Changing in three acts

Many teams and organizations are about to make a fateful mistake.

It's a pattern I see all the time - and could set them back years.

Healthy systems are designed to move forward, confront challenges and pursue their purpose. Yet many organizations I speak with are contemplating a U-turn.

They want to return...
- to growth
- to accountability
- to greater discipline and efficiency
- to less role ambiguity
- to a focus on execution

I get it. These are useful things. The economic headwinds, coupled with several years of promoting experimentation, agile ways of working, and self-managed teams, have left leaders nostalgic for elements of the past.

It's a classic tension that results in a pendulum effect where organizations over-extend in one direction only to snap back and over-extend in the other. We experience the downside of too much experimentation and long for the upside that more structure, discipline, and even hierarchy can bring. We forget, of course, that overdoing these attributes is why we started experimenting in the first place.  And the pattern repeats.

I often think of transformation (individual and organizational) as following the structure of a three-act play.

Act one begins in the "everyday world," where leaders notice the need for change. Maybe they feel stuck in silos, unable to innovate and create value for customers, or can't leverage the organization's diversity. In the Hero's Journey, this is the Call and Crossing the Threshold and is often when transformation programs are launched.

Act two involves the leaders attempting to resolve the issue initiated in the first act, only to find themselves in ever more challenging situations (COVID, Zoom meetings, and lockdowns provide a plot twist). Leaders struggle to resolve the challenges as they do not yet have the required skills or mindset. They must discover a renewed sense of who they are and what they are capable of. They must expand their IDENTITY.

Act three concerns integration (the RETURN in the Hero's Journey). The hard work is not over; this is often the moment of the greatest conflict, challenge, or battle. Think about Star Wars, Harry Potter, or The Lion King and Frozen 2. The last act is where leaders must marshal all they have learned throughout the journey to transform themselves and the systems around them.

Many leaders and teams I work with are just now entering act three. No movie, play, or successful transformation ended well by the protagonist making it through the second act only to return to the first - although it happens all the time.

Returning now (absent the work of integration in act three) will only result in repeating the pattern. Job security for consultants and coaches. Terrible for leaders and their organizations.

Where are you in the three-act structure?

Where is your team or organization?

How might you self-author a third act that has you return, transformed?