Getting Ready to Transform
Getting ready for a transformation is an oxymoron, yet most people and organizations approach it this way. The common belief is that a transformation will happen when someone or something is ready to be transformed. There is no ready state for a transformation, only a willingness to transform.
Buying a pair of running sneakers doesn’t make you a runner. Buying cloud server space doesn’t mean you are operating in the cloud. Most purchases, personal or professional, are aspirational. We want to be something we aren’t, so we send ourselves signals that we’re getting ready for change. Most running sneakers that are purchased make more trips to Target than run miles, and most cloud servers never host or run anything of consequence. Actual transformations progress from being aspirational to being necessities. Only when the threshold of necessity is crossed can a transformation take place.
For a personal or company transformation to take place, a willing participant is needed, not a ready one. There is almost no way to be prepared for a transformation. You can’t read a book, take a class, or manifest a transformation. What you can do is acknowledge and accept that the current state isn’t acceptable and be willing to endure the discomfort, pain, and challenge of changing it.
There are no methodologies or blueprints for transformation. Can we learn from, be inspired by, and leverage examples of others’ transformations to help fuel us? Yes, but every transformation is individual to a person, organization, or community. We seek out approaches to copy because they promise ease, time savings, and shortcuts. We live in an age of hacks. I can say unequivocally that no person or company can transform through a couple of hacks or even a series.
We can’t wait for transformations to happen, but transformations await us. Want to be fitter and healthier for an improved quality of life? That transformation is waiting for you. Want your organization to be more efficient, productive, and impactful? That transformation is waiting. Every transformation of consequence is waiting for us to be willing to leave behind the old and to start anew with what the transformation requires.
As a transformation evolves, many different things can be required to change. Some changes will be physical, systems-related, mental, and so on. The changes and requirements of a transformation sometimes happen in different sequences because all transformations are unique. Transformations meet a person or company where they are, then make asks based on the current state and respond accordingly. A personal trainer starts and progresses differently with every person. They assess where the person is and then act and plan accordingly. Transformations for companies such as digital transformations are similar in that they are based on a set of principles for being a digitally capable company, but how to get there differs for every company. Along with being there waiting for the willingness to transform, transformations leave the how and execution up to the free will of a person, company, or community.
Being ready gets used as a crutch because it makes us believe that if we have the right pair of sneakers, we can start to run or be the right boss to fulfill our professional potential. Transformations don’t require any level of readiness beyond the willingness to change. The details and infrastructure of the change will happen as long as the person, organization, or community maintains the willingness and desire for a different existence during the transformation. Just as transformations are waiting for us to enact them, they also will go away without the continued willingness and effort to endure the process.
Transformations are about will. The will of a person, company, or community to initiate massive change because of the pain of the existing condition and the will to continue through the transformation when it gets arduous and daunting. There is no ready, only the will to start and continue. The continuing part is crucial as transformations are only long-lasting if we make it so. Most transformations are temporary. Transformations can be fleeting, and as people, companies, and communities, it is easy to regress. Transformations not only require the will to start but also to continue. Until a transformation becomes a core part of a person, company, or community’s identity, the transformation is at risk of ending. Initiating a transformation is hard; seeing a transformation through until it no longer has to be thought about and given attention because it is now part of who we are is harder.
Choosing to transform yourself, your organization, or your community is selfless and self-serving. Selfless in that others will benefit from the transformation to a better version and existence. We all have ripple effects far beyond what we can know. Transformations are self-serving because they bring out the untapped potential buried by the unwillingness to acknowledge and act on it. Transformations first serve the transformed, and then others are not only okay but great. The power of someone or something transforming is one of the greatest known forces.
Should you make a plan and have a checklist of things to do to prepare for a transformation? There is no harm in it, so go ahead. Just know that a transformation will see whether you have chosen to go through the rigors of transformation or are just going through the motions of getting ready to transform at some later point. The transformation you seek is waiting for you not to be prepared but to have the intention and will to embrace it.
