Guiding organisational change is one of the most complex challenges leaders face today. Many change initiatives fail not because of poor strategy, but because behaviour, culture, and accountability are overlooked. This article explores how leaders can guide change more effectively by understanding interdependence, shifting habits, and leading transformation at a deeper level.
Overview
Change is constant and interconnected, shaping nature, business, and leadership. To thrive, leaders must embrace interdependence, raise consciousness, and transform behaviours. Sustainable success comes not from shareholder value but from stakeholder collaboration, accountability, and conscious culture. Guiding change means moving beyond comfort, overcoming fear, and creating shared, lasting impact.
Interview
When I began my leadership training in nature years ago with John P. Milton, the first thing I learned was that all forms —whether material, energetic, perceptual, emotional, or of thought —are interconnected and interdependent. This seems obvious to me now. At the time, I hadn’t thought much about it. I also learned that all these forms are constantly in flux. We are changing and transforming into new combinations better suited to serve the continuously shifting needs around us. That is the way of nature.
When we aim to guide change, whether in our own lives or within our companies, we can accelerate the process. We can make a transformational change. Perhaps it would be easier to accept that change is our constant companion. Additionally, recognising our interdependence highlights the need for collaboration in seeking new solutions. It might also be a good move to introduce the role of a change champion to effect change with a focused approach.
Evolving Business Models
Some of the most innovative and successful entrepreneurs and companies today have cultivated the ability to rapidly and continuously reinvent themselves in response to the constant changes in external influences and the evolving needs of their users. They have experimented with linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution to their approach to developing new products and services. This is not only their core competence but also the heart of their culture. They are leaving behind the grand illusion of the limiting equilibrium model promoted by Milton Friedman. This model perpetuates the notion that the primary goal of business is to generate value for shareholders. The new way is to bring value to all the stakeholders. Honouring the nature of our interdependence, we need to co-create win-win solutions for everyone to maintain our sustainability.
Economists are having to unlearn the Freedman’s dogma as well. They are replacing it with newer theories such as “complexity economics” (as previously mentioned), “chaos theory”, and “behavioural economics,” which are moving us toward a circular economy.
Focus On Wholeness
It is hard not to be aware of the faster and more relentless changes in the world around us. These changes require constant adaptability and flexibility. As humans, we have to figure out how to live, lead, and work together peacefully as the largest population in the planet’s history. As we are all leaders, we must learn to adapt while guiding change if we are to address our increasingly pressing problems. We must utilise our imagination and creativity to devise innovative and sustainable solutions. Solutions that can be scaled for the greatest, most positive impact, so we can all thrive. We need to focus on wholeness for our people, for our planet, and for our profits. It all goes hand in hand.
How Do We Do This?
As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we had when we created them.” Radical change is required. The status quo, which is caused by our addiction to comfort and incremental improvements, is not producing the results we need. No wonder the Centre for Creative Leadership, in its white paper, “The Challenges Leaders Face Around the World: More Similar than Different,” stated that one of the six top challenges leaders face is guiding change.
How Leaders Take Charge Of Guiding Change
Einstein said it. What leaders need to guide change successfully is to raise the bar to a higher level of consciousness. This means being willing to get out of their comfort zones and commit to learning and growing. They must be willing to take ownership of thinking and leading differently, expanding their mindsets and worldviews, and changing their behaviour and habits. They must also be willing to let go of resistance and outdated norms. Willing to usher in the new paradigm shifts. The need and desire are to create a different outcome. The only way to get there is to follow a different road map.
More On How
Although some companies have already successfully adopted this new trend, many more companies and their leaders are struggling to do so. They might be starting to understand why the need for change is so imperative for their companies’ success at this time. But the how still eludes them. Dov Seidman, who has dedicated his life to studying how people conduct their businesses and their lives, impressed and inspired me with his knowledge and wisdom on this topic. He shared his views at the Conscious Capitalism 2014 conference in San Diego some years ago.
My takeaway from Dev was that the “How” is not a question. The “How” is the answer. He also stressed that we are all interconnected (here it comes again) and that we are entering into a new era where behaviour matters more than ever. His book, How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything, is a valuable resource for these emerging leadership models.
Still More On How
Last month, I attended a program in Los Angeles presented by Mark Samuel, the founder and CEO of IMPAQ Corporation, called “Leading Urgent Business Transformation”. For the last thirty years, Mark has been studying how to successfully change business culture by working with leaders, teams, and organisations worldwide. He has seen many promising and well-intended culture change initiatives fail the test of time. He made it his mission to develop a methodology that delivers rapid and sustainable results by focusing on personal and team accountability, as well as cross-functional accountability, for effective execution. Here, we have nature’s wisdom yet again regarding interdependence.
Cultural Change Can Take Too Long
I found Mark’s approach to guiding change to be different, practical, and provocative. He says that in today’s business climate, we don’t have time for gradual culture change based on core values. That takes too long. We need to be radical and move fast. From present-state-A to a higher-state-B in the form of transformation and bypass A+ or slight improvement. To Mark, changing a culture successfully is not about a lengthy assessment process, buy-in, or developing yet more skills, such as team building, conflict resolution training, role-playing, or courageous conversations… only to unconsciously stay stuck in the same old habits. And it is not about the values that end up in a folder or sitting on the wall as a forgotten plaque.
For him, achieving the desired business outcome involves changing the culture by altering the behaviour and habits of execution. Here we have Dev’s urgent focus on behaviour. When business results are optimised, that is automatically reflected in core values and relationships. The culture and values are a direct reflection of the behaviour. They become more of a conscious culture as the higher level of State B is reached.
Fundamentals for Guiding Change
The three zones of change:
- Creating an environment that is safe for change
- Moving out of the comfort zone
- Overcoming the “Wall of Fear”
And here are 3 BIG IDEAS that Mark and his team consistently use to rally people behind a change, to produce a breakthrough and measurable results that last:
- Reinforce a compelling picture of success rather than creating another strategic plan
- Go for involvement, not buy-in
- Transform functional managers into a unified team of business owners.
Where are you and your team?
Knowing that change is our constant companion — within and without — it pays to open up to new ideas, adapt and change our behaviour, and form new habits. What behaviour and habits do you, your team, or your company need to change to get to where you need to go?
