“opportunity”. There was a pervading sense of hope in Figures 3 and 4: riding waves, even though change was relentless, and constant, we just need to “embrace change, grab on and ride the waves” or “turn to the light and keep your equilibrium”. Use of colour too indicated opportunity; the brightness of hope and knowledge is represented in Figure 4, others used greens and earth colours to represent growth.
Figure 3: Wave of change
different paths through change and still end up in the same place. The maze image in Figure 5 aptly represents uncertainty. There is no cheese visible at the centre of the maze to draw players into the maze, indicating lack of vision. There is no map, rather, trial and error are the order, where players must go forward until a wall is hit only to go back and try again using another path. This represents the challenges of
transformative change well, where change emerges, little by little as one gets closer to 'the cheese'.
Figure 5: The maze of change
Figure 4: Turn to the light
General Feedback Participants reported afterwards that the exercise really had an impact, that they uncovered feelings including some they had not been aware of. The results surprised all participants as none had expected the outcomes illustrated or the interpretations and different perspectives.
Uncertainty
Transformational change is full of uncertainty as the future state is only being discovered as the organisation moves into the unknown.
Understandably so, uncertainty was illustrated in
78% of the images. Uncertainty was illustrated through use of signposts and pathways, each leading to different paths which end up in the same destination. This response to
transformational change is indicative of Bridges (1991) transitions model of change, which suggests that people can take individual and
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Eight participants felt that it clarified things, claiming they felt better as a result, the “fuzziness had lifted”. Even though our discussions were cut short, they have continued informally. This exercise identified a need for information and facilitated the development of a climate for dialogue. “I feel it's acceptable to talk about how I feel now, I had been talking about how it would affect learners but had thought it unprofessional or a bit selfish to talk about how I felt.”
The images and their interpretations will be used to facilitate discussion about what we wish to protect through transformation. It will enable identification and description of those important aspects of our service we want to retain. Later, and at regular intervals, the exercise will be
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