Anna Sandberg, Head of Continuous Improvement & Change at Product Creation, at Volvo Cars, Gothenburg, Sweden, acknowledged the need to “find and work with the innovators and the early adopters” when instigating change in an organisation, “the reason is that all the others will tell you why it won’t work”, “and you want people to be thinking, “Why don’t I try this? This might be something to try out too.””
Sandberg acknowledged that transformations in the workplace are a group effort; stating that “Change doesn't happen just because a couple of persons think it would be nice.” This idea is very much supported by Chip and Dan Heath, co-authors of the book Switch: How To Change When Change Is Hard.
The Heath brothers acknowledge that change begins with the individual, or a small number of people who believe that something could be improved. But, it is far deeper than that; the first thing that needs to be done, when you truly seek change, is to outline and engage the rational side of yourself; provide yourself, and later your team and colleagues, with clear instructions to reach this elevated state, with positive ideas related to changes highlighted, with the hopes of casting light over the shadows of doubt.
Following this, the brothers suggest that the emotional side of your mind will need to be motivated, too. When doing this, you should reduce the intensity of the changes; cutting down each aspect of it into easy to process pieces. This would put yourself in a situation where you should be able to stimulate the emotional mind, which thrives off immediate gratification. You are rewarded consistently, and will feel that you have achieved significant feats at shorter intervals.
Lastly, they acknowledge that the importance of leading by example. You must reward the desired behaviour with praise will inspire others to follow suit. Sandberg stated that she “work[s] with the ones that want to make things happen” and “look[s] for the ones that will help us find new solutions to problems and opportunities.” The brothers believe that the process of demonstrating that colleagues who have potentially adopted the change faster than others, being held in high esteem should encourage those who are still resisting that they really are on the right path, and motivate them to continue to strive toward the new desired behaviour. Even if it takes them longer to achieve it. Since, as Sandberg said, “you need to prepare for changes in structures, mindset, and competence”.
You must remember that we are all human, we all learn at different paces, we all adapt to changes differently. Not every fledgling in a nest takes flight at the same time, that doesn’t mean they are weaker flyers, they are simply not ready yet. And that doesn’t stop their siblings from taking off either. Sometimes you have to just take the leap and believe that eventually your team will join you in the skies, because, you’ve got a strong team of likeminded individuals behind you.
Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.
He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.
The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.
To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com
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