Change requires collaboration

When introducing change, whether it be technical, cultural, or of some other form, you will need to collaborate with others to be effective. This is because of two reasons.

First, individuals involved in a change management process are more likely to accept its outcomes. Getting people to collaborate on change is a powerful way to guarantee buy-in, no matter your role in the process. Even if you’re the CEO, you will encounter resistance if you try to create change in a vacuum.

Secondly, collaboration is essential because innovation needs a platform: if you have the greatest idea in the world but lack the support to execute it, you will ultimately fail. You need to create an ecosystem that will allow your idea to flourish, and only then can you move to execution.

In systems theory, we say that swimming downstream is easier than swimming upstream.

References

• The McKinsey Way: As one former EM said, “It was very rare for us to do a presentation where we hadn’t taken the various players through our findings beforehand. Otherwise, it was just too risky. In effect, the actual presentation became performance art.