Are you willing to live unreasonably?
A DECLARATION is a statement of “what” will be achieved by “when.”6 One of the most profound privileges I've experienced is to witness a group DECLARE to achieve a clear outcome by a specific date. President Kennedy's DECLARATION was an American to the moon and back by the end of the decade. Mahatma Gandhi's was a free India before my death. Babe Ruth's was the next pitch over the wall. These leaders pointed then hit. Athletes today swing away. When they happen to hit one over the wall, they stand and point. That is not declarative leadership. The order matters.
When a DECLARATION is made with INTEGRITY, the language itself shifts from passive to powerful:
| Passive Voice | → | Powerful Voice |
| Plan | → | Declare |
| Try | → | Do |
| I should | → | I shall |
| I'm going to | → | I am |
| We ought to | → | We are |
| But/If | → | Regardless |
| I support the effort | → | I commit to the outcome |
| With conditions | → | Unconditionally |
| Soon | → | Now |
I recently was involved in a transformation project for a very large logistics system. In this context, think of logistics as moving the right things at the right time from the makers and suppliers to the customers and consumers. This system is massive; the biggest logistics system in the world. It is really a system of systems. There are many subsystems, each with its own owner, and no single authority over the whole thing. At ...
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