Why Woodpeckers Are Connected to An Excel Sheet

The Observation

Recently, when I walked with my dog in the forest, I suddenly saw a great spotted woodpecker flying just over me to a tree, landing elegantly on the tree bole and after checking the ground, starting to hammer a hole into the wood to start eating the insects with his long tongue. He was not even aware of consuming beetles that are considered as pests for these trees.
He doesn’t care. He doesn’t need no know – he just knows how to take directions and carry them out. He is part of a system. A system, which is connected. Not only the woodpecker but also the trees are connected. Take for example cutting an old tree. Other trees around are affected or even die. It is a force field. Mushrooms in the ground form a network that feed the trees. These are very fine threads. They give the trees growth substances and transport the minerals. The animals and the trees in the forest, they are energetically and physically connected, they build a unity. It is as if there is a nervous system, like an earth-brain and has a fierce impact if you take something out of it.
Everything is connected. You are a part of nature and nature is part of you.

So, what has this to do with Nature or Change Management?

The corporate world today is connected and we are capable to work beyond country borders and time zones. That enabled prosperity but also made everything comparable. If you can compare everything, you do not have alternative values anymore. Other values fall away such as time for yourself or dignity. The power of money is not interested in alternative models.
If we look at change programs coming from the top management, such as cost cut programs, they may look simple in Excel and managers claim to be simple, but in fact, simplicity is the most complex thing. Everything in the corporate world, like in nature, is connected and has an impact when changed. However, looking at the change itself, everyone has a different perspective. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.

The true reasons of these cut programs are not explained. By remaining silent, companies are more checking how much truth or if worst, hypocritical reasons people tolerate.
I look at it from a different side when going through changes with the people affected. Some people complain – others do not.

Victim or not?

When you complain, you make yourself a victim. There are three options: leave, change or accept the situation. All else is madness. It is fine when I saw many people leaving a company when there was a merger or when a company acquired another one. They could not cope with the change and they did not want to continue to be a “victim”. Hence, they have left. It was clear to me that we should not watering dead flowers.

What about those, who did not leave because they were afraid of leaving? Those who made an “internal notice” and just do the call of duty without express any joy and enthusiasm. You can train them to let go of everything they fear to lose. That is the hard way. The other way is to invite those people to the journey of change.

How can we reconnect to what is instead of fighting against it?

In the next blog I will talk about how you can engage your people in your transformation project journey so they will remain happy.