Be A Transitional Character
I know a lot of people who read this weekly newsletter, or follow the work we do at Neu21, are what we call the “change agents” in organisations.The people that don’t have to be convinced that there is a better way to lead, run teams and organisations, and who constantly question the traditional and conservative ways of operating in business.
The question that I often get from these people is, “What can I do when I don’t hold the power to change my entire organisation?”
This is especially true of middle managers who are trying to change the way the system of work works, yet they find themselves frustrated, stuck in the middle of what they think they should do and the way their business operates.
They want to change but they feel powerless to do so. You may even be feeling like this right now.
My advice? Be a transitional character.
A transitional character is a term coined by Carlfred Broderick, a respected late family therapist, who didn’t create the term in a business sense but a personal one. Broderick defines a transitional character as “a person, who in a single generation, changes the entire course of a lineage.
A person who somehow finds a way to metabolise the poison and refuse to pass it on to their children.” I love this concept.
Broderick is not talking about the role of a transitional character to change humanity; or if we take the analogy to a business sense, to change an entire organisation. He talks about these characters as people who break the mould. Their contribution to humanity is to filter the destructiveness of their own lineage so that the generations downstream will have a supportive foundation upon which to build productive lives. A friend of mine calls this “changing the trajectory” of a family.
The way I think about this concept in a business and organisational sense is around being deliberate in what you want to pass on and what you don’t. Most people reading this article will have some sort of sphere of influence. You may not be a CEO or a business owner with the power and control to change everything; but you may be a team leader or a middle manager or a People and Culture leader, who has some influence to change the things that you have not enjoyed from your previous managers or organisations where you have worked; and now you can, to a certain extent, make that experience better for the people reporting to you or influenced by the work you do.
So, how can you be a transitional character in a business sense? You can be a transitional character in many ways! A good way to start is to think about the things you have hated from a work point of view in the past. Was there a boss who made you feel anxious? Did you hate the way meetings were run? Did you find that you were overworked and / or undervalued? Did you get frustrated with waste or inactivity in your team or organisation?
Whatever it was, try to change it in your current context. Don’t just complain or accept it. Do something about it.
There are plenty of resources and organisations out there like Neu21 who are dedicated to making work better; learn from them, find different ways of doing things and apply them with your team or organisation. And if your organisation is not allowing you to do anything like this; move organisations or create your own one.
I personally was frustrated with the way work works for many years; and I decided to do something about it; but before creating a consultancy dedicated to help other people and businesses do this, I was able to do it with my own teams in the organisations I worked for.
Do I think I am going to change the way work works worldwide? Probably not.
But I am determined to be a transitional character for the people who work with me, by building a solid and different foundation upon which they can build productive and happy professional lives.
Do the same for you and others.