Balancing Past and Future, Reality and Aspiration Crucial to Leading Transformational Change

Leading transformational change, perhaps more than any other aspect of leadership, is highly dependent on the will and skill of leaders to reconcile competing priorities. Success often comes down to being able to balance incongruous interests and to master paradoxes.

Past and Future

“From what to what?” is a kind of shorthand that exposes an unavoidable tension associated with knowing where you are coming from and where you are going to. Being able to understand and articulate “from what to what?” is central to being able to lead transformational change. It gets to the heart of one of seven paradoxes that matter most in leading transformational change: past and future. “From what” harkens to the past, while “to what” looks forward to the future.

Most of us are faced with the same question no matter the circumstances of the change we are confronting, “What are we going to preserve about our past, while simultaneously changing things to create a new and improved future?”

Transformational change is clearly about doing things differently, better, smarter, cheaper, and faster; or more creatively, sustainably, and safely; or less annoyingly, selfishly, and stupidly. Transformational change implies endless permutations about how individuals, teams, organizations, or societies can be enhanced to promote efficiency or effectiveness, as well as to maximize harmony or happiness.

But, transformational change is not all about the future—how the “world will be a better place when . . .” Transformational change is also about the past.

Leading transformational change is a legitimate place for thoughtful examination of what has worked well, what got us here, and what we should not mess up in the face of other changes that must take hold. The past includes strengths that must be preserved and serves as the basis upon which the future is defined and refined.

Transformational change is not about blowing everything up and starting over, although that imagery is often invoked. Instead, it is about creating and outlining an effective balance between respecting the past and falling in love with the future.

Reality and Aspiration

Of course, when we look to the future, intent to learn from the lessons of what has worked in the past and what has not, we cannot ignore present-day reality. This is another paradox of transformational change: reality and aspiration.

Many individuals, teams, organizations, and societies have some kind of vision, mission, values, behaviors, or principles to which they aspire. These rules of the road set the tone for shared expectations and mutual accountability, and serve as guiding lights for what the future holds—for what we can become, even if we are not yet there.

However, successful transformational change leaders never confuse aspiration with reality.

We may hope and plan to be better than we are today. And, we can put in place strategies and mechanisms to drive the changes we believe are essential to future success. But our optimism about the future can never be allowed to cloud our judgment about today.

We are where we are. The situation is what it is. We must confront reality, and that process begins with understanding, acknowledging, and addressing what we are facing and what we need to do about it. Reality is the baseline for change. Aspiration is the roadmap to transformation. Reality and aspiration are joined at the hip, just as the past and future are.

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