ChangeSmith ’s Post

📍🌎 36.862561° N, 76.30182° E 🎂🔟🎈 ChangeSmith quietly turned 10 years old in February. Rather than celebrate, we chose instead to reflect upon where we started… 👩🏻🍼📏💍 A #MicroPreemie is an infant born sooner than the 26th week of pregnancy and weighing less than 1.75 lbs - 25% of a full term newborn. True size is more difficult to conceptualize, so I’ll assist. Imagine (at the urging of a highly experienced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (#NICU) nurse) removing a wedding band from your finger. Place the ring at the tips of all five of the baby’s fingers, slide it up the hand, over the wrist, past the elbow, and beyond the shoulder. Because of how loosely the band rests against the head and chest, you experience relief of knowing no harm was caused. 💖🦋👼🏻 ChangeSmith’s distinctive #pinkbutterfly is not simply a symbol of #change, the discipline upon which our professional services capabilities and solutions were initially based. Both the butterfly and the pink color serve as an homage to the memory of our micro-preemie, Juliet Grace. A powerful lesson I learned from my daughter is that life is short, and when you pursue your priorities, you spend your life pursuing someone else's. To mitigate that risk and launch ChangeSmith, I needed to change the game. I left a team at Booz Allen Hamilton that I both appreciated and admired, finding both inspiration and courage from my daughter to take a leap that better aligned to my priorities as a husband and father. 📅🦁💪🏼 As Juliet's father, I got to share 183 mornings with her. It wasn’t until later that I came to a point of full appreciation for her courage - if I've even gotten there yet. I spend a lot of time evaluating what ‘controllables’ are available for control. Juliet had practically no control. What she did was 'show up' to wake up and fight every day that she had. I am reminded every day of these last ten years when I see our pink butterfly of the courage of a small girl in a big world. When we talk to our client leaders about the courage it takes to be a healthy leader, we do so with the experience of having had to demonstrate that courage too. 🎁😊💟 Sometimes big challenges can make each of us feel small. On our birthday, we reflect on 10 years of helping many leaders and organizations to overcome challenges that once felt too big by creating remarking experiences and healthy conditions for people. As we look forward to the next 10 years of ChangeSmith our gift is the privilege to share this message with anyone who needs a gentle reminder that YOU are big enough today to get to tomorrow. #OrganizationalHealth #HealthyLeaders #PracticeCulture #SafetyFirst #ChangeBetter #CoachesMatter ChangeSmith Juliet Grace Smith Foundation