You Don’t Manage Change, You Cultivate It

Most change management advice is like teaching someone tennis by telling them exactly how to move each muscle in their arm at just the right time. It may be correct, but it fundamentally misses the reality of how complex people and organizational processes. Muscles don’t speak English. Just because someone tells us to do something doesn’t mean we’ll be able to do it. Where’s the motivation to practice for 10,000 hours going to come from?

It’s more complicated than that, but let’s start by embracing that reality and shifting the mindset to working with reality rather than trying to skim over it.

Think about any meaningful change you’ve experienced – in marriage, in sports, in parenting. It was probably messy. It took a lot of time. It took trial and error and was likely punctuated by vivid, formidable experiences. Did you ever get good parenting advice from someone who doesn’t have kids?

This is why our approach looks different. We help you shift your organization’s mindset to match reality. Like all growth processes in life and society, integration comes before transcendence. When you align with how complex systems actually work, everything gets easier. Not because it’s less work, but because you’re finally working with the grain of human nature rather than against it.

Here’s how that works in practice.

Real change requires a consistent framework that works at every level – from individual growth to organizational transformation. Here’s how we approach it:

Got to CAMP

Just like a sports team needs more than constant scrimmaging, organizations need a structured approach to growth. Our CAMP framework (Connection, Awareness, Mapping, Practice) provides this structure. It’s not a linear process – think of it more like layers that build on each other. You need enough connection before awareness matters, enough awareness before maps are useful, and enough understanding before practice creates lasting change.

Get Real About Where You Are

Before you can figure out where you’re going, you need to know where you are. This is where our 2×4 assessment comes in. Picture a matrix with internal factors on the left, external on the right, spanning four levels: individual, leadership team, organization, and market. By examining alignment and cohesion in each box, we get an honest picture of organizational health.

This isn’t your typical consulting exercise where we pretend everyone’s aligned just because they nodded during the PowerPoint. We’re looking at real energy flows – where do people actually spend their time and attention? What behaviors reveal their true priorities?

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Map the Energy First

Most organizations jump straight to strategy and wishful thinking. That’s like trying to design a tennis serve before understanding how muscles work. Instead, we start by mapping where energy naturally flows in your organization.

Think about that a traditional, small manufacturing company. You’ve got people at different levels with completely different realities. The guy at the bottom of the payroll hierarchy needs job security and basic respect before he can care about your innovation initiatives. The middle manager is juggling different pressures from all sides. The owner may be in his corner office speccing out his new Corvette. Understanding these energy patterns is crucial – because that’s what’s actually driving behavior, regardless of what the mission statement says.

This is where the golf program director analogy comes in: “That’s like going to play golf with guys who already like to golf, and then you think you’re like a golf program director. You don’t get points for that.” Real change leadership shows up when you’re dealing with diverse groups who see the world differently.

It’s Going to Take Longer Than You Expect and Be Messier that You Want

Change isn’t a one-time event – it’s an ongoing practice. We help establish rhythms that work at every level:

• Individual practices for personal growth

• Team routines that build cohesion

• Organizational processes that reinforce desired changes

• Tools for special situations when they arise

The key is consistency. Just like you wouldn’t expect a golf swing to improve without regular practice, organizational change requires ongoing attention and refinement.

Layer Your Progress

Remember that accordion metaphor – you need to build each layer completely before adding the next. Get sufficient connection before working on awareness. Build enough awareness before introducing new maps. Make sure each foundation is solid before building up.

This might feel slower than jumping straight to action plans. But trying to skip these steps is like trying to teach tennis by explaining muscle movements – technically correct but practically useless. When you align with how complex systems actually work, you stop fighting reality and start working with it.