Yeah, we wrestle with that word all the time. Transformation. Pattern-shifting. “Change” is plain language, and everything else feels like jargon. The folks working with the ideas of “transition design” have something clear and particular they’re after, and a new term seems appropriate. But after eight years of trying different answers to the question, “What do you do?”, we’ve stopped trying to be theoretically pure in our answer. “We help people create together” was tempting, but it keeps us too close to design thinking, creativity consulting, better teams, that sort of thing. So we wanted a word that signaled change, and “change” is the best word we’ve got so far to send that signal.
Yes, change is constant. We encounter two main responses to that fact:
- Change is constant, but we are smart and have a process. We’ll make it do what we want!
- Change is constant, so why bother? We’ll do our best to take care of ourselves, and beyond that it’s impossible to have an impact.
The work we’re doing offers models of change that are realistic about the limitations of experts doing plan-and-execute, and empowering when it comes to the possibilities of groups of people gathering, aligning, and participating in the birth of their own future.
The ideas and approaches are unfamiliar to most leaders and institutions. They come from fields with their own particular jargons. Finding accessible language has been difficult! So here we are, back to using “change.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
