Transitional Change and Leadership
By Gilles Amado
By extending the work of the psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott to socialorganizations and environments, and by following the thoughts of Harold Bridger, I have tried, with several colleagues around the world, to formalizethe ‘transitional approach to change.’ This approach differs slightly from any planned change approach and involves learning, self-awareness, creativity, andresponsibility. Based on open spaces and playfulness, it does not deny the
‘negative’ and may help develop more real and authentic organizations.
Change agents and/or leaders who are inspired by this approach will acquirequalities that do not necessarily reflect those that we find in management books or even in the current practice. Such leaders may, however, be the ones who willserve our turbulent environment best.
The transitional change agent has a strong sense of curiosity, and she or he acceptsthe ambivalence of human emotion and recognizes complexity, and paradox. Thetransitional change agent creates transitional spaces or learning environments thatare necessarily imperfect although confrontational, and are well designed to enablepeople to get beyond difficult situations. The transitional change agent has thequality to face up to difficult and painful experiences and to draw positive lessonsfrom them.
But a person’s transitional qualities alone are not enough to be successful.A good knowledge of the context in which you are operating is crucial. You have to be able to detect the objective social determinants of behavior and understandthe unconscious social defence mechanisms as well as the routes likely to lead tochange in organized social systems.
Gilles Amado is Professor of Psycho-sociology at HEC School of Management, Paris. In several projects de Baak works together with HEC.
Lees meer