Written by Chris Averill
Change is both good and bad, we all crave change, but equally fear it. The best change is one that you are in control of — the worst is one that controls you.
It’s all child’s play
During a recent “Lego Serious Play” workshop I ran for a client, who’s mission is “Marketing Transformation”, I was asked to help the team of 50 understand how they could successfully transform the business tomorrow, even though they could not get the basics right today.
To help the group through the challenge I used our “Lego Serious Play” methodology, which helps to break down preconceptions and open up behavioural insight through whole brain thinking.
In short I was able to take all 50 through a process that helped them break down what marketing transformation actually meant, what the end goal was, and how they can achieve it starting today.
Crawl, Walk, Run
My key to this is “Slow Innovation”. Take small steps to make big changes over a long period of time. Now this is counter intuitive to most innovators, idealists and management teams. We all want to see the future now. We can’t afford to wait a few years to get there.
But it’s key to remember that no one really likes change unless their in charge, so to save design by committee, take the slow approach, so slow in fact that no one notices the day to day innovation and change, they all just carry on, but they are changing just on a level that is barely perceivable.
The key to success is to have a goal that has been clearly articulated from the top (board level) down, and a team tasked to deliver who understand the time it will take, have permission to fail and the constant support from the top.
The exception to the rule
Some companies can force rapid innovation, Facebook’s timeline change in 2006 in a great example, as is Google’s approach to organisational change, they get it done in a week max, not the six months of slow death most companies try.
That is neither slow nor quick — it’s just insipid.
Slow innovation is not disruptive; it works in harmony with the business. Slow innovation is the answer every enterprise business is looking for when it asks itself “how can we be more start up?”
To truly understand how your business can succeed, you first need to break the business down, create a shared vision and then use smart creative thinking tools to take your teams on the journey.
What’s the answer?
If you’d like to find out more about how our people and tools can revolutionise your business, and hear about TfL, Lloyds, The Metropolitan Police, Eva, Cineworld, Amex and Citi have all adopted this approach, then give me a call and I’ll share all. Chris Averill 02074049115 chris.averill@hellowae.com
