How Can We Get Better at Change?

Change isn't just inevitable; it is woven into the fabric of our human evolution. However, as we navigate digital transformation, we're missing something essential: the parallel journey of human transformation.

There is a dance between growth and resistance, and it’s part of our natural human design. When we face change, we instinctively protect our sense of identity, status, and position. This defensive response may help us feel safe in the moment, but it can also contribute to our confusion and hinder our individual growth, creative potential, and collective evolution. And not just that, we often retreat and feel isolated as a result.

What if we could shift our relationship with tension? What if instead of seeing tension as something to eliminate—a problem to fix—we recognize it as the space between now and the future where we can learn something new? What if we step into the unknown and the discomfort of not knowing to foster not only innovation but also the human connection we need to thrive?

While we race toward efficiency and technological advancement, we've disconnected from our embodied wisdom and natural rhythms. To slow down the speed of change so we can adapt, we must stop viewing tension as something to control and eliminate, and instead harness it as a creative force that it can be.

The Hidden Cost of Resistance

Facing change, our instinct is often self-protection. We might be attached to what we know and cling to what makes us feel special and important; however, it also separates us from the collaborative potential that emerges when we can see ourselves as part of a greater whole.

This resistance shows up every day in failed digital transformation efforts because we don't understand the journey of human transformation and change needed, and the space and pace needed to make it work. This is why crash diets rarely work or create long-term, sustainable results.

However, the resistance, in a fast-changing world, can be expensive. It can make us irrelevant, and a lack of change at the speed required can make a company obsolete.

The challenge and the opportunity is to focus on technological advancement with equal attention to human transformation, to create a connection between what we build and who we are.

Our inner brand (people and culture) must be the foundation for our outer brand (the products and services that customers engage with).

So, how do we humans change better?

Reconnecting with Our Essential Wisdom

We may need new skills, but we don't need new wisdom—we need to understand and embrace our ancient wisdom. We must grasp the holistic nature of ecosystems and apply systems thinking both to ourselves (as one habit never exists in isolation) and to our organizations. We are interconnected beings, and wisdom emerges when we pause to listen and learn from nature's rhythms and understand life's fundamental patterns. When we approach the tension of change with curiosity and care, we learn together and grow through change together. Just as a family evolves as children develop, organizations and teams must learn to grow collectively.

This means leaders today must focus on their own growth to effectively develop their teams.

This isn't about optimization, it's about expanding perspective, deepening understanding, and finding the courage to stand in creative tension.

From Tension to Creation

Collaboration is not just working together—it's a creative process that emerges from finding and meeting tension in ways that allow innovation to flourish. When we bring different perspectives together without rushing to resolve discomfort, something new can emerge.

We're not a workforce but a force of work. We are capable of creation beyond what any algorithm can predict.

So what do we need so that we can harness the future instead of being outgrown by it?

The Body as Portal

As we have been trying to keep up with the machines for centuries, have we forgotten how to be human? Have we believed that we are the underdogs to the machines, rather than seeing our humanity as an advantage to harness? We have dismissed our human needs for too long, submitting ourselves to the productivity myth that we must keep going - that a pause, let alone a lunch break or a bathroom break, will somehow slow us down.

Our bodies serve as portals to higher thinking, yet we often treat them as machines to optimize rather than wisdom to access.

The future of work and leadership isn't about solving the "problem" of being human—it's about harnessing the advantage of our humanity. This means that we do not need more clever hacks but rather a deep understanding of our biology, psychology, and neurology as part of nature, not separate from it.