Change Agent
Hello!
Long time no see. I hadn’t been writing for a few weeks, something like not feeling right. Probably from all the layoffs within the company I work for.
At this point, all tech companies have gone through their round of layoffs, some multiple times in the past 18 months.
I hope you’re doing well! And now to the topic at hand.
During the past week, I’ve been thinking about change agents. Which I consider different from “change agency,” but probably a topic for another time.
I generally have recurring conversations with people around the organization who deal with similar topics. So I have been forming my thoughts based on these conversations.
Being a Change Agent
For me, being a change agent in a large enterprise, or even within an organization of a large enterprise, is both an exciting and challenging role.
In general, you’ll need to meet teams where they are now. Most of the time, you’ll need to do both the old and the new proposed way for quite some time as the idea permeates the org and reaches critical adoption.
Whenever I start with an idea, it’s about something other than telling teams that they’re doing something wrong or that what they’re doing is not good enough. I start by sharing my thoughts in the internal wiki or recurring meetings that are opt-in for the whole organization. These types of actions help me identify people that are interested in the topic and would be able to act as champions with their teams to spread the idea.
How your org works
Another exciting thing for me is asking around and understanding how change is introduced around the organization. Who are the people presenting the changes? Who is making the decisions? Who are the ones with more leverage?
The better you understand the context under which changes happen, the better your strategy will be for deploying the change you want to see in the organization.
How your local teams think
I primarily consider the effect of change on a group’s identity. The overall group (or system) will revert to the status quo whenever the identity feels threatened. The other aspect of change is working with teams to introduce the change over time without disrupting the groups too much.
Conclusion
Being a change agent and changing your organization in a meaningful way is all about the people. You’ll have to meet them where they are, take time to adapt their mental models, and empower them to adopt the change now only, but infuse their knowledge and experience into the new change.
Let me know your thoughts! How have you introduced a change in your organization? or have some recommended reading around this topic? Let me know!
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