Working in corporation change is fraught with many challenges. One of these challenges is ostracisation and rejection of the change agent by the corporate immune system. It is useful to understand why this resistance can be expected. Many change makers struggle with this apparent rejection by their colleagues and with the inevitable frustration due to the glacial speed of progress. The reasons for such phenomena are as manifold as the obstacles one must overcome. However, for this Thursday Thought, let’s consider a core reason why change is so difficult: the fear of the unknown.
One of the challenges that so many organisations and individuals face is that we have grown accustomed to a steady and stable environment. The relative stability of the post-war period, an anomalous period in world history, has somewhat contributed to our conditioning for stability. As a result, our mental and operational flexibility has atrophied. Progress and change only happen when we adapt, when we permanent reinvent, when we understand that chaos and order are bedfellows.
A practical guide for harnessing new, novel or game-changing breakthroughs
The Radical Innovation Playbook with Olga Kokshagina and Allen Alexander
The chemical reactions involved in striking a match provide a great metaphor for the plight of a corporate change maker.
This episode is about getting to grips with how to actually change your behaviour so you stay curious a little bit longer.
Author of The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, Michael Bungay Stanier tells us how.
Swiss cheese Model for Ideas Aidan McCullen. Have you noticed a colleague who was once full of ideas, who has gone unusually quiet? Perhaps you may assume they are just disinterested? You may think they are having a bad day? Perhaps instead, they have fallen prey to a corporate lobotomy? Perhaps they are worn down? Perhaps they just couldn’t be bothered any more.
No matter your business or your position, you can apply his approach to create a workplace where everyone takes responsibility for their actions, people are healthier and happier – and everyone is a leader.
What does Tree Dieback have to do with leadership? Nature instinctively knows what to do to ensure the survival of a species, but we homo sapiens can make things much more complicated than they might otherwise be. Biases, blind spots and clinging to the status quo block our progress. Being aware of this is the first step.
We were all impacted in various ways in 2020, but just as bruises result in scar tissue, which is thicker than normal tissue, setbacks can result in resilience if we change how we perceive them. C.S. Lewis puts it beautifully, “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
Our guest is here to say: It isn’t your fault. creating positive change isn’t as hard as you think and when it comes to change tiny is mighty. We welcome, founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University and author Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg.