In a world filled with change, it is often not the practical changes we find difficult but rather the emotional and psychological letting go of the way the world used to be and the shifting to a new reality.
These psychological processes are called transitions and they come in three stages.
The first is to let go or Separate from the way the world used to be. The second is to step into the uncertainty of the Threshold phase: to become the chrysalis that will one day become a butterfly. And the third and final stage is called Consolidation.
Consolidation is where we assemble the different parts of our vision to form a coherent whole.
For example, today we all know now how Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber work. But once upon a time all three were radical new business models. “Buying books online? They’ll steal your money!” “Staying in a stranger’s house or ordering a taxi from the Internet? It won’t be safe!”
To make all these businesses succeed, the founders first had to inspire people to Separate from the ways they currently bought books, hotel rooms, and taxis. Then they needed to convince people to stick with the company through the uncertainty of the Threshold growth stage. And finally they needed to Consolidate and align the different elements of their emerging enterprises to create the coherent, evolving brands we know today.
Amazon and Airbnb both managed this process well: both are now trusted brands. But Uber struggled so much with Consolidation that the founder, Travis Kalanick, was forced to resign from his own company.
Consolidation matters.
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And Then…
Once you have completed the Consolidation stage you will have turned something that was once just a vision, an idea in your mind, into something real and tangible in the world. Then, just like Amazon and Airbnb, you will need to decide what to do next.
Now you will begin the cycle of Inner Leadership again: you will centre and ground and connect with what is most important for you, make clear sense of the situation, find the new opportunities that exist, choose the way forward that inspires you most, and articulate that as an inspiring vision — to yourself and to others.
Then you will manage the transitions that arise as you work to make your new vision a reality and consolidate its different parts into a new coherent whole. And because this is the second time you have done this, you will do it faster and better than before.
Repeating this cycle has led Amazon from selling books to selling almost anything, to delivering web services, entertainment, and even putting rockets into space — because that is what most inspires its founder, Jeff Bezos.
Where would you like your version of this process to take you? What aspects of your life are you currently Consolidating? Where do you feel most inspired to go next?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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Photo By Shaun Dunmall via StockPholio.net