The Inner Game of Change
Welcome to The Inner Game of Change podcast, where we dive deep into the complexities of managing organisational change. Tailored for leaders, change practitioners, and anyone driving transformation, our episodes explore key topics like leadership, communication, change capability, and process design. Expert guests share practical strategies and insights to help you navigate and lead successful change initiatives. Listen in to learn fresh ideas and perspectives from a variety of industries, and gain the tools and knowledge you need to lead transformation with confidence. Explore our episodes at www.theinnergameofchange.com.au, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube or anywhere you listen to your podcasts.
The Inner Game of Change
A Change Question - Who AM I Becoming Through This Change?
Welcome to A Change Question — a special mini-series from The Inner Game of Change.
In each short, solo episode, I bring you one question worth sitting with — the kind that can spark both personal and professional shifts.
Who am I becoming through this change?
From Pip’s awakening in Great Expectations, to David Bowie’s reinvention, to Maya Angelou’s reminder that becoming is rarely glamorous, this episode looks at how change does not just happen around us — it happens through us.
Ali unpacks how our brains reshape our experience during change, how resistance is often the first sign that something inside us is trying to shift, and how even small personal changes ripple outward into our work, families, and communities.
He also offers a simple reflection framework — Look Back, Look Around, Look Ahead — to help you sense how much change has already shaped who you are today.
If you are navigating uncertainty, evolving in your role, or simply noticing shifts inside yourself, this episode might meet you exactly where you are.
The question for you this week:
Who are you becoming through the changes in your life — and is that the person you want to become?
Ali Juma
@The Inner Game of Change podcast
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I want to start with someone I've always found fascinating, Pip from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Pip begins life with a simple view of himself, ordinary and spectacular, certain about who he is and where he belongs. Then change arrives, unexpected, disruptive, almost confusing, and suddenly he's pulled into a life he never imagined. His world shifts, his identity shifts, and the real turning point is not the money or the move to London, it is the moment he realizes he is becoming someone he doesn't fully recognize. That moment, that awareness, is when the deeper question appears. Who am I becoming through this change? I really like that. And it reminds me of a line from David Bowie that I've always enjoyed. He once said, I do not know where I'm going from here, but I promise it will not be boring. Every time I hear that I smile. It feels true. Change is uncertain, but it is also strangely alive. Bowie never just walked through change, he shaped it. He kept reinventing how he saw himself, how he showed up, how he made art. And then there is Maya Angelo. She once wrote that we admire the butterfly, but rarely acknowledge the changes it has had to go through to become that way. She understood that becoming is not glamorous work, it is quite uncomfortable and deeply human. Pip, Bowie, Angelo, all three show us the same thing. Change is not just something that happens around us, it is something that happens through us. And maybe the real invitation is to slow down long enough to actually notice who we are becoming inside it. I am Ali Jumma and I have a change question. This is a short solo series inside the inner game of change, just me exploring the questions that stay with me and offering them to you in case they stay with you too. It is not therapy, it is not advice. It is simply a quiet moment to pause together and think about the changes that shape our lives. Who am I becoming through this change? Here's something I find really fascinating. Neuroscientists often say that our brains do not simply record what happens in our lives, they actually construct our experience. We see the world through a lens we have built over years with our memories, our culture, our fears, and our hopes. So when life changes around us, our perspective changes too, and it is not only the situation that shifts, it is the story we tell ourselves about who we are in that moment. Literature has always understood this. Think of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. At the start, she is sharp, witty, and certain of her judgments. Then life presents her with information that does not fit her old view. She resists, we all do, but slowly she sees herself more clearly. That self-awareness becomes the doorway to her transformation. Or Scrooge in a Christmas carol, he resists every pull toward generosity and connection. Then he is confronted with versions of his past, present, and future. He does not escape change, he lets it work on him. And from that uncomfortable mirror, a different man emerges. I love stories like these because they are honest. They show that resistance is not failure. Resistance is often the first sign that something inside us is trying to shift. Carl Jung once said, What you resist persists. And I think he was right, when we stop fighting the lesson, transformation finally has somewhere to land. Psychologists call this perspective plasticity, our ability to update our meaning making when the world around us changes. I quite like that actually. It reminds me that growth is not always about adding something new. Sometimes it is simply about seeing what's already there with softer eyes. And here's something you have noticed in myself. When we resist change, we do not stop it. We only delay our participation in it. So maybe the real question is not how do I go through this, maybe it is who is this change helping me to become? If you want a gentle way to sense how much change has shaped you, here's something I often do myself. Look back. Think of who you were 12 months ago, what beliefs have softened, what stories about yourself feel different now? Look around. What feels different about how you show up? How you listen, how you react, how you make decisions. Real growth often hides in these small daily moments. Look ahead. What do you want this chance to leave you with? A boundary? A habit? A bit more calm? Naming it gives the whole thing direction. That simple reflection turns random change into pattern and pattern into meaning. To me, that is self-awareness, change awareness, or even change intelligence. And here's the part I find most beautiful. Who we are becoming does not stop with us. It affects the people we work with. It shapes the mood at home. It influences how our friends feel around us. It trickles into teams, families, and communities. A manager who becomes a better listener changes the rhythm of a workplace. A parent who becomes more present changes the emotional weather of a home. A friend who becomes calmer makes everyone breathe a little easier. Personal change always leaks outward. It is never just personal. Viktor Frankel once said that between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies our power to choose. That is where becoming begins. So here's my question for you this week. Who are you becoming through the changes around you? And what ripple might that becoming leave on the people around you? I will leave you with this question. And if you want to explore more of these ideas, come over to the Inner Game of Change podcast. The conversations there, especially the mental model series, might meet you exactly where you are. Until next time, stay well.
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