Odd title, eh? If you haven’t yet read Maggie McGary’s post over at Acronym (“Are you empowered to implement what you learn?”), you’ll get a head start on where I’m going with this.
First, I completely agree with Maggie. I’d add that — at least in my case — I had piles of notes from books, magazines, conversations, social networking threads, blogs, etc etc, as well as those notes from conferences I attended.
Of those, I managed to make a couple of changes, create one or two new inspired projects, and otherwise implement what I had learned. Sometimes it was with the support and encouragement of the organization’s leadership.
Sometimes it was through sheer determination and what I started to call “subversive leadership.”
Call it manipulation. Call it whatever you want, but it worked.
And it was simple: I just did it. I kept my efforts under the radar, and worked slowly yet patiently — sometimes through lunches or other “lag” times. Then when I had something to show — a demo, a bit of the project, a sliver that hinted at what could be done or the results of what I managed to accomplish — I shared it with the appropriate leader. Sometimes that person was the executive director. Sometimes the chair of the education committee.
You don’t always need permission to do something. Sometimes you just have to give yourself permission.
Sometimes you have to empower yourself.
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