Where might you and your organization end up if you learn to tolerate the presence of tension—and leverage that tension to embrace the judgment and wonder that all people hold within them? Generative change is the vehicle I propose to get you there. Generative change offers a transformational process beyond fixing the existing problems or issues at the surface level. As the name suggests, generative change is a change that generates something new, something more than what we had before. It is a process that reveals new perspectives, opens new doors of opportunities, and helps us become the best version of ourselves.
The words of the 13th-century poet Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, commonly called Rumi in English, provide insight into being generative as human beings.
“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain.
From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me.
There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.”
I find inspiration in these words to double down on my faith in human beings. I have moments, days, and weeks when it feels challenging to fluidly exercise personal sovereignty and express authentically about everyone and everything. When I don’t, the consequences squeeze my heart painfully. I realize that self-trust requires that I surrender to curiosity on behalf of others as the greatest act of humility. In the moments of deep listening and receiving, I discover the magnificence they carry and offer to me in our presence with each other. That feeling of goosebumps when we hear something profoundly moving is an example of emotional electricity. Like a lightning bolt, the feeling is a jolt of insight, inspiring original ideas and motivating creative actions. Those moments are the beginning steps to embody generative wholeness. When I start with my belief system, it’s easier to realize that the tension I experience invites me to look more deeply within. As I listen to my inner authority, I can open my perceptions and meaning making about the external circumstances I experience.
During a recent interaction with a provider of public relations services, I had a lightning bolt moment. He asked me about my previous experience with other providers, and I shared that it was not good and gave him the reasons for my disappointment. He listened carefully, and when it was his turn to speak, he delivered a completely different and fresh description of how he and his team deliver services and partner with their clients. He spoke to the qualities of me that he witnessed in my sharing. He validated that what I desired was both reasonable and possible. He restored my sense of certainty, which had escaped me with others. In that moment, I realized how little I had shared with other providers, thinking they should tell me their recommendations. They are the experts, certainly not me. This gentleman jolted me out of my entitled viewpoint without judging me. Instead, he reflected me, back to me, encouraging and inviting me to be more expressive with him. The more we talked, the more he held the mirror up, and I saw that he understood and valued my work in the world and had discovered that I was a good fit for how his organization works. Having my belief busted with respect and optimism was clever and empowering!
How does this personal experience translate to leading a team or an entire organization? The data about failure rates with organizational change initiatives continues to hover at 70-75%, the same rate reported when I began my professional work in organizational change in 1994. That’s expensive, at least financially, and yet the impact on culture, leader alignment, workforce satisfaction, and talent attraction lives well beyond quarterly returns into multiple years of focused work to restore. Leaders of change initiatives who sustain attention on creating human connectedness throughout the change process live in the 25-30% of successful initiatives. It may sound simple, but thoughtful listening, focused on highlighting what’s working as a foundation to build upon, turned my skeptic into a receptive partner.
The vehicle for change as a generative leader values artful reflection. When an undesirable result occurs, generative leaders pause to rewind the process and get curious to discover three essential elements:
- What was the value, policy, or principle supporting the decision to act?
- What underlying beliefs, preferences, and biases motivated the basis for the decision?
- What data, information, and relationships were included out of habit and assumption and therefore excluded what was equally important that was part of the reason for the failed result?
All systems seek reliability and repeatability in decision-making to effectively manage risk. Unfortunately, systems must also seek agility and comfort with tension when some voices challenge the status quo. Why? Because of that cliché, that’s also true; change is constant. When leaders elevate priority to challenge ideas, processes, and decisions, awareness, clarity, and alignment gaps appear before implementing action. Creating space for challenge requires patience and discipline. A need for speed often conflicts with creating space. Yet, the pause for reflection to challenge mitigates, if not eliminates, habitual action that no longer matches the external environment. For an extra jolt of electricity, leaders often discover team members that naturally possess the agility necessary to be fit for the future that offers ever-increasing complexity and uncertainty.
As a generative coach, I frequently share questions to initiate artful reflection. Leaders must sit in the tension a little longer when leading organizational change. Here’s a question that may help you get better at inviting the excluded voices to express: What fuels your fear of silence (as you wait for others to speak) and the discomfort of allowing another’s independent thought to emerge? When fear and discomfort transform into curiosity and rapt attention with something astonishing, you are on your way to being a successful generative change leader, no matter the external circumstances.