Spheres of Influence
Laws, regulations, rules and social norms are created to support groups function effectively. We live in a giant, dynamic system that is constantly evolving, and many of our challenges arise from the tension between existing laws, regulations and rules, and the realities of our daily lives.
There are more than 325 million people living in the USA, dispersed throughout 50 states, spanning 3.79 Million Square Miles. Obviously, the daily routines and realities of someone in Pensacola Florida are dramatically different from someone living in Juno, Alaska, yet we our current legal and regulatory systems are set-up to treat them, and the other 324,999,998 people the same.
The influence that our current legal and regulatory structures exert far outsizes the scope of what we rely on them to support, according to Vinay Gupta, founder of multiple organizations working to create a more equitable, enforceable and localized legal structure that better addresses the realities of our lives in the 21st Century. I recently sat down with Vinay to discuss this and more.
As Vinay argues in this week's podcast, our legal and regulatory bodies are overstepping their sphere of influence. Laws and regulations are not abiding by current realities, and instead, are vestiges of the days when command-and-control population management was the only option. Given the increasing democratization of, well, everything, our systems are in need of an upgrade; an upgrade to a more localized approach that accounts for the nuances, constraints, opportunities, and realities of the region(s) they hope to control and/or influence.
Click here to further explore this concept of our "Sphere of Influence." This model is one I often use with my coaching clients and organizations I am supporting develop intentionally.
While we can look to big systems that are experiencing friction due to the tension between their spheres of control, influence and concern, it is most helpful to apply this model to ourselves.
Where are you overexerting your influence? What are you trying to control that is outside of your influence? Where are you abdicating your influence and control? How can you grow your influence to increase your impact? If you are ready to right-size, grow and more effectively exert your influence, let’s talk!