chopping wood for change
The lifecycle of our use of trees is a great example of genuine change.
A tree is a tree as long as it stands and grows from the ground.
The moment we chop it down to make it into a log, it is no longer a tree.
The moment we chop the log into firewood, it is no longer a log.
The moment we use the firewood for heat, it is no longer firewood. It becomes charcoal.
The moment the burning wood transitions to ash, it is no longer charcoal.
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Upon each complete state of change, what we have before us cannot be transformed back into what it was in its previous state.
The thing to note is how each transition is a complete change of state.
This is genuine change. There is no trace of the previous state of things.
Thus, when we conduct our change projects at work where we are only adding something new onto the previous state of things, we are not performing genuine change.
Our change projects become the “latest ash” that’s being sprinkled onto charcoal that sits upon firewood which sits upon the log that leans against the original tree.
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Firewood is an artifact of what once was an artful purpose of nature…collections of trees that beautify a setting. Turning a tree into firewood is transforming art into a business artifact (trees become a product for pursuing profit.)
It’s important to note, I ‘m not knocking the idea of using trees as a source of heat and energy…I love a wood fire as much as the next person and have a wood burning fireplace in my home…I wouldn’t want a house without one.
The point is to use the human system we’ve put in place for the lifecycle of trees to gain a better understanding of the change process.
The “firewood” of work are the business artifacts that we deploy to control and manage the energy needed for completing the work. Like wood, artifacts have a shelf life and also get “burned through” over a certain amount of time of use.
When the business artifacts have run their course of effectiveness, we can’t keep attempting to “reuse” them to squeeze a little more fuel and energy out of them. They are spent. They become the “ash of work” at some point.
We need to return to the forest to find the new trees (new art) that then get transformed into artifacts for the new fires we need to burn.
