One of my all time favorite thoughts of all time is as follows -
"The reason we don't find solutions to our problems is because the answers to our questions interfere with our concepts".
In my experience this maxim is at the core of why change (at any level) is so tough. We hear the lament that change is always hard because none of us like change. Well I don't like 'not to change'. When everything changes around me I find myself more rather than less frustrated by my lack of change.
My inability to change something seems rooted in a preference for what 'is/was' rather than what 'might be'. In my case, when I realise that, it makes me react strongly and I begin to work really hard at changing as much as I can! People don't like that.
Transformation requires a fresh and obsessive intention. Nothing will remain the same.
It will require a dogged determination and utter application. You will have to do different things and perform unusual activities. Some people around you will start to distance themselves from you. Everything you have done up until now has to be reviewed. The language you use will start to get questioned. Some of the moves you used to make will not work anymore - and the new ones you will need to make will be uncomfortable. Your ideas will be constantly challenged.
For transformation to work it requires a complete change to your intention. All the team and everyone around will undergo dramatic surgery.
Intention is a small word but a massively interesting idea.
If we intend to really change we have to commit to actually wanting transformation of our world. If we do then clearly we have to review and alter everything we do - our behaviour and attitude must be different.
I observe several dimensions, many of which don't get discussed, that need to be present for transformation to get done. Get your boots on because these are just some of them.
Different Language: A common language must be developed - together with agreement on the meaning of key terms. This language needs to be developed together as the transformation is planned. This language needs to be markedly (deliberately) different from that being used today.
Stop Using Slides: Removal of slides and lengthy written tomes from the process. Stop expecting the people you are trying to encourage to change with anonymous, meaningless Power Point decks and docs. Start engaging them within the conversations about the transformation. Treat them with respect and collaborate with purpose and passion. Face to face.
Complexity Is Real: Overcome the cliche's and easy claptrap around simplicity. It is not simple. Anyone in a transformation program has to understand that complexity is the daily diet. Get used to that. Simplicity may well be required (in the way it gets applied) but stop confusing complexity with the hard work required.
Beyond The List: Don't try to manage transformation with lists and best practices that are not 'felt'. If we attempt transformation with templates and panaceas it will fail. Passion for the hard work of transformation has to be close to the emotion felt by a sportsman (and team) approaching the big game!
Intimacy And Leadership: Deep respect and understanding for the team you build and work with. This means leadership of the real kind, transmitted with authenticity and integrity across everything. The tools and techniques that create the vision, the metrics, the roadmap and everything involved, will have to be built by these people. Living together for long periods of time will demand the ability to become intimate with everything and everybody to develop shared energy for the challenge.
Delight In Disappointment. When something didn't go to plan it now spurs you on to greater things. Mistakes become opportunities to re-double effort, creativity and ingenuity. Being knocked back means returning with greater effect because of the lesson. Adversity is the mother of new intention.
Embrace Terror: Ignore the terrorists by becoming closer to them. Your enemy is actually your best chance of success. By working more closely with detractors you get to your objectives quicker. By working with them you achieve many things. Everyone sees that you are more determined than ever to win. You will learn to tell your story better. They will be confused by your overtures. They will either change your mind because they are right and you missed it or they will become your biggest ambassador. Or they will leave the picture - in some way(!).
Unlearn At All Costs: Learn how to unlearn fast. In unlearning we see new things hitherto lost to us. This brings incredible riches. Walls break, new knowledge floods in, our new stories shock people into listening to us. We can support the transformation from many more perspectives. We can support it because we can see the possibility from fresh points of view.
Fine Tune Your Acuity: Developing an engineers eye for the vision. The ability to dismantle, reassemble and use the vision under water and blindfolded with both arms tied. Draw it, speak it and defend it from every single angle while listening intently for clues about how to improve it. Be able to do the same with the roadmap and all organizational models and implications.
Integrative Thinking: Cultivate both your brains. For every visionary leader there is the numeric luddite. Be ready to prove the math. For every well defended business case there is a disruptive upstart that doesn't give a damn about your numbers. Become a better visionary.
Learn From Celebrity: Love it or loathe it this era is epitomised by the power of celebrity. Someone has to be on stage. Transformation works when there is someone being the pied piper. This person is just as involved with all of the above as can be. To not be totally immersed is certain death. Everyone will smell it.
Just a figurehead, a token? Then you are doomed!
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