The Goo Stage

What if the chaos you're feeling right now isn't a sign that something is wrong — but a sign that something is changing? In this episode I share a story about receiving feedback from a CMO that rattled my ego and left me disoriented in ways I couldn't explain. I had worked with elite journalists, published in top magazines — and here was someone questioning my best work. I didn't have language for what happened next. Virginia Satir did. In the 1970s, family therapist Virginia Satir mapped something she kept seeing in the families she worked with: change doesn't move in a straight line. After a foreign element arrives — a piece of feedback, a job loss, a diagnosis, a conversation that changes everything — what follows often isn't smooth transition. It's chaos. Performance drops. Clarity disappears. You feel less capable than before the change began. And then there's the butterfly. Inside the chrysalis, a caterpillar doesn't gradually transform — it dissolves completely into goo. A cellular soup of pure chaos. It is, for a time, neither half caterpillar nor half butterfly. That dissolution isn't a sign something went wrong. It's the biological prerequisite for what comes next. What you'll learn: - Virginia Satir's chaos stage - Why comparing yourself to peers who seem to have it together may be misleading - A reframe for anyone in the middle of a difficult transition Show Notes: - Satir Change Model: https://cameronconaway.com/change-management/#frameworks - The Satir Model (book): https://amzn.to/4c7JYzk - Giving Feedback for Impact After Receipt: https://cameronconaway.com/blog/giving-feedback-iar/ About 3-Minute Reframe A weekly show for anyone who wants to communicate better, understand themselves more clearly, and find practical ways to grow. Evidence-based insights from organizational behavior, psychology, and management research — made human and actionable in under 3 minutes. New episodes every Thursday. #changemanagement #personaldevelopment #leadership #virginiaasatir #growth #feedbackliteracy #selfawareness #organizationalbehavior #transition #chaos