We want certainty in change—clarity, predictability, no surprises. But it doesn’t work that way.
Change is a little like an art project: messy through most of the process, and yet full of potential to become something great. As signull writes in signull vs. noise:
“most people don’t fail because they pick the wrong idea. they fail because they treat the beginning like the middle. they want rules before they’ve earned chaos. they want roadmaps before they’ve wandered. they want certainty when they should be making a mess. but everything early, a product, a relationship, a company, a life chapter is an art project.”
That quote hit hard with me. I’ve led a lot of change in my career, and there’s one thing I know for certain: you’re not going to get everything right. I certainly didn’t.
You can’t know everything. There will be things you get wrong and things you learn along the way. You’ll have to adjust.
Your team wants certainty. What they really want, of course, is not to change at all. But barring that, certainty will do.
The best you can offer is transparency. Flexibility. Humility to recognize and acknowledge your mistakes. And the creativity and resilience to fix them and keep moving forward.
In the end, change—in our organizations and in our lives—isn’t really about getting to a known destination.
It’s about forging a new path: heading toward a North Star where the way forward isn’t always clear.
If it was, you would have gotten there already.
So roll up your sleeves and make a mess. Every brushstroke, every misstep, every course correction—that’s where the magic happens.
That’s where your masterpiece begins.
Bonus read: Change is never easy, but there are tried and true strategies for leading your organization through it. Here are some:
And it is entirely OK to change our minds and decide we don’t want what we had anymore. Sending you good vibes for the next part of your journey as you navigate those changes!