Greetings!
I hope this finds you healthy and well. “That’s nice, Lorraine. What does ‘catterbut’ mean?”, you might be wondering right about now.
I have been inspired by the work of David Lukas who creates new words that come to him by observing nature. I was out on a run the other day thinking about the extraordinary changes we’re experiencing these days and I was reminded of the caterpillar who becomes a butterfly. It seems to me we are like the caterpillar becoming the butterfly, at the moment where he feels as though he’s not sure what’s happening as he melts into slurry and morphs. Catterbut is the noun I invented to describe this.
Welcome to catterbut. It probably sounds (and feels) strange. Strangeness comes with the territory.
Transformation has a few parts
The theme of transformation is one I have been exploring for some time. One of my first blog posts, Acorn as innovation instructor, dug into this idea. And I’ve done some doodling on Instagram about the butterfly acting as a double agent for change. This topic never gets old for me. But I wanted to go deeper and understand what it has to do with me, with all of us, beyond an observable phenomenon. So during some quiet time at the turn of the decade, I decided to diagram transformation.
It started out fairly simply, but before long the diagram got a little squirrelly. I created a rather homespun video animation, (t)here to (t)here, of my doodling and then I spent some time watching it play out, asking, “What’s my role?” I still have more questions than answers – as usual! – but I came to see three areas of possibility for us all: we can help dismantle what’s not working, we can create what’s needed in its place, and we can support the ways we cope with the transition from one to the other. We are each perhaps doing all three at the same time, like a piano chord with one note emphasized over the others yet all three played in tandem just the same.
I explore this in more detail in my blog post, Which one are you? Given current circumstances, I feel like the diagram and questions are all the more relevant today. I wonder what you think?
Speaking of dismantling…
There has been talk of disruption and transformation in business since forever. What has been missing from this talk, in my opinion, is a recognition that this isn’t just an adjustment to the status quo. We need to let go – really let go – of what doesn’t serve us well.
With that in mind, I responded to a letter from Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock which is the world’s largest investment management firm. In his letter he called for companies to provide better information to investors about their responses to climate change. His call-to-action relates to the work I’ve been doing since 2004 so it struck a chord. I couldn’t resist writing him back.
In my response, A Letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, I compare what companies say they’re doing on climate (sometimes a fair bit but it’s convoluted and hard to find), with what they’re saying to investors about it (mostly not much, and/or contradictory to what they say elsewhere), and what’s actually needed (a fundamental reconnect to life within core business strategy, which no publicly listed company is doing yet, as far as I could find. (Did I miss it? Please share!). I haven’t heard back from Larry yet but I imagine he’s pretty busy these days.
And then there’s coping
In my Which one are you? post about transformation mentioned above, the third option I explore is about coping with transition. “Coping” might sound like “managing struggle” but I see it as the opposite. It’s not about managing anything, and it definitely does not entail struggle. It’s about being at peace with reality even as we seek to change it.
I am no master at this (understatement!) but I practise it anyway, in a few different ways. This was central to a conversation I had with Alexsandra Guerra, whom you may recognize from the crew at Nori, an innovative lot I’ve spoken about in previous newsletters. She recently launched a new podcast, People and Planet, and I had the honour of being her inaugural guest. We covered a lot of ground but if I had to sum it up I’d say it’s about love in business, telling the truth, recognizing darkness and bringing it to the light.
You can watch our conversation on YouTube or listen on Spotify.
Here we go
I don’t really know how a caterpillar feels when everything – from his mode of transportation to what he eats – changes and he becomes what seems to be an entirely differently creature.
Yet even in not understanding the feelings, I know that this transformation was coded into his existence from the start. And so in spite of the perceived turmoil that comes with catterbut, I know that when given the right conditions things turn out beautifully.
What are the right conditions? Taking care and being taken care of. Staying still for a while. And trusting we have everything we need to emerge from this beautifully.
Yours in connectedness,
Lorraine
