Change Is In The Air

It has been a year since I wrote my first article on Linked In entitled, “Every Little Thing is Everything” and the last 365 days have been an emotional roller coaster full of ups, downs, twists and turns. A few weeks ago, I was invited to a listening session at work to talk about our progress over the past year around diversity and inclusion. As I sat in my home office reflecting on my personal experiences, I realized how much we had progressed and how much work remained to be done. I’ve become increasingly curious about the experiences of others and how they related to my own personal journey.

I joined the meeting early because I didn’t want to miss a moment of the listening session. I’d been looking forward to this meeting for quite some time and the anticipation built as I watched team members join one after the other. I turned my camera off because I didn’t want to look awkward as I glanced at each team member on the call. I just wanted to look at them and feel their energy. A few minutes had passed and there were over 40 black team members on the call, many of whom I know personally and have a great deal of respect for.  I could see the look of anticipation on their faces. It was similar to the expression I had on my face when I was a child and wanted to let my mom know all the things my older sister did that upset me as she walked through the door from a long day’s work.

As I looked around the virtual room, I could tell many of the attendees were also wondering if they were going to be safe to share their experiences. Some had a look of pride and confidence while others looked shell shocked from the events that have occurred over the past year. It has indeed been an exhausting year for black team members in corporate America. The uprisings happened and it’s as if the entire world collectively turned and looked at black people for understanding and solutions. Personally, I found the discussions to be quite draining because explaining your experiences and feelings takes more emotional energy than just listening to someone else’s point of view.

The meeting was about to begin, and it felt like the entire room took in one collective deep breath of boldness and slowly exhaled the emotions from the past 365 days to focus on the task at hand. The moderator gave a brief welcome and then asked “How have we done as a company in the areas of diversity and inclusion over the past year?” , “What can we do better?”, “What have we done well?” and “What do we need to do going forward?”

I will spare you suspense and let you know up front that this article will not be about our internal discussions out of respect and privacy for team members. I will, however, share with you some of my personal insights on what I believe the path forward for team members, leaders, and corporations should be. Many of you can imagine the discussions in the room because many you may have been involved in similar discussions at your place of work. I have a great deal of respect for companies that create a space for open, honest, and transparent dialogue without shying away from the tough topics. The company that shows humility by asking tough questions about their performance without allowing defensiveness to hijack the conversation is the company that will continually grow, evolve, and outpace competitors.

Leading up to the meeting, one of the most common phrases I’ve heard about listening sessions is “I’m tired of listening, I want actions and results”. While I do understand the frustration and sense of urgency, I have a slightly different point of view. You can’t have meaningful change in an area without listening and empathizing with the people who are impacted. Change is a continual process which involves listening, planning, actions and analyzing results.  As we closed out the meeting, it became clear to me that change doesn’t have to be hard, but it must be intentional and strategic. Many of us have a strong desire to improve but we often underestimate the importance of a solid change management strategy. Change is not hard because people don’t want to, it’s hard because people don’t know how to. Many of us have biases due to decades of learned behaviors. It’s easier to learn something new than it is to unlearn something old.

My Introduction to Change Management

On October 29th, 2013, Dell became a private company. It was an exciting new chapter for us because it allowed us to continue the execution of our long-term strategy and focus on delivering best-in-class solutions to customers as a private enterprise. This gave us the ability to be even more flexible, entrepreneurial, and innovative.  

It was also during this time that I took on a new task of helping our client engineering team implement a framework of Design Thinking that would enable a space for continual innovation. We were now the “World’s Largest Startup” and the excitement of future possibilities buzzed throughout our campuses. However, after a few failed attempts at influencing team members to adopt a new process, my manager helped me to realize that to be successful, I would need to have a Change Management strategy. He introduced me to the Prosci ADKAR model for change management which is widely used across the industry.  What does this approach have to do with Diversity and Inclusion initiatives at your company? Everything!!! Cultural transformation will not happen and be sustained over a long period of time without a strong change management strategy.  

The ADKAR Change Management Model

Step 1. Awareness

The first building block of the Prosci ADKAR model ensures there is an overall awareness of the change being implemented and the need to change.  Building awareness as defined within ADKAR means sharing both the nature of the change and answering why this change is necessary. It means clearly explaining the business drivers or opportunities that have resulted in the need for change. It also means addressing why a change is needed now, and explaining the risk of not changing.

Putting a slight twist on the Prosci model, I believe personal awareness is just as important as program awareness in the area of D&I. We must all realize that we have blind spots in our thinking. We must be open to the possibility that we have more to learn and we are not experts in every area. Awareness begins with asking a set of questions,  “Do I need to change and why?, “Do I understand why others with opposite views feel the way they do?”, “What experiences caused them to feel that way?”, “What feedback have I received from others relating to my actions and beliefs?” and  “Have I created a space for people to communicate honestly about my personality and performance?” If we spend time to reflect on these questions, we will more than likely uncover blind spots in our thinking that we didn’t know existed – and potentially affected our ability to effectively influence.  

Step 2. Desire

Once we have increased our overall awareness of why change is important and identified areas we would like to improve, the next step is to assess our desire to address it. Desire is something that only we control, and we must make a conscious decision to grow and develop our minds. Unfortunately, this is where I’ve seen the change process break down for most people. They know that their thinking could be flawed but they decide to not change because they are comfortable. They are comfortable with not disrupting their status quo because it takes time and energy to reprogram your mind.  The good news about desire is that it can be controlled through our strategic approach to change our habits.  I do not have enough time to address habits and addictions in this article and it’s not my area of expertise but I do recommend the book “The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business” by Charles Duhigg. It’s one of the best books I’ve read on the topic and I strongly recommend it.

Step 3. Knowledge

Having awareness and a desire to change is not enough. Now it’s time to get busy. It’s time to study. When I was younger, I remember reading Encyclopedia Britannica’s to research topics. However, we now live in a period where data and information are only keystrokes away and in a matter of seconds, we can find a wealth of information. We have the internet, audio books, physical books, classes, online training, self-help videos, articles, magazines, etc... to aid us in our pursuit of learning. Obtaining the knowledge, in my humble opinion, is the fun part of change. You can explore an unknown world and it can be truly exhilarating because you are beginning to reinvent yourself.

Step 4. Ability

In his book “Meditations Sacrae and Human Philosophy”, Francis Bacon wrote “Knowledge is Power”.  I partly agree with this statement. I believe the application of knowledge is power. Assessing your ability to change is not as easy as it sounds. Ask yourself, “What’s preventing me from changing?” and create a quiet space to listen to what your mind is telling you. If you feel resistant, ask yourself, “Why am I feeling resistant to this change?” It’s possible to possess the awareness, desire and knowledge but not have the ability to change. Ability is about putting the work and sweat equity into your growth process. Prosci states that fostering ability involves practice, time, coaching, role-modeling, access to the right tools and feedback.

Potential challenges and resisting factors include: inadequate time to develop skills, lack of support, existing habits contrary to the desired behavior, psychological blocks, and personal limitations. This means you’re going to have to be patient with the velocity of your internal change and growth because it will not happen overnight. Don’t beat yourself up if you revert to a behavior your trying to change. Just get up, dust yourself off and keep pressing forward.

Step 5. Reinforcement

I like to sum reinforcement up by using 3 simple words: Don’t go back.  We must be aware that there will be a natural tendency to go back to the status quo if we do not periodically take time to reinforce the changes made. Change management and your growth process is not a check-the-box activity. It’s a continual process for improvement. According to Prosci, successful reinforcement may require celebrations, rewards and recognitions, feedback, corrective actions, performance measurement and accountability mechanisms. When we make significant investments in our personal growth by building the awareness, desire, knowledge, and ability to make a change without planning to reinforce, we run the risk of that investment being wasted and results not being fully realized.

The Path Forward

I was not surprised by any of the comments I heard in the listening session. It was exactly what I expected. It was a strong cocktail of optimism mixed in with a little frustration, doubt and uncertainty. In my 20 years of working in corporate America, the progress made real in 2020 and 2021 is something we should all be proud of. We should be proud but not misled into thinking the work is done. In fact, this is only just the beginning. We have an amazing opportunity to shift mindsets and cultures towards the greater good. 

Applying the Prosci ADKAR model for change management to your organization’s D&I strategy and to your own personal growth strategy will position you for success. Change doesn’t happen overnight because the habits you’re trying to break took years, decades and –in some cases – centuries to form. However, I sincerely believe that changing the world begins with changing ourselves. We change ourselves through self-examination, creating a strategy for change and by focusing our energy on the things we can control.  Sometimes we rob ourselves of what we can and should become by looking directly into the blinding sunlight of others. However, I’m optimistic because I have personally witnessed this generation shine a light on our own blind spots in our thinking to reprogram ourselves to win together.