The Soul of Transformation: Reimagining How We Change Organizations
Why sacred listening, systems thinking, and AI-supported insight are reshaping the future of change management.
The business landscape is in the midst of a profound transformation, one that integrates spiritual insight with quantifiable data and holistic methodologies. This emerging paradigm in consulting transcends traditional models by addressing the full spectrum of human potential and organizational dynamics. At its core, this approach acknowledges that true leadership and organizational excellence emerge not only from strategic initiatives and operational efficiencies but also from a deep, conscious engagement with the self and the collective.
Our organization, for example, synthesizes integral theory, assessing the internal states of each employee, the company culture and their interactions with it, as well as system changes from the political to the macroeconomic. We have developed such a granular understanding of individuals that we know not just how to assemble outstanding teams with complementary skills but how to pair people in terms of how they see the world, providing enhanced problem-solving, group cohesion, and synergy from communication styles to what environments they do their best work in. Any manner of variables necessary to both allow employees to thrive and the larger organization’s goals to be met with greater efficiency.
What this knowledge does is make us outstanding at change. This change is almost spiritual because it involves examining the inner workings and consciousness of your organization's members, assessing what they need to succeed, and giving it to them in ways that promote internal and external success. We know not just what gives each employee a sense of meaning but also an enjoyable time doing it-and we implement these changes with ever greater ease and lower cost, and the upsides speak for themselves. While the motivation may be to stimulate and retain talent, isn’t increasing both happiness and meaning sort of the…essence of spirituality?
We’re getting better at human fulfillment and teamwork because of robots!
Today, I have a 15-minute questionnaire. It’s been honed over years, but if you fill it out, I know precisely how you think, what you’re great at, what you’re not and why. I also know which colleagues to pair you with to expand your capacity to connect and even which skills of yours to employ that give you pleasure and a sense of accomplishment. In essence, with a little AI scheduling, I have the capacity to assign more tasks that more people will find more rewarding and enjoyable and that will make them grow. Sometimes in ways that we would never imagine, such as the dynamic between people’s oh somatic intelligence and how that plays out in extroverts who are interacting with introverts with pronounced musical intelligence. These are actual factors that we can assess, and these are the hidden magic with people that you just click with even if they seem to be totally different or people that you learn something from. We’re getting to the point where we’re able to orchestrate this with greater efficiency, able to both structure teams that will more seamlessly achieve certain goals and also ones that will work together better and maybe have a good time doing it. The more adept we become at this, the more we can achieve our desired outcomes. And isn’t that the point of science?
Getting along better with the Board by having a heart-to-heart
(yeah, we also had to create an entire protocol for this.)
So we’ve figured out how to maximize output, employee growth, and satisfaction, and we’re only getting better. We’ve also figured out how to master that interpersonal aspect that results in a culture of celebration or depletion. Next, we need to address the organizational level. Yes, it’s time for institutional structure (i.e., board members, Investors, and KPIs.)
Well, we found that the best way to navigate boards is to just ask what they are really interested in accomplishing. (Spoiler alert: it’s probably not what they’re actually communicating.) Not because there’s anything inherently duplicitous about board members; it’s just that human beings are infinitely unique systems in and of themselves, with imperfect self-knowledge so we constructed an entire protocol specifically for high-level stakeholders to work through the complexities of the organization multiplied by their inherently high-stress internal systems to come to clarity with what they want for the organization and what they want to contribute, and we found that it’s usually rather doable things.
What we found was that working with the board and our executives really became a piece of cake once we simplified things and got past a) the internal confusion that we all have, b) the organizational confusion that we all have, and c) what they felt pressured to want rather than what they truly thought. Actually, most of the time we were all on the same page. This protocol is based on the ultimate intrapersonal complex systems tool, internal family systems. I studied it for eight years, like my life depended on it, and it gave me the foundation for understanding organizations and change management, all because I had already done the work—the exact same work in another fashion for myself. I use it to this day to teach my executive clients how to enter an effortless state of decisiveness, clarity, and calm.
Once again, harmonize the complex system, and everything works out, because that thing that all people, organizations, and even places have—that thing that is more than the sum of its parts—shines through when all the constituent parts are in place, doing what they’re meant to do and adding up to more than we could imagine. Often, it is refreshingly simple and healing. And I think that’s what people mean when they talk about souls. It’s that extra thing that’s more than the sum of its parts. It can be a group of people, an organization, or even a forest. But I’ll save that for next week’s post about the spirituality of organizational change. After 24 years studying mysticism AND complex systems, I can’t wait to share how each discipline informs the other in my work, at least in productive and co-creative ways…
Holistic transformation encompasses spirituality, alchemy, and ChatGPT, and it changes the lives of everyone who is touched by it.
It’s things like these that we can and have done. However, it’s not just AI magic, but a synthesis of systems that deal with systems-integral theory for one and appreciative inquiry for the other, Internal Family Systems for breaking down the individual interior, exterior, and interpersonal dynamics… there’s a lot, and we haven’t even STARTED with the economy. One system excels at capturing every nuance and offers a framework that measures everything from the impact of Chinese stock prices on your product sales to the significant influence that a weekly group coffee chat has on your extroverted employees in accounting. I have found, though, that after spending years of my life mastering seemingly completely disparate systems, tools, and ideas, I have finally found my place, making organizations better for the lives that they touch both inside and outside of them. It's almost too perfect how all of this fits together-and I just happen to love computers and am dedicated to learning, documenting, and sharing all of the ways that AI can facilitate a world that celebrates life. Our work with organizations mirrors this.
When an organization undergoes this change, its essence— the sum of its parts—begins to emerge, and people can feel it. Usually, they don't express it verbally, yet it is palpable. And that is why I consider this sacred work. My next post will specifically address this topic, so I’ll leave it here for now. But when have you felt the palpable change of an organization that is aligned with its life force? What constituent parts of an organization make the most difference where you live or work? I’d love to hear from you! And if you have an organization bursting with potential, but you just can’t seem to figure out how to get to the next level, then I’d love to talk about working together. Simply Schedule a time that works for you below.
