Innovation Network: Articles & Reports, Changing the Course of a River

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Changing the Course of a River
Lindsay Collier

Sometimes organizations are so stuck in their ways that they don't know where to begin the change process. In many ways, they are like rivers that have been etched into the land over many years. How can you possibly change the course of a mighty organizational river? Many of us in the Innovation Network deal with this question all the time. I received some insight from a powerful story told by R.C. Dana, a Native American storyteller of Mohawk and Seneca descent. I often tell this story in keynote speeches and workshops and it always proves moving and generates requests for copies. I'm happy to share it with my ITN friends.

Many years ago, a young man and his grandfather spent their days together, as was the custom. The old man spent much of his time teaching the boy to hunt, fish, and make things, and to do it all in a sacred way. Having lived many years, the grandfather possessed many great powers of healing and teaching. Great was his knowledge of many things.

One day the grandfather said to the boy, "We will change the course of a mighty river."

The boy was filled with wonder, for he knew that his grandfather was a great man and could do great things. But change the course of a great river? Who of mortal man could accomplish such a deed?

As they approached the river, the boy's heart leapt as he imagined the course of the river being changed. When they got to the bank of the river, the old man reached down into the water and picked out a rock about the size of a melon.

The boy watched as the hole that the rock left began to fill with water, and he understood that, in some small way, his grandfather had indeed changed the course of a mighty river.

The old man looked at the boy with a twinkle in his eye and said, "This is the way the great river is changed. One rock at a time. It is the duty of every man who walks to change the course of rivers. Every action that you do, every word that you say will affect or change the course of a person's life. keep on changing the course of rivers, little one."

Grandfather was a very wise man.

In what ways might you use this story to begin change in your organization, or your life? What is the rock that you could pull from your organizational river bed? If every action you take and every word you say changes the course of a person's, or an organization's, life, what can you do or say that will begin to move you and your organization in a path of higher creativity and innovation?

Lindsay Collier is the author of Get Out of Your Thinking Box and The Whack-a-Mole Theory. He can be reached at 716-334-4779.

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