ARE YOU CANOEING THE MOUNTAINS?

Change is Stressful

Does everything feel stressful right now? Does it feel like nothing is working the way it used to? Are your skills and experience not helping as they have in the past?

We are in a time of discontinuous change. We can look at 2020 and recognize we have experienced change and uncertainty at higher than normal levels, but this year is truly just the tip of the iceberg. We have been experiencing discontinuous change for many years.

Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk give a helpful explanation of continuous change and discontinuous change. They write, “continuous change develops out of what has gone before and therefore can be expected, anticipated, and managed… We have a stock of experiences and resources to address this developmental change.” They use the example of growing children; we know in general what to expect, and can learn from those who have gone before, as children develop through the stages of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Discontinuous change is very different. It is “disruptive and unanticipated; it creates situations that challenge our assumptions. The skills we have learned aren’t helpful in this kind of change.”

Tod Bolsinger provides a powerful metaphor for discontinuous change in his book Canoeing the Mountains. He describes the challenges facing Lewis and Clark’s expedition as a way of highlighting the challenges facing leaders today. Lewis and Clark planned to travel by river from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. They expected to use what they knew, water travel, to cover ground they did not know. What a surprise it was for them to face the Rocky Mountains instead of rivers. The same holds true of leaders today.

We expected to use the knowledge and skills already cultivated and in use to carry us to the goal, but just as Lewis and Clark could not use their canoes to get over the Rocky Mountains, we cannot use our existing toolkit to forge a path into an unknown future. 

We have heard a lot in 2020 about the new normal or the next normal. The truth of discontinuous change is that we will not return to life as we knew it. So, the question becomes how do we evolve and thrive in the midst of discontinuous change? We will need new skills and a new mindset.

Is this feeling real for you right now? I’d love to talk through coaching options for leaders and organizations facing the real struggle of trying to adapt to our changing environment. Let me know if I can help.