In the Tinga Tinga tale called ‘Why Leopard has Spots‘, the puff adder snake sheds its skin to reveal a shiny new ‘coat’. This would be a lovely skill to have.
As Jamie Smith‘s twitter handle reads ‘The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.’ This is true personally and of the organisations we work in, in every part of society. Letting go of what we know, what is familiar is difficult. Even if what we know is uncomfortable, it is still familiar – ‘The devil I know is better than the devil I don’t know.’
And yet, all of life is about learning and unlearning. Or as Sue would say, ‘becoming is life-long‘. (Her daily writing this week has been all about being seen and becoming and all of it is worth reading and spending time with.) And one aspect of becoming is about ‘leaving behind what is no longer fit for purpose. Or like skin we are now ready to shed.’
And this too can be personal or organisational. Digital transformation and organisational change require us, collectively, to become something different. To leave behind processes, behaviours, culture that is no longer fit for purpose.
And often we need to do this, to leave a behaviour behind, before we can step into the new. The ‘old coat’ needs to be shed before the new one can be revealed. To escape old ideas, beliefs, behaviours and leave them behind. And that space between, that fleeting moment between old and new, can be terrifying, but we need to go through it to become new.
The choice is up to us.
Photo by David Clode
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