Transformation: a personal vision of a new martial art

Andy Cahil asked me some great questions that prompted this post:

"I'm curious to learn more about your vision for transformation. Where are you most investing your energy in that space right now?"

What might qualify me to have such a vision? I am not a career management guru, have only ever led one team, do not have an MBA and am not an academic.

My strength is my weakness: an insatiable drive to understand this challenging world we live in. And as far as transformation is concerned it is starting to make sense. The way I can tell? Creativity and ideas flow, fit together naturally, reinforcing one another in a way they would not if this were all superficial guesswork and conjecture. It is hypothesis, admittedly, but acting as if it were true really helps. And if it helps me it can help you too.

Guilds and #guildcraft can be an important tool in tackling the many challenges we have in the world. A place to train midwifes helping to birth a sociocratic, regenerative networked society.

Guilds as trim-tab trusted filters

This post and commentary:

My conclusions about transformation

• Transformations are adjustments in personal and group dynamics, grounded in neuroscience and our hunter-gatherer ancestry, that arise spontaneously under the right conditions. If there is such a thing I would describe it as emergent group consciousness due to the stimulation of flow. It starts with the individual and with psychological safety, authenticity and trust
• Transformation involves dualistic concepts and forces that realign the way people think, behave and interact
• Transformation is traumatic since it means losing control and establishment of a new order (or less loaded term). It is both revolutionary and evolutionary in nature
• Frédéric Laloux covers many aspects of this in his book, Reinventing Organizations, but I would suggest that his evolutionary states (red, amber, yellow, green, teal) coexist and it is the balance of power between them that changes. Indeed I conjecture that all these states consciously coexist in a unique mix in any individual or collection of individuals but are subconsciously latent in different combinations ready to be brought to the surface. They are like musical instruments waiting to be played, secrets to be unlocked. This is the power I try to tap into (has some relationship to tunnelling and steganography)
• Transformation is both simple (emotional intelligence, trust, ego restraint really help) and highly complex, being a multi-disciplinary blend of psychology, self-development, systems thinking, game theory, organisational theory and many more

My vision for transformation

• Once these dynamics are understood, the skilled practitioner can advance through the belts
• Therefore my vision for transformation is that it emerges as a discipline that is subtle, powerful, complex but understood ...
• ... it becomes a martial art. We have a public group if you want to join a community: Transformation ninjas
• Some may be white belts, some coloured, some black, some dans. Some get to be sensei. But there are no minimum qualifications, we can all get involved
• In this way I see transformational dynamics as a powerful empowerment device for both groups and the individual, a practical as well as theoretical discipline and an important art to learn in this VUCA world

Where I invest my energy

• Regular sense-making sessions with other people to road-test ideas and theories. Teaching the art. Listening
• Using insight and experience to help others and influence the course of events
• Necessary forays into politics and occasional jestership (speaking truth to power in non-threatening way)
• Building trust, seeking win-wins, networking. Going gonzo
• Where energy is missing gift it, where it lacks discipline harness it and where it grows pleasingly nurture it

Note: these are similar to conclusions of e.g Marcus Raitner and others.

Some notes from Andy:

"I just finished Laloux's book on reinventing organizations, and I was at a conference this weekend with Todd Kashdan, who led a session on the tension between our need for group belonging and individual significance. You might find his work interesting."

"I agree 100% that the group/tribe (or the absence of it) has a massive impact on us, and I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on what makes for the most powerful and impactful group container for transformation."

Powerful and impactful group containers for transformation

The most powerful and impactful group containers for transformation I know are:

• A subset of the whole, something bounded. Increases the odds of success a thousandfold
• A two pizza team of people from different organisational silos or skillsets or walks of life working together to deliver something in an Agile fashion. A community of practice or guild
• An authentic conversation, walking boldly towards our biases
• Ourselves. Our ability to grow how we think, act and treat others
• A shared purpose

What can harm transformation

• The seven deadly sins of organisational transformation, grounded in weaknesses of the human condition
• Energy vampires and toxicity
• Textbook approaches and lack of knowledge of the martial art of transformation

I hope you enjoyed the article and let me know what you think. If I like your ideas I will incorporate them.

<Postscript>

And here is my Tabula rasa® methodology, provoked by a conversation with Susan Hasty:

• White belt starts with an open mind and a freshly scraped tablet. It ends whenever you have had enough. We move up through the belts as one extends the tablet out over the known universe
• Once the universe starts writing back you have reached yellow belt
• Red belt is renewed purpose
• Green belt is the connectedness of all things
• Blue belt is acting with compassion
• And black belt is the Way of the Warrior: death.