How to Lead Change When Everything is Changing

Speaker A: Welcome to the Edge of Work podcast. I'm your host, Al D. This is a podcast for leaders who want to make sense of workplace trends and are looking for new ideas about how to lead people and grow their business in a changing world of work. During each episode, I'll bring you the latest experts, researchers, founders and leaders to share new and unique ideas as well as actionable advice around attracting and retaining talent, developing people, and building healthy and sustainable organizations. Hi everyone. Thanks so much for joining today for taking time out of your Thursday to come chat about change for those who I don't have the privilege of knowing. My name is Al D. I'm the founder of the Edge of Work, which is the name of my talent advisory and strategy consulting practice. I spend most of my days talking to, speaking and advising organizations that are navigating change and trying to think through how to develop their leaders and their people. To do that, I also have the privilege of hosting the Edge of Work podcast, a podcast that explores the intersection of talent in the future of work. And I feel like change is a part of lot of our conversations and so I'm really delighted to be here today and that you joined all of us. So I wanted to do a couple things today and to really just level set in terms of really thinking about where we're at. And before I jump into that, I've got a quick poll question. If I could just fire this thing up, I would just know from all of you and you can use the Zoom functionality to answer this question. How much change are you experiencing right Now? Scale of 1 to 5? This, this isn't overtly scientific, but hopefully it'll give enough of us for getting started. But yeah, I'd love to know where are you right now in terms of how much change you're experiencing? If you've got any comments on that or any, any color you want to add. I know sometimes a multiple choice doesn't always give you the creative freedom to share. Feel free to add any other color in that and I'm going to hopefully share those results. It looks like most folks are in the significance of overwhelming. We've got some folks in the moderate. It looks like folks are navigating a lot of change. That's great and wonderful. I know that can be challenging, which is why I wanted to do this session is to share a little bit of my own perspective just in terms of the types of challenges related to change that I'm seeing and observing. Really being able to share with you some of that perspective as well as hopefully Also really digging into why this is and what's maybe getting in the way from being able to make further progress on this and hopefully also trying to come up with some actionable ideas about how we can approach this in a different way. So with that, just a couple comments here. Kayla shares. New to an organization and building a new function changed for me, for my teams and all of those around us. Yeah, it's pretty common, I think if you uh, I love that example, Kayla, because I think it speaks to just the realities I think that many leaders are facing today, which is at any given time there's probably some kind of change that's happening all around you. Okay, great. Thank you all for sharing just your perspective on where you're seeing change. I, I think most of you probably heard about this because I just released a new white paper on how to lead change, which covers a lot of which I'm going to cover today. But I'm going to use this time to go a little bit deeper. But I will also send a copy of this to everyone who attends today. One of the things that I've been really reflecting on and thinking about is if you're here, you, you know a little bit about change to uh, perhaps knowing a lot about change. And you'll probably know that this is not really a new topic by any stretch of the imagination. I think by the sheer fact that you and I are here today shows that we've navigated change and arguably somewhat decently well because we're all in a position to be here today. But uh, what I have been really reflecting on and wondering is what makes change different today, what makes it unique and challenging and what are some ways in which we can respond that are right sized for the moment that we are in. And so that really is what I wanted to get into today is thinking about what, what is different and nuanced and unique about this in 2026 and how do we respond as a result of that. So when I did some my own thinking on this and talking to people out there who are navigating leading change, talking with some of you who are here today in terms of really trying to understand what makes change so difficult right now, I was able to distill it down to what I think are probably four key levers of what makes change so challenging right now. And those are the fact that there are multiple changes happening at once, trying to manage short term change, which we might think of as acute change versus long term change, what we might think of as chronic change. The third is around the last change versus the next change and navigating that tension of we just did a change, but we didn't really finish it and now we've got another one and we're just going to move right along. And then finally this last one of around the liminal space in terms of being put in this position where we know we need to make a change and we see what's in the past and we see what's in the future. And while we know what the past looks like, which we don't want to go back to, we also don't quite know what the future is either, which makes it really hard to actually embrace the change that we want to make. And so I'm going to walk through these a little bit more in detail to give you a feel for what these look like and hopefully also share a couple quotes and from some of my conversations that hopefully illustrate what some of these are. So, number one, I think this one is something that we all can relate to at least a little bit, which is multiple changes happening at once. I think, Kayla, your comment is indicative of this where the quote here is, I have four quote unquote transformation initiatives on my plate right now. My team doesn't know which one to prioritize and honestly, neither do I. And this is the proverbial change on top of change on top of change. Now, I think there's a certain reality for some of us with respect to this, which is we do not always get choice over the changes that get introduced to us that end up on our desk. Right? Some of this might be market pressure, some of this might be we are leaders in an organization where we don't always have control. Right? Where a change gets introduced or an organization responds. And as leaders, we have to carry that out. We can have a viewpoint on it, but we don't always get control over it. It. But it is that idea of I am, um, juggling multiple balls of change and it's really hard to stay on top of them. And for those of you who are leaders, certain empathy in that in terms of not only do you have to make the judgment call for yourself about how to prioritize or which is more important, but you've also got to help your people in terms of navigating that as well. The second one is this idea of managing short term change versus long term change. I like to think of this as acute change versus chronic change. Right. And the reality of it is that there are probably changes that are happening at any given time that really fit the acute bucket, right. It needs to happen now. Uh, in some cases it might be because it was planned and it was going to happen all along per se. The implementation of a new CRM system or some kind of thing where you know about it, it's right there, it's secure in the focus. In some cases, that acute change might be brought on because you really have to solve this in the moment where it's a little bit more of a burning platform. But then there are these other changes that are bigger changes that are happening that are a little bit more of a chronic change, if you will. AI transformation, or at least parts of AI transformation might be one of those elements where it's like, we know we're not going to solve it tomorrow. So it takes on one respect some of the pressure off of trying to solve it tomorrow. And we still know that it's there and it's important. Right. And we've got to do something about it. But this tension between navigating the acute versus the chronic, right, knowing when to prioritize when and what, or allocating resources towards when or what, or making sure we have the capabilities to be able to work through each of those different ones can often be challenging. The third one is this idea of the liminal space. And for this one, it's this idea that the old way isn't working and the new way isn't ready. And we're just in that middle space of figuring out which one that we focus on at this moment. Right. I think this can be particularly hard when, you know, there is a sense of urgency to want to decide on a direction that you want your team or your organization to go. And it feels really hard to make that change because of the risk that could be involved of trying to make a decision when the future isn't fully formed. And then this last one is this idea of the last change versus the next change. And I heard a couple people, particularly those who are in the change management discipline or a change management coe kind of acknowledging this, which is sometimes we are really quick to launch into the next change when we haven't actually put to rest the one that we just completed, or for that matter, that we didn't even finish, for that matter. We're already launching on to the next thing right now. Again, sometimes this is the reality where your market shifts fast and you've got to make a change and you just got to go. And there's a certain reality in tax sometimes that when you don't have clarity around when you figure out if you've won or not, and you start launching it to the next thing. The broader implications that might have on the people who are expected to carry out some of these changes. Okay, so I've just walked through those four and I am curious to hear from all of you, which of these resonated most with you. Which of these, out of the four that I outlined really resonated with you for what you're experiencing, for what your organization or organizations you support are experiencing? Obviously you might be feeling more than one of these, but yeah, we'd love to get some perspectives on this just in terms of what you're seeing and what you're feeling. And again, I definitely encourage you if you've got additional perspectives that don't fit just within selecting a multiple choice answer, feel free to put them in the comments. I'm definitely checking them and I would love to hear what people. People are experiencing. And so, yeah, if you want to add any color to what you're dealing with right now or which one of these resonates the most. Or for that matter, I know that I outlined, uh, four which I thought were the biggest, but if you've got other ones that you're thinking about or that top of mind, I certainly would love to be able to hear those as well. Okay. Liz shares. It just started with a new organization, but from a previous one would say leader, resistance, change. Yeah, that's certainly an element of this. It's hard to be successful without your leaders. And so when they're not on board, that can be really challenging. All right, I'm going to share the results. We've got some for all four choices, but the one that seemed to take the cake, at least right now, is the trying to make a change when the future is very unclear. Kayla shares short versus long term. And then also the quote, I want to change, but I don't want to wait for it. Yeah, absolutely. We want the outcomes, but the process for it, maybe for someone else and not wanting to deal with that, I think that's another good one. Yeah, I think it's the, uh, end M state sounds great, but the process for getting there can be a lot of work and sometimes it's not as fun to navigate or go through. Becky says trying to change with constant budget restrictions. Yeah, that's a great one. And I think it also sometimes speaks to a unspoken reality, which is that in many cases organizations, they, to Kayla's point, they want the results from change, but maybe they don't want to allocate the resources that are needed to actually get some of those results, or the expectation is that you will just get them and figure it out on your own or by you. The people will. And I'm not saying that's not possible, but there's an implication to that. And those are down there potentially are really big challenges for that. So that's really another really good point. Yeah. So again, I think when I look at some of these changes, these are just some of the things that I think what tend to, uh, come up the most in terms of what makes change kind of unique today in terms of the changes that many of you are facing. I think these four in particular are keen ones, but there are certainly other ones out there as well. Lucia has another point, which is I think the pace and volume of change today are impacting our brain's ability to digest and make such a change. Hence the future seems even more unpredictable than before. Yeah, another really good point. I think that the fact of the matter is that if you think of the multiple changes happening at once thing, you don't often get a choice with some of those. They just are the reality that you face and it's possible to deal with them. But those, those impact people. And if you're constantly in the state where you're constantly having to sort and navigate these changes, that can be really hard. Just to. Lucio, your point on people personally and their cognitive abilities. Right. Because we're just not always wired to be in that state for that long. Okay, thank you all for sharing your perspectives. Feel free to keep them coming in. I love seeing what people are experiencing and what they're seeing themselves. Okay, this next part is I want to talk about which I think is really important, which is to talk through some of the common derailers of change efforts. Right now, if you're here with us today, the odds are that you have played or are playing some role in facilitating some kind of change on your team, in your organization or an organization that you support. And chances are, if you are here, you have been a part of an experience of change that maybe hasn't gone as good as you would have wanted to, or maybe didn't achieve the specific aspiration that you might have had. And what I wanted to do here was to really take a look at what are some of the things that maybe get in the way of being able to actually achieve the desired results that we want, want. And what I came up with was a number of different. We'll call them derailers that often take well intentioned efforts and Stall them, flip them on the side, or prevent people from really being able to move forward from them. And so I wanted to share a couple of them today. And so I've got five. I'm sure we could come up with even more with this, particularly with this group that's here. And I want to walk through what some of these are right now. So, number one, aspirational change management frameworks. The whole idea of this is when the theory doesn't match the reality. So chances are you know of a change management framework or methodology, you might even know of 2 or 3 or 4 or 10 for that matter. And all of those have merits in their own right. And all of them struggle in some respects as well, in terms of it's hard to really find something that's perfect. But I think the reality of it is that while it's great to have a model and a framework that's really valuable, sometimes theory doesn't always meet reality and the rubber meets the road when you can actually take what's happening in theory and actually translate into reality. And that doesn't always happen. And, uh, I think the quote with this is that change isn't successful when a model says it is. It's successful when actually people behave differently in their roles. And so, yes, by all means, if you need a spreadsheet to track your changes, to make sure you can stay on top of things, to coordinate, and to make sure people are knowing what to do, by all means, use it. But just because the box gets checked, or that you've gone through the specific stage, or that you have hit the specific letter in the acronym, doesn't necessarily mean that you've actually achieved the change. I think the other reality of it is, is that I think for those of us here, or if you are working in change, there is the world in which you understand and perceive change, which is grounded in the fact you're a really smart and intelligent person and that you've studied probably some of these methodologies and these ideas, and you can point out a good one from a bad one or one that is sound from one that isn't. And many of the people that you are supporting, while they are also smart and intelligent and can make their own decisions, they don't always get the luxury of having the ins and outs of what we know about some of these methodologies. And so sometimes there is a little bit of a gap between an awareness of something versus what it appears like on paper or in a textbook or something like that. The second one is this idea of formulaic approaches that ignore the experience of humans. I like to say that there's a difference between the process of change versus the experience of change. Right? The idea behind the process of change versus the experience of change is that a process for change can be really helpful. Right? A process for change can be something that everyone can see and perhaps even follow in the sense that it helps people get on the same page or get on the same language for talking about something and that is useful. But the experience of change is not something that's universal, that is deeply personal. And I think sometimes one of the challenges that often comes from having those formulaic approaches or relying too much on the methodology is that again, humans are not things necessarily you can put in a row in a spreadsheet. Humans are living beings that have their own thoughts and feelings and experiences that shape the ways in which they want to show up and the actions that they take. And so when you do have a methodology or framework or a formula, while it can again be very helpful and useful, particularly in mid size to large organizations, when you don't have a framework or methodology, that accounts for the fact that the way you and I see change might be slightly different. There's going to be some limitations in terms of the efficacy and effectiveness because eventually what it gets to is the fact that you're making something universal when things can perhaps be deeply personal. Okay, the third one is called the WIFAM trap, and forgive the expression here, but I think it's a humorous quote which is don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining at some point. If you're here on this call, you've probably heard about the what's in it for me mindset and framework or approach. And the whole idea behind this is that if you're going to read a change of any kind, you should really make clear why people should even act or behave differently or make a different choice or work in a new way, et cetera. And the goal is to give them a reason and rationale for how their work or their life or their, their day to day will be better as a result of this. But too often what happens is that, number one, we think about this as an afterthought. And so after we've already worked on the communications and we're throwing it in there, or sometimes we're flat out just being disingenuous about it. Right? I One of my favorite expressions from my time working in the management consulting world is this, this notion of, hey, this could be a really Great development opportunity for you, which is all of which that means is that, hey, you need to do this thing. And so that's where this idea of the painting goes on a pig or don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining comes in. The fourth is this idea of compliance, when compliance is greater than commitment, right? And the whole idea behind this is that compliance can often be service level, right? It is checking the box, but commitment is what actually creates energy ownership and durability there. For those of you who studied psychology or know a little bit of psychology, there's a concept of psychology which is called reactance theory, right? Which the best way I can describe reactance theory is if any of you have children or if any of you remember what it was like to be a child, whenever your parents told you, don't touch the hot stove, what was the very first thing that you did or what was the very first thing that your kid chose to do? You went and did that thing. Because it turns out we as humans do not always like being told what to do or what not to do. Again, there are times when this matters, particularly if you're in an emergency or if your company is going through a really difficult time and you just need people to get on board. But if every time you're launching a change, if you're just trying to tell people what to do versus inviting them in or encouraging contribution, I think what you will find is that compliance will get you a surface level response. And while that may work in some situations, if you're going through lots of these changes, I don't think it is a helpful long term strategy and often, sometimes can stall what you might be going on in a change effort where you might get some people who will comply. But if you really need that full support of a team of an organization, it will be hard to get everyone through compliance if that is the only tool that you're using all the time. I think the expression is carrot or the stick, right? If you're always using the stick, I think you're missing out in terms of the results that you could be getting if you didn't look the other way. And last but not least, we call this the say do gap, right? And so this is the whole idea of when we say something particularly about a change or particularly about what we're trying to do or where we want to move our head. But when we actually look at the actions that we take as executives, as leaders of stewards of the change, there is a mismatch for that, Right. And uh, this whole idea here is that employees don't just listen to leaders, they watch them. And when there is a gap between what a leader says and what they do, that is a surefire way to, for people to question whether or not they should actually opt into this change that you are in. This obviously does not occur in any of the organizations that you all represent. But one of the common ones these days would be around the ideas in which we're talking about as it relates to AI in terms of wanting people to use AI, but are uh, leaders themselves using it? Right. Or is there a culture where people are actually modeling what they actually want to see for the rest of people and as opposed to just saying it? Or the classic one is the organization that says we are and we want to be a company that is innovative and takes risks. And when people actually go and try to do that or when they come up with new ideas, those things are shot down or not resourced or et cetera. And so that is the other thing can often derail some of these. Okay, so again I've weighed out a couple of these based off of some of my observations and some of my work and just to get a level set of some of these, I would love to know from you which of these, if at any resonate. And so I'm going to launch another poll in terms of taking a look at these five things. Okay, so the Seydou gap is number one and followed closely by the other ones. But Kelly shares, they all resonate and it's hard to pick one. Yeah, it definitely resonates with me. Great. It's always just good to see what's coming top of mind. Maybe to go further on this, and this will require perhaps a little bit of self reflection and if you're open to it, a little bit of authenticity. But I've got just a open ended set of questions for all of you and if you're open to it, I would love to just hear any commentary in the comments or chat based off of this. But if you think about on this slide, if you're able to see these five kinds of barriers, if you will, I would love to know from you either which of these have you experienced yourself, whether that's right now, whether it's in a past role, feel free to pick one or two or uh, whichever ones you've experienced. And then the second question, and this is what I meant when I said a little bit of transparency or vulnerability here. Which one of these, if any, have you accidentally propagated or maybe encouraged or maybe unintentionally brought on. And the good news is that I think the good news is for me, I have been guilty of all five of these in some capacities. So I can certainly fall on my sword and share my own perspective. But yeah, which would love to know from all of you, which of these have you experienced and for that matter, which of these have you unintentionally or intentionally propagated? The first comment from Alan, he shares if the size of the change is really challenging to adopt, then the Seidou gap will naturally happen. So maybe stepping back and Right. Sizing the change helps reduce the Seidou gap. I think that's a great point and to a certain degree, I don't know if this is what you meant when you said this comment, but assuming that there is a real change that's happening and assuming that it is transformational, if it really is that big, there should be a little bit of a gap in terms of if it is a big, hairy, audacious goal, it's going to be hard to get that right all the way. And so a certain amount of that we should give, I think expect and give grace for if uh, that change is that big. And so I really love that point. Okay, Lucy, great to see you. Shares experienced formulaic approaches propagated aspirational change management frameworks with shares may be the opposite of a experience. Zero sense of framework. It can truly make things chaotic. Yes, for sure. I think that's particularly true in companies that are maturing or maybe less established. Right. Where there maybe aren't many guardrails or maybe there isn't as much structure or process which sometimes structure and process can be a helpful thing in an appropriate amount versus not having anything at all and it having being that chaos and sense of free for all. Becky shares I always love why so what's in it for me is compelling. Yeah, absolutely. And to your point, Becky, I think that matters, right? It absolutely matters. It, it absolutely matters that people understand that they are going to get something valuable at the end of this. I think it's more in the process for it or how it's done or what thought is put into that where sometimes it really struggles. Hi everyone. Al D here. Thanks so much for listening to the Edge of Work podcast. I hope you're enjoying today's conversation. In addition to hosting the show, I spend my time advising, coaching and partnering with leaders and organizations who are navigating a, uh, rapidly changing workplace. If you or your organization are focused on helping Your employees and leaders lead through change, strengthening their human skills in an increasingly technology driven world. Build greater adaptability or navigate the AI change management challenges. I'd love to connect. Whether you're looking for a keynote speaker for an upcoming leadership event, a leadership program, or just want more hands on support through workshops or coaching, I'd be excited to learn about you and your goals and explore how I can help. You can find my contact information in the show notes. I'd love to hear from you. Now let's get back to the show. Lucy also shares. I see great intentions, but things just snowball with current change versus new changes. Yeah, for sure. I think again, like intention versus reality, right? And it's. I think, look, I think there's a certain other reality of this which is that these things can be messy, right? And I think that there's a certain reality of this too, of um, while a framework, and I don't mean to pick on a framework, but the idea of how we sketch it out versus what happens in reality, sometimes there is a gap because again these changes involve humans and humans are dynamic, they're complex and there's a certain messiness that comes with that. And I think there's a certain amount of that that I, at least my point view on this is that, that we should expect and also be okay with because there is also really great opportunity in that. And there's also value in that in terms of it teaches us things that maybe we didn't necessarily see when we set out to begin with. And I do think these are barriers. But the same thing as how every strength can be a weakness and how we can turn weakness into um, strengths I think also applies in this case of these. These can be barriers that can be really limiting in terms of the progress that we're trying to make. And if we can pay attention to them, they are teaching us something. And that something can be data and insights that we can then use to either course correct or to be able to help people work through them or to be able to listen more intently to what is going on and what's really happening. I share this with all of you. Um, some of you may know me personally, having a background in management consulting, you learn that you can legitimately come up with a framework for everything. And so I will say, like I've had to do a lot of work myself of trying to figure out what's the best and right and most effective way to introduce a framework of some kind because I admit they can be really helpful. And as someone who has been in that role of having to introduce a change sometimes, truthfully, it can make your jack of a heck of a lot easier. And I recognize I've had to learn very much that not everything fits in a nice two by two graph as much as we would like it to be. But anyway, that's just something I've had to. I've had to notice um, Stacy's got something in here where Stacy shares. What I notice is that change falters most when the change manner begins after the design and right before the launch instead of the same time the change is being shaped. Thank you for bringing this up and the sequencing and the intention behind it really matters. And uh, Stacey didn't say this per se, but I'm wondering if this was implied. I think this comment also implies that it's something that's bi directional or something that also invites contribution versus something that is foisted or handed up from above. Great. Glad we're on the same page. Thank you, Stacey. All right. I've talked about what makes change challenging. I've talked about some of the common barriers and I guess before I get into the what do we do about this, I also think that sometimes it's helpful to get a uh, pulse check just in terms of where we are ourselves with how change is happening. But before I get to that, I just want to get to Mitchell's comment. I think B in understanding how change exhausted people are, intrinsic motivator is having a sense of progress. And if we keep changing the direction of priorities, we lose motivation of our people for future change efforts. I think this is such a, this is such a really great point, Mitchell. Thank you for sharing that. When and to me this really does tie with this also this idea of we're launching a new change without really tying a bow on the last one that we put people through. To Mitchell, to your point, I think there's a professor at Harvard, Teresa Ambile, who did like a study of uh, I want to say maybe 12,000 journal entries of people. And the whole study was about this idea of intrinsic motivation. And when she studied these journal entries, what she was trying to figure out is what is what essentially motivates or drives people to grow versus staying stagnant. And the thing that she found amongst uh, reading through those journal entries was the one thing that really mattered every day. If someone had that idea and openness to wanting and then intrinsic motivation to wanting to grow was this idea of did I feel like I made progress today or can I see some kind of progress that I made today. And I think the insight there, Mitchell, speaks exactly to what you're talking about, which is if you've got a really big challenge and you can see where you need to go, as well as that little thing that you did that, that helped you make progress today, that is what helps you get up to do the same thing again the next day and the next day and the next day after that. But Mitchell, to your point, if we don't have that sense of progress, if we can't see where we are headed, if we are getting mixed messages about what change is important, if we are constantly changing up what change that we are working on, it dilutes that feeling in that sense of like we're actually making progress towards something, which then I think depletes that intrinsic motivation that is often needed to really get to the change. So really great point, Mitchell. I'm really glad that you brought that up. Okay, I want to do this quick change pulse check. This is a little framework that I've used when working with leaders before, really going deep into any type of change that we're that is going on inside of the organization. And it honestly just the title of it sounds, which is change. Pulse check is really just a chance for you just to do a pulse check on change. And so what I mean by this is that look for any leader who is expected to lead change, there's a certain acceptance that teams don't outperform their leaders. And so if you want to be successful and you want your team or your organization to be successful in this change, it starts with you thinking to yourself about what you need to do and getting to a place where you feel comfortable with the change that you're leading yourself. And so the pulse check really focuses on three critical areas. One is capacity. So think about this as time and energy. The second is capability. So think about this as skill and confidence. And the third is around commitment, which is belief and motivation. Right. And sticking this a little deeper capacity is all about you've got the time, energy and bandwidth to take this on right now. Capability is do you have the skills, knowledge and confidence to lead this change well. And commitment is do you have belief in this change enough to push forward when things get hard? Because they will get hard at some point. And I find this to be just a really quick way just to get people thinking and framing as well as to having an honest self reflection of um, where they are at as well as identifying what they need to perhaps focus on or work towards before they Go out and meet others and certainly too for that matter actually thinking about this in the context of their team. Right. In terms of how are your people doing on capacity, how are they doing on capability, how are they doing on commitment? So what I want to do right now is to give you a chance to do this for yourself to the degree that it makes sense for you. And if you are someone who is working inside of an organization or as an external person working with an organization, you can feel free to maybe pretend that your leader that you're working with, that you're self assessing them just to make this more real for you. So just really quickly just do quick one to five scale of uh, capacity, capability and commitment. Just write down a number that feels like it makes sense and then we'll get a sense to see where people are at. All right. Lucy's at a four for capacity and capability and five on commitment. That's great. Alan shares Also a challenge if the change here is foisted upon you versus you are part of it, but not part of your own ocean meaning if the response to capacity is low but you cannot stop the change from happening, it's almost moot. A very good point. Lucia uh, shares uh, two for capacity, four for capability, one for commitment. Mitchell shares two, three, four. Dawid is at two and then four for capability, four for commitment. Sarah's at three and at two and at four. Great. Yeah. So just back of the envelope math, we, we were, most of us are challenged by capacity and in the middle of the road on capability and commitment. Great. Anyone in know in particular there's one of these that you either know that you want to work on or you're trying to either improve or work on or trying to resource against or just trying to shine a light because in particular that this is something that you want to improve. And yeah Kayla, that's a really good point. The Kayla shares interesting commentary to see that at least for this group, commitment is greater than capacity. Yeah, that's a really great insight. I think I would uh, I would argue that maybe speaks to the, the level of individual that's here today. If I'm being a little self serving on that comment, but I think there's something to be said about that knowing I know at least some of you and some of the things that you're going through and some of your backgrounds. Again this is just a, I know it's a simple framework and I just spent a good three minutes at least talking about the challenges with frameworks but hopefully this at least gave you a sense of for yourself to see where you're at and also for that matter, if there is anything here that invites further exploration, whether it's for yourself or for your team. Okay. Comment from Nicole Great to see you, Nicole. I'm fully committed and dedicated in workforce transformation with respect to AI. The task brings my capacity levels to middle range because the time and energy to navigate and change and then I want to improve on that. And Kelly shares her agreement with you, Nicole. I think that's a really good one. Yeah, it's. It's really interesting to see the interplay between these three. Right. And the relationship that they really share. Gina shares I think that in many instances most people want to or are willing to be committed to a change, but the system doesn't assess capacity and capability doesn't make time for it. Much like Alan's point, people feel like they have no autonomy in the situation. I would say that in my experience that this rings true in many organizations. So I appreciate the comment. I don't think it's particularly a large company thing, although I tend to see it happen a lot at large companies. But I don't think it's just a large company thing. Which is ironic because you might argue that if anyone were to have resources to put against it, it would be companies arguably with more money or more headcount. But ah, I digress, but I think it's a fair, it's a fair point. Right. And I think if I've learned anything about studying this topic and being a part of it or having to deal with this myself, it really is around this idea of how do you both acknowledge the reality of the situation that you are in and find those moments where you can flex that autonomy, that agency, that intrinsic motivation, that human creativity that you have. Fully acknowledging that no one person is bigger than the system that they are a part of. Right. But similar to this idea of change, it only takes one person to get started. And so I think that is always the tension that I reflect on and sort through, particularly in some of these organizations. Okay. So we've talked about some of the what makes change hard. We've talked about some of the barriers we've been able to do like a pulse check. I want to try before we head out for the day to try to give you some practices for what I think can be helpful towards finding that agency for leading the change that you are in. We don't always get a lot of leeway or flexibility, particularly around the capability or commitment side of things. Right. We don't always get the resources that we want. But I also know that many of you have day jobs that are under the gun to drive results. And so I want to try to offer up just a couple quick practices that might be helpful towards the hill you're trying to climb and effectively leading the change and making the changes that you want to see inside of your organization. And so I want to go through those right now. And certainly as you're hearing these, please feel free to add your own in if you have something that you think others would benefit from. So the first one is partially why I wanted to do this today and why I wanted to share some of my thinking on this today, which is to put on your oxygen mask first before leading others. If you've been on an airplane recently, you will have heard the flight attendant and the stewardess say this with respect to when they're going through the safety instructions. And while that's on an airplane, I think it's apropos for anything that you are doing as a leader with respect to leading change in your organization. If you want your people to change, it starts with you and teams. It's very hard for a team to outperform their leader. And so if you want to drive the results, you've got to make sure that you have put your own oxygen mask first. And that means whether it's any of the tools that we talked about in terms of the three Cs and the pulse check or anything else you need to do just to make sure you are in a spot where you feel empowered to lead the change and that you will be successful. Because how you show up will certainly most impact what your people are doing as well. If you're not sure where to start or you want to get more grounded and precise about what this could mean. I've got a couple questions that might be helpful as a good starting place. Right. In terms of trying to self reflect and define some answers to these. In terms of what's the nature of the change as a result of this change, how is my experience going to be different as a leader? What are the actions or behaviors that I need to do differently as a result of this change? For this specific change, what specific role do I play on my team and then what resources or support do I need in order to lead this change? I think this is a good starting point. I think if you are leading a change or you're going through something and you're trying to get your mind right of, uh, where you might be able to Focus your energy or introspection. Because I think a lot of what's in these insights can be prescriptive about what actions you might want to take next to get your team moving in the right direction. And certainly if you're working with leaders or if you're working externally and you're working with organization, I think these can help ground the conversation to take something that is a little amorphous and make it more prescriptive and specific to an individual itself. Number two is to focus on what's staying the same. Right. I think a lot of times when we're talking about change, it's very easy to immediately jump to what the change is, why it matters, how it's going to be different, and what we need to action on and do. And in the focus on that, we often forget about what's not changing. Right? Because even when we are making big changes, the reality of it is not everything will always change all the way. Humans appreciate and thrive on predictability and stability. And I think that oftentimes we forget that when we are trying to lead the change. And so number two will just be to focus on what's staying the same in a simple way that I've done this in the past when working with leaders. And something that you all can do yourself is literally take out a piece of paper, make a two column chart on one column, have what's staying the same on the other side, have what's changing, and then literally write it down. It doesn't have to be scientific, but even just acknowledging and reminding yourself of all the things that will remain the same or that are stable can be a helpful reminder to you that not everything is changing. And that oftentimes can be helpful in terms of promoting that sense of stability that we often crave to make sure that people know that we're okay. This can also be something that's helpful in terms of helping your team understand what will be impactful in terms of what you can communicate with them so that they can remember that not everything is changing. And even sometimes the idea that being able to say, hey, look, I don't have all the answers right now, but here is what I do know. Even if you can't give them all that stability that they want, even hearing that can sometimes be helpful in the sense of it helps put some more clarity around where you are right now and moving forward in the absence of not communicating, or in the absence where people are left to make up their own stories, that may not always be something that you are going to Be able to win. And so when you can communicate that clarity, sometimes it can be really helpful and grounding. And then the last piece on this really is about being a driver and not a passenger. Right. And this gets back to what we were talking about a little bit earlier in terms of how do you find ways to take your own agency or your own motivation or your own autonomy, in terms of contributing and being a part of the change versus just being someone who was on the ride with it. And certainly this is geared towards all of us right now, but this is certainly also a reminder as a way to think about how to bring your people on this journey with you on this change. And I know we've got some folks on here who are experts or students of psychology. And so one of the concepts in modern psychology that I've always been a fan of it has been self determination theory, which really goes back to this idea, uh, that people are motivated by autonomy, mastery and connection. And when those needs are met, they are motivated to achieve what is set out in front of them. And so I think this is a reminder that even in those really challenging moments, even in things that may feel impossible, when we can look for ways to see how our own motivation taps into the broader change that's happening for ourselves, we can find and carve out that intrinsic motivation for how we want to move forward, how we make choices about how we want to respond and how we, uh, want to lead. And certainly the same can be done for our people. And so what that looks like was just a basic high level is thinking about this in terms of, for autonomy, is thinking about how I have choice and control, of how I want to navigate through this change and to lead this change. Right. I can carve out a certain way in which I want to respond, how I want to show up as a leader, what I want to show up for my team with respect to mastery. This idea that I've got talents and skills and an ability to be able to, in fact, lead and navigate this change, and I can use that as a contribution towards making m successful. And then for connection, what that might mean is I'm on this journey with other people who can support me, and I can support them in navigating, leading this change. Right? And so you are not on the journey alone, but there are other people you can rely on to do this together, to rely on for support, or for that matter, that you can support as well. And so this is what this kind of means when I say be a driver and not necessarily just a passenger, A lot of good stuff in the chat, so I'm going to try to read through this really quickly. Mitchell makes a point. With AI and companies, people struggle with understanding what will stay the same. It's a really good point. Kelly adds. And what will change with AI as well, because that itself changes every day. I think that is what often makes this so hard. And again, being in that liminal space where not everything is formed yet in the future. But recognizing that the stasis of today, it probably won't be that. Dweet uh, shares. Domestic cats and apex predators like lions average 10 to 32% success rate. They're graceful and awesome as tech. Why do we expect ourselves as humans to have 100% success rate? It's impossible to set up for disappointment and huge waste of energy and hope. It's a good point. For those of you who follow the game of baseball, if you get on base three out of every ten times, you will eventually become a Hall of Famer. I always think about that. The we chairs who really knows what's going on. The beautiful feline brains. Kelly shares. We're still working on our cats actually getting jobs. So far they're not motivated. It's a great point. Mitchell shares. I'm preparing to be on a panel discussion around how to stay relevant in the AI, uh, area. Target. Your audience is early career engineers. I was planning to discuss skills, capabilities that are durable and less likely to be relegated to AI. Yeah, I think that's a great point. You'll have to let us know how that goes. Mitchell. Okay, so I just wrapped up just some practices and some ideas to think about. For those of you on how do we change, thank you for spending the last 50 or so minutes with me today. If I could just leave you with a couple quick things. If you forget everything else, this is your money slide, if you will. So I think number one, first and foremost, humans are wired to survive, right? Anytime you've got a, ah, visceral response to change, I think it's a good reminder that you are in fact a human being, which I think is a good thing. But the opportunity there is that what makes change hard is what also makes it possible. Because we are wired to survive. It will be the thing that when you are successful is what it enables you to change. And I know that because we all are here today on this call and we are not the same person that we once were 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years ago. Number two, we can't always choose change. But we do have a choice about how we want to respond. Right. And some of this is this idea behind self determination theory. But the other component to this is that it is an acceptance and reality of what is here. And we can make choices about how we want to make the most of this. And if we are leading people, when we are intentional about how we do this, we set ourselves up for better success because our people follow us. And it is very hard for a team to outperform, uh, their leader. And last but not least, leading through change is contagious. Right? When people see what you are doing as a leader or how leaders are embracing this, they will look for cues as to how that will help them or potentially hurt them. And so the degree in which you can start to really align some of those actions, some of those words and some of those behaviors, I think is what's going to help this catch on. Okay, thank you so much for joining today. I appreciate you joining and participating and sharing your thoughts. I'll make sure that if you didn't get a copy of this, that you will get a copy of the white paper. And if I can support you and your organization on, uh, your journey through change, please don't hesitate to reach out. But thanks so much for joining today and have a wonderful rest of your Thursday. Hi everyone. Al D here. Thank you so much for listening to the Edge of Work podcast. If you like what you heard, encourage you to share the episode with a friend. Well as to head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and let us know what you think. I would be forever grateful if you did that. I would also love to hear directly from you about what episode you're listening to or any suggestions you have for how we can make it better. You can find me on LinkedIn.