Why this, why now

As a deeply curious person with a passion for transformational change, I can’t help but feel excited to be a part of this moment in history.

Change has landed upon us, and it’s done what change always does… it’s revealed what needed to be revealed and provided a moment’s pause so we can decide the path we want to take next. It’s amplified tensions, accelerated the demand for new approaches, and widened the cracks in systems and structures that were already due for an overhaul. For anyone who has worked in transformational change, this isn’t an unfamiliar landscape. What’s different is that so much has landed, all at once, and without much emotional or practical preparation.

While I have so much compassion for the human impact of everything that’s happened over the past months, I also feel what a tremendous opportunity this is to make big and already needed changes to the way we work, and I know the seeds of those changes are already there in any company you care to look at, only it’s likely they don’t know it yet.

Over the past months I’ve sat in conversation with people from all levels of business and across industries to listen to what’s apparent to them, to hear and feel what they are experiencing, what they are struggling with and what they would love, and there have been some common themes.

There are good hearted leaders out there who are feeling the strain of seeing the impact of the sudden shifts in their business on their people. They want to do better by them, to find other ways in the “new normal” for their people to feel their needs are being met and that they can bring their best to their work, but with all the white noise of the “best advice” and juggling demands of keeping “business as usual” going in an environment that’s anything but, it’s feeling like an impossible task.

There are visionary thinking employees and managers who see opportunities in amidst the chaos, but they’re isolated from support and from each other and often occupied dealing with an ever increasing number of challenges on both the work and the (work from) home front. It feels hard for them to stay stuck in the struggle when they know the rewards that would come from taking advantage of the opportunities they can see.

If you’ll forgive me the trite saying… When you’re the one lost in the forest it’s hard to see the wood for the trees.

What I know for sure is that when people choose to take a moment to lift themselves out of their current reality and are supported to engage their innate creativity and agency, they can see clearly the outcome that would bring the most reward, and can cut through all the noise to see where to put their focus to start building toward that outcome. And, that can happen so much more quickly than we imagine it will when we’re stuck in the weeds.

It feels so important to me that we take advantage of this moment. That we not wait for “normal” or “stable” to return, but instead that we connect with and build on our internal resources to start building towards a future that’s driven more by opportunity and agency independent of external circumstances.