How to Be A Master Change Agent

by Gregory Toole

Once when I was about to take on a leadership position with a global spiritual organization, a veteran of the organization congratulated me on my new role, then said, “You won’t change anything.” Upon hearing that, I was a bit perplexed as I have never been anywhere that I didn’t change something. In fact, my experience is that just the presence of someone new in a group changes things.

Ironically, by the time I left the position, we had changed so many things that many felt we had made too many changes. But that’s what happens when we embrace change – we are able to navigate major change as a regular course of things, albeit change may still bring about some feelings of temporary discomfort.

Being a ‘master change agent,’ in many ways, is something to which we are all called. After all, who among us is immune to change? In fact, who among us isn’t constantly experiencing change? Rather than resist this ever-present phenomenon, our spiritual journey is really about mastering it.

How do we master change? The first step is to acknowledge that change is the natural order of things. The next step is to embrace it. With these two steps, we are 80% of the way, if not more, toward mastering change. The last 20% involves practice and seeing more deeply into the nature of change.

The practice is simply continuously returning to steps one and two: recognizing that change is the natural order of things and embracing change as it is happening.

Looking more deeply into the nature of change, we see that its true purpose is to further our spiritual growth. Change moves us out of our comfort zone, out of our place of inertia. It causes us to reach deeper into our inner resources to discover those that we previously did not know existed. It calls on the infinite divine creativity within us to bring forth newness of form, which is in alignment with our evolutionary nature as spiritual beings having a human experience.

As we are moved out of our comfort zone, we discover that we are bigger than we formerly realized. We find that our gifts can be given and received more fully than previously.

Here are the ten essential traits and behaviors of a master change agent:

1. They embrace change as natural and good.
2. They are continuously inquiring into what is moving within them that is wanting more outward expression.
3. They look at how what is moving in them is connected to what is moving in the world around them.
4. They acknowledge and address underlying feelings of fear and resistance that might block effective change.
5. They constantly push themselves out of inertia and into newness.
6. They acknowledge their biases and then honestly consider other points of view and perspectives.
7. They look beyond “comfort” to discover a greater good that can be served by change.
8. They use their own sense of clarity and wisdom about the nature of change to support and guide others through the change process.
9. They get help in areas where change takes them beyond their current skills or competencies.
10. They focus their creative energies on new and original ideas that take themselves and their organizations into bold evolutionary directions.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be a master change agent. You have what it takes, and the world needs you!

Enjoy the journey.