I shouldn’t be, but I am constantly amazed by the energy of momentum.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that on January 12, Haiti was devastated by a deadly earthquake. A nation already ill-equipped to manage any sort of crisis, the disaster completely overwhelmed its citizens. And as news of the destruction began to dribble out from ground zero, the world kicked into gear to assist. Which is amazing in itself!
But the momentum I speak of happens at an individual level. Recent case in point. On January 15, three days later, a professional colleague emailed me and ten other colleagues with a challenge. He posed the question: what if every professional speaker in Canada donated 5% of their next speaking engagement fee to the aid efforts in Haiti. Combined with the Canadian government matching program, what sort of positive impact would that create? His challenge inspired me … to make a donation, but also to spread the word. The next day I spoke briefly at the Calgary chapter meeting for the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. I challenged 85 speakers to do what I had done, AND I asked them to further challenge the people they knew. And amazingly, the momentum began to build. Today, 11 days later, just through anecdotal evidence, I have been able to trace the chain of impact for at least five degrees. So … I donated and challenged someone to do the same, who donated and challenged others to do the same … up to five steps. And this is just what I am aware of. I can only speculate on what the actual impact is! Wow!
Which brings me back to the topic of today’s blog post: momentum. There is no doubt that momentum is powerful force. And the most remarkable thing about momentum is that it takes only one person to get it started and only a small group of people to keep it going. Sometimes, all you have to do is be willing to act AND ask others to join you.
Imagine the possibilities if you could tap into this energy in your workplace! Momentum CAN be a huge source of employee motivation. So, what are you doing to ignite momentum in others?