PART 4: Change Management is part 4 of 'Conscious Leadership and Organization Effectiveness'. This is a free Sample Chapter from the book 'Conscious Leadership: the key to unlock success.

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Change management is often misidentified and misapplied as an issue of trauma, threat, stress and difficulty. Most people’s apprehension and uneasiness to change is usually based on an implanted fear of the unknown and unfamiliar. This is an indication of how deeply attached these people are to existing form and structure, the comfort zone and the familiar way of being and doing.

The conscious leader, however, perceives change as expansive, fun and a natural extension of vision and strategy. They recognize and trust change and are willing to envision that there are no limits to what they could create. Conscious leaders seek out and welcome change because they know that change is innate, inevitable and necessary for something else to be created. They build a culture of consciousness that embraces change and facilitates conscious change management.

Conscious change management is about empowering staff and stakeholders to embrace infinite possibilities and to function in a state of creative expansion that lets them go over their limits everyday, much more than they could ever imagine. Conscious change management advocates the view that the universe is one big matrix composed of infinite possibilities, and each individual leader, staff, stakeholder and business organization has a place in it.

Conscious change management empowers people to perceive, know, be, receive and spontaneously discern phenomena from many different tangible and indefinable levels. It has been observed that when change management practices are not attuned to infinite possibilities, they are often implemented from a limited point of view and try to define everything according to a linear point of view. This is a solid physical mode, created in order to conform to long-established human perspectives. It is essential to recognize that most of the disturbances, suffering, distress and great effort which occur in unconscious and anti-conscious change management processes originate from their restricted ability to operate beyond parameters of finite and limited human perspectives. These traditional change management practices often antagonize staff or systems into changing and innovating, just as they might use fear as a motivator and point to its success.

On the contrary, with a conscious change management perspective, these traditional methods are perceived as wholly inefficient and energy-draining strategies. With this point of view, structure, management and processes must be tailored accordingly in order to achieve the required alertness, responsiveness, velocity, creativity and resourcefulness to act profitably upon the new change prospect.

Conscious leaders claim and own their ability to perceive unlimited potential and inspire others with their vision of the new possibilities that are the byproduct of the change management course of action.

When conscious leaders are attuned to infinite possibilities, they choose expansion, they become unlimited. They have a knowing that is not limited and not restricted in any way by time, space or physicality. They attune to that which has not yet manifested and let the infinite possibilities work for them. They empower staff and stakeholders to claim, own and acknowledge the ability to perceive everything in the universe and destroy everything that makes them think they have to solidify anything into perception. They encourage people to progress forward and to destroy the judgment of ‘change’ as some kind of punishment.

Conscious leaders choose to facilitate change in the organisation by living in the question, rather than trying to function from their finite point of view of “I’ve got to figure it out”. They allow the universe to give them an answer, which is always greater than they could determine.

The best questions leaders can ask are “What would it take for me to ask the right questions for this change to happen with ease? What is it going to take for staff and stakeholders to perceive, know, be and receive change as a new opportunity for growth and improvement? What would it take for staff to see that there can be no improvement without change and no change without improvement?

Conscious change management practices focus more on ‘transformation’ than just ‘change’. There is a fundamental and critical difference between change and transformation. For example, if we freeze water, it will solidify and change to ice. However, if ice is placed in its usual environment, it will reverse back to water. Many traditional change initiatives have been like this water and ice example. Transformation, on the other hand, is the process of destroying and uncreating the old ways, even if they are perceived to be effective, so that new possibilities can show up. Transformation is when change creates an enduring and expansive difference.

If staff reaction to change is perceived as an issue, the conscious leader can assist staff to experience change as expansive by discussing the elements of change with staff very early in the process, rather than as an add-on or afterthought. Staff will tend to create their own erroneous reality when faced with rumors, non-sharing of information, or timorous and apprehensive behaviour from leaders. The conscious leader can provide some simple questions that may assist staff to break out of the unconscious or anti-conscious behaviors. These questions include:

• What judgments, projections and expectations do you have about the change that is causing you to be so fearful of the change?
• What is it that you are not getting about this?
• What is the value of holding on to this old form and structure?
• What have you misidentified and misapplied about this change?
• What are you unwilling to receive here?
• What are you making significant here?
• What awareness are you having here that you are not acknowledging?
• What is it going to take for you to let go of seeing the change as some kind of punishment?

By asking these questions, leaders will be able to perceive the transient illusive nature of thoughts, and break free of the energy that will otherwise limit the potential expansiveness of the change. The questions will provide a means for leaders to not focus on judgmental, destructive and limited thoughts. This process will allow higher order awareness, insight, and intuition to manifest spontaneously in themselves and staff.

Conscious organisations build a culture of consciousness that embraces change and facilitates conscious transformation initiatives with openness to new ideas and a sincere desire for positive and expansive transformation. The form, structure and significance of the traditional change practices and the enforced implementation that is found in so many organisations is superseded by empowering people to move beyond rigid mind-sets and learning to become more adaptable and flexible.

The conscious transformation initiative qualities are:

1. Foster good open and clear communication lines that make the staff feel valued

2. Willingness to receive all points of view by welcoming and hearing all perspectives.

3. Cultivate the environment that allows staff to recognize and trust change by developing the practice of making change as part of the everyday business functions.

4. Support staff to envision that there is no limit to what they could create by facilitating change constantly and encourage staff to discover more expansive and innovative ways of doing things.

5. Engage the power of caring to eliminate fear of change and instead embrace it with a sense of excitement and adventure


'Conscious Leadership and Organization Effectiveness' continue....

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Part 1: Organization Effectiveness
Part 2: Vision and Strategy
Part 3: Accountability
Part 4: Change Management
Part 5: Risk

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