| thepowerofpain.com :: the pain papers :: newsletter #17 |
THE PAIN PAPERS:
|
|
——————————————————————————————————- Learn to Harness Pain as a Catalyst for Innovation and Change ——————————————————————————————————- The Pain Papers ——————————————————————————————————- SHARE THE WEALTH. FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER. Any other unauthorized publication, excerpting, or duplication of the contents without the permission of Christopher K. O'Leary is a violation of copyright law. For past issues of The Pain Papers, see... To subscribe to The Pain Papers, please send a message
to... To unsubscribe from The Pain Papers, please send a
message to... ——————————————————————————————————-
——————————————————————————————————- Y'all, Sorry I have been quiet of late. I have writing like mad and also have my 4th (and final) child due at any moment. I have also been busy speaking about the link between pain, change, and innovation to organizations like Boeing. Let me know if you awe aware of any groups that would be interested in hearing me speak about these topics. This edition discusses something I have been thinking about a lot lately - the link between revolution, organizational change, and pain. I use The Declaration of Independence as an example of a pain-based mission statement. Many organizations can take a lesson from this. Chris ——————————————————————————————————- PROFILE: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA While most people think about innovation in the context of products and services, the need for new ideas is universal. In many ways the United States of America, and its uniquely tolerant, democratic form of government, can be viewed as one of the most successful innovations ever. The United States was an innovation in two senses. First, the idea of democracy ran counter to the monarchies prevalent at the time. Second, like a product or service, its goal was to solve people's problems. To guarantee them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is both interesting and instructive to study the history of the United States, the thoughts and ideas of Thomas Jefferson, and the role pain played in the process. The Timeline of Innovation The creation of the innovation that is the United States took place over a period of approximately 40 years. Prior to 1750, the 13 Colonies that were to make up the United States had operated largely independently of each other and of Great Britain. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) altered that relationship. For one thing, the war drained the coffers of Great Britain and led it to impose increased levels of taxes upon the colonies, culminating with the Stamp Act of 1765. The role the Colonies played in the war also led them to feel they deserved to be treated as full and equal subjects of the Crown. That respect did not come. Instead, the exploitation of the Colonies by Great Britain increased. This, combined with acts like the unpunished murder of colonists by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre, resulted first in written and then physical acts of rebellion. The British response to these acts led Paul Revere's famous ride to Lexington and Concord (1775) and the opening battles of The Revolutionary War. One year later, on July 4, 1776, the Colonies issued their Declaration of Independence. The Reasons for Revolution The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, is a fascinating and relevant document because it links two important ideas: change and pain. The purpose of the Declaration of Independence was to document for the Colonists, the King, the citizens of Great Britain, and the World the moral justifications for the rebellion. Jefferson did this by making the case that the changes being fought for by the Colonists were justified because they grew out of the pain being inflicted upon them by Great Britain. At the beginning of the document, after explaining his understanding of why governments exist, Jefferson spends a significant amount of time discussing the topic of change and why it does and does not occur... "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object envinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suffering of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former System of Government." Having made the case that pain provides a people with not just the option, but the obligation, to change, Jefferson goes on (in the part of the Declaration of Independence that most people skip over) to describe the pain that has driven the Colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain... "The history of the present King of Great Britain
is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove
this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. All told, Jefferson gives 20-odd reasons to explain the actions of the Colonies. Of course, the issuing of the Declaration of Independence marked the point of no return for the Colonies. For the next 7 years they fought Great Britain, finally sealing their victory (with the help of the French, led by Lafayette) by winning the battle of Yorktown in 1781. Several years later, on September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States was adopted. It was then ratified in 1789 and put into effect with the election of the first Congress and president, George Washington. Lessons Learned. You should take several things away from the story of The United States of America. Remember the Link Between Pain and Change. You should remember Jefferson's discussion of the link between the pain the Colonies were feeling and change. As he points out, change is hard. People are much more likely to suffer evils than they are to overthrow tyrants. It is only when injuries accumulate that people will rise up and make the necessary changes. However, when this point is reached, people have both a right and a duty to press for change. Create a Public Document. You should remember that Jefferson was very conscious that he was creating a public document that would serve to inform others about their cause and enlist them in it. The primary audience of the Declaration of Independence wasn't the King; it was the citizens of the Colonies and the citizens of other nations — including Great Britain. Shortly after it was first signed, John Hancock ordered that more than 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence be printed by John Dunlap. The news of the Declaration was then spread through the colonies via churches, newspapers, and by tacking Broadsides to walls in public places. Copies of the Declaration also made their way to Great Britain and Europe. The goal was to remind people of the pain they had experienced and what they were fighting for. The presence of the Declaration gave the patriots a tool to use against people whose faith was wavering. They could bring out the Declaration, run down the list of grievances, and say to people "Do you want to return to this?" Remember the Backgrounds of the Framers. You should remember that the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of The Constitution were not people from outside the world of politics who were starting off with a blank sheet of paper. Instead, these were people who were intimately familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of alternate systems of government but who were not beholden to or overly invested in any one form. Instead, their goal was to take this extensive knowledge and use it to create a new system. To take the ideas that they knew worked and combine them with new ideas to create an innovation that had never been seen before. The Ultimate Mission Statement. Above all else, The Declaration of Independence was a mission statement. It laid out the mission of both the revolution and the country. What is interesting is to compare The Declaration of Independence to most corporate mission statements. What a contrast. The goal of this document was to remind people of what they were fighting for and against. Jefferson understood that most people would not read or be interested in the Constitution since it is very technical and procedural. As a result, Jefferson design The Declaration of Independence to be a public document. ——————————————————————————————————- THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world: He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome
and necessary for the public good. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation. For Quartering large bodies of troops among us. For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. ——————————————————————————————————- REVOLUTION AND PAIN Examples of other pain-driven social movements and political innovations include... The Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech grew out of and reflected the pain experienced by blacks in the United States. Salt: A World History describes how more than a century of unjust taxation and suppression of the Indian salt industry for the benefit of Great Britain's salt producers gave Mohandas Gandhi an opportunity to attract followers for his independence movement by defying the British salt laws. Martin Luther's 95 Theses (published October 31, 1517), which led to the Protestant Reformation, were a reaction against the corruption of the Catholic Church and, in particular, the sale of indulgences. I would be interested in hearing about similar examples from people around the world. ——————————————————————————————————- For those of you who are interested, I had a letter to the editor published in the February 2002 edition of Fast Company... https://www.marketingprofs.com/Perspect/memecrafting.asp ——————————————————————————————————- Please send all comments or feedback to chris@thepowerofpain.com SHARE THE WEALTH. FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER. Any other unauthorized publication, excerpting, or duplication of the contents without the permission of Christopher K. O'Leary is a violation of copyright law. To subscribe to The Pain Papers, please send a message
to... To unsubscribe from The Pain Papers, please send a
message to... Any e-mail sent regarding The Pain Papers may be published and commented upon unless the email explicitly states that it's not for publication. For past issues of The Pain Papers, see... For more information about this distribution list, go
to... This document is produced by... ——————————————————————————————————- |
| All contents © Copyright 1998-2001, Chris O'Leary. The Power of Pain, What a Pain in the Ass, and whatapita are Service Marks of Chris O'Leary. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Chris O'Leary. |