Lately it seems like everything is “transforming” (when it isn’t being “disrupted”). There’s transformative change, transformation of businesses, and a need to transform or “have a transformation”. It often sounds very glamorous and exciting. It is also often described to me as being something being done for other people. As in “the only way we can transform our business is if everyone (else) starts doing things differently.” It is rare that someone says to me “we have to transform our business and that means I have to start doing things differently.”
That’s where I have a problem. For me, transformative change means that I feel three very conflicting emotions, and they materialize in my stomach (so I guess I could go on a “transformation diet” hmm…)
- I feel excitement that gives me butterflies in my stomach
- I feel anxiety that makes my stomach do flip flops
- I feel a sense of loss that is gut wrenching
If any one of those is missing, it is usually not what I would call transformative. It might be a big change, but it isn’t rocking my world. I have to be willing to own getting myself right with all three of those emotions to step out of my comfort zone and start to do thing differently, and to help the people around me to do thing differently.
Maybe that’s not everyone’s definition, but that’s what I mean when I say I’m working on transformation, and I challenge my clients to think in those terms. I get that it isn’t easy – especially the 3rd one. But transformation should be hard – otherwise it isn’t that big of a deal, right?