EP Perspective March 2017

CONVISUM | 123RF.COM
crucial to meeting the challenge of disruption
head on. It’s vital to understand the story
behind your team’s individual perceptions
of change and to acknowledge what has
happened before in a meaningful way. This is
simple step, but so often not done well, or even
at all. Transparency of dialogue is needed and
is often a huge barrier to overcome, largely
because leaders’ shy away from these more
conflicted discussions. However, without
them, change will fail.
Communication and language is central
to leading values based change. In part this
is because the language we use to facilitate
change is also evolving. In short, the
discussion needs to be authentic, challenging
and honest in order to recognise the volatile,
uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA)
operating environment we all live within.
It is shifting towards growing creativity and
fostering collaboration at all levels. Everyone
is creative in their own individual way, and
this can be applied in a business context;
unfortunately most of us are blocked from
seeing our own skillset in this light – but this
needs to change. By fostering transparency
of communication and driving face-to-face
dialogue, leaders build a platform of trust and
create emotional connection to understand
past legacies, move on and absorb new
messages aimed towards the future. Although
communication needs to have a purpose and
clarity of messaging, the real need is just to
communicate, communicate, communicate.
It cannot be overstated, yet it so often is
overlooked or too tightly controlled. Change
requires investment in communication – it is
make or break – and without it the platform
of trust becomes eroded. The problem is,
you don’t know what the problem is, and you
also don’t have all the answers. This too is
okay. Let people know this and see barriers
break down.
Ambiguity is everywhere; this fact will not
change. In an era of digital disruption change
is not an easy journey, but it is the right one.
The problem is, you don’t know what the
problem is and you need to begin asking the
questions, incessantly, that need to be asked
right now. This is a conceptual, strategic
and challenging conversation within your
leadership team as we face the rapid dawning
of a new era of work. Take heart though. I will
leave it to one of the great leaders of our time
– John F. Kennedy – who in 1963 gave us one
of the most inspirational quotes a leader in
2017 can live by: “Change is the law of life.
And those who look only to the past or the
present are certain to miss the future.” Some
things have not changed.
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