Hope is important, it is what makes good things possible
I tweeted that as part of a response to something from @mgifford this morning and it sounded pretty good. So I thought I would put it here for all eternity.
I could probably talk about it some more in the context of organizational change or something, but I am too busy at the moment.
Maybe you would like to share why you think hope is important?
In whatever context you like.
Thank you
Hi Thom,
Hope is important because it’s the opposite of cynicism and the driver of all drivers of change in human-directed activities. Without it, why bother?
It’s also stifled by fear. If you discourage dialogue and prevent clarification on what needs to change, the familiar watercooler whinging will begin, which really serves no one. If you try to sell that things are great when they’re just average or worse, even though no one is mentioning the problems, you just weaken your credibility.
To survive a not-so-great environment, you have to hope that you can help to improve it, and that your efforts will make a difference. This requires a sense of efficacy. If not on needed change, chances are you’re focussed on existing processes, where you feel you have some control over quality, if nothing else. (But if that’s so, please be sure you are not making things harder for people to change and contributing to cynicism.)
But no one can really change things on his or her own. The hopeful can band together and do something.
Thanks for the invitation to share ideas.
Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. If that rings true, than hope is the opposite, but unfortunately, I haven’t heard of an acronym for hope. Hope is best used to remove fear from a situation. When my grandma recently fell and broke her hip for instance, we hoped the surgery would be successful, and she would walk again.
However, hope should not replace action. If Ghandi’s quote rings true, we must not hope for change, but become the change we wish to see. Don’t hope to change the world, change it. Don’t hope for a better outcome, create it. And in the end, if you have fought hard, and became the change you wished to see, you can hope people will follow your example.