of…then…Any experienced “A” players I hired would challenge me and ultimately find out that I have been “making it up” as I go along.

I would be exposed as an imposter and they would find out I’ve been draining company profits to support my personal expenses for years.

My new team would conclude they were mislead, and leave; my company would go into a death spiral and I would not be able to provide for my family.




• I don’t delegate strategic decisions because I don’t trust my team’s judgment .


• I am personally involved in ALL big decisions.





Avoiding real connection with those closest to me (with work as my excuse) and masking the extreme stress of my career with food and drink.

I assume that if I fail to uphold my competing commitment of….

then…I’d realize I love my job more than I enjoy my kids, I no longer even know my spouse and I am a workaholic and use alcohol as a crutch.And….I’d be exposed as a failure as husband and father, I’d lose my family, and be so devastated that I would lose my business too.













Awakening

II

Ring the bells that still can ringForget the perfect offeringThere is a crack, a crack in everything!

It’s where the Light gets in.

It’s where the Light gets in.

- Leonard Cohen


Move from the Big Assumption that holds us to an assumption that we hold


Exercise: Turn your assumptions into stepping stones

Identify safe and recoverable experiments that let you test if your Big Assumption is always and decisively true

Begin to use your Big Assumption as a touch stone—chisel away at it until what is left is what is still true for you

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Act One:The Playwright’s Vision

Act III:The Return

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

- T.S. Eliot


Master of Two Worlds

III

Wisdom tells me I am nothingLove tells me I am everythingand between these two banks flows the river of my life

- Nisagardatta


Having faced his Past, the Hero now dwells in the Present, bringing the Future into Being

The future enters into us, in order to

transform us, long before it happens

- Rainer Maria Rilke


The Hero learns to be in this world and not of it

I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes


He returns to the Marketplace with helping hands

Barechested, barefooted, he comes into the market place.

Muddied and dust-covered, how broadly he grins!

The gate of his cottage is closed and even the wisest cannot find him. His mind is finally quiet. He goes his own way, making no attempt to follow the steps of earlier sages.

Carrying a gourd, he strolls into the market;

leaning on his staff, he returns home.

He leads all those he encounters in the Way.

The Tenth Zen Oxherding Panel

The Role of Practice

III

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

- Martha Graham


Streamline rituals to optimize your practice

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Success Principles Link your rituals to something deeper—a core value or purpose (like stopping smoking to live to see your grandkids) Commit to it for 30-90 days Be precise and structured about scheduling and carrying out the ritual so that it becomes an automated habit (like hanging your car keys on a hook by the door) Onboard no more than 1-3 rituals at a time Focus on the Future you want, not the Past you don’t Anchor behaviors with a training/accountability partner


Move from “problems we solve” to “problems that solve us

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After Action Review What did you actually do? What happened? How did people respond? If you received feedback on your new behaviors, what was it? What were your thoughts and subjective impressions as you did this? Are there any alternate interpretations you can think of for the same data? Generate at least one to counterbalance the familiar assumptions that guide your thinking. What does the data tell you about the validity of your Big Assumption—always true, sometimes true, rarely true? What is the next safe experiment you can devise to further test your Big Assumption (or another big assumption) and learn more?


Take full advantage of the support and challenge of your constellation of care

• Start the Training Mission

• Commit for 3 months

• 1 hour per meeting

• Individual Accountability Check In


The Invitation

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III

The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who, in a crisis, remain neutral.”

--Dante Divine Comedy


While Governments are taking on water

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and Non-Profits are increasingly adrift

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If not us,

Who?

If not now,

When?

--Winston Churchill

Entrepreneurs hold our best hope for the Storms ahead


Your family, your company, and your community are relying on you

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to go behind the scenes of business as usual and unlock the Power and Purpose of your Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey

Business

Hero's Journey (Immunity to Change)