The Tao of Change - Zen and the Art of Change Management

We are so naturally focused on the "left brain", structured, analytical aspect of change and how we manage it - it's as though it's our hard-wired default setting.

However, there is another perspective, maybe another dimension, to how we interact with change - a more "right brain" approach - and in this short piece I want to take time out for reflection - and to try to experience that wider view - the Tao of change...

Being fully aware of what is going on

I sub-headed this piece "Zen and the art of change management" with my tongue slightly in my cheek - and with passing reference to Robert Pirsig's 70's best seller "Zen and art of motor cycle maintenance". I am not proselytising Buddhism or indeed any particular religious perspective. In the sense that I am using the word, Zen simply means present moment awareness - to be fully present NOW.

To be fully present now, is to be fully conscious.So the Tao of change - the way of change - is to be fully conscious of what is happening.

Do we really manage change?

We speak about "change management" as though change is something that can be managed, engineered, controlled and navigated.

Of course, at a level and to an extent all of that is true, in the world as we see it - the world of apparent reality.

But at a deeper level, maybe it is not quite so true - maybe there is rather more going on in the Tao of change...?

Could it be that we are change?

What if we are not separate from our organisations... and what if our organisations are not separate from their immediate external commercial environments... and in turn, what if all of this is connected and interacting?

Could it be that everything is change - so metaphorically at least - it's all one great big interconnected process?

Because, if so, to talk of managing change is a nonsense because we are change.

A more intuitive approach?

Of course the difficulty with all of this is that we can't see this big interconnected process, we can't intellectually grasp it and we certainly don't feel it. And for many of us even contemplating the idea of the Tao of change or any of this causes us to feel a level of resistance.

Perhaps we could approach all of this on the basis of paying a little more attention to our intuitive perceptions of what we - and our organisations - are experiencing?

Perhaps we can open up to the idea that there is rather more going on than we initially realise and that the best way forward is to develop our ability to sense, feel or experience the wider dimensions of what is actually happening?

And perhaps we can pay more [if not equal] attention to the perspective of the Tao of change as we do to the apparent solidity and certainty of the logic of our structured management processes?

Or to put it another way, maybe we can experience the Tao of change as we develop our capacity to be in tune, to get "in the zone" or put it another way, to "go with the flow"?

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom." [Tao Te Ching]

The being is as important as the doing

Why does all this matter?

As leaders of organisations experiencing change how we are is as important as how we do it.

People centred leadership that recognises the emotional dimension of leadership - and that addresses the emotional reality of those we are responsible for leading - demands a high level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence.

In an interview [with Stephen Bernhut in "Leaders Edge", Ivey Business Journal May/June 2002] Daniel Goleman said:"First, you have to reach within yourself to find out your own truth, because you can't be resonant if you're clueless, if you're pretending, or if you're just trying to manipulate people.

You have to speak from your heart, and you have to do it in a way that speaks to other people's hearts. So it takes authenticity."

In my experience, this is key to leading your people along the Tao of change.

So where does all this leave us?

As we work out our strategies for managing change, and as we lead our people through change, we need to be aware of the wider dimensions of the Tao of change.

The financial and process aspects of business matter, but ultimately it's not just about the money or about change management "processes that work" - it is about people.

Understanding the Tao of change is all about understanding people.

And understanding people starts with understanding ourselves: "Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power." [Tao Te Ching]

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