In a world filled with change, it is often not the practical changes we find difficult but rather the psychological and emotional processes of letting go of the way the world used to be and the shifting to a new reality.
These psychological and emotional shifts are called transitions. They come in three stages.
The first of these stages is to let go of the familiarity and apparent security of the way the world used to be.
The second is to step confidently into the unknown future: the way the world is going to become.
This second stage is the Threshold phase: the chrysalis between the caterpillar you used to be and the butterfly you are going to become. Here the old world has definitely gone but the new world has not yet arrived. Everything is undefined.
People in this stage (including you) are likely to be feeling uncertain, disoriented, lonely, vulnerable, and even afraid. So your role here is to provide the structure that seems to be missing — first for yourself and then for others.
In a churning changing world, this structure can’t be rigidly imposed: people have to make sense of it for themselves. But there are two ways in which you can help them (and yourself) accelerate the process:
- First, top down, you can put the culture of your future vision in place.
Management guru Peter Drucker showed us that, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The Threshold phase brings you the opportunity to build that culture.
You achieve this by defining the values that will make your vision succeed, together with why they matter, and the attitudes and behaviours that will bring them to life.
This creates a guiding framework that enables you and the people around you to know how to respond to anything that happens.
. - Second, bottom up, you can encourage people to develop their own inner leadership skills. Then they can begin to lead themselves through the uncertainty of the Threshold phase.
Teach them to centre and ground themselves, make clearer sense of the situations they face, and find more opportunities in a situation. If they also know their purpose and values and how to choose the way forward that best aligns with that inner compass then so much the better.
The more people are able to build this inner leadership, the calmer, clearer, and more confident they will become — and the better they will be able to choose how they respond to any situation without needing guidance from you.
By putting these two frameworks in place you enable people to cope better with the uncertainty of the Threshold, chrysalis, phase and start to design their butterfly.
And as their focus shifts from the apparent ‘problems‘ they face to the activities and behaviours they are implementing, to the meaning these tasks hold and the values they are bringing to life, so they will begin to thrive because of the changes that are happening.
When did you last experience a major shift in your role or identity? Would it have been useful to know how to:
- Stay calm in a crisis, make clearer sense of the situation, and find more opportunities to move forward?
- Know clearly what matters most to you?
- Have a clear set of values, attitudes, and behaviours that enable you to respond to anything that happens?
Would it be useful to start learning these things now?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and a set of tools for building inspiration in a time of change.
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