Subject to Object

The simple shift at the heart of transformational change

Do you believe people can change?

I do. I suppose I have to. But I have the privilege of seeing it happen all the time. It’s not as rare or elusive as you might think.

We’re always changing in some way, the more important questions might be: Are we doing it intentionally or unconsciously? Do we have the power to change our circumstances and the systems we operate within? And where do we begin?

Any transformational change involves what we might call a subject-object shift. 

In the beginning, we are subject to a condition or a system. For example, a condition of trauma or a system of racial inequity. And being subject to it, at first we may not able to see it clearly, or at all. Yet it informs our thoughts and feelings, words and actions, beliefs and biases.

Imagine going through life wearing a pair of green-tinted glasses. Green is all you know, and you don’t think to question it. 

Then something happens to bring the condition or system we’ve been subject to directly into our awareness. It is now the object of our attention—we are able to look at it, rather than through it. 

Because we are able to see it, it has less power over us. We now have the power to choose what we do about this condition, how to challenge this system. And it is our responsibility to do just that.

I see subject-object shifts happening all over the place now, at individual, organizational and societal levels. The fact that these levels are interrelated and mutually reinforcing is what convinces me that there's no going back. Only forward.

A few questions for you to consider:

• What subject-object shifts have you made this year?

• What are you aware of in your thinking that was previously hidden?

• What subject-object shifts are you seeing in your culture?

• With this in mind, how do you feel about the future?

• How will you leverage these shifts in this moment to create the future you want to see?