The Four Laws of Change

by Herb Stevenson

In the native American oral tradition, the Shawnee nation enhance the effectiveness of the big decisions by understanding and using the four laws of change.

1. Change comes from within. This means that change will always come from within the individual, from within the group, and/or from within the organization. Ideally, the change will be like a pebble through into a lake where the change ripple from within all of these configurations.

2. Permanent change requires a vision. This means that unless we hold a clear and/or compelling picture of what is the change that needs to occur, the initial insight or energy or reason for changing will fade into the background until triggered by the next difficult reminder and/or painful event.

3. A great learning must occur. This means that change is accompanied by a personal insight or a group awareness that is shared with the larger community. Hence, for an individual, it could be an insight that they are actually creating most of their problems by how they behave towards other. So as to make it a permanent change, the person needs to share it with others, who in turn will support them in the change.

For an organization, it could be a shared awareness that each person within the organization is responsible for how the organization functions. What grounds the change is that the insight or shared awareness becomes the responsibility of the group to sustain the changes.

4. A healing forest must be present. This means that any change to be permanent must have the support of the larger community. For an individual, it could mean that the insight or vision is shared with family and friends. For a group, it could be that the change is shared with people outside the group who can support the changes versus unknowingly undermining it by not knowing that change has occurred.

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