The invisible seed of transformation

How can the world become a better place for our children?

This is probably the most enduring, daunting, and personal transformation question of our times. It invites us to a frontier that challenges us to look at ourselves with an unforgiving honesty and summon our greatest abilities to the fore. Abilities embodied in the essence of who we are—a species with an active imagination.

We are fundamentally driven in two channels to express what makes us uniquely human. The first, is to name and solve problems that can improve the quality of life—our own, and when we are a bit more generous, of those we share the planet with. Every organization is ultimately a promise devoted to solving the most pressing problems of their stakeholders in economically viable ways. The larger and more immediate the problem, greater the prize or reward for solving it.

The second channel seeks to make the world more beautiful, regardless of all its imperfections and especially, our own. This is the path of the myriad forms of art, sport, music and literature. The experience of being with an enchanting piece of music while we are with a loved one, or admiring the artistry of an accomplished athlete, is a priceless privilege in our overwhelmed lives. Yet, this channel has historically been the overlooked sibling. The leaking tap always gets fixed first.

The useful can be beautiful too

The people who have really made a dent in the planet are those who crafted a bridge across these channels. To create an aesthetic, beautiful solution that can solve problems in ways that were never imagined is the work of the alchemists among us. Apple (specifically the Steve Jobs era) is an organization that built its identity around this bridge. Everything we have seen since the iPod and the iPhone are only incremental improvements of these capstone products.

When we examine the roots of these great products (and any other epochal invention or discovery), we are ultimately reintroduced to the human imagination. ‘A thousand songs in your pocket’ – a catchphrase like that could only come from a vivid imagination; from someone who was not afraid to sound outrageous, when all you could carry in your pocket were a few dozen. I remember my first experience with the clickwheel iPod. A friend had purchased it and I spent close to an hour with it, flabbergasted. Oh, and the cover flow…something else! I could just not believe how someone could weave such artistic ingenuity with a prophetic clarity of what we always wanted, but didn’t know. Almost like a Newton and Raja Ravi Varma coming together! In that moment, a market was transformed.

It is no coincidence that Apple stores are called Imagine and their tagline says, ‘Think different’. Whether they continue to live up to that promise today is another debate, but what Jobs demonstrated for us was the power of being fearless with our imagination.

The call to transform

Faced with a world that has immutably transformed, organizations hear a familiar question when they look in the mirror today.

‘What will you transform into?’

If we google transformation, we are inundated with the images of the butterfly, reflecting the limited range of what we even consider as examples of transformation. I remember the shock and dismay I felt as a kid, when I learnt that the butterflies we chased, came from these hideous looking caterpillars. To think how the template of a stunning butterfly formed when it sat in that pupa—the shape and colours of its wings, the patterns…almost as if the butterfly was designed first and then parts of it snipped off until the worm remained, so it could be incubated long enough for the transformation to happen.

But then, that’s nature. Our transformation starts where we explore what it would take for us to envision the equivalent of a butterfly, from whatever it is we are working with.

Expressing our imagination

Why is it so rare to witness the brilliance of human imagination, particularly in organizations where people are paid to do it?

Probably because most of the energy is focused on the fruits of imagination – creativity, innovation, transformation etc. Somehow, the tree of imagination is considered to belong in the fluffy world of art and music and not the one where we speak tech and numbers. We simply don’t talk enough about expressing or cultivating a healthy imagination.

Besides that, there is a deadly chasm to cross—our fear of being humiliated.

We are quick to surmise how failure gives us the best lessons, as long as it’s about someone else! Recall that moment in that meeting where you are invited to stand up and present your great idea, only to be meticulously and mercilessly dissected by everyone. When you have an idea, there is always someone else who wants to be the smartest person in the room. Then, the constructive feedback of, “It’s a good idea but maybe ahead of time. You may want to think it through.”

We’ve all had that medicine and know it doesn’t feel great.

Once ‘vaccinated’, we can spend an entire career avoiding this feeling. Consumed by the need to look good, we perfect the art of playing it safe. We fly under the radar and do just what is expected and stay away from that chasm. For good reason of course, as it us saves a lot of trouble.

But the truth is that there is no way out, especially if we fancy the transformation word. We just have to face the humiliation. The embarrassment of watching our idea or a dream being torn apart is inevitable.

Ironically, it may even be necessary. Why? As the great Rumi said,

The wound is the place where the light enters.

This is failure we talk about philosophically, except that this time, we are the story. This is the scene where we are shredded. It is the essential recalibration needed, so our next attempt and the one after that, gets refined to the point where it meets a moment of magic, that takes it across the chasm.

In his iconic speech at Stanford university, Steve Jobs scoffs at the fear of failure with a nonchalance, saying, “You are already naked. There is no reason to not follow your heart.”

Unless we step into our vulnerability and become a story ourselves, we must be content with making bigger, better versions of what we already have. Nothing wrong with that—except that we should not delude ourselves into labeling it as transformation.

A bigger caterpillar with wings is not a butterfly.

Rekindling the imagination

In enabling transformation, the call for organizations is to create spaces that empower people to shed their protective armour and step into the ridiculous.

Offering experiences that thoughtfully stimulate a stifled imagination nurtures the environment needed for the next butterfly. In fact, this goes far beyond creating pretty butterflies and is now a survival imperative. Leaders simply need to engage the collective intelligence of their organization. Period. The notion of a genius with a thousand helpers is dead.

Poetry can catalyze the creation of such spaces where collective imagination is rekindled (read more here). It shifts our awareness by bypassing our logical, critical thinking brain and entering a neural pathway where the imagination becomes real. Once we reach that place, it is impossible to return without being transformed in some way ourselves.

How can an organization be an invitation for its people to travel to this place?

Equally, the call for us is to walk through that threshold of trepidation, and set sail with our imagination, regardless of who’s paying for the ticket. It is a journey which will enrich us even if we don’t return with exotic rewards to show. It is the path to explore our own calling and the sweet discomfort of its intoxication.

Perhaps making the world better for our children can start when we learn to see like children. If we take a pinch of wonder and allow our imagination to reshape our lens, we might just find that all the humiliation we had to endure along the way was worth it.

So, in the spirit of being ridiculous, I’m happy to share that I’m offering a one-hour session of Poetry, Stories and Mindfulness called ‘The dance of the butterfly’ for organizations. If you are feeling a little adventurous today, please click on this link and we can take this conversation ahead.