Want to spark change? Start with people!

Published in

Spektrix Engineering

6 min readJul 6, 2018

Whatever your role is in your company, I bet you have already taken the initiative to change something around you. That’s because you care about your job and you want to leave things better than when you arrived.

Adding a new selection of snacks in the kitchen, organising a monthly team away-day, introducing a new development tool, improving a process… Big or small, change that matters never happens in a vacuum. It has an impact on people around you (that’s the point, right?)

These people might be your coworkers, sitting in different circles within your organisation: your team, your department, other teams, senior management, etc… Or they might be outside of your company: customers, users, partners, etc… You might be working with them on a day-to-day basis or catch up every few weeks. Or maybe you have never been in touch. They might not even know who you are! Whoever they are, the success of your initiatives will depend on how well you interact with them.

Taking the time to engage with people can feel like a burden when you want to progress fast. You might be tempted to skip that step and “just do it”. But if you want your work to make a positive difference, “doing it” won’t be enough. Working *with* people is what will take you over the line.

Start by nailing down your objectives

This is not the focus of this article. But before you can talk to anyone about your project, you need to be clear about what you’re trying to achieve.

What’s your intention? What’s the problem you’re trying to solve? What outcome are you aiming for? What’s your action plan? Be prepared to talk about these points. You won’t get anyone’s buy-in if you look like you don’t know what you’re doing.

Find your stakeholders

A stakeholder is a person with an interest or concern in something, especially a business.

The something is the change you want to make: cleaning up old git branches, adding a new column to your team’s JIRA board, improving your bugs prioritisation process, launching a new blog for your department, introducing OKRs as way to set goals for your company, etc… Regardless of the size of your project you will find at least one person who has an interest or concern in it.

The following questions might help you identify the people who have an interest or concern in your initiative:

Whose job will you impact? Whose decisions rely on the area you want to change?
What perspective or information are you missing? Who can provide it?
Whose help do you need to make your project a success?

Find the right way to engage with your stakeholders

There are a few things you need to consider in how you approach people in your project:

Pave the way for change

Each organisation, each team, each person reacts differently to upcoming change. Some might be very nimble and adapt to new information and context without a fuss. Others might need more time and help to prepare for change.

Take some time to think about how they might receive your initiative. Will it surprise them? Are they expecting the change?

Do everything you can to remove the element of surprise. Ease your stakeholders into change.

Taking a look at how they usually plan and implement projects might be helpful. It will give you clues on what they need to feel confident about change: information, lead time, ceremonies, checkpoints, approvals, documents… Make some compromise to follow the practices that will earn you their trust. It might feel like a detour or a slow down but it will actually remove a lot of roadblocks for your project. And build strong relationships for future collaborations!

And if you don’t know how your stakeholders prefer to approach change, ask them! It’s a good way to engage with them and show you want to do things the right way.

Set expectations

Your stakeholders will have a different perspective on the problem you want to solve, depending on their role, team, organisation… They might not even be aware of the problem! Start by bridging that gap: explain what you are trying to solve, ask for their take on it. You might learn a bit more about the problem and refine your plan.

Once you have a common understanding of the problem, discuss the outcomes you are targeting, how you plan to get there and what help you need from that person. Make sure you agree on who will be accountable and responsible for what.

Listen!

As much as you can, try to anticipate the questions and risks your stakeholders might raise. It does help to have some plan or elements of answers ready before you start a discussion.

But what matters the most is to be ready to actively listen. Invite people to give feedback. Show that you value their input and adapt your plan accordingly.

Be respectful of prior contributions

Keep in mind that someone built the thing you are trying to improve. Sometimes with love. At least with the best intention and care. Recognise the efforts people have invested in the area you are changing when your introduce your initiative to them.

Present change in a positive light. Don’t undermine or criticise what has been done in the past. Instead you can highlight that the context has evolved and raise the need for a different solution. Remove judgement from your representation of the problem and focus on how you want to make things better for the future.

Adjust your timing

Does your initiative align with your stakeholder’s current priorities? If not, you will have a hard time getting them involved. You will have better chances to get their help, feedback or approval if the problem you’re solving is as important to them as it is to you.

Take your stakeholders’ priorities into account and adjust your timing to avoid struggling with their availability. If you push your initiative forward now, how will it impact their job? Will you disrupt them? Will they have time to feedback or will they feel rushed?

Consider slowing down or delaying to give them the time to get on board. And in case you have to progress without them, think about how they might feel about that and how it will affect your project down the line.

Using the right channel to introduce your initiative is also crucial. Choose the one that fits your audience’s workflow and allows them to give your message the attention it needs.

All the above may look very heavy when you’re trying to put in place a small change, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s not about asking permission for everything you want to do. Sometimes, it can be as simple as having a quick chat with the right person.

Whatever you’re trying to achieve, make sure you pause to think about who you need to get on board and how. Based on your stakeholders’ level of interest and concern, you can tune how involved your approach is.

To recap, here’s my personal cheatsheet to get people on-board with my projects: