Cultivating Your Flux Mindset to Empower Your Way Forward

What's working on purpose anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on purpose. Now. Here is your host, doctor Elise Cortez. Welcome back to the Working on Purpose Program. Thanks for tuning in again this week. Great to have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez too a new life from Dallas, Texas, which is home based for me. If you don't know me yet, I'm a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose, organizational logotherapist, inspirational speaker, social scientist and author by team and I help companies discover in our let their purpose to thread it through culture and operations. We working forward thinking or forward reaching organizations to develop inspirational leaders who create cultures where people actually want to come to work and do their best. And we provide programs like they Grab Your Guster that enable individual team members to discover and unlease their passion and purpose at work to catalyze fulfilment, engagement, and productivity. You'll learn more about us and how to work together at least Cortez dot Com with us today is April Rennie, a change navigator, speaker, investor, and adventurer whose work and travels in more than one hundred countries have given her a front row seat to a world in flux. She's ranked one of the fifty leading female featurists in the world by Forbes. And there's a Harvard Law School graduate, a young global leader at the World Economic Forum, a full right scholar, and the author of Flux. Eight Superpowers for Thriving and Constant Change. We'll be talking today about the eight superpowers that she talks about in her book and how to manage in today's constant change. She joins today from Portland, Oregon, where I spent thirteen years. April, welcome to Working on Purpose. Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here. It's so great. Look at this beautiful thing you brought into the world. Oh it's so gorgeous. I love it. Thank you, and once again I wouldn't know you, but your publicists reached out and found me, and I'm delighted to know you and have you and I loved your book, So thanks for writing it. We're going to talk all about it. You're ready, I'm ready, Okay, good? Well, I, as I mentioned, was out last week with COVID. I managed to almost escape for almost two years without getting it. But I got it last week and I couldn't be on air, so I'm glad to be back. Welcome back. Indeed. Yeah, so you know your book is there's so many assumptions I can make, and I'd read it cover to cover, but for our listeners and viewers who haven't picked it up yet, why did you write the book? Well, it's interesting here we are in twenty twenty two and the world is in flux. But believe it or not, I did not write the book about or with the intention of focusing on twenty twenty or twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two, even though those are perfect kind of touch points and jumping off points for us today. I wrote it. Really. You can think of it as both timely, like what we're all experiencing right now. But it's also sort of timeless because I like to say I've been working on the book. It was three years in the act of writing, so since twenty eighteen, but more like three decades in the making, and as a futurist, as a human being, as a global citizen, really looking at this constant, relentless change. Just how many changes, and we'll dive into that a little bit, but also the pace of change and looking to the future, like there's more, not less of that ahead. There is more changed, more uncertainty, more instability, not less, and humans aren't really well equipped for that, and we're faltering already, but we really have this huge opportunity not to just be afraid of change or struggle with change. Or we'll talk about this too, like some people like I love change, I'm like, you love certain kinds of change. No, that's not human nature, but that we have a huge opportunity to reshape our relationship to change, and we're going to need to do that in order to thrive in a world again with more uncertainty and more flux. So one of the things that constantly I'm amazed by and taken it back by, and it's just what life serves up to us, and opportunity, of course, is to be able to see how do we handle that which life serves up to us, what do we do with that? How do we make the most of that? And you have a very very unusual, very I would consider pretty unique situation, and that you lost both of your parents when you were in the middle of college. I think you were about twenty years old and they both died in it tragically in a car accident. So you got a front row seat to change the kind that you didn't ask for pretty early in life. And I think that maybe is partly where this whole story began. Is that right? Very much? So? Yeah, so thank you for bringing it up. Because when I talk about like what led me to care so much about change to write a book about flux to join you today, right, I do sort of talk about different layers and beginning with the most recent first. You know, this is this like futurist. Okay, So I'm trying to help organizations figure ot where are we heading with the future. And as a futurist, I can say every organization and every person struggles with change in some way. But you know, but if I peel back the layers of where did my fascination come from? And where did I really start to have to learn how to do this myself because so much of this is inside out. It was absolutely I call it sort of my baptism or my flux. Was when I was twenty and both my parents died, you know, young, healthy, just boom on a Sunday afternoon, and in an instant, my life flipped upside down. Everything changed when you think about it, like everything, how do I family? How do I deal with my grief and anxiety? What about my career? It was twenty right, all of a sudden, like sounding boards were gone, home base was gone, like everything was gone, and it was really this what do I do when I don't know what to do? And that began this quest. And if you would talk to me when I was twenty, I never would have said I was going to write a book about change someday. But it was just more survival. But then over the following years and now decades of testing out different things, but also observing how other people and organizations and cultures and societies and everyone's scrapples with change, that I began to realize that I was layering a kind of perspective, but also a set of tools in our toolbox to navigate change. And that's individually, that's organizationally, that societally, but really beginning at that individual level. So part of it, you know, the book is not about me, but as you saw, my story is a kind of through threat of how I tested different things. But this is much more of an offering that's accessible to any human and what I like to think of, for better or for worse, the last two years have given all of us a wonderful set of circumstances to test some of these ideas, but also to recognize that every single person on the planet can improve their relationship to change in some way. It's really hard. Yeah, and again, you know life has has uniquely conditioned you. So you know, I lost both of my parents in January of twenty nineteen. However, they were seventy three and seventy eight respectively. That's a very different time to lose parents. There's an expectation of sorts, and I'm the oldest child and okay, so that all makes sense. So what I think is fascinating about what life has done, you know, with and through you, is that you've got. You know, all those things happened unnaturally. You know, you don't lose your parents when you're twenty years old. It doesn't happen tragically under Sunday afternoon. So one of the things that I just really find, and I want our listeners and viewers to also get present you for themselves, is what's going on in your own life? What if you uniquely experience that you can help others navigate through and understand because you've gone through something very very specific and unique. So pay attention through that lens too, if you would, listeners and viewers as we go along. So April, you know, I'm curious. You know, I've written now a couple of books too, and it's really hard work, and sometimes what we set out to do and what we actually finished doing can be very very different. What do you hope readers get from your book? One A wonderful question. And also I just want to echo what you just said, which is you know this book in our conversation today, I hope it's helpful for everyone you know who's tuning in. But also I'm very I'm certain that everyone who's tuning in there are other people in your life. Friends, family members, colleagues. This is something that everyone is grappling with in their own way and in different ways, and that we can all help each other. So what do hope people get from this? So, in this world of increased change and uncertainty, my thesis is that we need to radically reshape our relationship to change and uncertainty in order to thrive in this world influx. And so my hope is that people are able to take those first steps again with some guidance, with some tools in their toolbox, with fresh perspective, fresh insights, not just for me, but from around the world, the stuff that's in the book, and that they can actually look at the future and the world, both of which are influx, with more confidence, more clarity, fresh perspective, and if I may say even a bit of joy. I will be the first to acknowledge that navigating a lot of change is really, really hard. It's also not something that we necessarily have a choice about. I mean, we can choose to resist change, we can choose to pretend it's not there, but that doesn't mean it won't. It will just come back to haunt us and fester us, fester and bother us, even more right. So the message though is uplifting, and that if we acknowledge that we don't get to choose whether or not this increased amount of change is happening, but we can actually exert our agency, our capabilities, our you know, amazingness if you will as humans, to do a better job and to get part of this process as you saw it. There's also an enormous piece that's about increasing your self awareness and your mindset when it comes change an uncertainty, and that's not just the huge opportunity that means it can help you for every day for the rest of your life. And that makes me really excited. That's the nugget, I think, the seed that I hope people get from the book. But then one thing I'm finding now that it's out and it's you know, making its rounds. People are taking this book and turning it into their own ideas. Like everyone is like, oh, that spoke to me in this way, and so I used it like that and like this, And it's very reader friendly in that. I would also hope that people interpret it in ways that work uniquely for them. It is delightful and I will go where we're going to talk more about as any of the superpowers as who possibly came what we have time. But before we get into that, you know it's so humbling, this thing being human, April. You know, I'm a management consultant and I do a lot to be able to help organizations and individuals to transform, grow, learn and change. And yet you know it's just as hard for me as it is for anybody else to change. So what's up, April? Why is it so hard for us to change as human beings? It's really hard. I would not argue it's hard to be human. Being human is hard work. We are perfectly imperfect creatures with a lot of quirks and brings and weaknesses and all the rest. I do want to just real quick, I love that you mentioned this that I have to give a big caveat here where people are like, oh, you wrote a book about navigating change and flux, and you must have mastered all of these flux superpowers. And I'm sort of like, I'm exhibit A here, right am. I have struggled with all of these. I can report I am much better at them than I was five years ago, ten years ago, certainly thirty years ago. But this is a lifelong practice and being human means we have a chance. Every day that we are alive and breathing on this blue marble, we have a chance to improve. But it requires doing the work. It requires that practice. So I like to frame this though in terms of why is it so hard to deal with change? I would argue, it's really hard to deal with some kinds of change, So zoom out. Change is really complicated, it's really messy. Now. I encounter people every day who are like, I love change, I'm a change junkie, right, And I'm like, no, no, no, you love changes you can control. Let's be clear. So there's a certain kind of change that most humans love, right, A new adventure, a new relationship, a new job, a new haircut. Right, we love those kinds of changes. The kinds of changes we struggle with and hate and really that unravel us are those changes we can't control. So the one that blindsides you on a Sunday afternoon or a Tuesday afternoon or whenever, the changes that go against your expectations, the changes that really disrupt your plans. Right, that's the kind of change we've been having more of over the last two years. And I hate to say it that's the kind of change there's more of a head. But also consider you know, a change that's really easy for you might be really hard for me. We know that more changes around the corner, yet knowing this often freaks us out. So there's this kind of tension between two very different things being true at the same time. And so on the one hand, I could say, if we look over human history, we have a hard time handling too much change because I think too much change can kill us historically, like there's only so much we can handle. But on the flip side, we do need to get better at distinguishing what kinds of change or changes are we talking about, because humans are far more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. But at the same time, that resilience depends on being able to lean into change and uncertainty, not trying to scuttle it, and not being afraid of sometimes having to walk through that fire really quick. You're reminding me so interesting. A couple weeks ago, I had a Marshall Mosher on my show talking about how he works with artificial reality to basically inject experiences that people don't really know. You know, they're new to them, and they're they're usually very adventure oriented and challenge seeking and such, and they actually really do induce the sweats the whole bit because they you know, you're gonna drap me over this cliff, you know, this whole thing, right, And it's quite quite interesting to think that there are ways for us to be able to get the benefit of being able to deal with change without necessarily it's not the same thing. I mean, I can tell you some of the major changes that were portioned upon me were the best things that ever happened to me, and they changed me and I grew so so much. They were awful going through them, but I wouldn't change them for anything, because I wouldn't be the same person. I wouldn't I wouldn't have the depth, I wouldn't have two books at I wouldn't have a leadership program out, I wouldn't be none of this stuff would be happening, right, But none of it was fun, April yep. So that's so key. And you've got some of the hallmarks of a flex mindset in what you just said, which I know will come back to an a bit. But interestingly, so you went through it, you would not have opted into those changes, even though in retrospect you like best it among the best things that could have happened to me. Right, Similarly what I'm finding, and I'll just share this openly over the last couple of years, where we're like, oh my gosh, we have changed so much. Look at how look at all that we've done, and look at how many assumptions we took for granted prior to twenty twenty, and all of a sudden, you know, thrown on their heads and we realize, oh, everything from we you know, we can work remotely and the guy doesn't fall down. Amazing, Right, I can flip my schedule around and actually maybe enjoy it more. Right. So I hear this like we love that we've changed in so many ways, and I'm like, yes, we have, but take note, we've been forced to when our backs against the Wallah's incredibly adaptable. The challenge and my bigger messages, we need to learn how to do this when we don't necessarily quote unquote have to when our backs not against the wall, when we're not totally in pain and there's not a raging pandemic. Right, And the interesting thing is the best time to make some of these changes. To opt into those changes you don't really want quote to do is during times of calm, during times of peace, but that it's exactly when people are like, I'm just going to coast. Times are good. So there's a certain element. I mean, many people I think have heard the phrase disrupting yourself, but there's an interesting tension there between we do not want to wait until the moment we are forced to change, both because it's usually too late and it's usually painful, but we need to get better at grooving the mental muscles around opting into change, including change. That's hard, but oftentimes I'm guessing even some of the changes that you're reporting that are hard but worth it, they were changes that you probably knew your sixth sense at least had an intuition that would be good for you. Just a question you didn't want to question. Now question. There's a piece around that too, all right, so we'll dive into that here. Let's grab our first break. I'm a Last Cortez, your host. We were in the air with April Renny. She's a change navigator, speaker, investor, an adventurer whose work and travels in more than one hundred countries have given her a front row seat to a world in flux. She's the author of Flux eight Superpowers for Thriving and Constant Change. We've been talking about the world would change and why we so resist it, and what we can do to start to develop that Flux mindset. After Brick, we're going to get into a few of these superpowers that she talks about in her book. Stay with Us, We'll be right back. Doctor Release Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose and inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Eleise Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Relise Cortez. To reach our program today or open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to the program. I'd like to invite you to check out my first book that I got out in November of twenty twenty. It's called Purpose Ignited, How Inspiring Leaders ignite passion and elevate Cause. I really wrote that to awaken readers to their passion and their purpose and turn them into inspirational leaders. So that's why it's out. I love it, I'm proud of it. Working on my next tour as we speak. If you're just joining us, my guest today's April Renny. She's a change navigator and the author of the book called Flux, eight Superpowers for Thriving in Constant Change. I'm your host, Alie Cortez. So for this next segment here, April, if we can, I want to start to be able to help our listeners and viewers get just a little taste of some of these Flux superpowers you talk about. And again, one of the things I love about what you've done is you sprinkle in ideas from different countries, from Japan and other other scandy andaving countries that I just really think add such a beautiful element to what you've done. So thank you for that delicious world tour if you will. So let's start with one superpower? Would you like to start with to help our listeners and viewers understand? Yeah, so we can. Let's do a quick overview I think even of all eight. But what I want to do there's this. I've mentioned this notion of a flex mindset a couple of times, and I just kind of want to get that out there because the flex superpowers depend on it. So a flex mindset is this notion, this ability, this state of mind that can see all change, whether it's good or bad, expected or unexpected, but especially those hard changes we were talking about earlier. It's the ability to see all of them, all of that as an opportunity to grow, to learn, to improve. It's the ability to lean into uncertainty because you're not trying to make it something different. Now. That sort of Step one is like, what does it mean to open a flux mindset and acknowledge that your relationship to change can improve? Now how it can improve? That various from person to person, because we all have unique relationships to change, but we can all use some help. The second step is to use your flex mindset to unlock these eight Flux superpowers, which are effectively the skills and the practices and the how to thrive and constant change. So each one is a chapter. Each one is counterintuitive. I'm just going to put that out there straight away. They're also a menu, not a syllabus, so you don't have to do one before two. You can look at just one or all eight. But here we go. I'll just do a very high level overview. So the first one, and this is going in order in which they show up in the book. So the first superpower is run Slower Now. This is all about anxiety and burnout and making wiser decisions. The second one is see What's Invisible. This is about identifying our blind spots and finding new insights, new sources of value, new opportunities. The third one is get Lost. This is all about our relationship to the unknown and structure on our comfort zones. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. These are all super fun and any one of them honestly could have been a topic of this entire show. But anyway, we'll give people a teaser, a bit of a sampler. The fourth one is what I actually call the flux of super superpower. So I think we definitely want to come back to this one, it's start with trust, So this is all about nurturing relationships and navigating change together. The fifth one is no You're enough. This is all about our obsession with more and more and more and more and more, but also our quest for true happiness and where true happiness really resides. The sixth one is create your portfolio career and this is all about how do we design our professional development and identity in ways that are fit for a future of work influx, So, given the nature of the show, we might want to come back to that one as well. The seventh one is be all the more human. This is all about our relationship to technology and the tension we face, and that we're spending ever more time with our devices, yet ever less time with one another. And last, but now at least a superpower that makes a lot of people kind of unravel and go Nope, not ready for that kind of change. It is let go of the future. Now. This is all about our relationship to control. So I get a lot of people saying, wait, let go. That sounds like giving up or failure. No, this is about getting out of our own way, letting go of those things we can control, to breathe oxygen and create space for actually better futures to emerge. Excellent April, beautifully done, beautifully done. Now, there's a couple that are favorite for me, But is there one in particular you want to start with? Not necessarily. It's funny. I often get people asking me like, what's your favorite superpower? And I'm always like, well, it's like what's your favorite kid? You're like, you don't answer it, and meeting on the day the week it changes pun intended. But what I find in all of my conversations with other people that every single lot, every single person I've met thus far has shared with me that they have a couple favorites, and everyone seems have at least one that they're like, mmm, that just like it makes me uncomfortable. So tell people pay attention to the ones that make you uncomfortable, because those are signals. Those are wonderful signals of where your relationship to change may need a little bit of extra attention. Now within the eight I usually say that I don't have a favorite, but I will say I mentioned it briefly in them in the overview, the fourth one, starting with trust, that is more and more being seen as a kind of super superpower. And why I say that is when it comes to navigating change, well nothing matters more than trust. Everything in some way, shape or form comes back to trust, because it's very hard for us to lean into any kind of change if we can't trust. And again, whether that's trusting other people, whether that's trusting things are gonna go okay, whether that's trusting the unknown. I mean, but trust and also trust is something that's so frayed in society today. So that's a big one. We can dive into it if you want. But but I just put that out there as like it's everywhere, So it's it's probably it plays an outsized role, but it's not necessarily my favorite. I like them all. Well, let's talk about that because it is you identify it is important and I think it is as well. So just a couple of things as bookends to maybe kick us off here. One I'll tell you, I know, one of my big changes that I went through was when I went through my divorce. It wasn't my idea, but it was a really good idea. And I mean, I just can't believe that it was always right there, not always there in front of me, and when it was you know, given to me as an option, it was I was like, oh, what do I do with that? But I had what I realized I had to do is I had to trust myself that I could do it and I could get through it. And of course I did, you know, but you know, there was a lot of doubt and question and all this change was like, oh, what do I do with all this? But really, at the end of the day, what I really had to do was trust myself and trust the people along the way that we're trying to help me and you know, get me through it. On the other end of that that I think is interesting for us to talk about is trust inside organizations. So I have a couple of clients I'm working with here in Dallas, and they're really really smacked face on with the whole great resignation thing, and there are people leaving and they're trying to handle this whole remote work thing and make that work, and you know, they're questioning this thing about trust. How do I trust that people actually you know, want to be here, people are doing the work that they say that you know that I need them to do kind of thing. And what I've been saying, is well, extend trust first, start there, and then let's take it from that vanished point. But for you to get trust back from them, you've got to give some first. So talk a little bit, if you would, first about this notion of trust inside the world today, of organizations that are just smarting so badly from you know, the great resignation and the pandemic and just supply chain issues and all kinds of things. Yeah, so wow, this is such a I could say it's a hornet's nest, but it's also just such a beautiful area that we need to be talking more and more and more about. And I would argue that within organizations, actually you just had a call about this earlier. Today, there are massive numbers of employees, workers, talent who you know, but let's just call them employees despite w two tenant unite. What massive numbers of employees who are waking up to the reality that they don't actually trust their employers. Their employers tell them one thing, but do not actually have their back at the end of the day, and they're waking up and going, wait, how much are we paying? You can find money for this, but not actually for me to be able to pay my healthcare. You can find money for this, but not for actually paying a living wage. So trust is two ways. Trust is absolutely not just do you trust them? This is do other people trust you? And I think there's a crisis of trust within organizations because workers are waking up to the fact that there many of their employers have been saying one thing behind the curtain doing something quite different. And it doesn't mean intentionally like subversive. It means what are you prioritizing when you say you have employees backs, when you say you have their best interest at heart. If you have their best interest at heart and you're not paying a sufficient living wage or providing time off when they need it for whatever reason it may be, you're not earning their trust. We also within organizations, I find this is really helpful that trust isn't just one thing. So trust is both cognitive and it's also emotional. So cognitive trust means trusting that people are reliable and dependable, that they'll do what they say they'll do right. This I think of as a more of an operational trust right where you can trust that we keep the trains running on time, you can trust that we do high quality work. Right. But the emotional trust sometimes it's called affective trust. This is all about character and organizational culture. This is all about do we trust that people care about and we'll look out for one another. Do we have each other's backs? Do we have psychological safety? Can we admit mistakes? Right? That is the trust that is far more important to what's going on right now, because we can orchestrate, we can engineer a lot of trust in terms of systems and procedures, and you can trust us to do a good job. You can trust that our products will be of standard quality. It's the internal trust, and that requires a sea change in how we see one another, how we treat one another. And here's what's also interesting. We might get into some of the leadership stuff later. A lot of times leaders are like, how do I get my teams to do this? This starts with the leader itself. This is not something you delegate, and a lot of leaders haven't necessarily had this heart to heart with themselves. And if they did, they'd be making different rules, they would be doing different kinds of engagement, they would be seeing and treating all of their talent differently. Beautifully rendered, April, that was just gorgeous. That was worth the price of admission right there. Trust is incredibly important. Can have just one more, maybe just a light treatment before we go into the next break. One more you choose, Sure, well, I'll do the first one because it's showing up everywhere and with great resignation and like, oh my goodness. Right, which is run slower? So this is anxiety, burnout, exhaustion. But it's also about making wiser decisions. What do you see when you make When do you see what's really going on? When do you have your best ideas? When do you really show up for others? And so run slower? Very briefly and again, Karintuitive says that in an ever faster paced world, your key to success and well being is to slow your own pace. And what I mean by that is I didn't bring this up earlier, but the way I like to tee it up is that the piece of chain has never been as fast as it is today, and yet it is likely to never again be this slow. Now, just let that sink in and you're like WHOA sort of sort of exciting and also sort of terrifying, because think about what society tells us. Society The script from society is when the pace of change quickens, you need to run faster and just keep up. And yet, take a look at what we're really speaking across purposes here, because a lot of people, we know the pace of change is increasing, a lot of people are already running as fast as we can. And yet society is telling us that no matter how fast you're running today, not only should you expect to run, but the actually should run even faster tomorrow, faster the day after that, faster next week, next month, because you're all of this effectively for the rest of your life. And this is where I am saying, from a futurist perspective, from a humanist's perspective, time out, hold on. We have got to reset that and we have got to learn to run slower. Now. The key is I did not say stop. I did not say be lazy. I said run, but do so add a pace you can sustain for life. And people across the board are finding this like, yes, you're speaking my language. And a lot of times in organizations, management is saying our activity performance faster, faster, faster, or faster, And that's where people are reaching their breaking point and they're saying I've had it enough. No, so people are learning to run slower. Organizations are not necessarily and that's where we need some help. Awesome a great way to cue us up. Here, let's grab our last break here, I'm Lease Cortez, your host. We're on the air with April Rennie. She's a change navigator, speaker, investor, and adventurer whose work and travels in more than one hundred countries have given her a front row seat to a world in flux. She's the author of Flux, a Superpowers for thriving in constant Change. She's given us a sprinkle of all eight of the superpowers. After the break, we're going to talk more about how to be able to leverage her material inside organizations, to manage and leverage teams. State what this will be right back. Doctor Leise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose and inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a Lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at a lease Cortez dot Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortez. To reach our program today or open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanksteresting with us, and welcome back to working on a purpose. One of a bit of news before we go back into the program. In August of twenty twenty one, I was able to release the anthology of Women's Stories. I found twenty five women from around the world to share their very intimate stories of how they discover their purpose and are now serving from it. So it's called Passionately Striving and why it's now in print and I'm so proud of it i could bust. But now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm out trolling the world for men to share their stories. So if you are listening today and you want to share your story, you know someone who's a good candidate from in any far reaches of the world, please reach out to me at lease at least Cortez dot com. That's have a conversation about getting that man in this anthology as well. If you're just joining us, my guest today is April Rinny. She is a change navigator and she is the author of Flux eight Superpowers for Thriving and Constant Change. So for this next segment here, but what I wanted to do is now take it back inside to organizations. That's who I serve a lot of my energies with and a lot of our listeners are coming from organizations. And so what I wanted to do, if you would, is if you could start to talk a little bit about how you can recommend leaders leverage your material in managing their teams. Where could we start there? Yeah, sure, so beginning kind of the top level. I always like to remind people that both individuals and organizations can develop a Flux mindset and unlock their eight Flux superpowers. We usually start with the individual because having being able to see it apply to you your own life, personally, professionally, name it gives you a sense of agency. But keep in mind, any organization I find this fascinating is my legal trainee at work. Like an organization does not this without people. I mean, we can talk about DAOs and all that, but like organizations are simply collections of people, so together you can make what I call fluxinus part of your organization right there. So on one hand, and the book is written in a way that's very conducive to book clubs, team conversations, there's a discussion. God, I mean, it really is intended to spark each person to better understand their relationship to change. But the key is to understand other people's relationships to change as well, because think about in a team kind of setting, we're all bringing baggage to the table. We all have different relationships to change, different things that delight us, different things that scare the daylights out of us. Like I was saying earlier, a change that you love maybe a change that I really hate. And that's because of how we were raised, that's because of the scripts we've got running in our minds. And if we don't actually understand that about each other, we're putting the card before the horse, and we're creating a lot of friction within our team for collaboration purposes, project management, you name it. So I just bring that up because the book itself, I'm having lots of organizations actually read it in a kind of not a book club setting per se, but they're reading it as a team and they're sharing with one another. And that process itself not just helps people better understand their relationship to change and their team's relationship change, it does start to feed into the culture and a culture of openness, a culture of resilience, a culture of we can and actually improve our relationship is to change. So in terms of how leaders, that's a kind of almost practical, tactical way to just start with the book and get it into the team's hands. But I mentioned this earlier, just very briefly, and I want to come back to it because when it comes to leaders and managers and how do they bring it into their team, they have got to walk the talk. And I'm finding a lot of leaders today, I'm going to poke a little bit here, a lot of leaders saying what do I tell my teams? What should they do? And I'm like, what about you? Because in fact, lead leaders and again, however we define but leader being some kind of in a way like elevated visionary that's been given this name leader because they have something that helps them guide others through projects, change you name it. Here's the interesting thing a world in flux actually challenges an enormous number of the assumptions and expectations we have about what makes a great leader. And what I mean by that is a lot of people, myself included, I was raised to believe what makes leader great? Oh, A leader has the answers, A leader has certainty. A leader knows what to do, right, That's what makes you a leader. What if I told you that in a world in flux, ay, nothing could be further from the truth. But the survey after survey shows that the number one leadership quality needed today is comfort with ambiguity. In other words, not knowing and being completely okay with that. It's the antithesis of certainty. So I always like to challenge leaders on day one and say, so, how are you doing with your comfort with ambiguity? And most leaders are completely They're twisted up like pretzels. They don't know what to do because what they were taught they were supposed to do no longer works. And so this invites though I know I'm going on a little bit here, then it's like, okay, So if no one knows what to do, what do we do? It requires a very different way at how you look at how you're leading, not you at the top of an organization or an organ chart, but leading with others, because when no one knows what to do, which in so many ways is the case today, when nobody knows what to do, everyone becomes responsible sensing for leading, for reporting, in for paying attention, and that challenges a lot of stuff. But anyway, let me pause there and just say I sort of threw that out there, but yeah, it's there's a lot that leaders need to do. What leaders need to start with themselves. You know, I really appreciate that, April. I can't tell you the number of people that I have worked with over the years that do carry the belief that as leaders, they're supposed to know everything. And that's one particular message I didn't get. I never have gotten that message. Where did you get that? How are you? How could you possibly know everything? Why do you have a team if you're supposed to know everything? I don't understand that right that that doesn't make sense to me, But I understand how crippling that is for people well, And I think it's always I don't want to say rub me the wrong way, it's all it's always felt a little bit elitist, a little bit like, so what makes you special? Like, I believe that everyone, every human on the planet has leadership capabilities. And the very best leaders aren't the ones that are like, look at me, full of ego. They're the ones who are best. The best leaders are those who can identify and harness leadership in others and can do that in a way that brings it all together. Right, So I think there's a little bit of ego. I think there's a little bit of privileged elitism. We can call it many different things. I also think, you know, this is all part of what we're fed as children. Somehow it got socialized into us that some people not that some people lead in other people follow. But the leader is like the person that brings it all together. And any one any truly I would say admirable leader will say the only way that they were able to lead was because of the other people around them, no question, right. But today I'm really concerned leaders they're really I mean, if they sort of bought into the script of like, Okay, it's going to be me, it's a top kind of thing, and that makes me feel good. Gotta say, I don't envy any person who feels like they have to figure it out today because you're putting yourself under incredible pressure. That has never actually been the reality. It's never been only up to you. Interestingly, I actually look at this a little bit differently, in which in a world full of uncertainty like we're in today, a leader so a couple of different ways this plays out. A leader who projects certainty when they don't actually know. Not only is that irresponsible, it's dangerous and it's a really good way to drive everything awful cliff because if they're feigning certainty and then you've got basically the team executing what the boss says, but no one really knows, it's a disaster. Right At the same time, though, I think everyone leader, not whatever your role is or your title, if we're in an environment in which no one really knows, we all need to step up and realize that for us to assume that a leader has the answers when no one when it's impossible for anyone to know, that's actually shirking our own responsibilities as individuals to play a role in finding new solutions, against sensing, paying attention, reporting in if you have ideas and etc. Because it's a very not only untenable situation that we have today. It just doesn't drive with reality, like there is this huge disconnect between what we've been taught to believe, so to speak, and a lot of people's expectations even today, and how the world actually is. First step, I think there's that acknowledgement, and then secondly, there is this notion of we all need to get a lot better at experimenting our way forward intelligently. Together, two things really quick, and we're already coming so close to time. I'm working with a fantastic leader right now. She's just so fantastic to work with and one of the great things that she does, and she doesn't have any concern about this notion of she's been in business for a couple of decades, she's really good at what she does. She's a pioneer in the space. She has no problem literally with the idea that she's stepping down the sidewalk. She doesn't know where the next foot's going to go, and she's totally cool with that, and she just lets it unfolded. But she trusts, she trusts that the foot will land wherever is a good place for it to go. So that's one thing that I really appreciate. Isn't that great? So there's just a light on that very fluxy, it's very flexy. Yeah right. And and the other thing that it's been so interesting this this last year for me, April, is what I've really got. You said, you know this moming about being a leader. Man, it is tough being a leader today. It's a really tough job. And here's what I have learned is I sort of stumbled into this accidentally, and that I became to really I came to really understand that what they what I've been able to provide them is this sense that I can connect them back to their purpose. Why are they actually ultimately here? Now the expression and service of that purpose may change, but why are you actually here? Get back to that heartbeat? And then they now they have breath and their lungs again to be able to work from and create from. And so it's been really, really an interesting thing. And so I really appreciate the work that you've done and what you've even original in this conversation to help leaders, because this is a tough world to be in right now today. Yes, And I love that you bring up the why the purpose, because I do think a lot of leaders, why do you exist? What is the mission of your company? And if you're telling me the mission of your company is to sell more stuff, that is a very hollow mission for what the world needs to say, it's not what a mission is. Yet. Of course, those who are clear on their purpose and it's a purpose that aligns with what the future needs, and one of the future is heaving cannot only sleep easy at night. But they're also the ones who typically don't think that it's all up to them, and they've already ingrained some kind of more collective leadership or shared leadership into the organization. Oh great stuff, April. I don't know how we did it, but we've already gotten to the end of the show here. So you know, this show is listening to by people all over the world and they're really out to be able to help create environments where people want to stay and give their best. We create introbrational leaders that bring them to their greatness and we do business at better as the world. Having said that, what would you like to leave our listeners and are our viewers with? Oh goodness? So these days I always love to say when everything is in flux almost pretty much everything. Give me a topic, we'll talk about how it's influx. When everything is in flux, everything can benefit from a flux mindset. And the footnote I want to add there is that developing your flux superpower is doing any of what we're talking about today. It doesn't require anything you don't already have. It doesn't require any money, it doesn't require any technology. It requires getting to know yourself a little bit better. It requires actually paying attention to what really matters and doing things like learning to slow down and see what's invisible and start with trust. And there's just an incredible agency in that. And you've always had this agency. It's just been buried by a lot of other forces. It's time to rediscover it. But you have everything that you need to make these steps so encouraging, so empowering, in an align with what I stand for. April, I'm so delighted to cross paths with you, read your book and share it with my listeners and viewers. Thank you so much for being a guest and working on purpose. Thank you, Elise, My pleasure, awesome listeners, viewers who'll learn more about April Rennie her book and some of the work she does. Just start by going to Flux mindset dot com. That'll give you a good start. Last week, if you missed the live show, you can always catch to be a recorded podcast. We are on the air with Stephen Morris talking about his book The Beautiful Business and Actionable Manifesto to create an unanormal business with love at the core. Beautiful man, beautiful book, Beautiful Message. Next week, we'll be on the air with John Coleman talking about his latest book, The HBr Guide to Crafting Your Purpose be talking about how to lean into your strengths, bring meaning to work, and making the difference that you most aspire for. See you there. Remember that work is at least a third of our lives, So let's work on purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, Doctor Elise Cortez, each week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. Together, we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires impassioned performance, and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.