Butterfly Thinking

I can’t remember when I first learned about the life cycle of a butterfly but it must have been about the age of 4.

Here I am now, almost a half century later, at least 6 out of 10 times when I see a butterfly, I have a moment of ‘holy crap, that used to be a caterpillar!’.

When I look at a caterpillar, I try to see a butterfly. Although there are hints, I still have a brain explosion when I think about the little wriggly thing wrapping itself up and turning into something that flies.

There are great quotes around the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

There is one that says,

‘Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly’ B. Hains Howett.

The one I particularly like though is

‘You can’t have butterfly thinking with a caterpillar mindset’.

I don’t know who exactly said that one and my ample research of a 5 minute google search didn’t give me any indicators. I can’t remember where I heard that one but I love it.

To me, butterfly thinking is about innovation, creativity and possibility. It’s about looking at the possibilities even though you might not know if they are practicalities. It’s about drawing a conclusion or identifying a destination without quite knowing the storyline or direction.  Even if you don’t exactly know how to solve something, if we have a picture of a possibility, you can somewhat backwards map and work out a sequence.

When you look at a butterfly, you can see the essence of a caterpillar.

When you look at a caterpillar, you can see the essence of a butterfly.

When you look at the whole picture of the butterfly and then look back at a caterpillar, you can’t help but think ‘How on Earth did that happen?!?!’.

Whether you are leading a school, teaching a class or trying to get a new idea off the ground, you need to look for the butterfly in the caterpillar moments.

 It’s easy to dismiss ideas, people or teams by saying ‘the culture here will always be toxic’ or ‘the kids in this class will never be respectful’ or ‘research shows this strategy is best but we can’t do it because it’s too difficult to change’. This is a caterpillar mindset. You might see improvements but it’ll be at a crawling pace.

So how do we get to some butterfly thinking?

Identify what you want the team, the class, the idea or the culture to look like. This is a great activity to do with your staff, class or even by yourself. No barriers, no bad ideas, no put downs, no ‘that will never work’. Essentially you are doing what Stephen Covey calls ‘beginning with the end in mind’.

You might call this phase your ‘drawing the butterfly’ phase. From there, start mapping out the little ways you could move towards this result. Some ideas might work, some might not but at least you’ll be closer to being a butterfly than a caterpillar. You might need to prepare yourself with some ‘fattening up’ on research, conversations and visiting places where the butterfly is in full view. You might need to retreat into your chrysalis for a while and reflect on why this change is important.

By looking at things with some butterfly thinking rather than a caterpillar mindset, you’ll be seeing possibilities that perhaps once seemed impossible. In a few months, a year, a few years or even longer you’ll look back and identify the life cycle which lay behind you: a culture transformed from toxic to thriving, students who turned a corner, a moment of ‘I think I’m getting the hang of this!’

The choice really is yours. Take flight with some butterfly thinking or crawl slowly with a caterpillar mindset.

Which one will you choose?