Change Management: Transforming from Caterpillar to Butterfly
March 16, 2010 10 Comments
The Caterpillar is happy at this state
Spring time in Kuwait and the butterflies are filling the air for more than a week now. Many of us forget that the beautiful butterflies were caterpillars. The caterpillar is slow moving worm that many of us would not even touch. When the time is right, the caterpillar select a place to build a cocoon around it and start the transformation process. During the transformation the caterpillar would not regret its decision and stop, go back or change its mind. The process continue until the full transformation takes place. The caterpillar use to be expert in synchronize its legs to move from one place to another. Now the caterpillar is a flying butterfly that does not old experience to move since it can fly fast form one point to anther.
Transformation process in the Cocoon
Many companies are having average performance and would like to change to compete for the top spot in their businesses. Hesitation take place while the transformation effort is in progress or when facing the first unexpected obstacle. The company would have three choices: 1) Enforce the change with full support for top management, 2) Continue the change effort with average results just to save face, 3) Abandon the change effort quietly to go back to the comfort zone. If the caterpillar does not change it will remain as a caterpillar for the rest of its live while the rest of the caterpillars had transformed to butterflies and flew away.
The end result
The caterpillar use to be happy at the state it is in but after sometime it realizes that it is time to change and move to another state. The caterpillar would know when is the right time, so it builds the cocoon around itself and get busy transforming, no hesitation and no regrets. The caterpillar would finally emerge from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly and stay as a butterfly. The change is from a slow-moving caterpillar that needs tree branches for transportation to a flying butterfly that move from one flower to another.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png)
About Sami Malallah
Sami Malallah's Blog 
Pingback: Change Management: Transforming from Caterpillar to Butterfly « مدونة عائلة مال الله
Pingback: Everybody Should Answer This Survey! « Sami Malallah's Blog
I like your way of analysis and how you simplify things no matter how much they are complicated. Keep up the good work
Thank you for this nice complement. I will always try to simplify my thoughts and ideas for the reader to enjoy them and comment on them.
السيد سامي مال الله
من الجيد ان نضع استراتيجة وخطط للتقدم والتقدم البطي ونجاح محدود احسن من التقدم السريع المتعثر
نعم والمثال المذكور اعلاه يدل علي التخطيط المسبق واختيار الوقت المناسب ثم تنفيذ بون تردد حتي اكتمال التغير المخطط له
ابو احمد: ان خوفنا من الجديد هو الرادع القوى من الانتقال الى الافضل لذلك تغيير الاستراتيجيه الحاليه الى الجديده يسبب لنا الخوف . انظر الى الطفل عندما تقدم له اكل جديد يتردد و فى الغلب يرفض . اذا هل هى غريزة البشر ام فقط نحنى العرب غريبى الاطوار؟؟
يمكن التغلب علي الخوف من التغير بواسطة شرح محورين : الاول هو بيان اسباب لزوم التغير الان, والثاني النتيجة المرجوه من التغير. في المثال المذكور اعلاة تكون اسباب التغير هي تغير نوع الغذاء للحشرة و سرعة النتقال بين الزهور كنتيجه مرجوه من التغيير
Unfortunately, the most common denominator in most Kuwaiti companies, is fear of change coupled with a lack of strategy. Changes that entails a more aggressive approach are always sidelined as seniors feel threatened to loose their comfort zone. Personal agendas are always the main strategy which inhibits growth and expansion, I have seen several companies holding on to an incompetent CEO, just because he is from family X or Y…
Well said. Incompetent manager of CEO will not last for long because he or she would bankrupt the business by taking the wrong actions. Sooner or later, the business owner would ask the incompetent manager or CEO to step down.