Transformations: Making Elephants Dance

Bharatnatyam, one of India's oldest classical dance forms, is not simply a dance. It is an expression of devotion or bhakti towards God. In fact, it was originally called the dance of the Gods or the Temple Dance as it was performed in temples as a form of devotion or bhakti.

The word Bharatam is also seen as a backronym, with bha standing for bhavam (feelings, emotions), ra for ragam (melody, framework for musical notes), and tam for talam (rhythm). The term Natyam is a Sanskrit word for "dance". The compound word Bharatanatyam is seen to connote a dance that harmoniously expresses bhavam, ragam , and talam. (Source: Wikipedia)

I learned Bharatnatyam for almost 8 years growing up in India. I remember as a 4th grader going to class after school, and being taught the various hand gestures, postures, and movements that synchronized hands, eyes, feet, and neck, it seemed all too mechanical at first. I remember thinking how my teacher was so disciplined, devoted, and precise in her practice yet the pain and discipline brought an indescribable joy to her. What fueled that?

I can see my own 6 year old daughter now struggle with staying motivated to learn the basics. She wants to jump to the creative dance sequences that she sees the older girls performing with beautiful outfits and ornaments. What she doesn’t get is you can’t get to that expression without learning the basics. However, what fuels the basics and the advanced is pretty much the same in Bharatnatyam - the WHY, which is the dance being an expression of devotion or bhakti.

Without that WHY, the dance steps become mechanical, the expressions become a facade, and the hand gestures become a numbered step in a sequence. Without that WHY, you just value the glamourous stage performance without valuing the foundational rigor that brings the right form and posture to the dance. With that WHY, you truly dance with your eyes, hands, feet, and soul. Everything becomes synchronized like poetry or prayer in this case as a selfless expression of love and devotion. With that WHY, you suddenly care about everything - the most basic to the most advanced. With that WHY, you want to be perfect and precise yet bold and authentic.

Dance gave me posture, grace, confidence, expression, storytelling, love, joy, and spirituality. I have been contemplating a lot about who I am today and how dance can still be a defining part of my life. Being a strategic transformational leader, my purpose is to unleash the potential of an organization by transforming its capabilities and bringing the best out of people, teams, and companies. Just like Bharatnatyam brings dance from your eyes, neck, hands, feet and soul, it is possible to unleash hidden potential from every part of an organization. However, the missing ingredient is the WHY.

It is hard for large or established organizations to transform and be nimbler. It is hard for high growth entrepreneurial ventures to grow up and be smart and efficient. No matter what the change is, it is difficult and almost everyone seems to be looking for the “shiny toy” call it a new technology or AI or another productivity software that will transform them. Sadly, they can all be means to an end but not the end itself.

• Transformation is not always out of the box, sometimes it is going back to the basics.
• Transformation is not always shedding our past, sometimes it is honoring it and truly giving it space to unleash its full potential.
• Transformation isn’t just about metrics and management systems, it is about leading with your purpose and soul of the organization.
• Transformation isn’t just engaging hands in your organization, it is about changing minds and hearts.

And for a journey that requires sacrifice, discipline, balance, and integration of all facets of an organization, none of this is possible without a strong WHY and a deep connection with it. I go back to my practice of Bharatnatyam, and how the pain of bending at your knees for hours and carefully synchronizing your eyes, neck, hands, legs, and back was all possible with a smile when I realized this was a beautiful form of devotion, and an art form that expressed a beautiful story and not just a mechanical motion. Organizations can use their purpose to fuel their transformation by making it more understood through their story of WHY, by making their transformation workstreams necessary disciplined moves needed to fulfill that story, and by making their employees change agents that bring their hands, hearts, and minds into writing the story.