Caring for Catalysts: A Safety "Match"
Aidan McCullen
Workshops, Keynotes, Masterclasses and Round Tables on Innovation and Reinvention Mindset. Author. Workshop Facilitator. Host Innovation Show. Lecturer. Board Director. Founder of The Reinvention Summit.
"The world of chemical reactions is like a stage... The actors on it are the elements." - Clemens Winkler (German chemist 1838 – 1904)
To be a corporate catalyst inciting change within an organisation or an industry is an exciting role. However, it is also a stressful, frustrating and oftentimes lonely one. A catalyst is a change maker, but change is one of the hardest things for people. The status quo by its very nature does not give up without a fight.
When an organisation hires a change maker, the leaders who do that must realise that is only the first step on a long road ahead. Many organisations mistakenly believe they can hire a head of innovation, corporate innovator or intrapreneur and these people will transform the business. For a true chemical reaction to occur, there is so much more involved. Yes the change maker can catalyse change, but the organisation must also be primed for change. For this Thursday Thought, the chemical reaction involved in lighting a match provides a (ahem) striking metaphor.
Safety match heads contain sulphur and oxidising agents, with powdered glass, colorants, fillers, and a binder made of glue and starch. The striking surface consists of powdered glass or sand, red phosphorus, binder, and filler. Early matches were cumbersome and inherently dangerous. The major innovation in the development of safety matches was the use of red phosphorus, not on the head of the match but instead on a specially designed striking surface.
Let's extract some analogies here for corporate change.
The Striking Surface
A specially prepared surface provided the breakthrough that enabled mass-scale production of safety matches. Previous inventors focussed on the match alone.
In corporate transformation efforts (of which 75% fail) leaders often expect the change maker to succeed when left to their own devices. This is impossible. The change maker may have some small wins, but they will often be disconnected and random. Real change can only happen when leadership prepares the surface for change by dedicating consistent energy towards change initiatives. Leaders must prepare the surface by creating the right conditions for the spark to take place. Therefore, a different sense of match is required, the match between the catalysts and the organisation.
The Chemical Reaction
While catalysts ignite a chemical reaction, they do not feature in the final product. In a similar vein, change makers orchestrate change, but have to hand over so much of the credit to those in positions of power or status, who will take credit for the successes and deflect the blame for failed experiments back onto the change maker.
This can be very difficult for a change maker, so often they have set the stage for success, but must take leave of it before the curtain call.
It is great for the organisation, but for the change maker they can feel like the tail end of a pantomime horse.
This role of catalyst can also mean that leaders do not recognise the work of a change maker, because others take credit for that work. Months of influencing, providing evidence, persuading and cajoling is hard to quantify. When a change maker gets quizzed on tangible outputs, they can often be found wanting. This is why leaders must be involved and provide air cover for the catalysts.
The Pain of the Coalface
Catalysts are at the coal face and this means they consistently encounter resistance, rejection and ostracisation. The workplace can often resemble the school yard, with bullies, power struggles and leaving others out. Many catalysts don't have any tenure, status or power in the form of people and finances. They must trade good will and credit for success if an initiative works out. It is a difficult and dangerous for your career, often it doesn't work out. Most of the time, the catalysts don't fail the organisation, the organisation fails them.
"The world of chemical reactions is like a stage," German chemist Clemens Winkler said, "The actors on it are the elements." When it comes to corporate change, it takes more than one actor, it takes an entire troupe.
THANKS FOR READING
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Our guest on The Innovation Show is author of The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever Michael Bungay Stanier.
It is about getting to grips with how to actually change your behaviour so you stay curious a little bit longer.
It sounds like it should be easy, but it’s not.
You have to tame your Advice Monster, that part of you that jumps in to offer up ideas, opinions, suggestions and advice.
And it’s taming your Advice Monster that’s at the heart of this book. But there are also some specific coaching strategies, particularly on how to focus on what matters most.
Listen here:
More about Michael here: https://www.mbs.works
Innovation, Strategy, Transformation | Empowering Leaders and Teams to Unlock New Growth from Within
4 年As a former chemical engineer that now plays in the innovation space, I can appreciate and nerd out on the analogy. Here's one: Chemical catalysts are not consumed by the reaction but can be poisoned by resulting waste products. Hence the need for air cover and maintenance. Thanks Aidan McCullen Fran Willis White
Certified Change Leadership Expert/Executive Advisory/Performance Improvement/Transformational Leadership Development
4 年Thank you Aidan McCullen for a fun and engaging framing of the Catalyst experience! "Tail end of a pantomime horse"--priceless! It's this type of story/analogy that helps people allow themselves to see their roles in the transformation play, isn't it? John Morley Mark Leung Jenn Hooten Andy Sitison Paidi O Reilly
Principal Data Scientist Consultant | MBA | US Air Force Veteran | Photographer
4 年Thank you for sharing. Absolutely it is not easy to change an organization. Depending on size it has its momentum going for it. (Positive or Negative). I have found the most difficult of them are the ones who focus heavily on quarterly results. Not that there is something wrong with that focus, however if the majority of the organization is focused in that area, change is the last thing on anyone's mind at this moment. This "moment" turns into perpetual motion...
Practice Lead @ AnalyticsWise Inc | Sense Making 360 | Action Learning | Change Making
4 年Great post, thank you. Some forward thinking CEOs are beginning to take action to attract, retain and drive employee engagement in the emerging Human Capital Era. I also observe that some very talented and active baby boomers are considering early retirement. They are likely to walk away with precious tribal knowledge that is not documented. HR leaders can explore new pathways to begin intrapreunership / entrepreneurship in collaboration with other business leaders? I am sure we can create new win-win business models beyond simply contracting them for traditional $ per hour models. Why not new accelerated exponential value creation ?
Nonfiction book coach | Author
4 年Two analogies I love in this post—the safety match one, and the advice monster!