(Note:  The following appeared first in the April/May 2008 MHSAA Bulletin and
is republished in Lasting Impressions, which appears in the MHSAA's online Library)

In high school, when the male voices stretched their necks to reach a high note, our choir director would shout, “It’s in the tummy, dummy, not in the throat.” And he would put us through exercises to emphasize and strengthen the muscles in our diaphragms.

More recently, a personal trainer spoke to the MHSAA staff about strength and conditioning and ways to avoid aches and pains, especially in the back.  She explained that it’s not the arms or legs that matter much, but the body’s core muscles that do the most to keep us fit and free of pain.

In each case, it’s less obvious points of leverage that make the difference; and so it is with leadership. Change is rarely from the top down, seldom obvious when it starts, and rarely accomplished alone.

Buckminster Fuller, one of our nation’s earliest environmentalists and author of more than 30 books who coined the term “spaceship earth” and legitimized the geodesic dome as an architectural design, has used a wonderful metaphor that describes non-obvious points of leverage that can be utilized to help facilitate change.

He uses the illustration of a ship trying to turn at sea.  To turn it left, you don’t push the bow in that direction; you turn the rudder to the right to get the ship to turn to the left.

And on very large ships, attached to the rudder is a trim tab which you turn left to get the rudder to turn to the right more easily, which in turn makes the ship turn left more easily.  And all this occurs beneath the surface.

This is all about leverage and the subtleties of effecting change.  Leadership is not always obvious, nor are the tools and techniques of leverage which can change the course of things.  But the tools are usually there.

Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, once wrote:  “. . . you always have the power, if you just know where to find it.  There is the power of inclusion, and the power of language, and the power of shared interests, and the power of coalition.  Power is all around you to draw upon, but rarely raw, rarely visible.”