Have you ever been so frustrated with your work environment that you wanted to run away and never return? Have you ever felt hopeless, unsure of how to motivate your team or persuade your manager to listen to you? Or have you ever felt powerless to inspire change? Does it feel like the size of the Titanic, overwhelmed and outnumbered, in your attempt to improve your working conditions and results?
From personal experience, the sad truth is that if you answered yes to any of these questions, you are real. I would risk saying you are in a very average organisation. Chances are that most people and workplaces you interact with will share similar characteristics.
Experiencing Frustration
It’s a constant tug-of-war between employer and employee. The employee feels frustrated that the workplace doesn’t change, and the employer feels frustrated that the employees don’t change. Everyone waits for someone or something else to change, resulting in no change at all.
We choose the road less travelled, the typical keeping-up-with-the-Jones syndrome, out of fear of embarking on something new and unknown. We follow the buzzwords and do things as they’ve always been, rather than exploring unknown territory. We are so afraid that we might end up in a dead-end and have to turn around, even though, on the other hand, we might discover a valuable treasure. Our inborn negativity bias causes us to choose the known over the unknown whenever there is even the slightest risk of failure.
Yet, the most beautiful view always emerges after the hardest climb. And if Columbus had not explored previously unknown territory, the world as we know it would be a very different place. To succeed, you need to embrace and inspire change. Don’t want someone else to change? Rather, be the change you wish to see in your workplace.
Five Ways To Inspire Change In Your Workplace
1. Change must be a choice
You can’t be someone to be inspired, so don’t tell someone to change. No change forced on someone will result in sustained change. To use the brilliant metaphor by Rick Hanson, forced change is like Teflon – nothing sticks – while voluntary change is like Velcro. For change to stick, it has to be voluntary.
If you believe you don’t have time to get buy-in, think again. The moment a crisis arises, people often revert to old habits, giving them permission to break the rules. They do things the way they feel comfortable and prefer, rather than the restrictions imposed on them by management.
Taking the time to allow people to choose the change might postpone it for a while, yet it will probably result in a successful and sustainable change in the end. Forcing change on someone because there is no time will most certainly result in the transformation failing. Not only have you wasted a lot of time, but you also have not shown up for it. So, do you really not have the time?
2. Demonstrate quick wins
One of the most valuable things I learned as a consultant was identifying and implementing quick wins immediately. As consultants typically come with a much higher price tag than full-time employees, they are expected to demonstrate value for money by inspiring change immediately.
When someone is unaware of the need to change, try to find one tiny, actionable thing that will immediately show an improvement. Demonstrating quick wins is like giving a sample of a product. They will see the value and want more, or decide it is not for them. Yet, even though they choose not to embark on a journey of change immediately, your quick win has planted a seed that will germinate and grow into a plant sooner or later. Listen to the complaints and address the most significant pain without requesting resources or incentives.
A demonstration
To illustrate my point, I recently had the opportunity to spend time at a design and printing company. The owner complained about the constant and unnecessary interruptions, which kept her from doing what she was good at: the creative side. On top of that, her workload seemed extremely high, yet she was unaware of what she didn’t know about it. On the other hand, the helpers she employed seemed to do nothing for large parts of the day.
After further investigation, I realised her management style was the leading cause of both problems – an easy problem to solve. I immediately implemented a simple Scrum board that stopped interruptions by having two daily stand-ups to discuss issues, alleviating her biggest pain point. The following week, on a quiet day, I facilitated a training session for underutilised employees to be utilised more effectively. It left her much happier, able to focus on the creative side while equipping the other employees with much-desired new skills.
Neither required any additional resources or investments while immediately relieving the most painful problem. It also proved valuable enough for her to embark on a coaching program with me.
3. Adapt your style to inspire change
Having spent a year in Thailand teaching English, I’ve had to find out how to communicate my lessons without speaking Thai. I quickly realised that tried-and-true practices that worked in Western culture had no value in Thai culture, so I had to change my teaching style.
For example, I considered specific individuals, locations, or objects to be world-famous, but I found that they had never heard of them. To make matters worse, their language doesn’t seem like English. There are no tenses in Thai, no punctuation, no distinction between sentences and paragraphs, and the sounds are totally different, with concepts such as word stress unknown to them.
Determined to succeed. However, I experimented with ways to leverage learning methods they are familiar with, such as memorising and repeating facts, and identifying fields of interest that would spark their interest by providing them with projects where they could choose the topic of discussion. When the student doesn’t understand, doesn’t the teacher fit?
The teacher found that my students were keen to attend class and made extraordinary progress. I taught the same skills, but I changed my style.
Similarly, with organisational change, you can’t expect the organisation to buy into the change program by speaking your language. It would be best to adapt your style to discuss a language the recipient understands.
4. Push through the discomfort
When people stubbornly refuse to see the need for change, it often hurts the people and the organisation around them. This is because the organisation holds onto dysfunctional situations, causing more daily harm, or because the people refuse to change. Confrontation may be necessary to bring a stubborn leader to awareness of the need for change, navigating the discomfort that follows with compassion and understanding. Sometimes, you have to open the wound to remove the splinter.
To get the other person to see your point, you must honestly say what you think and feel, even though it might hurt the other person. When they get angry or want to walk away, keep going. Push through. Don’t stop!
Anger often masks a deep-seated hurt, and people frequently feel humiliated, embarrassed, vulnerable, and exposed. Please treat them with the necessary kindness and compassion and, finally, attempt to find a resolution.
5. Walk away
Sometimes, people will not allow you to push through the discomfort, and the best thing you can do is walk away.
Either they and you will be relieved from the discomfort that a change agent demands, or they will realise the need for change and finally see reality.
Most people don’t realise what they have until it’s gone. By walking away, you allow yourself to see your true worth. If they really value you, they will ask you to come back and commit to change. If they don’t, you will be much happier in a more nurturing work environment where you feel more valued.
Do hold onto a dysfunctional environment. They might not be ready for the change you propose or think it is needed. Either way, change has to be voluntary.
Conclusion
Being an inspiring leader who invokes change in the workplace is not a special gift you are born with; it is a skill, like any other, that you can learn.
Change begins with an awareness that a need for change exists. It requires courage to explore the unknown and be vulnerable. Inspiring sustainable change requires voluntary buy-in into the change program and a strong leader who can push through fears.
