In transition
I was on the route to Santiago, on my first walking day along the French part of the trail. I had left the village early in the morning. The fog was thick and it was almost impossible to work out where I was going: I was moving, almost blindly, following the yellow arrows that every now and then appeared under my feet. There was little of which I could be certain – almost nothing. After hours spent hiking uphill, step by step, the path suddenly became flat: the fog began dissipating and the view opened over the valley covered by clouds. Suddenly I saw everything that had surrounded me in the first place under a different light, from a different perspective. I was above it. It was then I became fully aware of transitioning.
We often see things as consolidated and immutable: we think – once we become adults – we will always remain the same. This, despite almost everything around us – new life situations, new encounters, the surrounding events – urges us to change. In companies, transitioning is a daily spur, triggered by evolving businesses, continuously reviewed strategies, ever-new competencies.
Looking at it more closely, transitioning touches every moment of our lives. It is something we all share and something that concerns us all. However, it is not always easy to welcome it and let it change us.
Transitioning is a passage: it is getting rid of a narrow yet reassuring image of ourselves. It is a complex journey that can bring fear, a sense of loss, disorientation. But, as we have discovered by accompanying our clients during their transitions, the journey also presents an opportunity to come into contact with new perspectives. Our transition can change our thoughts, our goals, our own desires. What was waiting to manifest finally comes to light.
This is the reason why we became passionate about transitioning and about the people that go through such a life phase. We refined ways to accompany our clients along this journey, in order to help them let go of the past whilst honoring it and, at the same time, explore new paths.
Be it a life in the corporate world or in the private sphere, Transitioning is a path thought for those feeling in transition; it suggests tools to read one’s own past in a different way, to create awareness of today’s resources, to elaborate a dynamic plan.
Using the words of a client: “When the new CEO came, I did not feel aligned with him on his strategy and managerial style and I found myself in difficulty. I questioned the value I brought to the company, my choices; I interrogated myself on which direction to take. My counselor helped me focus my capabilities and unexpressed potential, supported me in finding my balance again, gave me new tools to manage hardship and conflict. She accompanied me on my quest for the right path and widened my learning. Each manager should go through such a journey.”
Lost & Found in Transition. Even when we set out on a journey on our own, meeting good travel companions is always fortunate. Lost & Found in Transition is both a collective and a personal inner journey, where people in transition meet and travel together. A welcoming atmosphere creates an affectionate judgment-free companionship, in which parallels, reflexes and cross-references enrich each party.
Created with the collaboration of Anna Calvenzi from Acoté, this service is an intimate journey that employs multiple tools – from storytelling to slow travel, from voice dialogue ateliers to bereavement – touching the cognitive, emotional and bodily spheres. The “inner walk”, like the physical walk, becomes the instrument with which you can explore your own story, acquire a new self-perception and embark on a new journey with renewed wonder.
Lost & Found Corporate Teams. A corporate version of Lost & Found in Transition, this service addresses managerial teams and integrates elements of transition typical of the corporate life, such as corporate culture, organizational context and a firm’s strategic goals.
Corporate history and culture are revisited from new perspectives; models and collective competencies face new needs. A new future emerges, where clients become capable of capitalizing upon resources of which they were previously unaware.
Transitioning as a cultural movement. Transitioning is a cultural movement born in the early 2000 from the work and intuition of Rob Hopkins. It is made of people who question themselves about the future of the planet, beyond the horizon of their lives, and chose not to sit there and watch. They sustain an, above all, inner transition towards a world that is environmentally sustainable, spiritually satisfying and socially equal, that re-builds relationships between people and rediscovers the value of resilience. We feel very sympathetic to such a group of people: their thoughts inspire us, we feel energized by their goodwill, we use many of the tools of involvement and planning they also use. We would like to thank them and honour them, whenever possible, by sparking people’s interest and directing new energies towards their project (www.transitionnetwork.org).