In Search of "IT"
by Ian Percy

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"We all feel the riddle of the earth without anyone to point it out. The mystery of life is the plainest part of it."

"Every stone or flower as a hieroglyphic of which we have lost the key; With every step of our Iives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand... "

G. K. Chesterton

We all know there is a mystery; the unaccountable. We also know that in every stone and flower is the key to this mystery and yet we continue to misunderstand and to repeat over and over our misunderstanding hoping that in the repetition the miracle of awareness will occur. But it will not.

Organizations worldwide have long been searching for an "It"; a Holy Grail. A key. That one magical, mystical element that will unlock the secret of our lives and of our organization - not as we know them, but as we hope they can be. So much energy, time and money has been spent in this search that it defies quantification. This illusive "It" will, our leaders hope, keep customers happy and loyal; employees energized and committed; and at the same time enable the organization to make pots full of money or dominate the marketplace or whatever.

We`ve tried automation, technology and robotics. Managed by objectives and managerial grids and Myers-Briggs. We`ve issued team T-shirts; decentralized and centralized. Deconstructed and re-engineered. On we`ve gone to mission, vision and values, trying to convince employees that they are now empowered when they weren`t yesterday or the day before or the day before that.

We come so close to the mystery. Even our language mission, vision, values-has spiritual roots and yet we continue to play on the fringes afraid to truly abandon ourselves to the search. We want so much to be in control, to be rational rather than passionate, to give learned papers attempting to make statistical sense out of a spiritual world. Dennis Overbye in a brilliant Time magazine essay writes:

The theory of everything, even if it existed...could not pretend to tell us what we most want to know. It could not tell us why the universe exists-why there is something rather than nothing at all. And it could not tell us if our lives have meaning, if God loves us.

Written on a piece of paper or on a T shirt, the theory of everything would just lie there waiting for something else to breathe fire into it....

If you are intent on breathing fire into your organization; intent on finding the key and understanding the story, there is one insight that will give you the power you need to do so. Systems, structures and strategies are important but are not the "IT" that will transform your organization... Do you know that all of your important work is spiritual work! If you and I learn to touch and move the hearts and souls of people, we can touch and move the world. All real change must first be spiritual change. "Copyright The Ian Percy Corporation."