Rebels at Work

Afterword

Rebels are important messengers. We help people see opportunities, emerging trends, and problems. We bridge from what is to what can be.

In Byzantine Greek, the word for messenger is angelos, or angel, and in the Bible, angels announced their arrival with the words, “Do not be afraid.”

Most of this book has looked at rebels working inside organizations, from companies to government agencies. But rebels are needed everywhere where people are afraid to speak up, from parent–teacher associations to politics to families to nonprofit associations.

People who have stepped out of big organizations to go the free-agent route due to bureaucratic frustration ask us whether it might be possible to re-enter the traditional work world and be effective. “I want to do more than work for myself and make a living. I want to be part of something bigger that has a purpose I believe in.”

To these rebels we say, “If an organization’s mission is calling to you, go help as the messenger. Use what you’ve been learning in this book and from the many rebel and change maker communities sprouting up around the world. Bring good ideas forward. Do not be afraid.”

In today’s unpredictable world, expertise and “solutions” have a short shelf life. The continuous cycle of learning, acting, and adapting needs to be turned from low to high for our organizations to evolve and for us to grow as people.

Crank it up, dear rebels. The world needs us everywhere.