WE NEED A WIZARD WHICH IS US
I love the classic movie which has become a parable, The Wizard of Oz. It has become woven in my life, this beloved story of finding all we need within ourselves collectively if we have the courage, the heart, and the mindset to lead effectively.
My daughter from her earliest years so loved the movie that it was a favorite way to settle her down watching it. Eventually, at an early age she memorized the entire script!
Early in my consulting career at age 35 I was invited to join two senior consultants for two major turnaround projects for the Texaco Corporation. One for the western division of half of the US, the other for the natural gas business in the Southern and Southeastern States. They both were wildly successful changing the corporate culture at the time and saving well over 6,000 jobs. Our change model was amazingly simple facilitating individual, team, and workforce commitments to act on what you care about in your life, your workplace, and your community. I later wrote a book Empowering Leaders, based on the principles we used. Texaco to celebrate the outcome threw a huge Texas BBQ for over several hundred leaders and declared our team of 3 as their wizard with each of us designated their Lion for courage, Tin Man for heart, and Scarecrow for brains.
40 years and 900 clients later the analogy holds, we have all the music in us if we can collectively harness our courage, heart and mind. We need no fake wizards behind curtain.
Our politics and politicians are a mess. They are not the wizards that shall save us. Elections have consequences and policies swing both ways often to extremes. I have never found a home in either party. Economic vitality and community health are complementary essentials to families, communities, and nations. Abandoning one for the other is to be duped once again by some wizardry and to be falsely led. So beware of being off to see the wizard for the wizard is found within you, your family, your community, your workplace, your country. The small battles fought with courage, heart and mindfulness will reveal whatever victories are to be had. They also reveal the biggest victory of all, human dignity.