Transformation with Resistant Stakeholders
Digital transformation. Organizational transformation. Business transformation. Michael Bay's Transformers. Much has been written about each of these topics and we can generally assume the difference between success and failure comes down to the people. It's great to understand this, but it's quite difficult to know what to do about it.
A few weeks ago, I made my first LinkedIn video in response to a few questions I'd been getting over and over again. The two questions in particular were:
- How do you find change agents inside an organization?
- How do you convince skeptical people?
I addressed the first question in passing, and while I'm thinking about it, it's probably worth taking time to flesh it out more than I did. The second question, however, turned into a series of 5 videos that nearly a thousand people watched. The central thought behind those videos wasn't about convincing people...it was about developing the mindset about how to interact with skeptics.
All six related videos are linked below. The links will take you to the LinkedIn post so you can see the comments and interactions. Be warned...the videos are a bit rough...these were the first videos I'd ever recorded and it shows!
- Introduction
- Question 1: What do they know that I don't?
- Question 2: What do I know that they don't?
- Question 3: How are they incentivized?
- Question 4: How might this transformation negatively impact them?
- Question 5: Why shouldn't a person take the transformation we're advocating for?