Written by, Karen Shenton

My husband said this to me this morning. In fairness, I’d earned it — I was mid-rant about the dust sheets, the disruption, and the general chaos about to descend on our house as he started decorating.

His response? Calm as anything: “You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette.”

It stopped me in my tracks, not because it was profound, but because it’s one of those phrases we all say without ever really thinking about what it means.

What does this phrase me?

I looked it up.

Turns out it’s been around since the 1700s, originally French. And has been used (rather grimly, in some cases) to justify all sorts of upheaval over the centuries.

Thankfully, these days we use it far more gently.

The business meaning.

In business, it simply means this: achieving something worthwhile, a goal, a change, a better way of doing things, almost always comes with some short-term mess, cost or discomfort.

The goal is the omelette. The disruption along the way is the cracked eggs.

In compliance, we see this constantly.

Disruption and change can feel uncomfortable for people and for businesses. It’s happening every day, some changes are just bigger than others.

Take AI. Its introduction into financial services is change at real speed, arguably one of the biggest shifts our industry has faced in decades.

New tools, new risks, new governance questions, new ways of working. It’s a lot of eggs to crack!

But the businesses that get this right aren’t the ones who avoid the mess they’re the ones who plan for it, manage it thoughtfully, and keep sight of the omelette they’re actually trying to make.

So…what’s your omelette?

And what eggs are you willing to crack to get there?

At Create Solutions, we help firms navigate exactly this kind of change, clearly, calmly, and without the jargon.

Whatever your “omelette” looks like, we’re here to help you crack the right eggs.