we were standing in the shadows outside
the entrance to a long dark twisting
tunnel often the day in the Lithuanian
capital of Vilnius off in the distance I
could see the Parliament Buildings but
in front of us were a group of guards
they were wearing or they were with the
Lithuanian national defense volunteer
forces they were wearing uniforms that
looked like something that we would buy
in a costume shop but their faces had a
sense of commitment on them that had
been years in the making and was not
fleeting I realized that the tunnel that
we were in front of was being used to
wispy ‘pl safely underneath the
barricades in and out of the Parliament
Buildings and we were about to enter
this was July of 1991 I was 18 years old
the Lithuanian people had declared to
the Soviets that they wanted
independence
this declaration struck at the
foundation of the principles of the
Soviet Union and was part of the forces
that propelled this country the region
and the whole world into a time of
revolutionary change I was there with a
group of Canadian leaders asking the
question of how higher education could
be rethought after the collapse of the
social and political fabric of Soviet
society being in this emerging
revolutionary time sparked a question in
me one that I want to ask you here today
it’s a question of how we conduct
ourselves in moments of revolution it’s
a question about people and purpose
whether we recognize it or not I think
we we are all in a time of revolutionary
change right now this revolutionary
change has been years in the making and
impacts us all and some have labelled it
the fourth Industrial Revolution a time
when the physical biological and digital
are blurring as I entered that tunnel
and a time of uncertainty in the past we
all are enter entering our own tunnel
now we stand in the shadows outside we
duck as we ant
we wonder where it will take us we
wonder what role will play as we
navigate its twists and turns but we
know that the choices that we’re gonna
make now will impact our future if
you’re like me your relationships your
work your organizations are being
reimagined under the weight of the
revolutionary technological and
communication change the way that we
work and engage now would be
unrecognizable to our grant
great-grandparents as we look down the
road and this quite slight twists and
turns of this time I’m convinced that
this is our revolution and lift the way
any other revolution was obvious the
signs were everywhere the sides were
clear the Soviets had their tanks and
their guns the citizens had their
flowers and their songs which side of
the revolution are we on to answer that
question we can ask a question what are
people for it’s an unusual question we
don’t ask it often maybe try it at a
family gathering or a team meeting you
might get silence you might get a whole
range of different answers but the
reason why I think we find it’s
intriguing is that it’s both a difficult
question to answer but it also makes it
forces us to think about what it means
seven months prior to that July day the
streets around the Capitol looked very
different the the boiling the the
concern for independence had come to a
boil the Soviets were losing patience
with their wayward Republic and they
were starting to think maybe they had
let things get too far so in January of
that year over three days the Soviet
troops decided to stand the tide tanks
rolled into the city but the people
didn’t leave and as a result 14 people
were killed and seven hundred and two
were injured so I recall talking to
people at the time about their
experience in that confrontation with
Soviet troops and they talked about
their sort of cobbled together time how
they how they kept a persistent vigil of
people outside of the Parliament
building
busting them from every town and village
because they wanted to make sure that
the Soviets recognized that every lift
waiting was willing to stand in front of
the tanks and the guns what caused the
Athenians to be motivated to take such
action
what grand purpose was behind their
thinking something tells me it wasn’t
something that came out of a start with
why workshop led by a management
consultant I’m embarrassed to say that
that might be what I would suggest start
with why was pioneered by simon Sinek
and is a powerful tool for helping
organizations and teams reach their
goals when I first came across it I was
amazed at the way you could take all of
those activities around a deep purpose
to get results but in the 1990s the the
Lithuanian the Luthor need people didn’t
simply discover their purpose it had
been swirling under the surface of their
society for decades they didn’t have
workshops or breakout sessions so what
was behind that motivation that that
they experienced and as an 18 year old
it struck me that they were motivated
out of a care for one another if you
would have asked them what people were
for they probably all would have had
different answers but they probably all
would have said not for this life of
oppression not for feeling suspicious of
all of our neighbors not for being in
fear for our family or concern for the
consequences of an unorthodox idea they
were motivated out of a care for one
another in our fourth Industrial
Revolution we don’t have tanks and guns
but we have a similar sense of unease
I’m not the eighteen-year-old kid
anymore but the echoes of that listening
experience experience and the tensions
are still with me I have the opportunity
with my company domain 7 to work on
organizational transformation but there
are times with it where I just have this
sense of unease in my stomach about this
path that we’re all on in this
revolution so what is the source of that
I think it’s that I see as business
leaders were too quick to treat the
people and relationships that we have is
dispensable we see people as a pathway
to
success two years ago I was working with
a colleague on a two-day facilitation
purpose facilitation we are trying to
help an organization connect the
activities that they had to their core
purpose we are finishing our second
hard-fought day of outcomes and the the
the meeting took a turn for the worst
frankly the team leader decided to
announce to the room that this that the
organization is was in a way worse state
than everyone thought he essentially
said if this purpose workshop doesn’t
pay off we’re all out of a job the air
was sucked out of the room everyone in
that room instantly rethought of those
last two days and and looked at it in a
new light what they have thought as an
opportunity to explore purpose and
outcome now looked like a quick fix so
in that moment I read I saw desperation
turned into threats rather than
togetherness I thought I saw a purpose
used as a vehicle for payoff at the
expense of others and it made me wonder
are there times when we’re using purpose
facilitation merely as a means of
empire-building what sides am i behind
the tanks of today or the flowers of
today I thought I was creating a bright
future but maybe it’s a dim one I
thought I was using my purpose
facilitation for good don’t get me wrong
start with why is a powerful tool in
this revolution many organizations would
be much worth worse off with it than
they are today but if we treat people if
we’re not treating people as our purpose
we’re merely justifying exploitation our
why statements are simply
rationalizations of oppression certainly
there is lots of pressure that we feel
right now and in the midst of that
pressure we revert to old patterns and
ways of thinking so I looked to my left
waning experience to see how they
handled pressure in their moment did
they have a significant problem yes in
that critical moment not just as
individuals but the whole community was
in peril they had armed oppressors in
front of them did they have a clear
purpose yes freedom and self
termination but how did they choose to
respond they chose to respond by coming
together they linked hands not just
metaphorically but physically across the
whole Baltics over 600 kilometers they
chose to sing songs of resistance in
such an iconic and persistent way that
that whole Baltic movement became known
as the singing revolution they put
people at the core of what they were
doing so what struck me is that they had
a clear sense of pressure they knew
their purpose yet they chose to put
people first rather than desperation
they chose to sing songs they chose to
link hands and put flowers in front of
the soldiers at the barricades they
chose to link head and put it rather
than continuing that that oppression
they they pursued care of family and
friends they didn’t want to sacrifice
their value for one another in the
pursuit of their goal and the impact was
great there there was deep courage there
was a significant commitment for one
another and the result was that there
was a new sense of unity that emerged
that the path that they chose was not
not only got them to the goal but it
demonstrated the future they wanted to
live in so when I think of that lesson
for myself today I can say I have to
consider how am i what am i contributing
in the present that leads to our future
reality and I have to ask myself the
question under immense pressure with
lots of ambiguity there is no adequate
purpose that justifies oppression so I
have to ask myself how am i acting in
the midst of this time how am i
answering the question what it what are
people for and I think in that I can’t
just look at my goals and say are these
good goals I have to look at how I’m
pursuing that with my family with my
company in my community and I have to
say how am i doing that in the moment
because all of my actions are answering
this question and I think as we look
towards the future and we think about
our the Utopia of the future we may have
to shift our thinking about what people
are for and when I hear the echoes of
the Lithuanian experience
forced to ask myself the question what
if I were to switch from trying to build
the Utopia of the future rather to
embodying it in the present what if I
was going to do the hard work of valuing
people in the present moment
what sort of organizations would we
create what sort of change might ensue
we’ve become so used to seeing people as
a means to an end even a noble end at
times we see our workforces and our
workflows produce profit efficiency and
maybe even that YouTube utopia that
we’re asking for the world that we’re
looking to pursue we say is worth
sacrificing people for people are an
input something to be exploited and it’s
an amazingly ingrained in our culture so
much so that to suggest to change to
second suggest to go against the grain
of business to suggest to push against
our profit centers our purpose oriented
profit centers is scary it’s like
driving a car the wrong way on the
highway it’s a little crazy and it’s a
lot to ask of all of us and I feel it’s
a lot to ask to myself every day when I
think of this moment that we’re in I’m
brought back to some of the feelings
that I had standing outside of that
tunnel in Lithuania is there a bright
future ahead or a challenging one is
there flourishing or suffering what I do
know is that as businesses we can’t see
more than a few quarters ahead as
universities we can’t adapt quickly
enough to the change that’s in front of
us and our relationships are stressed by
constant communication and social
scrutiny but I do know that if we
continue to treat others value as a
means as a means rather than an ends we
will guarantee a future of human
suffering this past winter my wife and I
and our two daughters visited Lithuania
again a lot had changed and the echoes
of that day in 1991 were a distant
memory or maybe a chapter in a history
book but everywhere I looked I could see
echoes of it in laughs and smiles in a
successful school or business I could
see I was drawn back to that moment
standing outside the
Tunnel and that anticipation because the
seeds of that present present moment
were sown in the choices to care for
each other in the past the seeds of our
present moment are sown in the same
choice so I’d invite you to consider
this question for yourself the people of
Lithuania were standing in front of
Tanks not just to pursue a goal but as
an embodiment as an answer to this
question the way they pursued change on
those January days was a declaration of
the type of world they wanted to live in
they wanted to say we stand we want
peace we stand for peace we’re for each
other they showed me a way towards a
good future by being caring about the
present moment the way we treat each
other in revolution creates the world
that we want to live in don’t pursue a
noble purchase purpose and then be
tricked into becoming an oppressor and
in this revolution it’s often hard to
observe it but the people in front of us
aren’t so let’s put people as our
purpose even if it runs against the
grain of the grain and purpose of the
current occupying force of our culture
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
the entrance to a long dark twisting
tunnel often the day in the Lithuanian
capital of Vilnius off in the distance I
could see the Parliament Buildings but
in front of us were a group of guards
they were wearing or they were with the
Lithuanian national defense volunteer
forces they were wearing uniforms that
looked like something that we would buy
in a costume shop but their faces had a
sense of commitment on them that had
been years in the making and was not
fleeting I realized that the tunnel that
we were in front of was being used to
wispy ‘pl safely underneath the
barricades in and out of the Parliament
Buildings and we were about to enter
this was July of 1991 I was 18 years old
the Lithuanian people had declared to
the Soviets that they wanted
independence
this declaration struck at the
foundation of the principles of the
Soviet Union and was part of the forces
that propelled this country the region
and the whole world into a time of
revolutionary change I was there with a
group of Canadian leaders asking the
question of how higher education could
be rethought after the collapse of the
social and political fabric of Soviet
society being in this emerging
revolutionary time sparked a question in
me one that I want to ask you here today
it’s a question of how we conduct
ourselves in moments of revolution it’s
a question about people and purpose
whether we recognize it or not I think
we we are all in a time of revolutionary
change right now this revolutionary
change has been years in the making and
impacts us all and some have labelled it
the fourth Industrial Revolution a time
when the physical biological and digital
are blurring as I entered that tunnel
and a time of uncertainty in the past we
all are enter entering our own tunnel
now we stand in the shadows outside we
duck as we ant
we wonder where it will take us we
wonder what role will play as we
navigate its twists and turns but we
know that the choices that we’re gonna
make now will impact our future if
you’re like me your relationships your
work your organizations are being
reimagined under the weight of the
revolutionary technological and
communication change the way that we
work and engage now would be
unrecognizable to our grant
great-grandparents as we look down the
road and this quite slight twists and
turns of this time I’m convinced that
this is our revolution and lift the way
any other revolution was obvious the
signs were everywhere the sides were
clear the Soviets had their tanks and
their guns the citizens had their
flowers and their songs which side of
the revolution are we on to answer that
question we can ask a question what are
people for it’s an unusual question we
don’t ask it often maybe try it at a
family gathering or a team meeting you
might get silence you might get a whole
range of different answers but the
reason why I think we find it’s
intriguing is that it’s both a difficult
question to answer but it also makes it
forces us to think about what it means
seven months prior to that July day the
streets around the Capitol looked very
different the the boiling the the
concern for independence had come to a
boil the Soviets were losing patience
with their wayward Republic and they
were starting to think maybe they had
let things get too far so in January of
that year over three days the Soviet
troops decided to stand the tide tanks
rolled into the city but the people
didn’t leave and as a result 14 people
were killed and seven hundred and two
were injured so I recall talking to
people at the time about their
experience in that confrontation with
Soviet troops and they talked about
their sort of cobbled together time how
they how they kept a persistent vigil of
people outside of the Parliament
building
busting them from every town and village
because they wanted to make sure that
the Soviets recognized that every lift
waiting was willing to stand in front of
the tanks and the guns what caused the
Athenians to be motivated to take such
action
what grand purpose was behind their
thinking something tells me it wasn’t
something that came out of a start with
why workshop led by a management
consultant I’m embarrassed to say that
that might be what I would suggest start
with why was pioneered by simon Sinek
and is a powerful tool for helping
organizations and teams reach their
goals when I first came across it I was
amazed at the way you could take all of
those activities around a deep purpose
to get results but in the 1990s the the
Lithuanian the Luthor need people didn’t
simply discover their purpose it had
been swirling under the surface of their
society for decades they didn’t have
workshops or breakout sessions so what
was behind that motivation that that
they experienced and as an 18 year old
it struck me that they were motivated
out of a care for one another if you
would have asked them what people were
for they probably all would have had
different answers but they probably all
would have said not for this life of
oppression not for feeling suspicious of
all of our neighbors not for being in
fear for our family or concern for the
consequences of an unorthodox idea they
were motivated out of a care for one
another in our fourth Industrial
Revolution we don’t have tanks and guns
but we have a similar sense of unease
I’m not the eighteen-year-old kid
anymore but the echoes of that listening
experience experience and the tensions
are still with me I have the opportunity
with my company domain 7 to work on
organizational transformation but there
are times with it where I just have this
sense of unease in my stomach about this
path that we’re all on in this
revolution so what is the source of that
I think it’s that I see as business
leaders were too quick to treat the
people and relationships that we have is
dispensable we see people as a pathway
to
success two years ago I was working with
a colleague on a two-day facilitation
purpose facilitation we are trying to
help an organization connect the
activities that they had to their core
purpose we are finishing our second
hard-fought day of outcomes and the the
the meeting took a turn for the worst
frankly the team leader decided to
announce to the room that this that the
organization is was in a way worse state
than everyone thought he essentially
said if this purpose workshop doesn’t
pay off we’re all out of a job the air
was sucked out of the room everyone in
that room instantly rethought of those
last two days and and looked at it in a
new light what they have thought as an
opportunity to explore purpose and
outcome now looked like a quick fix so
in that moment I read I saw desperation
turned into threats rather than
togetherness I thought I saw a purpose
used as a vehicle for payoff at the
expense of others and it made me wonder
are there times when we’re using purpose
facilitation merely as a means of
empire-building what sides am i behind
the tanks of today or the flowers of
today I thought I was creating a bright
future but maybe it’s a dim one I
thought I was using my purpose
facilitation for good don’t get me wrong
start with why is a powerful tool in
this revolution many organizations would
be much worth worse off with it than
they are today but if we treat people if
we’re not treating people as our purpose
we’re merely justifying exploitation our
why statements are simply
rationalizations of oppression certainly
there is lots of pressure that we feel
right now and in the midst of that
pressure we revert to old patterns and
ways of thinking so I looked to my left
waning experience to see how they
handled pressure in their moment did
they have a significant problem yes in
that critical moment not just as
individuals but the whole community was
in peril they had armed oppressors in
front of them did they have a clear
purpose yes freedom and self
termination but how did they choose to
respond they chose to respond by coming
together they linked hands not just
metaphorically but physically across the
whole Baltics over 600 kilometers they
chose to sing songs of resistance in
such an iconic and persistent way that
that whole Baltic movement became known
as the singing revolution they put
people at the core of what they were
doing so what struck me is that they had
a clear sense of pressure they knew
their purpose yet they chose to put
people first rather than desperation
they chose to sing songs they chose to
link hands and put flowers in front of
the soldiers at the barricades they
chose to link head and put it rather
than continuing that that oppression
they they pursued care of family and
friends they didn’t want to sacrifice
their value for one another in the
pursuit of their goal and the impact was
great there there was deep courage there
was a significant commitment for one
another and the result was that there
was a new sense of unity that emerged
that the path that they chose was not
not only got them to the goal but it
demonstrated the future they wanted to
live in so when I think of that lesson
for myself today I can say I have to
consider how am i what am i contributing
in the present that leads to our future
reality and I have to ask myself the
question under immense pressure with
lots of ambiguity there is no adequate
purpose that justifies oppression so I
have to ask myself how am i acting in
the midst of this time how am i
answering the question what it what are
people for and I think in that I can’t
just look at my goals and say are these
good goals I have to look at how I’m
pursuing that with my family with my
company in my community and I have to
say how am i doing that in the moment
because all of my actions are answering
this question and I think as we look
towards the future and we think about
our the Utopia of the future we may have
to shift our thinking about what people
are for and when I hear the echoes of
the Lithuanian experience
forced to ask myself the question what
if I were to switch from trying to build
the Utopia of the future rather to
embodying it in the present what if I
was going to do the hard work of valuing
people in the present moment
what sort of organizations would we
create what sort of change might ensue
we’ve become so used to seeing people as
a means to an end even a noble end at
times we see our workforces and our
workflows produce profit efficiency and
maybe even that YouTube utopia that
we’re asking for the world that we’re
looking to pursue we say is worth
sacrificing people for people are an
input something to be exploited and it’s
an amazingly ingrained in our culture so
much so that to suggest to change to
second suggest to go against the grain
of business to suggest to push against
our profit centers our purpose oriented
profit centers is scary it’s like
driving a car the wrong way on the
highway it’s a little crazy and it’s a
lot to ask of all of us and I feel it’s
a lot to ask to myself every day when I
think of this moment that we’re in I’m
brought back to some of the feelings
that I had standing outside of that
tunnel in Lithuania is there a bright
future ahead or a challenging one is
there flourishing or suffering what I do
know is that as businesses we can’t see
more than a few quarters ahead as
universities we can’t adapt quickly
enough to the change that’s in front of
us and our relationships are stressed by
constant communication and social
scrutiny but I do know that if we
continue to treat others value as a
means as a means rather than an ends we
will guarantee a future of human
suffering this past winter my wife and I
and our two daughters visited Lithuania
again a lot had changed and the echoes
of that day in 1991 were a distant
memory or maybe a chapter in a history
book but everywhere I looked I could see
echoes of it in laughs and smiles in a
successful school or business I could
see I was drawn back to that moment
standing outside the
Tunnel and that anticipation because the
seeds of that present present moment
were sown in the choices to care for
each other in the past the seeds of our
present moment are sown in the same
choice so I’d invite you to consider
this question for yourself the people of
Lithuania were standing in front of
Tanks not just to pursue a goal but as
an embodiment as an answer to this
question the way they pursued change on
those January days was a declaration of
the type of world they wanted to live in
they wanted to say we stand we want
peace we stand for peace we’re for each
other they showed me a way towards a
good future by being caring about the
present moment the way we treat each
other in revolution creates the world
that we want to live in don’t pursue a
noble purchase purpose and then be
tricked into becoming an oppressor and
in this revolution it’s often hard to
observe it but the people in front of us
aren’t so let’s put people as our
purpose even if it runs against the
grain of the grain and purpose of the
current occupying force of our culture
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
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