Cultural transformation: creating sustainable change

I've been engaged in personal development pretty much my whole life. It really started when I was a teenager and I took the EST training.

Have you heard of it?

It was intense.

I enrolled when I was just 16. The problem was that the minimum age for enrollment was 18. So I lied about my age to get in. It wasn't really a great start for a program focused on integrity, but somehow I was allowed to stay through that first training weekend and completed the course.

I was hooked! I loved how people were encouraged to be real, messy and imperfect. I loved how alive I felt when I was bringing all of me, the real me, to that experience.

The EST Training sparked my interest in what has been a lifelong journey and exploration of who I want to be and how I show up in the world. Throughout my life I have experienced a variety of approaches. I've taken workshops, read books, attended seminars and worked with a coach. Each experience taught me something valuable.

Some of these experiences were supercharged. A long weekend with Tony Robbins is like going to a therapeutic rock concert. It’s intense and exhilarating and exhausting. People are inspired to be and do better for themselves when they leave.

And yet for me, the pull of the status quo has always been so strong that unless I had some sort of structure or system in place, I just would go back to my old ways. It was the path of least resistance.
In my work with teams and organizations, I see a similar trend.

Sometimes people call me and they're excited about engaging in a workshop experience with their team. They’ll say, “I really want to create some change in my team. What can you give me in half a day?”

Sure you may inspire some new thinking in a half day, or provide a new perspective. And it’s really just the beginning of a conversation. In order to create real sustainable change that has a lasting impact, we have to commit to practicing new behaviors over time.

What's your experience with making lasting changes?  How have you been successful in adopting new behaviors and habits?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. And as you embrace new ways of being, remember to be brave, be kind and take good care.