Transform and Evolve Like a Dragonfly
Ideas are powerful. Sometimes mind-blowing. Little neurons in the brain bounce against each other, building momentum as they construct concepts, thoughts, notions, and impressions. This roadmap of spontaneous, reflexive ideas or suggestions has the power to trigger creativity, spark innovation, and create those “Aha!” moments.
You can’t anticipate ideas; they surround you as they thirst for an outlet. Problems, ingenious or injurious, will arise in many ways and burn through well-planned situations that have been laid out in a logistical and strategic arrangement that we call axioms. But what happens when opportunistic and transformational ideas cease, interrupted by obstructive circumstances? What happens when an issue that inhibits our ability to implement a sound solution arises? What happens when we are left feeling stranded in a magnitude of vines that are choking our ideas and solutions for a better process? What happens when we encounter a process or procedure, strategic vision, or a forward-moving thoroughfare of plans and sentiments towards a complex position and are left stranded with a field guide missing the most crucial blueprint: good judgment and wisdom?
This perilous moment, where an idea breaks and falls apart from internal or external factors and then rises out of the ashes towards process improvement and transformational lifecycle, is what I call “The Dragonfly Construct,” a process that breathes life into our critical and strategic thinking process.
As I walked in my backyard on a warm summer day with my Australian Shepherd, Mochi, I was taking in the sunshine when I realized I was surrounded by dragonflies. I was enamored by the feeling of walking among the dragonflies as they soared around me carefree amongst a potential threat. I immediately began to think about the journey of a dragonfly and linked it to personal transformation. Like humans, dragonflies undergo difficult stages of their lives that, while different, can mimic comparable situations. The ability to overcome these stages, challenges, and threats in an ever-changing ecosystem is not easy, and many factors can limit growth; however, they develop a level of expertise to thrive. There are three stages in the lifecycle of a dragonfly: egg, larva, and adult. At each stage, developments are made to better position the dragonfly to continue growing. Overlaying the lifecycle of one’s career helps paint a more profound link between the two.
Years ago, and long before giving it a fancy name, I developed the concept of the “Dragonfly Construct” while working in retail management. I’ll share a little more about that later in the book. At one point, I took it with me into the financial industry. I can confidently bear witness to the success stories of applying this construct to career advancement, not solely for myself but for many others. Guaranteed career growth may not always follow a one-size-fits-all model, but following the concepts and ideas outlined in this book can help you understand your role and the processes that impact your team or company. Sure, anyone can change a process, but how we do it affects not only the process but often those connected to it and the potential to add further value to our team and company.
I created this construct to challenge the status quo of how strategy is developed and implemented within a corporation and to streamline efficiencies to derive a new format for strategic management and process improvement.
The Dragonfly Construct
Dragonflies are often seen as a symbol of transformation, and a lot can be learned from their lifecycle and push to grow and adapt to their surroundings. When we start a new job, we are new to the company, its environment, culture, and our role’s inner workings. We are often seen as being “underwater” or treading water to learn a new skill set, understand company-based processes, find where we fit, etc. At this stage, it’s important to absorb as much as possible regarding the environment, behaviors, management, and other vital areas that will lay the groundwork for our success. The Dragonfly Construct focuses on the first six months at a new job and helps add immediate value to engaging and further transforming a company’s processes.
The Egg Stage
Starting off in the egg stage is akin to starting at a new job; we learn the environment and understand how to perform the roles and responsibilities. This stage typically lasts anywhere from 0-2 months and is the most suitable time to self-integrate into the company’s culture and where we fit in the mix. This is the perfect time to network with those in varying and more senior positions. Don’t be afraid to pull the “new joiner” card to facilitate conversations. What worked well for me was setting meetings with managing directors, or people responsible for entire organizations, and learning about their roles, pain points, and tips that helped them get to where they are. I also asked for personal recommendations on team members they felt would be ideal to speak with regarding the pain points and continued to set up meetings. I was able to collate many of these points and integrate solutions via sub-functions on my team to help address them. While everyone’s role differs, you can drive your career and adapt your function to take on additional responsibilities, which will aid your growth as a leader. When companies promote, they typically look for employees who are able to not only lead well but also think outside the box to address current issues and pain points.
As you network around your company, specifically with your department and team, look out for any areas of opportunity that pique your interest, jot them down, and save them for later. By identifying areas of improvement or gaps early on, we place ourselves in a better position to build a strategic roadmap and develop a function that better considers the existing landscape and the proposed end state. The best starting point is talking to stakeholders and prior team members to understand key pain points. This is something that should be done shortly after taking the position. Like the dragonfly, during a specific timeframe in the role, we undergo an iteration of metamorphosis. As we understand the role and organization and continue to grow, we can network outside of our core group of stakeholders and identify synergies across departments, organizations, divisions, etc.
The Larva Stage
Post-metamorphosis, the next stage is the larva stage, in which the dragonfly seeks higher ground to avoid predators and thoroughly understands the environment, deriving a survival strategy. In this stage, we are constantly growing in our roles and learning from mentors either sought out personally or assigned by the firm. This is the time, roughly between months 2 and 3, that we want to refer to the process improvement notes jotted down earlier in the egg stage and put them into effect. This is a crucial part of the construct as it drives the value we’re adding through the addition, removal, or modification of steps in a process.
As we begin to piece together and examine workflows, take a step back and try to understand the process's current objective. It is vital to fully know the purpose to be able to modify or remove steps and ensure that the message isn’t lost or compound confusion for those following it. Most companies have change management guidelines or how processes can be changed, their frequency, and how it’s communicated. Be aware that other teams or organizations within the company may leverage the same process, so making changes without first knowing the scale can cause issues and have the opposite of our intended effect that we are trying to have. Once we’ve been made aware of the end-to-end scope of a process, it’s time to act. In conversations on this topic, the line I hear most often is that an idea is “too simple” and that “someone must have already thought of it, so that’s why it’s not implemented.” While this may be true, a fresh perspective often does wonders and may not have been considered.
While working for a large video game retailer, I took regular trips to various stores in my district and observed many different methods being utilized in employee training. As a result of my observations, I drafted a small talent development plan to implement across the stores and emailed it to the CEO. I shared this insight with a few people within my district, including my manager, who told me it was a waste and too simple of an idea to get a response because it had likely already been considered. As I hit send, I sat back and thought I had done one of two things: either something incredible or I was about to get fired for significantly jumping the chain of command to voice a problematic area and a solution. After 40 excruciatingly long minutes, I got a reply saying, “Thank you Jordan, I appreciate your input! I will discuss your input with [names of his leadership team] who manage our US leadership development.” Over several weeks, I worked with their leadership team to implement some aspects of my proposal. When this happened, I was in awe. How could something so simple not have been brought up? Was the way I analyzed situations different? This train of thought has stuck with me as I continue implementing process changes where I’m constantly met with “no one has ever done it this way” or “if it’s not broken, there is no need to fix it.” Often, leadership can underestimate that the work they oversee could be done better or more efficiently. Sometimes, all it takes is for you to challenge the status quo, highlight areas of opportunity, and provide solutions. It’s as simple as that. It’s always essential to propose your ideas because the worst thing that can happen is your management telling you no. However, if it’s something that hasn’t been done before, congratulations! You have successfully identified an area of opportunity and can now take the call to action to implement it. There are many times that individuals know what’s wrong, but they choose to do nothing due to the following:
1. They don’t have a voice within their department or at the organizational level
2. They are complacent in their role and don’t care
3. Are stuck in the mindset of “it’s always been done this way”
4. They have a negative perception about the change
5. They don’t have enough experience to notice or understand that a process or
procedure is faulty
I was talking to John, a friend from high school, and he shared a story about when he was hired to come in and make internal changes—changes that were supposed to be improvements to processes and procedures that the CEO felt were faulty within his organization. The CEO had a laundry list of items that he had written down on a piece of paper that was folded multiple times into a small square. The CEO said, "Get this fixed as soon as possible," handing John the folded paper. As the CEO walked away, he looked back at John and yelled, "You have a month to get these issues fixed, and I want to start seeing results ASAP." Not sure what "I want to start seeing results" truly implied, John envisioned the worst nightmare of his career, fixing a list of areas and issues he had no input or knowledge of. John worked directly with the CEO for a couple of days, sitting in meetings and reviewing how the CEO wanted things to run, as he pointed to specific people as the culprits for each item on the list.
Four weeks into John's job, he just happened to be walking the building hallways and bumped into a gentleman who clearly knew John's name. As the gentleman approached, he introduced himself as a board director and shared how they had talked about John at their meeting just a few minutes ago. In fact, they were having a board meeting in the other room, and they were all taking a break. This board director told John how excited he was that things would finally change and improve. He said to John, "At our last board meeting, we told him [the CEO] that he needed to hire someone that had the right leadership, skillset, and talent to come in and research why there is a lack of communication, motivation, trust, and why there are so many issues that are affecting the organization and the employees." The director joked by saying to go ahead and ruffle as many feathers as he needed to figure this out. This particular director might have spoken a little too much, maybe because he did not trust the CEO, or maybe there was something deeper he could not share. Still, he did mention that the CEO had a lot of weaknesses and that John was the key person to come in and provide a professional point of view of strength to help the CEO identify issues and help lead in the areas where the CEO was underperforming.
This conversation was an eye-opener for John. The board director was painting a picture in a particular light, a somewhat negative portrayal of the CEO with a positive outlook for potential change. Yet John's interactions and requests from the CEO were much different in perspective. As weeks passed, all meetings between John and the CEO stopped. There were no phone calls or emails to John about anything. It was as if the CEO was ghosting John. Every time John tried to set up a meeting with the CEO, it was denied, or John was informed that the CEO was too busy and told to continue researching and working on fixing the issues. It became apparent very quickly that John would end up sitting in his office week after week, fulfilling a position that at first looked like a dire need directly for change and improvement requests from the CEO, but now it was a dead-end position. It was as if the CEO hired John to fulfill the demands of the board of directors, but now that the board meeting was over, there was no need for John or his input.
John finally sat down with the CEO to share his findings almost three months later. John's research surfaced many detailed problems, the vast majority pointing at the CEO being at fault. It was hard for John to share this; he was putting his new job and career on the line by telling the person who hired him to fix things that the problem all along was the leadership at the top—the CEO. The CEO got very defensive with John's results from his research, dismissing every single one of John's findings. John gave him a 48-page document that provided all the evidence, solutions, and recommendations for mitigating them. Many included easy ways to make improvements or changes that John felt would turn the organization around in six months. As John left that meeting, he left a copy of the document with the CEO, hoping these areas would be addressed.
After two years in that position, John decided to leave. All of the items on his document had yet to be addressed or considered by the CEO. The issues were never discussed again after John presented them to the CEO. Sadly, over time, John could clearly see that the CEO needed more experience. He was not the leader that this organization deserved, and that the CEO could not handle the execution of John's input.
As John finished sharing this story with me, he mentioned that the organizational culture had become very toxic, and the CEO always had this “my way or the highway” condescending attitude towards employees, their ideas, and their work. John looked me straight in the eye and, unfortunately, said that what he believed to have been his dream job at this organization quickly turned into a bizarre, micromanaged, and manipulative opportunity from an arrogant leader who was intolerant to accept people with differing opinions.
All it takes is for you to raise your hand and share your ideas. This will immediately put you on management’s radar as someone who can think outside the box and has critical and strategic thinking skills. If you see an area of opportunity, say something. Chances are, no one has said anything before.
The Adult Stage
The final stage for a dragonfly is the adult stage, where it learns to be adaptive, with the ability to fly in six directions at a moment’s notice to avoid danger, seek shelter, and even catch smaller insects for food – all while learning how to live post-metamorphic transformation. In the corporate world, it often feels like we are pulled in six different directions between business-as-usual and additional tasks – stretch goals or wearing multiple hats.
After hitting a certain point in a role, your management or other teams will see your performance and come to you with new opportunities to take on additional work on top of your primary job. This is done to further drive collaboration and growth across the firm, also known as stretch assignments. These stretch assignments are essential as they introduce us to new technologies, teams, and processes that can be further integrated into current responsibilities. After 3-6 months in the role, your grasp on day-to-day operations and your role on the team should be well understood. After combining knowledge and experience from the previous stages, your ability to look beyond our scope of responsibilities also allows you to find synergies across different teams and functions. At this point, you can see what is being done well or where areas for opportunity are present and seek to either integrate them into our processes or provide solutions for other teams’ processes that we may have influence over.
After six months, the dragonfly dies off, but that doesn’t mean your career or processes will follow suit. The Dragonfly has experienced a lot through its journey and contributed to creating the next generation to inhabit the earth. This is the time to take the knowledge you have learned and apply it through the Dragonfly Construct and begin to mentor those around you, both internal and external to your company. Understanding process management or re-engineering in today’s environment is a significant skill set to obtain and can be applied to any existing role. As your company's economic and social landscapes adapt and shift, so should your processes – and all it takes is someone willing to step up and do the work. Throughout my career, professionally and academically, I have mentored and continue to mentor students and professionals to build their brand and become experts in the process improvement or continuous improvement space.
Putting It All Together
Driving process improvements in a global company can be terrifying and daunting; however, there is a bigger reward when it impacts not only yourself and the company but the local community. When I think of an end-to-end process of the Dragonfly Construct that yielded great results, it was when I was asked to run the Jr. Business Analyst program at one of the largest financial institutions in the world. At that time, it was a program that had been established for roughly three years that partnered with local school districts to bring high school seniors into the office to give them real-world experience and bridge the gap between the theory learned in the classroom and the practical side of the workforce. It had great success in finding top talent and giving the students the necessary exposure to what it’s like to work for a global bank, which resulted in many of them being hired after graduation. When I took the reins, I saw an opportunity to expand this further. But how could I, an Assistant Vice President, have any sort of impact? It was already a robust process within a single organization of the bank but with little to no marketing or awareness.
As I entered the egg stage, I began to socialize the program and met with others who ran similar programs for college analysts or coding boot camps to get an idea of how they were able to expand and grow. In this case, I leveraged the “new” card to ensure I covered all my bases before putting together a proposal. At this stage, I began to gain exposure to the different processes and subprocesses involved in this large-scale, enterprise-wide program and saw where I could improve them within my own space. In the Larva stage, I began to draft up these areas of opportunities and the solutions to address gaps and have a sustainable process and program. I even drafted the processes on a whiteboard and ran through each phase to see where they could be consolidated or removed to drive efficiency. Some of these included how to quickly vet and onboard school districts, attract other managers and senior leaders to get on board and participate in the program, and ensure students had actual, impactful projects to last them the entire school year. Finally, I entered the adult stage. I compiled my notes and proposal, citing quantitative and qualitative data of the recent cohorts who participated in the program, and identified who I needed to speak with to implement it. There was a town hall with the head of operations & technology, and at the end of it, he asked everyone to reach out if they had ideas, concerns, or general feedback. I took advantage of this opportunity. I immediately met with his administrative assistant and secured a 30-minute slot on his calendar. When the day came, I was nervous but excited and motivated. I joined our internal meeting application and waited. He joined! He informed me that I was the only one who reached out to him, and we proceeded with introductions and learning more about his role. Toward the end of our conversation, I made the pitch. I wanted to expand the program globally. I shared my insights and their impact on the company and the development of the next-generation workforce. I stated that high school graduates were an untapped market that few companies were exploiting. The rest is history. The program, which has been in place for over eight years now, has expanded outside of the small organization in Texas to New York and London, with more sites to be added this year.
When I embarked on my journey, I didn’t know how to go about it. Through the concepts in the Dragonfly Construct, I was able to plan, prepare, and learn about how others were implementing similar programs and adapted these processes accordingly to meet the needs of my program systemically and methodically. Never in a million years would I have thought that I’d have an impact at my company and in the community, providing high school students in Title 1 or low-income school districts with a platform for learning, growth, and development. This proves that no matter the position in the company, YOU can drive your career and be impactful. While you may not start a high school internship program (which you most definitely should), even the smallest of processes can significantly impact the world around you.
The Dragonfly Construct creates immediate value for your team, department, and organization by having a fresh pair of eyes to identify areas of opportunity and re-engineer existing processes. By identifying areas of improvement or gaps early on, we place ourselves in a better position to build strategic roadmaps and develop a function that better considers the existing landscape and the proposed end state. No matter where you work or what you do, whether retail or corporate, you can make a difference, implement new processes, and identify new areas for improvement. And it’s not only at work. The Dragonfly Construct can be used to improve processes at home too. You can take this to teach your family members and friends to improve the processes in their everyday lives.
Case Study 1 – The Dragonfly Construct
Audience: Organizations (offsite activity or general team building exercise) and Individuals (personal, high school, or college class activity).
Purpose: Using Chapter 1: Transform and Evolve like a Dragonfly, select one area of opportunity (personal or work-related) and run it through the Dragonfly Construct. This exercise will get you in the process improvement mindset and help find unique ways to challenge the status quo.
Structure: 500-1,500-word analysis
Process:
Step 1. The Egg Stage
a. Based on your understanding of your team, department, or organization, identify one area of opportunity within a process
a. What is the purpose of the process?
b. Is it a national, regional, or global process?
Step 2. The Larva Stage
a. Provide a minimum of one solution
1. How would you solve the problem identified?
b. Reimagine
1. Reimagine the process end-to-end, what would you change to improve the process flow? And why?
Step 3. The Adult Stage
a. Understand the interdependencies within the process
a. Are other teams using it?
b. If you change something, will it impact anyone?
b. Will this change require approval from anyone? (manager, spouse, significant other, friend, family)
c. What is the timeframe to implement the change to the process?
Step 4. Detailed Analysis
Provide a detailed write-up with the area of opportunity, potential solution,
analysis of the Dragonfly Construct, and proposed execution time.
Be sure to include the following:
1. The process you are improving
2. What is the issue and your solution to resolve it?
3. Are there other teams dependent on this process?
4. How long it will take to implement the change to the process?
Step 5. Check Your Understanding
Based on your analysis, include responses to the below questions:
1. Is this the first time you improved a process? If not, what are some of the
experiences you’ve had?
2. What made you decide to select the area of opportunity?
3. What was the reason for choosing the proposed solution(s)?
4. What happens if you encounter an issue after you roll out the process?
5. How do you think you can apply the Dragonfly Construct to other areas?
