On the nature of change – and nature
I cross the River Mimram on my walk to and from the train station. The other morning, I paused to take a photo. On my return that evening, I decided to take another shot of the scene.
The two pictures, of course, look largely the same. But, of course, just over 10 hours have passed. The river is patently not the same as it was in the morning, as Heraclitus observed so well. Much has come and gone across this span of time.
It illustrates how intrinsic change is to worldly existence – and how it is intimately tied to our human experience of time. It is slow and organic and none the less profound for that. It helps to reinforce that – if we are aiming for change – it is worth getting into the flow of change around us, in the way in which a carpenter, in seeking to create something from wood, aims to work with the grain rather than against it.
If our starting point in respect to organisational change is to assume a plannable and sizeable imposition of an anticipated transformation, we may find that we unravel the warp and weft of the space in which we seek to work, rather than engage sympathetically with it, accepting the shape and style of the fabric and acknowledging that this sort of thing takes time.
To an extent, this is an echo of my reading of the work of Robert Chia, who explores organisational change from a deeply philosophical position. In his view, change is something in nature, whereas organisation is an artificial phenomenon. For Chia, supporting change is about working to release the ties of organisation rather than hubristically planning a programme of change (as if such a thing could exist in real practice).
Finally, the river reminded me of the observation that my colleague Ben Fuchs makes in this regard. He envisions the point at which a stream is joined by a smaller rivulet. As they come together, they produce an eddy of gentle disturbance of the flow. While ultimately that change is absorbed by the mainstream, it remains the case that the main river is changed deeply by this assimilation.
For me, this is significant change – but it is a change that is locally generated, delivered at a natural pace, and creates meaningful effect without huge disruption.
Cole*Fellows 