You're encountering resistance to change in your organization. How can you innovate within time constraints?

In today's world change is more constant than what it has been couple decades ago. Therefore building more resilience through a fluid state is more important than ever. Some things that have worked for me to shift the dial and reduce/eliminate resistance to change, have been: -Setting a clear strategy/approach -Sharpening story telling -Clear communication. -Involving the team through the process -Getting outside-in perspective (where applicable) -Showcasing wins (via pilot or other opportunities)

Launch quick-win pilots—identify small, manageable areas for innovation that demonstrate rapid benefits, using these successes to build momentum and gradually win over skeptics, all within your tight timelines.

People resist change out of fear. First you must engage your audience and identify the barriers, i.e. fears. Then empathize. Show you understand their feelings and the strategize on how to remove the barriers that will otherwise keep them stuck.

While change is the only constant in life, few individuals actually enjoy it. This is why there are so many successful organizations devoted to behavioral change out there. When met with resistance, take a moment to out yourself in your team members’ shoes and understand why the change you’re trying to make may be intimidating or scary for them. Understanding the why will allow you to adapt your messaging and method to drive change to better help them understand the benefits of the change.

Pour communiquer efficacement votre vision d’innovation, démontrez clairement comment elle s’aligne avec les objectifs de l’organisation et quels en seront les bénéfices. Présentez une feuille de route précise et soyez transparent sur le processus. Cela aidera à réduire l’incertitude et à gagner le soutien nécessaire, même face aux défis.

When communicating change, start with the #WIIFY (What’s in it for you). Not only are we as human beings hesitant to accept change, but if we don’t see the benefit or understand why we should change, then we’re often just going to provide more resistance. By highlighting the individual benefits your team members will experience by implementing the change, you start to drive buy in. It’s important to call out that this is the benefit to each individual, not the overall organization.

Fair enough but clear communication is generally necessary for the success of any organization, regardless if it is facing resistance to change or is changing. I think revisiting the long term goals and situating why the ongoing resistance - despite appearing well and good in the short term - actually misaligns with the organization’s long term goals.

Vision is paramount. Aligning the vision for a change with the vision of an organization is critical but only the first step. Leaders must understand the employees' visions and how they align with the company/project visions. The creator economy is growing so fast because people are born creators. Companies overlook this human need to create. Instead of asking (or "telling") employees what the benefit to them is, the old "what's in it for me" sales tactic is used. Employees don't care. They want to know and experience the missing creator piece - "What part of me is in it?"

Employees are more productive if the company’s vision aligns with their own values. This can only happen, if the leadership effectively communicates the vision and how the new changes in the workflows or processes will overall increase their productivity and benefit everyone.

Actually, I agree with this but would add a minor warning not to get complacent with small wins or minor innovations and lose sight of the long term strategy. But otherwise, this is great insight!

Let's try the manipulative black hat approach. Honestly add a lot of metrics on the strategy... Once the team gets frustrated with not meeting their perfectionism itch, pitch them to find "out of the box solutions" and yes, make sure you keep easy wins on it. Once you get the approach appropriate to your vision, add more metrics to the others so that this one is favoured and once the team is used to it, slowly increase metrics so that you can sharpen the quality. From one product manager to another, this'll be our secret.

Yes, quick wins are important. But leaders must dig deeper than that. How can they make quick wins for themselves and their employees? Take digital transformations. Often, these initiatives create more work than benefits to employees. Gartner Research estimates that employees waste three hours daily working around existing processes and systems. Generally, digital transformations add to the complexities and time rather than take away. Imagine if you transformed those three hours into more productive time for your employees before layering on something else. That is a win for everyone. And one that will set the coming digital transformation up for greater success.

It's important to implement both long-term and short-term goals. Establishing checkpoints with success metrics along the way helps others see the positive progress and share your vision for change. This approach ensures that everyone recognizes and celebrates milestones, maintaining motivation and alignment with the overall objectives.

Prioritize Impact: Focus on changes that directly impact efficiency, productivity, or customer satisfaction. Ask: “What small tweak would make the most significant difference?” Implement Rapidly: Quick wins should be easy to implement. Avoid complex, time-consuming changes. Set a short timeline for execution. Celebrate Success: When a quick win delivers positive results, celebrate it! Acknowledge the team’s effort. Share the outcomes with others to build momentum.

Ich habe gelernt, dass Veränderung am besten von innen heraus vorangetrieben wird. Schlüssel dazu sind Champions – engagierte und einflussreiche Mitarbeitende, die ihre Kolleg:innen inspirieren. Ihre Begeisterung und positive Einstellung sind ansteckend und sie können komplexe Informationen verständlich vermitteln. Ein Beispiel ist "Anna", deren Energie und Überzeugungskraft skeptische Kollegen überzeugte und die neuen Prozesse erleichterte. Durch das Teilen ihrer Erfolge bot sie Social Proof und motivierte andere. Champions verbreiten Best Practices schnell und stärken Engagement sowie Eigenverantwortung. Veränderung gelingt, wenn sie von innen kommt – Champions sind der Schlüssel.

The fastest way that leadership can empower organizational change when experiencing resistance from followers is through positive reinforcements. Change is difficult. Many people fear taking the individual steps that are needed to separate the good from the great. Each step that places them further away from the larger crowd initiates more uncertainty in their direction. Champions persistently encourage these steps to be taken through optimistic reminders of their shared vision of arriving at the destination. This rallies universal understandings for taking each step into the unknown and ushers unity within lonely lanes that often lead to inspired innovation from conquered resistance on the journey. Champions challenge change courageously.

Enthusiasm alone isn't enough to judge someone's emotional investment or suitability as a champion. Here are key considerations: Issues with Enthusiasm: Superficial Enthusiasm: Can be shallow and not reflect true commitment or long-term motivation. Someone may seem enthusiastic without being ready to put in the necessary effort. Emotional Investment: Involves a deeper commitment to company goals, reflected in consistent work and overcoming obstacles. Alternative Criteria for Champions: Commitment and Consistency: Identify those who persistently work on projects even after initial enthusiasm fades, showing deeper emotional investment and long-term dedication to change.

In organizatons where the top management decides what to change and when, empowering champions raises more eyebrows within the organization. However, with clarity and openness of the empower champion and the ability to work without much constraint from the top, change will come. It is easier to implement because the champion is not top management and the rest of the organization resonate with them.

Empowering Champions - those who are enthusiastic about change - is a short-sighted approach. This often takes those enthusiastic players and turns them into burnout individuals who quit and start their own thing or find someone that aligns with the balanced work they want to do. A long-term and more sustainable approach is to empower the champion in every individual. By that, I mean leaders must find the champion (those underutilized gifts and talents) in every employee. When everyone serves in their gifting, they are enthusiastic and empowered to be champions for change. And having an army of champions will create change at a rapid speed. That's why I believe design thinking is like open-source for change management.

Iterate rapidly is a crucial component of successful innovation. However, much like resistance to change is rooted in fear, so is iteration. This is why the empathy of design thinking as a leadership practice is so important. Without the ability to listen empathetically to the team members' concerns, address those concerns, and take action where needed on those concerns. You've created a resistance to the next prototyping cycle that you may not be aware of. Repeat this lack of empathy enough, and leaders have unknowingly increased resistance, and (as happens so often) the projects begin to fall apart. Leaving everyone wondering why they wasted their time on a project that went nowhere.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Start by creating an MVP—a basic version of your innovation that addresses the core needs. Focus on essential features and functionality. Avoid unnecessary complexity. Launch and Gather Feedback: Launch the MVP and get it into the hands of users or stakeholders. Collect feedback—both positive and negative. Understand what works and what needs improvement. Refine and Iterate: Use the feedback to refine your approach. What can be enhanced? What should be adjusted? Iterate rapidly, making continuous improvements based on real-world usage.

In the software industry, innovation comes through agile and iterative approach. Based on the ever changing needs of the market, products are improved continuously. This is fast track process that has followed after the startup culture. In order to stay ahead, companies seek continuous feedback to innovate their products/ services. This includes a lot of iterations done rapidly.

This is my preferred method for implementing a large company-wide software change. Tackling one piece at a time allows everyone to focus and perfect each part before moving on to the next, making the process more manageable and effective.

Clear communication about what you plan to do and why, including the assumptions behind your decisions, is crucial. It's important to give people time to think, provide feedback, and offer input. Once this is done, you can proceed with the iterative development, always following the principle of planning, implementing, and reflecting on one step at a time. Those who don't want to participate will not be convinced otherwise, as their resistance often stems from deeper fears that cannot be easily mitigated

Adopter un état d’esprit agile est essentiel pour faciliter l'acceptation du changement. En favorisant la flexibilité et la réactivité, vous permettez à votre équipe de mieux s'adapter aux nouvelles informations et aux circonstances changeantes. Encouragez la collaboration entre les différentes fonctions et la planification adaptative pour améliorer la résilience et la capacité de votre équipe à gérer les défis liés à l'innovation. Cette approche agile peut transformer la résistance en opportunité et renforcer la capacité de votre organisation à naviguer dans des délais serrés.

To foster agility for followers to inspire innovative change in a company, management has to be willing and able to take the good with the bad. Agile adventures wandering in a new direction can certainly craft change. We can also get lost to the point of no return. We have to accept that uncertainty and risk involved or we will never get far enough away from certainty to completely change. To receive change, we must be open to change. That means we must accept all risks to remain headed in an unknown direction to a familiar place or the resistance will redirect our results. To be open to change, we must invite even the most challenging possibilities that transcend on our journey to change. Fostering agility is vital to successfully change.

Change is healthy, change is scary, but necessary for growth. Most of us embrace and look forward to changing our personal lives. Going to college, getting married, having children. Each change brings new experiences and opportunities. Personal or professional changes need to be looked at positively.

Ein wichtiger Punkt ist, Fehlertoleranz zuzulassen. Die damit einhergehende Angst vor Kritik zu minimieren. Diese lähmt vor allem mit kreativen Methoden noch nicht vertraute. Dies kann zb geschehen indem positivem wie negativem Feedback ein fester Rahmen gegeben wird, wie es beispielsweise bei der im Theaterbereich immer bekannter werdenden DAS Arts Feedbackmethod gemacht werden kann. Darin wird in mehreren Runden jeweils ein anderes Feedback Format in der Gruppe genutzt, um dem Protagonisten der Idee ebenso kraftvoll wie humorvoll Feedback mitzugeben. Ohnehin finden sich im Theaterbereich, insbesondere Improtheater viele auf Innovationsmethoden übertragbare Methoden, die zudem auch Spaß mache.

Change must be a top down approach, both on the personal and professional level. That is because our generalized focus is of a worldly nature. It is designed to remind us of our past dangers so that we are aware of the steps that we are taking on a new path. The eye shows the mind the direction that the foot is headed in order to decide to step in that direction. In corporations, the eye can be seen as productivity, the mind can be thought of as board of directors, the foot leans on the weight of managerial leadership, and the leg is the muscle of personnel that pushes the processes in a direction. So to transform processes of personnel in ways that inspire innovation and shape success, it's imperative to collaborate a collective vision.

Keep less bureaucracy and encourage environments for Intraprenureship. The less managers, more the productivity, and more the supervisors, less the mistakes. Let people decide their own roles, just like the in AGILE methodologies, let them play multiple hats. As long as they are delivering, nothing else should matter. Especially in a creative field where it's very hard to predict what will work and what not until it's tested right with the audience...