The Leader’s Journey – Bringing it all back home
Posted on | January 21, 2010 | No Comments
The process of change is one that fascinates me. From the moment we decide that something needs to change until the final satisfying feeling of change completed – or not – , we are, in effect, on a journey. That journey has no clear destination, can be quite difficult, maybe dangerous, and, at the end of it, there is no guarantee that where we reach is any better than where we began (if, indeed, it is a different place at all).
How can mythology help us to understand this process and, in particular, that thorny question of why, after trials and tribulation and much effort on our part, the change we thought we wanted to make simply doesn’t happen. One tool is the Hero’s Journey (also called Monomyth), developed from the book Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. Campbell analysed the mythology of many cultures and discovered that their stories followed a similar structure – one that seemed to satisfy our innate need for a journey and a resolution. It is possible that it can be applied to change making in business, so let’s try.
The first of four stages is about our slow recognition that something needs to change. We are in our familiar world (our comfort zone?) yet something isn’t right. We may deny the need for change but eventually something happens that overcomes that and we begin the journey, leaving the familiar world for somewhere unfamiliar.
In this second stage, we are searching for solutions to the need and we will meet characters and situations along the way that may make the situation worse. We may understand the real issue is much deeper than the triggering one. Despite also meeting helpful characters here, we reach the end of this phase still searching and maybe doubting our resolve or despairing of the possibility of finding the solution.
The third stage is about finding the resources and solutions that we seek. It is by no means certain that we will reach this stage and many abandon our quest here. We may find a mentor who will help us on our journey and may even show us that the solution was with us all the time – we just couldn’t see it. Now we have the answer, we may spend time refining it and preparing for the final stage – our return to the real, familiar world.
This fourth stage requires that we return to our familiar surroundings and install the changes into it. Perhaps that involves reviewing our business direction, changing our relationships with friends and colleagues and acting differently in our own activities. The more radical the change, the more the familiar can seem more appealing. Our resolve can be dented or completely neutralised by our dependence on the people and habits of our everyday life. We lose momentum and the moment is lost.
This of course is just a theory based on the stories that we tell. It may not be true for you. It does, however, ring true for me. I’ve been on many courses over the years. Some have been of interest but no more, whilst others have been triggers for a Hero’s Journey that took place within the course. All of the first three stages were there and, at the end of the course, copious notes were written detailing the changes to be made. What happened? Sometimes some (or all) of the changes took place, but far more often I returned to the real world of to do list, emails (or memos in the early days), and demanding customers and managers and the whole change plan was sidelined. Months later, I would read the notes I’d made and smile ruefully, recommit to the changes and, once again, find them overtaken by other priorities. There are still changes that I once planned to make that would be good for me today.
What is the learning that I take from this process? I think the main thing I now understand is that moments of clarity have to be followed by proper planning and by an assessment of the emotional cost of following the plan through. If the change to be made is major, we have to consider how we react to changing relationships with important people in our lives and careers, to risking failure and, maybe, ridicule and to leaving behind the comfort of the familiar. Change is risky and it is scary – but the end results may be more rewarding than we can imagine.
Every journey begins with a single step. The more steps we make on the journey, the more likely it is that we will arrive at our destination and not turn back.
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