Most organizations (and of course individuals) today seek a Transformation in their business, yet most of them think of and talk about managing Change. The implications of this conflict will not be fully appreciated, until we learn to distinguish between Change and Transformation.
Change is characterized by ‘reactivity’. Most of us live in the domain of Change both as individuals and as organizations. Contrast this with the characteristics of Transformation. When a young, Cambridge-educated lawyer was pushed out of a train in South Africa because of his color even though he had a proper ticket, his first thoughts were in the domain of Change. “How could they? How dare they? And so on”. Yet he transcended the negativity of the moment because he was called forth by loftier aspirations to redress similar wrongs suffered by others.
Mahatma Gandhi in “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” narrates the shift from Change to Transformation so movingly. “I began to think of my duty. The hardship to which I was subjected was only a symptom of the deep disease of color prejudice. I should try to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process”. Thus, we see that he first moved through the familiar signposts that signify Change. Suddenly when he discovered a higher sense of purpose, he began to discover the powerful ingredients of Transformation.
The characteristics of Transformation are positive and actually creative. They stem from a new found sense of purposefulness, once a higher purpose is discovered.
Clearly we all aspire to live in the domain of Transformation even if we presently are in the domain of Change. We now examine what is central to Transformation. Upon deeper probing, we discover that this sense of purposefulness has its source in what is called a Vision. Bernard Shaw once said, “You see things and you say “why?”, but I dream of things that never were and say “why not?”.
Thus, Vision becomes the highest sense of purpose. The infinite power inherent in Vision helps transcend from the domain of Change to Transformation.
Change is characterized by ‘reactivity’. Most of us live in the domain of Change both as individuals and as organizations. Contrast this with the characteristics of Transformation. When a young, Cambridge-educated lawyer was pushed out of a train in South Africa because of his color even though he had a proper ticket, his first thoughts were in the domain of Change. “How could they? How dare they? And so on”. Yet he transcended the negativity of the moment because he was called forth by loftier aspirations to redress similar wrongs suffered by others.
Mahatma Gandhi in “The Story of my Experiments with Truth” narrates the shift from Change to Transformation so movingly. “I began to think of my duty. The hardship to which I was subjected was only a symptom of the deep disease of color prejudice. I should try to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process”. Thus, we see that he first moved through the familiar signposts that signify Change. Suddenly when he discovered a higher sense of purpose, he began to discover the powerful ingredients of Transformation.
The characteristics of Transformation are positive and actually creative. They stem from a new found sense of purposefulness, once a higher purpose is discovered.
Clearly we all aspire to live in the domain of Transformation even if we presently are in the domain of Change. We now examine what is central to Transformation. Upon deeper probing, we discover that this sense of purposefulness has its source in what is called a Vision. Bernard Shaw once said, “You see things and you say “why?”, but I dream of things that never were and say “why not?”.
Thus, Vision becomes the highest sense of purpose. The infinite power inherent in Vision helps transcend from the domain of Change to Transformation.
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