Date Published: 9-29-20
Change happens in business and in life. Today’s success is achieved by learning how to thrive and come alive – manifesting our deeper purpose and true potential – through transformation.
For that to happen we have to shift our mindsets to build and sustain our own capacity to transform. By replacing fear with love. Waste with value. By enriching our personal and professional lives with deeper meaning and expanded capacity.
This book invites you to step out of your comfort zone, tear down your internal blockers, and follow the Ten Steps of Transformation, for a greater impact in your life, organization and society.
Join The Heart Revolution
What was your main drive to write this book?
I wrote The
Heart Revolution because I believe that we need one. A revolution that is.
The thing is,
I have been working with transformations for more than 20 years and I have seen
so many transformations fade or fail. The waste that that creates for our
businesses and us as human beings is significant. And I really don’t like
waste.
Research
backs up my experience also suggesting that the vast majority of
transformations fail. Companies have shorter and shorter life spans. At the
same time, as people we are living longer and longer but we are largely
disengaged and unhappy.
I believe
there is another way – to approach business and transformation. A way that
creates more value than waste. That disrupts and enriches our lives as part of
it.
That is the
revolution the book calls for. That each of us, and business alike choose to
place just as much focus on working as much on the inner dimensions of
ourselves and our businesses – our mindsets, beliefs, behaviors, and culture –
as we do the tangible dimensions of structures, processes, systems, material
artefacts.
That’s a call
that requires us to deliberately move ourselves from a mindset of fear, to a
loving mindset. And that’s something we can all do, no matter where we are in
our organization, our life, the world. Because the matter of the fact is that
any business transformation requires a human transformation
What do you hope readers will learn by reading this book?
I hope that
readers will realize that we are all capable of living lives and
transformations of great enrichment – wherever we are in our lives,
organizations, and world.
That we can
do it y standing in acceptance – acceptance that transformation is a journey
that never ends, and acceptance that it always starts with ourselves. And
beyond acceptance is empowering ourselves out of fear with a loving mindset
that overcomes a widely shared belief that transformations can only be led by
certain people – the especially powerful, high-ranked, brave, or bold. That’s
not true.
We can all be
brave and bold transformers, stepping into the role of CEO starting with our
own lives.
Transformation
is simple but not easy. And that is why I have outlined the Ten Steps of
Transformation in my book, The Heart Revolution. It allows you to take one step
at the time in building your capacity to transform. It starts from the very
foundation, and progresses you step by step through the journey until you are
able to lead your own transformation, and also business transformations from
wherever you are.
Did you do much research when planning this book?
I guess it
depends how you look at it. In a way I have been researching this book
throughout my 20+ years as a business executive in People, Culture and
Transformation leadership.
I’m also a
lifelong student and learner, I hold a bachelor’s in Economics – specialized in
Organizational Development –, an Executive MBA and a Masters in Gestalt
Psychotherapy. But I originally started my career as a nurse, caring for
terminally ill AIDS patients. Seeing how differently people would meet death –
whether embracing it having truly lived or facing it begrudgingly with regret –
gave me existential insight into the importance of living fully, both
personally and professionally.
And the book
is also filled with real-life stories from people around me throughout the
years. I’m a collector of the lightbulb moments, where people do things, they
never imagined they could. And I myself come fully alive when I’m deeply
engaged in asking, listening to and sensing people – both what they’re saying
and not saying. So that’s also really helped me fill up the pages of the book.
I have also
always kept up with research in relation to the latest insights that have been
emerging in the field of leadership, HR, business, strategy, neuroscience,
medicine and much more and sought inspiration from many thought leaders in the
field.
But as for
the book-writing process itself, it wasn’t an extensive research process
because it really is a product that stands on the shoulders of many great
thought leaders, spirituality, and philosophy so in a way it almost wrote
itself.
Did you have any main people who helped you in the
process of this book or influenced you to write it?
Absolutely. I thought authoring would be a very lonely life – but I so longed for it
not to be true. And from the very beginning I knew that I wanted to book to be
one created by a community. I might be the one holding the pen - but sharing
thoughts, ideas, and wisdom from so many more. It is a big team effort to give
wings to a book and bring it to life – and the revolution, the movement born
already through the process.
But to trace
the influence back to its origin for me would be my father. Inspiration, I
realized, can come from very close to home. Beyond the great thought leaders
that have managed to get their word and wisdom out to the world, I am also
reminded of those that did not get to share so widely. Wonderful souls like my
father to whom I
have also dedicated the book. My father was a man of many talents. He was
bright and wise at the same time – and yet because of his stage and exams anxiety that he
never got help to solve, he never fully lived out his potential. He had so much
more to contribute to the world, as I grew up with him, I felt the power and potential of that
every day – but because he had fear of failure he stayed inside his comfort
zone - which is what many of us do – not living life fully.
But not on
Sundays. On Sundays he would write poems and stories - really living his
talent.
I was scared
as first, that I would not be able to be as good a writer as him. And in that
fear I almost never started. But with a burning desire to bring the message out
to many, I didn’t want to let myself stand in the way of making that happen.
Many, many
others have helped make the book a reality – contributing in each their own
ways. Although I am not listing everyone here (there are so many!), my
gratitude for them is immense. It takes a village to raise a child, as they
say.
How long did this book take you to write from initial
thought to hitting publish?
Again a more
complicated question to answer. The truth is the thought of writing a book has
always been part of my somehow. At least in the form that I really have been
dedicated to the idea of ensuring that all the learnings throughout my
experience would not go to waste – that it would be shared and further
co-created with others.
This was
further fueled by a great leader that I worked with as part of a
transformation, who too shared a desire to create a learning platform for
others about another perspective on transformation – and how there is no
business transformation without a human transformation.
That it would
specifically take the form of a book though was something that came later on.
From the point where that was decided to hitting publish was actually one year
– although the writing itself only took 3.5 months!
Do you have plans to write more about this topic or new
topics?
The Heart Revolution is just the beginning. Like any transformation,
this is a journey – and it’s only just started, with plenty more road to cover.
As I wrote this book, I developed a sense that there is a possible trilogy –
this book for individuals supplemented by also a book about bringing heart into
leadership, and into transformation design at the organization level.
My dream is that now that The Heart Revolution is brought out into the
world, it invites us all to be leaders, designers and owners of our lives and
our businesses and so the next books will be co-created with readers and other
transformers as they go about living the Revolution.
And as that happens, I am dedicated to my company, BreathingBusiness, a consultancy that helps design and
deliver another way to transform – a way built on the understanding that any
business transformation requires a human transformation. To help organizations
bring The Heart Revolution to life with our deep expertise in human
transformation, and approach it as an integrated dimension of your business
transformation, co-creating and implementing solutions that have both immediate
and lasting impact for organizations and people.
About the Author
Karen is a business executive, transformer and facilitator with 20+ years of experience in People, Culture and Transformation Leadership roles from several multinationals across industries.
She hates waste in all forms and shapes – and loves impact. That’s why she has a burning desire to help individuals and organizations to transform, disrupting their lives as a way to enrichment.
Karen is a self-proclaimed collector of the lightbulb moments, where people do things they never imagined they could. And she says she comes fully alive when deeply engaged in asking, listening to and sensing people – both what they’re saying and not saying.
She is lifelong student and learner, holding a bachelor’s in Economics – specialized in Organizational Development, an Executive MBA and a Masters in Gestalt Psychotherapy. But originally started her career as a nurse, caring for terminally ill AIDS patients. Seeing how differently people would meet death – whether embracing it having truly lived or facing it begrudgingly with regret – gave Karen existential insight into the importance of living fully, both personally and professionally.
Whatever the label though, working with people, their well-being and transformation has been the red thread throughout Karen’s life. And she is here to help everyone who wants to disrupt and enrich their lives – transforming through love and laughter – whether as individuals or whole organizations.
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