Carmen and I enjoyed leading a conversation among Rebels at Work who attended our session at SXSW, all of whom worked for organizations with 100 or more people. Making change as an entrepreneur is challenging. Making change inside organizations is difficult, with many more obstacles. Though Twitter crashed during our session, here are some of the Tweets and topics that resonated among the change makers at the session.
Do your organizational homework
- Does your idea actually jive with the values of your organization?
- Rebels at work need to understand what makes the organization work, what actually makes it tick. Listen for the secret code.
- You need to link your ideas to what’s important to the organization and answer the SO WHAT?
- Do your homework: will the idea actually work? And will it work within my organization?
- What ideas most align with your company’s values? Go for a quick win to spur positive change.
Don’t go it alone
- Rebels at work can’t be lone wolves. You need to build support for your ideas. You need 10% of the organization to back you.
- It’s important to do your homework when trying to effect change. Who will support you? Who will join you?
- Rebels don’t do it alone. Find your team when introducing your ideas – the thinker, the doer, the planner.
- Make friends with the Bureaucratic Black Belts.
Getting ideas adopted
- Context, relevancy and emotion create meaning and can help your ideas get adopted.
- Ideas alone are not enough. They need to be followed up with a “so what” and “now what.”
- Change happens in 3 steps: dreaming (coming up with ideas), discovery (external and internal research), and determination (seeing it through)
- Avoid falling in love with your idea. When you're in love with an idea you don't see its flaws.
- Sometimes long-hanging fruit is rotten. (Why the adage of starting with the low-hanging fruit is not always wise.)
Useful habits and behaviors
- Rebels: our velocity scares people. Be patient with people who move slower and bring them along gradually.
- Focus on positivity, and remember that all change starts slowly.
- Rebels need to do homework. Get smart. Expect challenging questions. Know what people want.
- Spend enough time staging your ideas. Sequencing uber important when introducing an idea.
- Sometimes you need to cut your losses.
Conflict and obstacles
- Work for a micro-manager? Figure out if they’re afraid of uncertainty or afraid of risk, and respond accordingly.
- Uncertainty and risk aversion are not the same. Need to understand what’s motivating the fear and get past it.
- How to work with micro-managers: usually they’re insecure about not knowing what’s going on. Build their trust.
- A good question to ask when your idea gets shot down, “ What part of my idea did you like the least?” Opens up conversation.
- Whens someone raises a concern in a meeting, it means they are at least engaged.
- How to get buy in from someone who always says no? Link to something they care about. Develop a relationship with them.
Here is a link to the handout we shared at the session.