It started with my front door not closing properly. A little more force needed to close it. But no big deal, right? Fast forward a couple of months, he door now needs to be slightly lifted in order to close. I practically tiptoe through my doorway somehow thinking that would slow down the deterioriating function of my front door. I share this somewhat embarrassing story of inaction and delusion to highlight a phenomenon I call, “The Toleration Cycle.” And I know I am NOT the only person on the planet to fall into this spiral of settling for less than what you want, deserve or need.

Over 25 years ago, I was a senior policy advisor in the Ontario public service working on child care and welfare reform. That’s when I first noticed how relatively easy it was to get people into a room to meet, discuss ideas, come up with strategies and make some decisions. But getting policies, regulations, opinions, culture and legislation to change was a completely different story! Good intentions and clarity easily dissipated and were forgotten once everyone got back to their desks and existing priorities and problems consumed their focus and time. Fast forward to today. The challenge of turning ideas into action still hits roadblocks, u-turns and organizational gridlock.