What Optimus Prime Teaches Us About Change Management

If you were born and raised during the ’80s, you may have heard of or watched a cartoon series called Transformers. It is about a group of apparently innocuous transportation products that have the real-time ability to transform into intelligent crime-fighting robots. Optimus Prime is the leader of the Transformers.

Optimus Prime is a heavy duty (HD) tractor trailer that has the real-time ability to transform into an intelligent crime-fighting robot. The transformation is very intense — The HD tractor trailer components are instantly weaponized, enabling Optimus Prime to lead his team to successfully achieve a desired outcome.

If we can rally with Optimus Prime and his fellow Transformers to drastically change to achieve a desired outcome, why is it so challenging to do so in our personal and professional lives? The leader of the Transformers can help us adapt to change in the following ways.

Root change in what’s familiar to global stakeholders. If an everyday HD tractor trailer can turn into a beloved crime-fighting robot, we can adapt to changes that are affixed in something that is familiar to us all.

Drive top-down change. When Optimus Prime transforms, so do its Transformers. Change can originate from various places, but it is most likely to be deployed when endorsed and driven by leadership.

Set change goals. Optimus Prime and its Transformers are usually victorious against their detractors and enemies. It is critically important to set measurable change management goals and mobilize tactical activities to achieve them.

Like the Transformers, there is “more than meets they eye” with change management!