The Art of Change
The digital revolution, climate change and demographic transitions are just examples of an era of unprecedented, accelerating change. Understanding the structure and process of change will enable us to thrive in times of radical evolution.
The famous quote by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus some 2'500 years ago is still known today for its simple and deep truth. Everything in nature — including us humans — changes over time, all the time. The caterpillar evolves into a butterfly. All our body cells renew every seven years. Even the universe itself constantly changes in size. Especially in today’s era, change is constant and rapidly accelerating. Just think about the digital revolution, climate change or geopolitical power shifts. Despite the old truth that change is constant, humans seem to have great difficulties coping with change. As psychological studies have shown, we like to „do thinks as they always have been done“. Not because they work well, but because we have a feeling of certainty and control. Changing to a state that is unfamiliar to us makes us feel vulnerable and uncertain. This is the last think we want. We like control. But there are also times where we embrace change. We might want to change our job, stop smoking or bring our relationship to the next level. However, often we fail to create what we want. Just think about most new years resolution. Despite the importance and power of change, the phenomena is commonly poorly understood. So what is change? How can we thrive in times of change? And how can we lead it? Time to sheet light on it.
What is Change?
There are many words describing the same thing: transition, development, evolution, renewal, transformation, metamorphosis, progress, decay. Simply speaking, change is the transition from one state to another. The word change is a neutral in its nature. It does not say, if the state after the change is better or worse than the initial state has been. In every change process, there is uncertainty regarding the result. No one can say with 100% certainty, that a certain state will be reached at the end of a particular change process. You might have cooked your favorite dish a thousand times and you are a real expert in every sense of the word. And even in this rather simple example, there is a tiny chance that in the change process from raw ingredients to a well composed meal, something goes wrong, resulting in a deviation of the desired result. Because of the uncertainty involved in every change process — doesn’t matter how small or big it is — humans have a general dislike for change. With big consequences.
Fear of Change
Fear of change is and has always been one of the most common and unconscious fears we can have. We fear change because of the uncertainty it holds. Change could result in progress, wisdom and true greatness. But it could also result in hunger, decline and loss. Naturally, we don’t like uncertainty. Routine and control are much more our thing. Just image an old farmer 2'000 years ago. He or she needs to harvest enough to be able to survive the winter. Having a seasonal routine — e.g. planting, watering, harvesting — helps greatly in this endeavour. The farmer might have done this routine more than a hundred times and knows with high confidence, that his way of doing things leads to the desired result of having enough food (even though maybe not the most balanced diet). Image a young farmer comes his way, that experienced with new ways of doing farming (lets say the three field system) and proposes this to the old fella. The new method might promise better and more quality food, but because the old farmer does not have any experience with the new method, it seems to him/ her rather like a risk than an opportunity. The old farmer declines the offer and keeps doing farming as it used to be. Does the message of that story sounds familiar to you? How often did you ask „why do we do this that why“ and the answer was something like: because we have always done it like that or even better: because because. Sticking to old habits might give us a sense of control and certainly. But it can be the barrier to achieve much greater results. Our genetic fear of change and uncertainty might have been essential to survive in the past thousand years, but in the 21st century it is rather the formula for stagnation, depression and one of the greatest obstacles to realise our full potential. So if our genetic reflex for change is strongly biased by our subjective experience of the past, what could be a healthier perspective for change?
Consciousness for Change
To utilise the full power of successful change, the first thing to do is to get familiar with the characteristics of change and our responds to it. Change triggers our survival instinct and leads us on an emotional journey which can be a real rollercoaster. Therefore, it helps us to understand the structure of that rollercoaster and how we can navigate through it. The Kubler-Ross Change Curve is one of the standard models that describes the change rollercoaster. Basically it goes like this: We are first confronted with a change of state, which consciously or unconsciously threatens us and shock is arising. The first reaction is followed usually by resistance, where we fight the change wherever we can. If is does not help, resignation hits in. We start accepting the change, but the motivation is zero. At some point, we start to explore little by little our possibilities in the new state and — sooner or later — integrate the new circumstances in our daily routines. Sounds familiar? I am pretty sure you can think of a change process you witnessed that followed a similar pattern. However, we all go through change at different speed and intensity. And most of us go back and forth on the curve. But in any case, once we understand change and our genetic instinct to it, we will go thought any change process with more ease. Becoming conscious about the characteristics of change will allow us to utilise its full force for our personal growth path.
Becoming aware about the character of change is the first step. But can we even go one further? Instead of simply learning to accept change and work with what we get, could we also proactively design our own change path and transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly? And if so, how is it possible?
Vision
If you want to get from A (the caterpillar) to B (the butterfly), you need to first really understand where and what B is. B is your vision. It can be everything you truly desire. Maybe you choose to be healthy. So the first thing you want to do is to visualise how that vision of yourself being healthy looks like. Among all living beings, only humans have the capacity to visualise a future that is completely different to the present moment. You can right now image yourself being the president of the United States, sitting in the oval office signing a treaty. Vision is simply about the future you want to create. What do you want to create is the essential question. Setting a powerful vision is no easy task. One reason is that our rational mind likes to sabotage our dreams for the sake of safety. „Be realistic“ might have been the answer of your father when you told him you want to be an astronaut. Or as Napoleon Bonapart said to Robert Fulton, the later inventor of the stream engine:
What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.
Imagination is no task that comes easy to our rational mind. But the bottom line is: you don’t know what’s possible. As the innovator Robert Fritz wrote, if you haven’t tried (e.g. to be an astronaut), how can you or anyone else know if you can or cannot have what you want? And first, you must answer the What, before you should get to the How. Once you figured clearly out what your B is, it is time to understand you A. Because if you simply have a B (like a destination in Google Maps), there is no way you can get there without knowing where you currently are.
Current Reality
The rational mind has enabled homo sapiens to do great things, especially in the past 200 years. Even though it can be an obstacle when forming a vision, it is very useful when it comes to assessing current reality. The reality of how things are. Imagine you want to get into a very renowned university to be educated. You apply, do an examination — and fail. Now you could quit and tell yourself you are not good enough. Or you can assess the reality of why you failed, adjust your actions and get into that university. Assessing reality as it really is can be painful (“I am lazy”). But it is necessary to know where you stand in order to get to the point where you want to be. One thing to embrace here is the welcoming of pain. Because when we try to assess reality and at the same time want to prevent the pain, we are set up to fail because we rather tell ourselves the story we want to hear („the test was unfair“) instead of the story that is true („I played too much video-games“). Assessing your A is a hard and painful path. But it is the path of growth. Or as Dr. Scott Peck put it:
When we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that problems demand from us.
Mind the Gap
Obviously, there is a gap between your A and B. That’s the Bridge of Change. And this bridge is usually terrifying due to the possibility of failure and the underlying feeling of shame and fear. For me, there is no better quote, about why we should dare greatly and walk that bridge despite all the naysayers in the world, than the one from Theodore Roosevelt:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
The only constant in life is change. And change is the most enriching growth path we can take.
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Gregor Braun is a Sustainability Consultant and Scientist in Switzerland. He works closely with firms to develop actionable sustainability strategies and change programs. Gregor writes about change, innovation & sustainability regularly on Medium and his website gregorbraun.org.
