This article by Finn Jackson is the second in a series examining the future of leadership in a changing world.
The first step in our search for future leadership has shown how purpose and values can bring competitive advantage that grows stronger with each challenge we face.
This article looks in more detail at how we can achieve this.
Transitions Matter More than Changes
We are living through a time of rapid change. Changes in technology, the economy, politics, and society are forcing every organisation to adapt. Each change brings with it psychological and emotional transitions. Some of these are large, others small. All will be important.
For example, following a reorganisation, John and his team found themselves with new roles and reporting lines. The changes involved were relatively straightforward: John and his team could quickly adapt to the new location, tasks, and technologies they were being asked to take on. But what mattered more to them (and affected their morale and productivity) were the unspoken impacts on their identities. Would their new role still be as important to the strategy of the firm? Would they lose their relationships with key decision-makers? What would be the impact on their status in the industry?
It wasn’t the changes that determined the success or failure of the reorganisation but the way these transitions were handled.
Changes happen in the outer world: they involve new roles, tasks, and reporting lines. Transitions happen in our inner worlds: they are about who we are, our identities.
Changes are visible. Transitions are invisible. Changes involve places, transactions, and things. Transitions are about meanings, relationships, and stories. Changes can happen quickly. Transitions can take time for people to work through. Changes are predictable. Transitions are not. This is why change guru William Bridges says, “It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.”
Managing these transitions forms Step 4 of the process by which change happens in organisations (see diagram). It is the step that, collectively, we pay least attention to. But it is also the step that, if managed well, closes the loop of organisational change, making leaders and their organisations more able to address the next issue that arises, and so building anti-fragile competitive advantage.
To understand how we can achieve this, and why purpose and values play such an important role, let’s look in more detail at what it takes to manage the psychological and emotional transitions that accompany any change (Step 4 in the diagram).
The first person to write about these transitions was Arnold van Gennep. In the early 1900s he studied the rites of passage associated with the major life transitions of death, marriage, and the shift from childhood into adulthood. What he discovered was that we never go straight from ‘State A’ into ‘State B’. There is always a third, intermediate, or transitional stage where we are no longer in the old identity but not yet fully in the new one either. This is the chrysalis stage between the caterpillar and the butterfly.
Getting married provides a good example. Usually this begins with a period of engagement. Here we announce that a change is going to happen and start to come to terms with the idea that we will take on a new identity. This stage is called Separation. In the second, Threshold, stage the wedding itself takes place. Here we cross the threshold and officially become ‘married’: our old life is over but our new identity has not yet formed. Then, during the third stage, we start to discover and integrate what being married is really about. This is Consolidation: the honeymoon period and beyond.
These same three phases exist whenever we start a new role or implement change in an organisation. We separate from the way things used to be, cross the threshold to start building the new approach, then gradually consolidate this new way of being and doing.
The key success factors for the first phase, Separation, are to let go of the past and turn to face the future. This involves accepting that the past has gone, recognizing the resources and learning it has brought us, and deciding to use the future to rebuild what matters most. Ritualistic actions can help us let go of the past. The key to turning to face the future is to create an inspiring vision.
In the second, Threshold, stage people face uncertainty. Here we have let go of the way the world used to be but have not yet built the way it is going to be. Values give us a way to step into that uncertainty, by controlling the only thing we can control: ourselves. By defining our values we give ourselves guidelines and permission to choose quickly how we respond to any situation. This puts us back in control and immediately brings the culture of our future vision alive.
Finally, during Consolidation, the priority is to align and integrate the different elements of our future organisation. Here momentum, coherence, and communication matter. Defining purpose delivers all three: it provides urgency, alignment, and a way to resolve competing priorities. Defining purpose enables different parts of our organisation to make rapid, independent decisions and also remain aligned with a common, shared direction.
We now understand why values and purpose are so important: in a churning world they bring the stability and direction that enable people to step enthusiastically into the uncertainty of the Threshold phase and to achieve Consolidation. An inspiring vision does the same for Separation.
The future of leadership will be about managing change. Future leaders will enable their organisations to adapt seamlessly to change by empowering them to quickly manage all three stages of transition. This will build a new kind of organisation that not only survives change but uses change to become stronger.
We will return to purpose and values in the fifth article of this series. For now, the next step in our quest to find the building blocks of future leadership is to understand how to achieve Separation. For this we need to understand how to create an inspiring vision.
This is the second in a series of articles examining the future of leadership in a changing world. Click here to read all of the articles in this series.
Finn Jackson is a consultant and coach who helps clients generate lasting solutions to issues of strategy, leadership, and change.
His first book, The Escher Cycle , was called “A unified theory of business” and “A blueprint for winning any game your business chooses to play.”
His second book, The Churning, Inner Leadership, has been called “The inspiring manual to improve our VUCAbility,” “A book which should be on every change-maker’s bookshelf,” and “an ethical framework for business decision makers, based on emotional maturity.”