How the leadership team’s N=1 experiment could help reduce resistance during a cultural change
Whether a significant cultural shift or a minor process improvement, change is conceptually fairly simple to define but frequently difficult to implement and complete. It is the bottom line of many interventions we have had with clients in the past nine years of running our consulting business.
In some ways, the implementation phase, where we actually “land the change” in the organization, is similar to “landing a plane,” with two distinct stages:
- IN THE AIR: The planning stage is where the leadership team assesses the organization and defines the gap analysis, or end goal. Often, this means using focus groups, questionnaires, and workshops to elicit insight.
- THE LANDING: The implementation stage is where everyone involved must adapt how they work, think, or act.
To get all employees’ minds and hearts on board with the change in a way that not only makes sense but also gets them excited, the leaders of an organization need to get involved ahead of time and conduct their own experiment first.
What I mean by that is that they willingly subject themselves to that desired change agenda and run their own experiment first in their domain, drawing their own personal and honest insights based on their challenges and ways to navigate them. It is similar to how pilots become more alert while landing.
The benefits of this approach include:
- Anticipating potential resistance and adapting accordingly
- Bringing to light the leadership team’s unconscious beliefs and assumptions that could cause resistance down the road
- Using these insights to communicate with the organization honestly and authentically, demonstrating precision and care in implementing the change
This honesty not only strikes a chord with people, but they also look to you as a role model for making that inquiry in themselves. The degree of psychological safety rises, leading to greater self-reflection, personal responsibility, and momentum for change. Without this, there may be resistance and ignorance, which could make the change process falter rather than “land smoothly.“