TransFORMation Journey - #6

In this concluding part of the “Transformation Journey Series”, I will start by summarizing the earlier treatise. Series 1: “Everything start from form and form is everything. From genetic transformation to business transformation or digital transformation to mention but few, ‘form’ is at the core”. Series 2: “We function in teams whether formally or informally. Of deformity or deformation, realizing that each member in a team has unique attributes and something to offer helps the leader foster cohesion, harmony, and dedicated focus where engagement ratio tends towards 1:1”. Series 3: “Without information about the initial form and other possibilities, there can never be transformation. Undeniably, quality information is crucial for decision making in a change management process”. Series 4: “Reformations and Transformations are not the same thing. Reformations are concerned with changing the means systems employ to pursue their objectives. Transformations involve changes in the objectives they pursue”. Series 5: Transformation is about personalities. People makes things happen!

People are the most crucial element of any transformation journey. As the adage goes, “People can be divided into three groups – those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened”. There is contention around who coined the adage, but it holds true any time any day. People moves from one group to another depending on interest, context, or aspiration. As Prof. Tony O’Driscoll’s research with Brightline emphasizes, successful organization transformation requires an empathic, ‘people-centered’ approach to change that nurtures a culture of aspiration, alignment, autonomy, and accountability. Of all people, you are the most important as change agent. Your ability to transform your environment and influence those around you positively depends on your level of personal transformation. 

Being a change agent starts with personal change or transformation. A changed personality is one who has been transformed by the renewal of his or her mind. According to Doe Zantamata, “Change isn’t just one thing, just one time, just one big revelation. Change occurs in stages, and phases, which each add depth, color, character, and create a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted you”. Allan Rufus in “The Master’s Sacred Knowledge” writes about a wise old master’s advise to an insecure young man on personal transformation. “It is like a caterpillar that lives on the ground and foliage of plants, it just exists there eating and eating, then one day it starts to spin silk around itself in a cocoon where it starts to go through the metamorphosis of transformation, and when it has fully developed, it finds its way out of that space and its life becomes different. It has different imprint, different function, and different purpose. Instead of just eating leaves as caterpillar that seems like destruction, it now pollinates the plants to help bring about new life, and food for other living creatures, including us, man! So, the humble butterfly has a worthy cause, and a worthy life, not only looking brittle and beautiful, but fulfilling a Divine purpose for continuation of life on the Divine Planet called Earth”.   

In digitally yours, I have made strong case for digital readiness, personal development and self leadership. The world evolves in transitions constantly transforming from one era to another. The birth of human race began with co-existence with nature - a primitive era typical of hunting society.  The next era birthed an agrarian society where irrigation techniques sprouted up and human settlements evolved. Invention of steam engines and locomotives led to the industrial society and beginning of industrialization and mass production. We are now at the matured phase of information society birthed by advents in semi-conductor technology and computer systems. Futuristic transformation will move the world away from the ‘barrel of oil’ to the new order of super-humans enamored with 'barrel of data'. Will intending Super-smart society be a re-enactment of biblical ‘tower of babel’ or positive aspiration seamlessly achieved?