Shapeshifting is bad. Except when it's good.

Your essence should be fixed, but your tactics should be fluid.

Sometimes the word “shapeshifting” breaks my heart. Other times, it gladdens it. Let me explain.

Changing your identity to fit in? That kind of shapeshifting is an occupational hazard of most occupations. To get heard/accepted/promoted relies on you fitting in to the predominant workplace culture. This kind of shapeshifting can show up as Black women straightening their hair. Gay employees not talking about their partner. Women not mentioning they have children.

This is the heartbreaking scenario.

Why should you suffer the consequences of a workplace springloaded to reject you? You shouldn’t. Which explains why people shapeshift to avoid the very real bias against them. Yet what is lost in this trade is unmeasurably tragic. Companies will never know how much their bottom-line, morale, and innovation suffer by trying to standardize people. It would be the greatest accounting of our worst tendencies.

The second kind of shapeshifting is the good kind.

It’s the ability to anticipate and capitalize on new information, world realities, and tech advancements. We are living through a time of such hastened change that being able to adapt on the fly is a superpower.

Pay attention. You’ll see some companies still trying to force in-office attendance. Other companies poo-pooing AI rather than getting smart about where it’s headed. But also look for the rare company that shapeshifts in smart ways: reconfiguring to meet market needs quickly. This lightness of touch is the mark of modern leadership.

I hear the word “shapeshifting” used in both contexts quite a bit lately. Yet one we need to work to make unnecessary and the other we need to work to make essential.

Until next time, remember that culture is the new creativity.