Ever since Trump has been elected so much has been said. Aggressiveness seems to become part of a new culture.
The whole discussion takes me back to the book Presence, written by Peter Senge and others. It offers a bigger picture of a world in crisis. Bigger than the election of President Trump or the inflammatory speeches of Geert Wilders.
A country, such as the USA or the Netherlands, is just like an organisation. One in which the economic gap between rich and poor has become deeper and harder to bridge. One in which the belief and trust in institutions and its leaders is faltering. This is more than another political or economic crisis; this is a system in crisis. We have no clue what the future will have in store for us. Insecurity, distrust and fear. Values change, our identity is at a loss. The new generation does no longer trust the leaders of the older generation, the old boys network, as nothing changes, not today and not tomorrow.
As Alok Singh from Pioneers of Change already said twelve years ago (mind you): “Our systems fail, this failing finally shows that people are not served by this system. The current crisis will not improve as we are only busy with fighting the symptoms.” President Trump or Geert Wilders, it is just another symptom of a failing system.
From organizations worldwide we know that fighting symptoms leads to bankruptcy and only a full stop and rigorous change will help the company to survive. Why didn’t leaders learn from Lehman Brothers in 2008? Is it a coincidence that a both a book about Lehman and a movie about politics have the same name; House of Cards? What did we learn and change since our last crisis?
Let us focus on the system and not the symptoms and start a change from there. It takes courage to bring it to a full stop. But in history we have proven that we have courage. Let starts now. With who we really are and what we truly value in life. Change the system from there and not at the level of behavior or pre-set beliefs. Some say that Capitalism has come to the end of its lifecycle and we are waiting for someone or something to get up and change it. I say let’s not wait longer, together we can make a difference.
