The purpose of this post is to impact Change, Coaching and Mentoring. “Teaching The Caterpillar to Fly” is a flexible and impactful metaphor and teaching tool for change, coaching and mentoring.

For almost 40 years and in almost 50 countries, I have been sharing my Square Wheels illustrations and using this caterpillar / butterfly metaphor in many change management training programs and workshops I have delivered. These programs focus on actively involving and engaging individuals and teams in performance improvement initiatives and for focusing on individual and team intrinsic motivation.

The main Square Wheels One image itself has gone through a series of changes, each with unique features and benefits. The latest ones are a combination of the best of all of these and are included in our newest toolkits. And they are easily customized for linking to specific issues and opportunities.

The evolution of Square Wheels One into its current 2022 format.

The Square Wheels Tools:

I start nearly every session with Square Wheels^® One illustration as shown below, asking individuals to consider possibilities and then talk about them with tabletop teams.

And after we get those key themes and ideas around the initial metaphor anchored down, I add in this storyline to the programs around change, coaching and mentoring.:

There are two caterpillars sitting on the wagon. A beautiful butterfly floats by and the one caterpillar says to the other caterpillar, “You’ll never get ME up into one of those butterfly things!”

Understand that not everyone gets the joke / story and the punchline for various reasons. But the KEY learning point is that people that do will get many different themes from that single joke. THIS is the key learning point: there IS no single or best answer to the joke.

From here, I identify a whole series of punchlines to the joke, not the one that most people get and simply stop thinking about. These include:

• Resistance to Change
• Inevitability of Change
• Lack of vision of the future
• Lack of understanding of basic biology
• You have to stop being a caterpillar to become a butterfly
• Change is generally resisted 
• Riding on the wagon is change and a better alternative than walking
• It is hard to focus on flying when you are focused on eating
• and others (Develop your own list!)

And I discuss how this process of “stopping the thought process” is what happens when one seemingly “gets” the meaning of some story. This is what often gets in the way of continuous continuous improvement at work and in personal development initiatives. People KNOW THE ANSWER and thus stop thinking about possibilities.

A new addition to the tools is this image that includes the theme of the two caterpillars and the butterfly but that also includes our concepts on mud and the view from the front but that also specifically includes the reference to the theme of mentoring.

With this image, you can frame up many of the issues surrounding managing and leading change and also generate a discussion around the manager’s role of seeing the potential for improvement and personal growth. Caterpillars CAN become butterflies and that change process is easier with the manager focused on training and development of their people.

Below are two poems about the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies, with the second one being a pdf file you can print and distribute if you like:

The Paradox of Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly

In a world where dreams take wing,
A caterpillar crawls, unaware of spring.
With each leaf it munches, it grows and it sighs,
Yet deep in its heart, a whisper of skies.

“To fly,” says the breeze, “is a gift to embrace,
But first, little one, you must find your place.”
With patience, we guide through the shadows of doubt,
Teaching the timid what life is about.

Yet how can we show what it’s never known,
The freedom of flight when it’s never been shown?
For in every lesson, a truth we must find:
To teach is to nurture, but also to bind.

So we cradle the dreams in our careful hands,
While the caterpillar dreams of faraway lands.
In the paradox lies a beautiful truth,
That even the grounded can learn from their youth.

One day it will soar, with wings wide and bright,
A testament to courage, to struggle, to flight.
For in teaching to fly, we must first let it be,
A caterpillar’s journey to set its soul free.

Just as the Square Wheels One wagon has a cargo of round wheels already in the wagon, the potential for change already exists in most of us.

And here is a link to another, printable. Teaching The Caterpillar poem

The Model of Change:

While we are focused on change, let me share my simple, actionable model that I generally work through with the participants in my change workshops. Understanding change is quite useful in minimizing resistance and as is using the peer support and vision aspects of this to justify my overall focus of the workshops:

I share the model in a “disclosure” mode, showing one bullet at a time and discussing each of them. Here are some brief and general comments. Understand that a LOT more can be said about each of these, and there is a lot of research around basic human behavior that underpins this simplicity:

1 – The current level of Discomfort with the way things are. Now.

If people are comfortable, they are unlikely to change. I use the simple example of room temperature. If it is unnoticed, it is probably fine. But if it were cold, you could expect changes in people’s physical posture or maybe they would look for the thermostat. If hot, you could expect them to take off sweaters or jackets and open up their posture to radiate body heat more effectively.

The Square Wheel Image generates cognitive dissonance between the way things are now and the possibilities that have been labeled Round Wheels. People are motivated to improve the operations around those processes labeled Square Wheels.

2. The attractiveness of the Vision of the future.

The future needs to be attractive to be, well, attractive. So I talk about the View from the Front Reality and the View from the Back and have a whole series of images around this theme.

3. The individual or group’s previous Success with change

Logically, if they have been successful in implementing workplace improvements, they are more likely to try again. Understand that failure works the other way for many people. Failure does NOT generate motivation to succeed as a general rule. It can generate risk avoidance. Fear of failure is a common thing.

4. The peer or workgroup Support for the change or changes

Do the players feel that they have the support of others for their risk taking or innovation projects? If they feel alone, only a few people will take action. If they feel there are others actively involved with them, they are more likely to act. 

I hope you find this framework of interest. If you would like the illustrations and model and stuff, contact me,