The Threshold's Invitation
I've been working with a number of services navigating significant transitions. Restructures. Redevelopments. Service redesign.
I asked a group last week to describe the experience of transition: hard, uneasiness, uncertain, unknown, lengthy, out of control, vulnerable, scary and exciting.
There was also a recognition in the room that at times like this, there's a rare doorway open for real growth and change. The old patterns are being shaken. And that comes with a risk - that we don't step through the doorway that's available to us. Even though our physical environment shifts, our structure changes, the deeper opportunity for real growth is missed.
The Celetic poet John O'Donohue spoke about thresholds through the image of threshing: separating the grain from the husk. Holding onto what is essential, while letting go of what is no longer needed.
Ron Heifetz similarly describes this as one of the central tasks of adaptive leadership. Leadership is not about abandoning what we value most deeply. It's about distinguishing those enduring values from the habits, structures and assumptions that once served, but no longer do.
I've been working with services to lean into that moment, to discern what's most precious and sacred - what needs to be preserved, and what is no longer serving them.
This group was specific about what they didn't want to carry forward: the negativity, the blaming, the rigid expectations. They went further, naming specific ways of working, ineffective processes, meetings that didn't deliver.
Through the process, we lean into the strengths, capacities and resources already in the system to navigate towards a new future. All of us have experience of holding ourselves and each other through times of real change. When we surface the wisdom and experience already present, there's so much to draw from.
John O'Donohue's essay on thresholds anchored our work. He says:
Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring... Like spring secretly at work within the heart of winter, below the surface of our lives huge changes are in fermentation. We never suspect a thing. Then when the grip of some long-enduring winter mentality begins to loosen, we find ourselves vulnerable to a flourish of possibility and we are suddenly negotiating the challenge of a threshold.
Much of what matters in times of change happens beneath the surface. Before anything becomes visible externally, assumptions loosen, identities shift and new possibilities begin to form.
Threshold moments hold incredible potential because they reveal the limits of the ways we've come to understand our work. They invite us to see beyond what has become familiar.
It's easy to think of these unknown edges as a place of danger, somewhere to be avoided. A place where things become uncertain, difficult, risky or uncomfortable. Somewhere we hope to move away from as quickly as possible.
But they are also places where the ways of seeing that have served us so well begin to reach their limits.
I've come to see that this is where leadership becomes most alive. It is here that our perception begins to shift. We start to notice patterns we couldn't see before. New possibilities emerge because we have begun to see more of what is already here.
The poet David Whyte captures this:
Sometimes it takes a great sky to find that first, bright and indescribable wedge of freedom in your own heart.
An invitation to trust that moments of disruption might reveal more of what is already present, but hidden from view.
More and more, I think leadership isn't about helping people move quickly through threshold moments. It's about creating the conditions for people to stay there long enough for something new to become possible.
Warmly, Claire
PS When you're ready here are some ways we could work together
Leading at the Edge Retreat has sold out, but I'm taking bookings for leadership team off-sites from Oct-December. If you're looking to reconnect and refresh your strategy and ways of working with your team, please send me an email - claire@clairemckendrick.com and we can find a time to connect.
Leading when the old maps no longer hold: I have been delivering a new Masterclass series - practical and targeted capability uplift for teams navigating uncertainty and change. If this feels relevant get in touch by DM or email claire@clairemckendrick.com and we can find a time to explore how it might support you and your team.
Executive coaching: I have three executive coaching spots opening in August, get in touch by DM or email claire@clairemckendrick.com if you'd like to explore whether we might be a fit. I only take on a small number of 1-1 clients at any time.
