The Hero Leads

Welcome, The Hero Leads readers. Thank you for following the link from the book to this page.
(If you don’t have a copy yet, you can find it on Amazon.)

Chapter 6: Tests, Allies, and Enemies

In this stage of the Hero’s Journey, you build your coalition. You have crossed the threshold and started moving. Now the work becomes visible, and the world responds. Some people will join you. Others will resist. The goal at this stage is to test your idea in the real world, find the people who believe in it, and deal honestly with those who don’t.

Questions to ask yourself

• Have you tested your idea in small, low-cost ways before asking for big commitments?
• Who are the first two or three people who genuinely believe in what you are trying to do?
• Are you telling the story of your vision in a way that lets others see themselves in it?
• Who is resisting, and do you understand what they are actually trying to protect?
• Have you been honest with your allies about the risks they are taking by joining you?
• Is there a fence blocking your path that no one can explain, or defend?

A shared vision

You started this with a vision that was yours alone. This stage is where it has to become shared.

Facts inform people. Stories move them. When you tell the story of what you are trying to accomplish, you are not just presenting an idea. You are giving people a place to stand in it. The most effective thing you can do at this stage is not to argue for your plan, but to help others picture a future where it has worked, and see what role they played in getting there.

Resistance is part of this too. When you propose change, some people will push back. Not because they are wrong to, but because every system optimizes for what it already does, and change unsettles that. The resistance you encounter often points to something real. Listen to principled objections. Use them to sharpen your idea. Who in your organization needs to be brought along, not defeated, and what would it take to show them their future is better inside this change than outside it?