Individual and Group Change

Big Endeavor (BE) is currently offering several sessions with founder, Rebecca Reynolds, to acquaint you with what BE is all about. You can join in here.

In response to the first session, several people asked about how individual change relates to group change. This is an interesting and important question, and is a defining aspect of BE. So, we thought it would be helpful to post Rebecca's response to one of the individuals who asked about it. Here it is:

"Let me begin with your statement that 'the process of change is a personal journey, requiring self-reflection, an honest inventory of learnings (I took the liberty of reframing your word mistakes) and a ton of willingness.' YES. This is what I refer to as “readiness” – no one changes unless they are ready to do so. Or rather, no one evolves themselves through the change process unless they want to.

Your questions 'how is that process translated from an individual to a group/org? Can a group go through this process together?' lie at the core of what Big Endeavor is all about. In short, YES, groups (organizations, communities, families, countries) change together –  in fact, this is exactly what is taking place all the time. And the group entity is actually more than the sum of its parts…as an example, in a family, each individual is changing – at their own pace based on readiness etc., and at the same time, the family is evolving through the dynamic interaction of all the individuals. And seeing the family as its own entity of which you or I are a part can help us gain a useful perspective on the whole thing. Not only how the family's change may shine light on my own, but also how other family members are contributing through their own process.

To help understand the relationship between individual and group change, we can look at an orchestra – each individual musician has an instrument that has its own rules and voice and timing. That musician is part of a group – violins, flutes, etc., which are part of a section – strings, wind instruments, etc., all of which have timing and timbre. A symphony is made  up of the ebb and flow of the individuals and the groups as part of a whole – the conductor works with this dynamic enterprise to create that particular orchestra's expression of the score. The difference between a symphony and a change project is that the “score” is a bit more free form in the change project! 

Big Endeavor (BE) is about showing how the individual change process and the group change process are, fundamentally, the same - and in that sameness, we are better able to use the one to transform the other, and vice versa. BE models and practices are all about advancing this capability, so that all change can occur with more ease and greater result."

Join in the conversation at the next BE Sneak Peek here.