Corporate Caterpillars

The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. If you want your child, spouse, client, or boss to shape up, stay connected while changing yourself rather than trying to fix them. —Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve—Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix This book does not profess to make the business of business easy. It is not modeled on a single analogy like the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, nor does it reduce the concept to a set of simple steps. What it does strive to do is to recognize the richness of reasons why we often seem to be left with few choices. This book shows how to move from a world of limited options to a realm of limitless possibilities, whether for an individual or for an enterprise. This book is designed to inspire. It provides a kind of “blueprint” you can use to create your own individual and corporate transformation to move from limited to limitless…. … Corporate change is most effective when the leaders of the company themselves embrace change as a way of altering the trajectory of their company. By combining business experience, deep knowledge of the transformation field, and a track record of personal growth and development, Corporate Caterpillars gives business leaders like you real insight into their own personal growth and development. It then goes a step further, showing how to apply those same insights as a tool to help your company grow and develop into the success story you want it to be…. … Corporations, like individuals, develop their own habits. By way of example, even if a process is not well defined and documented, most companies have accepted ways of doing things. If someone leaves an organization, that person’s replacement invariably figures things out and “fits right in,” as we say. To make these habits visible we need to shift them from being automatic (unconscious) to conscious. We need to develop awareness and look at these habits from different viewpoints so we can recognize what is happening automatically and determine if these automatic responses still serve as they once did. We might say that we must first climb out of our unconscious state, or reach a state of awareness, so that, good or bad, we might see things as they really are. Once this state of awareness is achieved, we must learn to preserve that awareness and put it to use. … … Before we can replace a habit we must first break it, and before we can break it we must be aware of it. The first step in our transformation journey is to move from unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent. It is to develop awareness. I have identified three ways to develop this awareness—through force, frustration, or inspiration…. … If we are not responsible for everything that happens to us then we are irresponsible. Every time in my childhood I said that a big boy did it (whatever I did wrong) and ran away, I was being irresponsible. Essentially we slip into feeling that we have no control over what is happening. Instead we endlessly complain and find others to blame. We are victimized. A victim takes no action. A victim does not need to, as there is always someone else to blame for everything. The victim stance is actually a strong one. Sounds a little odd, does it not? When a victim blames everyone else, that blaming comes with benefits. A victim gets attention, feels validated, and does not have to take any risks or assume any responsibility. Think about it. If you do not do anything, then you cannot do anything wrong, so you completely avoid the risk of failure. No wonder victimhood has become such a part of our culture. This state of victimhood goes hand in hand with feelings of entitlement. It is clear many have surrendered their power to others. Our attorneys and psychotherapists may even have helped perpetuate the whole entitlement culture. It seems that if you can find an oppressor, which is someone else to blame, you are at least entitled to sympathy, if not compensation. This way of thinking has contributed to the increasing number of frivolous lawsuits. Why does it seem so very difficult to climb out of this victim state? Think of victimhood is if it were a box in which we are trapped. The instructions on how to get out of the box are carefully printed on the outside of the box. Despite the enormous amount of time and effort we expend complaining and waiting for someone to rescue us, the benefits keep us trapped. We clearly have a choice. We have control over the thoughts we think, the images we visualize, and the actions we take. Even doing nothing is a choice. Yet without some form of trauma, frustration, or inspiration, we are unlikely to climb out of the box on our own. It is as if we know that something is not quite right but it is just easier to blame others for our situation than it is to shift our way of thinking and be responsible for it. How can we climb out of the box and shed our victimhood? How are we to give up all our excuses and act as if we are completely responsible for everything that happens to us? After blaming someone or something for events in your own or your company’s life, you may have built resentment. In order to release the emotional tie to resentment and assume responsibility, you will need first to forgive. It is important to realize that to forgive is not to forget. It is more a process of letting go. Where the entire culture of a business is stuck in victimhood and has found an oppressor to blame, it is the leaders of the business who must show the way. Leaders must demonstrate by example that they have let go of their resentment and forgiven whoever or whatever was being blamed…. …Are you ready to lead your company through transformation? Can you transform your business by simply being who you really are? It is my belief that you can. By first being you can model for others. They in turn will model for still others, until your entire enterprise shifts. You will have transformed your company into the one you always intended it to be—a conscious entity that makes a difference for others; one that provides a vehicle for meaning and contribution. I truly believe that corporations are some of the potentially most influential organizations in the world. If our corporate leaders model transformation, then our enterprises will follow. In turn, our businesses will be the change we would all like to see in the world. Are you up to the challenge?