Some funny thoughts and one-liners from Scott Simmerman on “Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly,” and issues of managing organizational change.
Let’s begin with a story framed around this illustration called, “Teaching the caterpillar to fly.” Give this your attention for a moment:
Two caterpillars are chatting and a beautiful butterfly floats by. One caterpillar turns to the other and says, “You’ll never get me up on one of those butterfly things!”
Please take 30 seconds to consider the above before moving on.
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This simple tale encapsulates the essence of individual resistance to change and the fear of the unknown that many individuals and organizations face when confronted with transformation.
Its use is to get your people talking about this in a discussion of the story punchlines and meanings to help in managing organizational change. Let me share more…
The Danger of Knowing “The Answer”
One of the most crucial lessons from discussions is the danger of assuming we know “The Answer” and its relationship with how others think and experience the world.
My Learning Experience:
My personal learning experience with this was about me telling the joke from the front of the room for dozens of presentations, knowing that the caterpillar story was about resistance to change, something most readers probably conclude.
However, when I told it to a small workshop in Hong Kong and saw puzzled faces, I asked them what they thought the joke was about.
Five minutes later, they were still talking (in Cantonese) and laughing and I knew what was happening was amazing, but I did not know what it was.
When I stopped the group and asked, I received 25 different responses — each person had different ideas about the story and some were really funny. The key learning point? Each person has their own unique perspectives on change and growth.
This diversity of interpretations highlights a critical point for leaders and change managers.
I now setup the joke with a simple slide from one of my favorite athletes, who was quoted in Sports Illustrated in 1990. On losing to Tim Mayotte, John McEnroe said:
Only when I session participants for an answer to my joke did I learn something VERY important and a main learning lesson for this post:

It really is! It limits disruptive innovation.
Discoveries:
What happened to me happens to everyone. I read the joke in a Reader’s Digest magazine and linked it into my change presentation. The punchline to the joke HAD to be: “The caterpillars are resisting change that is inevitable,” right?
What I found out in Hong Kong with the joke is that my assumption was most assuredly NOT correct and that there are a wide variety of creative and innovative thoughts on pretty much any situation. People do NOT view things similarly, and that diversity of opinion generates a great deal of possibilities. The true irony was that everything about my Square Wheels themes and images is all about knowing there is a wide diversity of opinion generated with the use of ANY of the images!
The correct answer to most performance improvement situations is to say, NO when someone asks you if you know something. That way you generate a possibility for a new idea that you had not considered.
Dr. Ted Forbes was at Darden School of Business in the 90s and he and I were chatting on the phone. Out of the blue, he asked me if I knew about caterpillars and butterflies and I said, “NO” even though I knew a great deal about lepidoptera (moths and butterflies, the scientific name):
Ted said,
Thus, by listening to Ted’s thinking, I got a new one liner, one that links up wonderfully to my metaphors around our Square Wheels Wagon being up to its axles in mud. Mud is that mess we all get in with the bureaucracy and overall “gooeyness” of how most organizations really operate.
More on Square Wheels — here is an Ode…
Similarly in a conversation with Diane Mashia,:
The possibilities for improvement are limitless, but generally limited by our thinking about how things are, not about how they could be if we made different choices and had different alternatives.
Note that I wrote nothing about the Painter in the bottom right corner. That is a whole different discussion topic about mentoring and coaching and seeing possibilities for improvement, all generated through discussions of the image. We can do a better job of motivating our people.
(If you are interested in using the Mentoring / Change illustration in any presentations or workshops, send me a note.)
You can read more about this metaphor and issues of managing organizational change and also find some ideas for overcoming resistance to change in this other blog article linked here.
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For the FUN of It!
Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools.
Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant who is trying to retire!! He now lives in Cuenca, Ecuador.
You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com
Learn more about Scott at his LinkedIn site.
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