Thoughts on Change

Some poems and quips about issues, possibilities, perceptions and choices.

by Scott Simmerman, Ph.D. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company

Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly

PART TWOof three

This is part two of the series and it contains another set of our poems and quips about the theme of caterpillars and butterflies. There is no real underlying purpose other than to share some of the images and thoughts with people.

The metaphor of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly is a fun one and if you would like to share these, just let us know. It is something we encourage.

We use this basic metaphor of a wooden wagon rolling on Square Wheels as a teaching metaphor for how things really work and for helping to encourage innovation and improvement. It allows for a great deal of discussion and initial involvement in the reality that things can be improved.

Take a moment and consider the above, if you have not thought about it before.

How might this represent how organizations really work?

A Model for ChangeFor many years, I have used a simple model to help managers understand the key issues of change and to support organizational improvement. These are expanded in my Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly article but are shared here, briefly.

• Making people less comfortable with the current situation helps motivate some change or changes. We do that by starting discussions of Square Wheels and round wheels…

• Helping to create or expand on the vision of the future is an important part of people buying into the change process. Oftentimes, they do now know where they are going or why they are going there, organizationally and personally.

• Supporting continuous improvement with the feeling of success is very helpful, which is why teams often work so well. Creating an individual or group feeling that they are accomplishing things is very helpful.

• People will support other people if they all share a sense of ownership involvement and feel that they are in the effort together, especially when that has to do with the improvement of their workplace. They need to feel ownership involvement.

If you would like any of these images for your use, email me or see my poems blog.

If you would like any of these images for your use, email me or see my poems blog.

Two other key thoughts on the transformation of people are reflected in the themes of coaching and mentoring. We think that coaches and parents can see a potential that the caterpillars do not yet see. And the act of supporting the change is a powerful one for helping change and improvement. Here are two of my Haiku poems that support this theme.

You can find a lot of my poems and quips at poemsontheworkplace.com

Note

This is one of my more important investments in the whole concept of personal and organizational transformation. It encompasses a lot. Take a minute and consider:

In this image, we tried to capture a number of ideas and themes about personal and organizational growth and improvement. Among them are:

• The wagon rolls with Square Wheels• The wagon cargo are round tires• The caterpillars ride on the wagon• They see a butterfly but do they

understand the future?• The painter paints a butterfly but he

looks at the caterpillar• The work of the painter is unfinished• The artist’s caterpillar sees the wagon

journey and the riding caterpillars and potentially the wagon and its wheels

• The future looks attractive, which the wagon puller can see but maybe not the pushers

• The journey starts to go downhill• All of those involved have different

visions

There is simply so much potential in all that we do.

The model, full size:

Thoughts on Change

For the past 30 years, we have supported trainers and consultants with simple and effective toolkits for managing and leading change and for innovation and team building.

For the FUN of It!Scott Simmerman, Ph.D. Managing Partner of Performance Management Company

Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly

I hope that you liked our

with the Change Model and our series of poems, quips and other metaphors around the theme of:

www.PerformanceManagementCompany.com