If you develop the capabilities described in this chapter you will be an undefeatable change agent.  You will come to understand what you can change for the better, and what you cannot change.  You will see what others do not see.  But be forewarned - the one-eyed man in the country of the blind is not honored but rather locked up as insane. 

If you have been reading this material sequentially then you will have read the prior section titled, “The Methodology Emperor Has No Clothes.” If you have not read it you can get the gist of the text from the title.  I could have written the article 12 years ago.  I did not because it would have been dismissed by nearly everyone as the ranting of a naïve and incompetent techie who didn’t want to do the job with professional discipline.  It will still be treated that way by many.  But there are now some who have come to see the same nonsense behind the push for methodology.  There are some people who have come to understand that it was nothing more than the marketing of an approach that was good for the large consulting companies and a few independent consultants.  At least, I hope there are such people.  Thus, when you start seeing what others do not see, make certain that you are right and do not tell them what you see until they are ready to see it. 

One further warning: the path to optimize your ability to make a better world is not easy.  In each of the sections below I identify some of the things that are critical for you to master or understand.  I have provided a reading list for some of those items.  The list is not there to prove that I can create a bibliography.  It is there because I know the references contain knowledge and understanding that an optimally achieving change agent must possess.  There is no value in reading what I have written here if you do not follow up by reading the listed references (or similar ones) and doing the exercises (or similar ones) I have described.   

I fully expect that everyone who reads this will come with significant knowledge already mastered.  I leave which of the references and exercises are appropriate for you as your problem to solve.  For the most part that is not possible without at least scanning the content of each reference and trying the exercises. 

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(C) 2005-2014 Wayne M. Angel.  All rights reserved.