#394 Rebecca Sutherns: Career on Her Terms—From Global Aid to Solopreneur Strategy — Part Two
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What is the background of Rebecca Sutherns?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is Rebecca Sultans, strategy coach, facilitator, and someone who's been running her own show for 27 years.
She trained for international development, hit pause to raise four kids, and ended up building a career that never stopped evolving. In this two-part series, we talk about the moments that change everything. Career profits, creative rocks, and what it really takes to keep moving forward without burning out. Rebecca's story is sharp, honest, and refreshingly unpolished. Let's get into it.
are rear view mirror, backwards looking tools rather than future oriented tools. And we're not even aware of that. And so I think sometimes if we look at our data, for example, evidence, whatever that might be, that almost by definition is what has happened in the past, right? We look for patterns that have happened in the past, or we look at our resume, our CV.
How can past experiences shape our future?
We look at the experience and expertise we're bringing in our biography, our autobiography. All of that is good stuff, and it's really important in getting us to know the specifics of what we love. I love tapping into people's very sort of quirky personal energy around what they love and what their own sort of superpowers are. But I think the tendency for that is to be backwards looking rather than forwards looking of saying, who could I become? What could I do in the future? And how could that history be a springboard into a new future as opposed to being an anchor that keeps me defined in a particular way or keeps me working in a particular methodology or whatever that might be that I think we underestimate the potential. I don't know if it's inertia or just the weight of our past.
And as we get older, especially, that past is longer and heavier and ties us into something. And so I think we often think of things like imagination and curiosity being childlike or childhood things. And part of my interest is helping people grow into that rather than out of it. As we do get older, there's more of a history to anchor us.
What is the role of curiosity in adulthood?
But at the same time, our curiosity actually stems from our memories. And so to the extent that adults have a larger memory bank, we have more experience to draw on to help us, in theory, be more curious, be more imaginative. So there are... There's good, solid reasons why adults can actually be more curious, more imaginative than kids if we are willing to be a bit more experimental, hold things loosely, stay not quite as tied to our autobiography as we have been. And that also is true organizationally as it is personally, to say we've shown up in the world in a particular way. We've taken on a particular position, a particular identity. And are we willing to... either change that radically or tweak it in some ways that it'll take us along a path that is more energizing for us. And I think you're right. Helping people, first of all, to have a vision for that and then to fill that in greater detail with someone alongside to be that sort of coach and cheerleader.
I realize that people hire me primarily for energy. It's to build momentum. It's to borrow my belief when they don't have some. It's to have some tools along the way that are going to help them move through that liminal space, which our brains hate. We really don't like the uncertainty of that in-between season. And so even that adaptability tool I mentioned, it gives people some language and some practical steps to keep moving. Because one of the things that's most motivating when you're going through transition is momentum. And so if I can help people both initiate and maintain momentum, the likelihood of them being able to then make some of the changes or some of the brave choices that they want to make is that much higher.
You are one of the few guests, or maybe even the first, who has such deep experience on both sides of transformation, i.e. organizations and individuals. So I love to hear your take. What are the similarities between these two types of change? And just as important, what are the differences?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the background of Rebecca Sutherns?
0:13–2:24
2
How can past experiences shape our future?
2:24–3:36
3
What is the role of curiosity in adulthood?
3:36–7:49
4
How can organizations define success?
7:49–8:38
5
What are the key differences between personal and organizational change?
8:38–12:49
6
How do we reimagine life at midlife?
12:49–14:04
7
What mindset shifts are necessary for transformation?
14:04–26:47
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Chief Change Officer™: Ensemble
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