During the week prior to Thanksgiving break, I participated as a member of the Lead Learner Faculty team for a @cuerockstar admin at Skywalker Ranch in Northern California. Now I will stop right there and state that that in and of itself is all I have to write about. The End.

Oh but wait, there’s more.

Here is the CUE Inc. blog post that will give you a sense of what it meant to attend this very specialized camp or remind you of key items that you may have missed:  http://blog.cue.org/

I want to focus on the “now what”. So often, we attend fabulous conferences and professional development opportunities that can be so deeply moving that we know as we are walking out the door that nothing will ever be the same again. And this begs the question: what do we do with everything we now know in our efforts to make a difference?

I have a philosophy that is a common thread throughout much of my life and it is this: keep it small and start basic.  So what does that mean for each of us as we walk away from this very special exposure to another way of being and make an impact?

I have found the most effective way to instill real change is to be a “strategic termite. ”

The most effective change is curated over time, thoughtfully and in many small ways. It’s not a big change, it’s not always recognized by any of its parts, and time and time again in the most successful leadership books, this is key to the success of effective change.

Case in point: when you attend a @cuerockstar camp, the ratios are the most ideal for your learning experience. There is a heavy emphasis on networking. A key takeaway for many of you from your @cuerockstar camp journeys is to continue the conversation going with that same group of people who struggled and stretched over three days in some remote location in the Northern California hills.  Starting with daily small changes: a mention, floating an idea, reaching out to any of us for specifics can all be examples worth experimenting with for you in your culture. If you begin thinking “I need bigger”, try letting it marinate a bit longer, add another small change.
 Give this a try, and let me know how it goes.