![]() So while no change can be guaranteed, these interventions need to be as “fail-safe” as possible. That’s because they affect the entire organization and are painful to reverse. ![]() Some changes, like reorgs, mergers, and leadership transitions, companies need to get mostly right the first try.Different methods for different types of change: Generally, change within organizations happens in two ways:.In our process, when communication efforts do kick in, it’s to tell the story of teams who are making change-not idolizing change itself. Just as a smoking cessation patch beats a scary PSA in helping folks actually quit smoking, creating a safe environment where teams can try new behaviors together works better to produce change than any comms plan or sizzle reel. Yet so many change models obsess over comms plans and catch-phrases, desperate to persuade people into changing. A behavior-first approach: Decades of social science tell us that behaviors change attitudes, not the other way around.So we embraced our role as coaches in their process, helping teams troubleshoot blockers and stay on track, rather than trying to prove just how smart we were. Teams who designed their own change had greater motivation and resisted loss less. Co-creation: When we let go of our need to be perceived as experts, and just asked teams what they’d always wanted to try, we saw a dramatic increase in and efficacy of change.Could we design a process that would ultimately work within organizations without our support in the long-term? Would they be more open to change in the future?Īs we chased those outcomes, we found that the following mindsets and methods were essential to success: Increased capacity for change in the future.Could our changes stick? And not just when it was safe to experiment-would teams continue to embrace change and adaptation when uncertainty and pressure mounted against them? Could we confront, head-on, the feelings of loss (of control, time, competence, and so on) that folks naturally feel amid any significant change? If the shared belief that “change is possible” is so critical to long-term and org-wide change, could we produce early wins that serve as tangible evidence that change is, indeed, possible? Could we confront skepticism and even cynicism, not with arguments or empty gestures, but with real proof of change? Over a span of five years, and in partnership with some of the world’s most famous organizations, we tried dozens of novel combinations of change processes, aiming for the following outcomes: Most importantly, we experimented with real teams and their messy problems. We borrowed ideas from traditional change management, yes, but also complexity science (a new scientific field that emerged in the 1980s and 90s), human-centered design, and agile and lean methodologies. We hired academics and seasoned change practitioners. We interviewed past clients and legendary changemakers. (Cue the movie montage.) We investigated every popular change model on the market. In other words, organizations needed a process to ensure change wasn’t just a one-time event driven by a lucky or persistent “rebel,” but rather, a muscle within the organization that could grow stronger with practice. Leaders wanted to spread new practices throughout the organization, and to know when it was time to revisit those practices. Teams had to adapt to customers’ emerging needs faster. ![]() Not another comms plan or additional “change theater,” but a way to truly change collective behaviors and mindsets. What organizations actually needed was a process to make change. The real problem was organizational culture: incentives that muzzled new ideas, silos that prevented changes from spreading, and processes that reinforced the status quo at every turn. In fact, they often had passionate staff who were already championing the same new approaches we were peddling. But to our surprise, we saw firsthand that organizations weren’t suffering from a lack of ideas or access to technology. Our founding members had all worked in innovation agencies, digital transformation studios, and within the operations function of major companies, tasked with infusing organizations with new ideas and technologies that would give them a competitive edge. ![]()
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