I opened the Globe and Mail this morning to read that Mark Carney, Governor of The Bank of Canada, is imploring the banks to lend money. Isn’t that what banks do? Then I read about the “paradox of thrift” which means that while saving money is good for individuals, it’s bad for the economy when everyone saves at the same time because no-one is spending money. So do we save or do we spend? Then I read about Jim Flaherty, Canada’s finance minister, now predicting a significant slowdown when only a month ago, he was predicting that Canada would avoid a recession. How much has really happened in the past month? And how much of his flip flop reflects the perfect storm that is enveloping all of us? The answer is I don’t know? Neither does anyone I’m talking to. And I talk to a lot of people. It’s a strange new world, and it’s getting stranger.

Here’s what I believe: The velocity of change is driving us to change. We’re living inside a massive metamorphosis. We can feel its cataclysmic impact, but we can’t yet see it. We are like caterpillars in the chrysalis or foetuses in the womb. This is colossal. I’m frightened and I’m fascinated. I know that my role as a motivator-coach-alchemist has never been more vital. At the same, I know I have to change the way I play my role. I’m learning how to change day-by-day, conversation-by-conversation, person-by-person. There is no-one “out there” who has the answers. That much is screamingly clear. The answers are not “out there”. Whatever is going on “out there” is merely a guide to who we need to be and what we need to do, but the actual answers will be generated from within.

We are all living on the frontlines of life. We’re all experimenting our way forward. No-one has been to the future before. Our personal success will be a function of our Personal Code. That’s an inner system of values, principles, and insights that signal the right thoughts, feelings and actions in any situation. It’s a system that has been driving us since our earliest conscious moments. But we haven’t been aware of it. Or we haven’t paid it sufficient attention. Or we’ve relied on others to give us a system to live by. No more. Now we need to rediscover our Personal Code. We need to find new ways to master unprecedented changes. Check out http://www.mikelipkin.com/reinvent_yourself.html to help you reinvent yourself this festive season.

Toronto, 6am, December 11 2008

14 days to Christmas. Even in the silence of my study, I hear Bing Crosby crooning his Christmas carols. I see the lights on my neighbour’s lawn. We’re deep into the Festive Season and it feels like it. Maybe I’m not as naively upbeat as I was in 2007, but I’m wiser and stronger.  Everything seems more real. The conversations are more real. People are more real. The issues are more real.  There is a new kind of camaraderie percolating up from shared hardships. This year, the Rich did not get Richer – they lost the most. No-one has emerged unscathed from the carnage of 2008 – especially me. Financially, I took my lumps along with everyone else. But professionally, socially, emotionally and physically, it’s been a rich, rich year.

With every conversation, I’m discovering that people don’t want to talk about nothing any more. Idle chatter is a waste of time. In a crisis, people want answers. They want to make sense of things that don’t make sense. They’re looking for answers where previously they weren’t even asking questions. The Good Ones understand that nobody is going to rescue them from the problems ahead. They understand that they are the ones who will be rescuing others. So they’re paying more attention; they’re being more deliberate; they’re reaching out to their peers; they’re talking more and they’re listening more. What they’re not doing is lamenting the new reality. They’re not complaining, blaming or pointing fingers. They know that there’s nothing wrong with the way things are. Things are exactly the way they’re supposed to be because that’s the way they are.

I’m writing these words in a spirit of muted joy. I’m quietly celebrating my feelings of aliveness. I’m thinking about my dramas, adventures, lessons, victories, mistakes, losses, and connections in 2008. I know that 2009 will take them all to a whole new level. I will have to expand my capacity exponentially to win next year. Nothing can be done by rote. Nothing can be taken for granted. Nothing can be assumed. The least expected events have the highest probability of occurring. Warren Jestin, Chief Economist of Scotiabank, calls it “Event Risk”. Instant acceptance and adaptation to cataclysmic events will be the hallmarks of the new champions.

I’m ready. I’m ready for the call. It’s coming today, and it’s going to keep on coming, every day from now on. My friend, David Gillespie, Chief Training Officer, Peterborough Fire Rescue, told me this great information: “We all hear the sirens of fire trucks running through the city.   The fire crews going to the call have two common characteristics: they are highly trained and positive-outcome thinkers. The reality is that only 3% of the calls are actual fires. With hours of training, rehearsals, and simulations, firefighters become use to practicing the worst case scenario.  Despite not utilizing their full skillset 97% of the time, the 3% attitude carries them through every emergency call. Not doing so could mean death”.

So how ready are you? In 2009, will you prevail or will you perish? Now would be a great time to choose. Make the choice and get ready.   

Toronto, December 3 2008, 8.30am

I’ve just spent the last two days with a group of 200 executives from the international division of one of Canada’s largest banks. As you can imagine, the focus of the entire session was the management of risk.

In the last three months, the word “risk” has assumed a whole new set of meanings. If it signalled fear and danger before, now it signals chaos and confusion. There’s a new strain of risk. It appears to emanate from the risks we already know, but it keeps morphing into something else. Just when we think we have a handle on it, we realise we haven’t got a clue. No-one knows how big the black box is or what other uncontrollables are about to fly out of it. Even the smartest pundits are being punished. We’re all being subjected to massive daily doses of humility.

But there is one risk that we absolutely can control. It’s the risk we know have to take. It requires courage and discretion. It demands that we obey our intuition and be true to ourselves. It’s a function of our self awareness and our commitment to serving others. It’s the risk involved in being the best you can be – especially in decisive moments. It’s the risk involved in saying what must be said when it must be said. It’s the risk involved in making your voice heard, asking the challenging question, pitching the new ideas, declaring your commitment, learning vital new skills, calling new prospects, venturing outside your comfort zone, holding yourself to higher standards, sustaining your optimism, building new relationships, expressing your point of view, being memorable, exposing your real self, becoming a model of what’s possible, being willing to stumble, fumble, fall and fail.

At a time when organizations are stripping away everything that’s not core to their sustainability, you have to demonstrate daily that you are. You have to broadcast with your words and actions that you are vital to the enterprise’s success. If you seek the shelter of the safe and the secure, the key decision-makers cannot see you. And if they cannot see you, they will not miss when you’re not there. In the stampede to safety, you can only be safe by taking a risk:  the risk of standing out by being  “preeminent” – that’s when you are recognised as being extraordinarily valuable to the people who are valuable to you. Let me repeat that: you can only be safe by taking a risk:  the risk of standing out by being  “preeminent” – that’s when you are recognised as being extraordinarily valuable to the people who are valuable to you.

In the past three months, I have spoken to over 20 000 people across North America, Europe and Africa. I can make you this promise with near total certainty: If you are recognised as being extraordinarily valuable to the people who are valuable to you, you will be safe. You will not only survive, you will thrive. So what’s it going to take for you to demonstrate your extraordinary value to the people who are valuable to you? What do you have to do? What do you have to say? What risks do you have to take?

Here’s my final comment: you and I cannot change the course of human history, but we can change the course of our personal history. And as we change, we inspire others to do the same. Be scared of failure. I am. But don’t let the fear of failure cause your failure be blocking the actions you need to take. Take them today. Or be swept away…