Change isn’t easy, and everybody in your team will respond to it differently. Instead of trying to push everybody to embrace change, focus on finding the “bright spots”: small success stories where change is already working. By highlighting these successes, you create a culture where change feels possible, practical, and positive.
Whenever a client engages me to speak at their conference, we always have a presentation briefing call beforehand, so I can learn more about their organisation, the people attending their event, the outcomes they want from my presentation, and how my presentation fits in with the rest of the conference program.
In this meeting, I always ask this important question:
“How receptive are your people to change?”
We all know there’s a lot of external change right now (you don’t need a futurist to tell you that!), and the pace of change is increasing. As a leader, your job is to create a culture that supports, encourages, and embraces change, so you can remain relevant and valuable in the work you do.
In any team, you will have a mix of attitudes toward change – for example:
- Some people embrace it enthusiastically, and will gladly lead change in the team.
- Some aren’t as excited, but accept change as part of their life.
- A few might even actively resist change or fight change.
To build a culture of change – and change agents – you can’t click your fingers and expect everybody to magically change their attitude immediately. It takes time, but there are simple things you can do to facilitate the process.
In their book “Switch”, brothers Chip and Dan Heath describe nine strategies fofr creating change in challenging circumstances. In fact, the subtitle of the book is “How to Change Things When Change Is Hard”.
When I work with leaders and eams about building change, I share some of these ideas (and others from other sources). In my experience, the most useful and practical technique is from this book, and it’s called “Find the Bright Spots”.
In a nutshell, this means seeking and highlighting individual success stories.
For example, a bright spot might be:
- A small change a team member tried (and succeeded)
- A team success story
- An example of successful change from outside the team
Your goal is to highlight these success stories – for example, by sharing one or two at the start of every staff meeting.
By doing this, you help people see examples of change that worked, frequently remind them that change is possible, encourage them to try small change projects themselves, and bring change closer to them in a low-risk way.
This isn’t a magic bullet. Just finding bright spots won’t be enough to bring everybody on the change journey. But it’s a low-risk, high-value first step on the path to building a culture of change agents.
