In leadership research, the notion of personal transformation is front and center. Leaders are presumed to play a prominent role in the transformation of those they lead. And the same could be said for the prominence of transformation in all kinds of organizational change: training and development, onboarding, mergers, and innovation. Transformation is even more vital for the very human-centered changes in organizations like becoming more cultural competent or inclusive. But ironically, there is much more out there on the importance of transformation, and much less on how exactly it happens. Of course there are many exceptions to this like the research on the infamous “10-thousand-hour rule” which predicts the average amount of time needed to become excellent in anything—transforming from novice to expert. But even in this famous example, we’re told that transformation happens–and how long it might take–but not much in the way of how it happens along the way.
I think the reason is that the process is less glamorous than the end result—transformation happens slowly, stubbornly, and often secretly in ways we don’t always see. We present leaders as heroic figures in the best light possible, but we miss all of the important twists, turns and set backs along they way. I’ve been thinking lately about how important the concept of transformation is to the work that we do as organizational leaders and practitioners. This is especially so in light of our gaps in knowledge and practice around the process of transformation—how we move from one state into another whether that be transforming into a leader, becoming more culturally competent, or adopting a new organizational culture.
I’ve been reading this week the work of the famous anthropologist Victor Turner—who specialized in studying how people in various cultures transform from one state into another—like from child to adulthood, religious conversions, or follower to leader. He has an interesting concept called the “liminal” state that is central to this process of deep transformation. The liminal state is the “in-between” or “neutral” space between two polar ends of any spectrum (i.e. between leader and follower) in which a person “plays” with a new identity before completely taking it on. He describes how children’s games act as a playground sometimes into adulthood where they practice following rules, recognizing boundaries and asserting authority. The “in-between”, low stakes, experience of a board game for example allows children to playfully experience with elements of adulthood way before they enter the world of insurance policies, traffic laws, and demanding bosses.
Reading Turner has made me think about the importance of playfulness in organizations and how the rigidness of organizational policies and the fast paced world of business can sometimes squelch opportunities for deeper transformation. This happens when organizations offer trainings in a “one-and-done” fashion where people are not given enough time to absorb, reflect and make mistakes. Or when someone is thrown into a position without the proper support or tools to be successful—they’re rewarded with the title without recognizing the process. This overemphasis of the reward with recognition of the rubble is not anyone’s fault in particular. It is largely a part of a results-oriented culture and the demands of modern business. In slower, preindustrial work where employees learned their craft by living with their “masters” (i.e. blacksmiths or carpenters) over many years there was much more emphasis on the deep transformations that happen at work. The challenge today is to find new ways to encourage more attention to the reality of the slower process of transformation, before quickly jumping to the end result or assuming change that hasn’t really happened. So whether its leadership, cultural competency, or training in a new role, we should create processes that allow for all of the “in-between”, playful, and mistake-filled experiences that come with any personal transformation. The cost for ignoring the process is either killing transformation before it gets started or we’re fooling ourselves that change happened when it didn’t. Not to mention we miss celebrating the small growing pains and pleasures of the transformation process.
