How To Effect Change At Your Job

Have you ever been frustrated with how something is at work? Have you ever found yourself feeling powerless to improve or change a certain part of your job? Have you ever wondered why things are done the way they are? Have you ever wanted to have an impact on how things are done at your job?

These are some of things I've been thinking about recently. Last year the company I work for transitioned from a semi-agile process to using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Overall, it's been a huge success for the department and for the company. The fact that we even considered changing things up speaks volumes to the type of people that lead this company. The way we've been able to transition with relative ease has been outstanding to be a part of.

Even with the surprisingly smooth transition, there were still bumps and there are still things to complain about. While these items bother different people to different degrees, there are some that seem to get frustrated about the current state and don't seem to feel they can do anything about it. If you find yourself feeling similarly, this post is for you.

Disclaimer

Before I start, I want to make sure I don't get your hopes up. I cannot claim to know the best way to effect change. I cannot guarantee that the ideas and suggestions I make here will help you in your situation in any degree. I believe they can, but whether or not they do depends on you and a few other factors. These things have generally worked for me throughout my career and I think they can at least help you understand things better as you seek to bring about change. That said, let's get started.

Seek Understanding

Wait. You're here wanting to learn how to bring about change and the first thing I'm suggesting you do is seek understanding? What's up with that? Well, actually a lot. This is one of the most important steps to take.

So, you have this great idea and you want to do something about it. But, do you really know it's a great idea? Is your idea even needed? Is the current way of doing things all that bad? What if the current way is right and your idea is wrong? Do you truly understand the needs that your idea is meeting? Is your idea overlooking a key part of the process? Is there a part of your idea that could change to better meet the needs it's addressing?

These questions are all valid challenges that you may encounter. Your idea may be awesome, but it may be incomplete. Or maybe it's essentially what's already in place and you're just unaware of it. Or maybe it is a really good idea, but the current system is an even better one.

Whatever the case may be, questions and situations like these are why it's essential to first seek understanding. I'm sure you've experienced a situation before where someone pushed a change through the system but they failed to address certain parts of the system. This usually ends up causing some confusion at best but usually quite a bit of frustration.

You don't want that to happen with the change you're seeking to make. In order to make this change as good as it can be, it's important to gain an understanding of the current system and how it works. How does it address the concerns you have? Does your idea improve upon it? Does your idea account for everything it needs to?

Another aspect to consider when seeking understanding is the value and cost of your idea. Is your idea worth it? Will it save the company money? Will it add too much overhead? Will the cost incurred by making the change be worth it? Will your change enable your company to deliver more value to the customer? Having a good understanding of the business impacts of your idea will help you sell it more effectively.

After you've taken the time to gain an understanding of the way things currently are, you'll be able to see more clearly that your idea is genuinely good and it's worth pursuing. But, if it's not, don't be afraid to take what you've learned and leave the idea for another time.

Talk with the Right People

You've likely already done some of this in the previous step, but now's the time to start sharing your ideas with others. Get the word out. Bring it up with the concerned individuals. If there's a group of people this change would impact, attend the next meeting they have or call a meeting specifically for this with one or more representatives of that group.

As you share your idea with others, you'll be able to understand it better. You'll also receive questions that will help you either make your idea better or reconsider its value. Bouncing your idea off other individuals will offer you other perspectives on the thing you're trying to change. Other perspectives can be valuable as they may offer insights you wouldn't have considered on your own.

As you share your idea, it might start to gain momentum. If it does, great! If it doesn't, it might be time to educate other people (maybe a brown bag lunch discussion!), seek more understanding, or reevaluate the value of the idea. It might take a few iterations of these steps to get the idea to a point where it's ready to move on.

Don't Misinterpret Questioning

In high school, my guitar teacher would often say that sharing a song you wrote is like showing other people your baby. You're so excited for your new baby. You think your baby is absolutely adorable. No baby could ever be cuter than yours! So, you invite your friends and family over so they can enjoy how cute your baby is. But they're less than impressed. One of your friends even goes so far to say your baby is ugly! That hurts!

Sometimes we treat our ideas similarly. Sometimes we get too attached to our ideas to the point where we equate the value and perception of our idea to our own individual worth. This is a common mistake that's simply not true. Your worth as a person has nothing to do with the ideas you have. If someone questions your idea, take a deep breath, it'll be alright. In all likelihood, this person really likes your idea and is just trying to understand it better. Don't worry, everything will be fine.

I remember one of the first big changes I was involved with at worked required me and a coworker to work closely with the head of the department. We did our best to sell our idea and educate him and the others involved as to the benefits of our proposition. The head of the department had lots of questions. Sometimes that was intimidating for a young developer like I was at the time! But he never said he didn't like the idea. All of his questions were to help him better understand the idea or to help us consider all aspects of it. It was okay if we didn't have an answer right away so long as we looked into it and made sure all our bases were covered.

Just as in this example, questions are a great opportunity to build your idea up and improve it. If you don't have an answer to a question, take that as an opportunity to get an answer and improve your idea. Questions can also be a great way to reconsider the value of your idea. You might receive a question that highlights a weakness in your idea. That's okay! Even if it's a fatal flaw that makes your idea impossible at the moment, that's okay! You still learned a lot along they way and maybe there's a subset of your idea that is worth implementing. That's great! Take that small subset and work with that. Even small improvements are often worth making (in fact, they're usually the most impactful and easiest to implement, but we'll talk about that another time).

Over-communicate

The last real step is to over-communicate. It's far better to communicate early and often than it is to deal with the fallout after your change has blindsided your organization. So, send emails and chats, attend meetings, provide trainings. Do what you can before your idea is implemented to ensure your team or the group the change affects is empowered to live the change. Simply informing people of the change beforehand is a great way to help things go right once the change is implemented.

Other Tips

Here's a quick list of other tips when bringing about change:

• Start small. Think Kaizen steps! If you're met with a lot of resistance, break the idea down into bite-sized chunks. These are often met with the least resistance and can build up to significant improvements over time.
• Think like an owner. If you owned the company, what changes would you make? How would you view others around you? How would you enable the team around you and help them catch your vision?

Conclusion

So, whether your idea is big or small, take the time necessary to ensure it's and awesome idea. Make sure you understand the current system and the value your idea will bring. Be sure to talk with the right people. Don't give up or get discourage or get defensive when others question your idea--use it to your advantage and improve your idea! Also make sure that you communicate your idea with everyone that needs to know about it. Make sure to do it early and often enough that no one will be blind-sided by the change. If you do all of these things, your idea will be rock solid and your coworkers will thank you for your idea.