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Teaching The Caterpillar to Fly
by Scott J. Simmerman, Ph.D.
The comedian Steven Wright got it pretty correct when it comes to senior
leadership and expectations when he said, "I have a microwave fireplace at
home. You can lay down in front of the fire all night in eight minutes."
Sometimes we expect microwave fireplace results. But improvement isn't
fast; it depends on people buying in to new possibilities, needs a bit of
coordination and occurs with some amount of trial and error. It is about
unrealized organizational and individual potential and some inevitable
realities and perceptions.
The whole situation reminds me of a story:
Two caterpillars are conversing and a beautiful butterfly floats by.
The one caterpillar turns and says to the other,
"You'll never get me up on one of those (butterfly) things."
Before moving on, consider the meanings of this story. There is some
non-obvious yet important learning on leadership and creativity. So stop
for a moment and consider it again.
Okay. At this point, it may seem similar to what John McInroe said on
losing to Tim Mayotte in a professional indoor tennis championship:
"This taught me a lesson, but I'm not sure what it is."
Telling this joke worldwide many times, people always get it. But the
paradox is much like the dilemma of leading change and improvement:
It's Dangerous to think you know "The Answer." *
* That's "The" as in "Duh" -- a euphamism meaning "stupid"
In asking people to discuss the joke, we've collected more than 40
different responses and answers. These include:
Risk avoidance is normal.
Change is often resisted.
Change is inevitable.
Caterpillars must hate flying.
Caterpillars see no need to fly.
Change is not always a conscious decision.
Change will occur.
We go through stages of development.
You get one stage closer to death.
Butterflies are a stage beyond caterpillars.
You have to stop being a caterpillar in order to become a butterfly.
We can choose to be active participants in change. Or not, maybe.
It's easier for butterflies to develop perspective than caterpillars.
We can attempt to resist and suffer the stress and difficulties.
There is a need for vision and perspective -- we're all on a journey.
Caterpillars focus only on eating and survival.
Butterflies get blown around by the wind and caterpillars drag their
feet!
Metamorphosis is an uncontrollable process with an unclear result.
Metamorphosis is a dark, damp, confined place, so I'm scared!
I'll NEVER be a butterfly; My mother was a moth.
Thus, when people talk about "the joke", a most interesting thing always
happens: They discover that they often share different perspectives and a
diversity of ideas. But once they get The Answer, they typically
self-limit any further consideration of possibilities. This is a very
interesting outcome when it links to some key learning points on leading
change and dis-un-empowering people, including:
* Even though we often resist change and risk, they are often inevitable!
* Change will occur and we can choose to be active participants and go
with the flow -- or we can attempt to resist and suffer the stresses.
* Each of us goes through many stages of development, a process that
occurs repeatedly over time.
* It's easier for butterflies to develop perspective than for
caterpillars.
* Caterpillars focus on eating and survival. There is more to life than
this.
* There is a need for vision and overall perspective -- we're all on a
journey forward.
* We need to be engaged and involved in the process itself rather than be
imprisoned by the environment. Forcing the action generates active
resistance to the process.
"You cannot become a butterfly by remaining a caterpillar.
It is all about discovering the inevitability of change
and clarifying a vision of the future."
Let's continue to illustrate with a few facts and a true story. Since I
started telling this joke, I've learned a lot about Lepidoptera (moths and
butterflies):
* Like some people we know, certain caterpillars like the Crystalline
Limacodid, have bristles that dispense toxic chemicals. Getting too close
to them can be a very painful experience! And many moths, butterflies and
caterpillars use camouflage as a way of protecting themselves in an
attempt to hide from predators -- we see the same behaviors in
organizations.
* The Monarch Butterfly of North America migrates great distances to areas
slightly West of Mexico City, where they gather in the billions to
reproduce. They then migrate back as far as the Canadian Border. They
often feed on milkweed, which also serves to protect them -- birds find
their taste aversive and will avoid eating them.
* The difference between a moth and a butterfly lies mostly in the nature
of their antennae. Many moths have tremendously sensitive antenna that
can sense minute quantities of the sexual pheromone, in the parts per
billion quantities. There are 140,000+ species of moths.
* Some caterpillars eat as much as 27,000 times their body weight to
support their lives as flying insects. The big green adult Luna Moths
lack a mouth and actually live only on the energy stored during their
larval stage -- their sole focus of their adult lives is reproduction.
Thus, we've all now learned more about caterpillars and butterflies. Can
we apply it to learning organizations?
A while back, Ted Forbes at The Darden School of Business asked me on the
telephone, "Scott, do you know about caterpillars and butterflies." Being
somewhat an expert on the subject, I, of course, said
"No"
(Remember the paradox of knowing The Answer.)
and Ted, a long-term member of the LO list who I met IN the list) then
shared a wonderful transition to issues of personal and organizational
change when he said:
"In the change from being a caterpillar to being a butterfly,
you're nothing more than a yellow, gooey sticky mess."
We need to deal with the gooey glop that most people find uncomfortable.
But one has to metamorphose in order to change and that will involve going
through the discomfort of not being a caterpillar while one is in the
process of becoming a butterfly. The transformation process is
uncomfortable and one key is the perception of the realities of change.
Our natural senses offer perceptual sensitivity that is incredible.
Biologically, if your physical senses are working normally, you can:
* See a burning candle from 28 miles away if you are dark-adapted
* Feel on your fingertips a pressure that depresses your skin .00004 inch
* Smell one drop of perfume diffused through a three room apartment
* Taste .04 ounce of table salt dissolved in 530 quarts of water
* Feel the weight of a bee's wing falling on your cheek from less than
half an inch away
* Distinguish among more than 300,000 different colors
* Gauge the direction of a sound's origin based on a .00003-second
difference in its arrival from one ear to another
Thus, we have the tools to be very perceptive and sensitive to what is
around us but we are often indifferent to the reality. We lose focus on
the needs of others in the workplace and the reality that they may think
differently.
Thus, we often limit ideas for improvement because we already know the
answers. And by limiting discussion, we limit possibilities and
innovations as well as ownership and self-esteem. We cannot sometimes see
what is obvious. And that prevents us from improving.
So I will simply suggest that:
"Even caterpillars can fly if they would just lighten up!
-- For the FUN of It!Scott Simmerman, author of the Square Wheels toolkits Performance Management Company Taylors, SC (USA) SquareWheels@compuserve.com
Copyright (C) Scott Simmerman, Performance Management Company, 1997
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>