This afternoon I attended part of an on-going lecture series offered by Northwestern University’s Center for Learning and Organizational Change. Today’s session explored the question “when is change transformational?” and was presented by Dorie Blesoff, a faculty member in Northwestern’s Master’s program in Learning and Organizational Change, and Pat Allen, an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute.

Dorie and Pat actually facilitated a discussion around two questions: When is change transformational, and what makes that change sustainable? (Dorie noted the paradox embedded in that question – if the change is sustained, it’s no longer a change; it’s a new state. But that’s fodder for another posting…).

This is a long preamble to the insight gained at the table discussion in which I participated. All of the lecture participants broke into groups of 3 or 4 to share “transformational” change moments, and to explore what common themes that emerged in our brief narratives. The group that I participated in ended up landing on “identity” as the common thread through all of our stories. They were all about being and not just doing or changing. Something happened, it inspired change, and that led to the emergence of a new identity (the sustainable outcome of the change).

I share this because it strikes me as a reasonable way to think about the type of large-scale change that leaders like Jeffrey Hollender allude to when they challenge companies to stop “compartmentalizing” social responsibility and make it more intrinsic to the corporate identity. It’s not only about thinking differently, perhaps, but also about embracing an identity which says ” we are different.”