Change without authority - 5 tips to break through the wall.

This article is not for senior executives, executives, or even managers. It is for those who don’t have access to resources - those on the ground who have a job to do and see a problem or opportunity they want to address.

I know who you are. You are the new employee with a new approach. You are the seasoned professional who can see the future now and how to avoid it. You have that idea, that curiosity that something can be done better.

And no one sees what you see or hasn’t got the time.

I have been where you are and experienced the frustration. All is not lost. Here are five tips to get changes implemented without authority or resources.

The two bodies of work I am most proud of are lasting contributions to the organisations I worked for and came from ideas that were dreamt up without request or authorisation by the organisations I worked for, and implemented without additional resources.

Both continue to be used as critical business functions.

1. Own it and discover the truth

It could be an inefficiency in the operations, a risk that isn’t being addressed fully, or a new service, or an untapped opportunity. Most likely, within your work area there is some element that could be changed and enhanced. For me, it mostly stems from something that bugs me while at work. Whatever it is, make a personal choice to own the problem and fix it.

The nature of the problem or solution will not reveal itself initially. With your new found power, take time to think about it, do research and start discovering what is really going on. Talk to people, ask questions, find different perspectives. Is it really a problem? What is going to assist their job or reduce risk? Look for potential technology solution, policies, programs and capabilities that align, within your organisation.

There is probably someone who is doing something similar or dealing with similar problems. Seek them out. Modern technology platforms of organisations are often far more adaptive and capable than most people are aware. There may be solutions right in front of you.

Articulating the problem solution story is often harder to do than it may seem. How to effectively communicate your idea and the problem it resolves will be critical later on so keep at it. You will have different iterations and different language but eventually something will come to the surface that will resonate.

2. Network and engage operational expertise

Operational staff within organisations are an under-utilised resource of capability and skill sets. Highly skilled graduates with degrees and masters degrees in various topics are left to do task based and instructional activities. Unable to apply the hidden mathematical, IT, critical thinking, engineering, social policy skills they have honed over a 5- or 6-year university education, and any work experience they might have on top of that.

Social events and other peer engagement networks in an organization can assist you to identify people and relevant skill sets across the organization to harness. They may not understand the whole problem you are resolving but they may be perfectly suited to tackle a particular task or problem you are facing.

When approaching them, don’t explain the grand vision. Instead approach them with specific questions and issues you need resolved to move forward. In my case it was a mathematical issue I couldn’t resolve on my own or understanding how a particular government initiative worked or how to leverage a particular function with a software system. Targeted questions, through your informal networks can increase your learning and speed up the evolution from vision to implementation.

Building your informal and formal networks across the organization provides the threads to build your masterpiece. You will be surprised as opportunities show up in unexpected corners when you start looking for it.

3. Utilise the downtime and prototype

Work goes through cycles of busyness and down time. Use down time wisely.

If it is a slow week, allocate time to that problem. You might have an afternoon with no critical deadline. Take a couple of hours out to prototype. If it is busy, schedule a 30-minute time slot when your energy is at its highest and make some progress each week. Put structure and form around the idea. Organisations have no shortage of tools available to develop your ideas. If you are using a system like Microsoft SharePoint to innovate, ask to create a sandpit environment that allows you to test and prototype. Think agile, start with the basic elements, and build from there.

What started as a simple idea to capture information in a SharePoint list evolved into a full suite of pages and linked tables and resulting in an end-to-end data capture, review, report, and publishing suite. These little bits of time allowed my understanding to evolve, skillset to develop and vision to crystallise.

Each step gave me more evidence and confidence to articulate the benefits of what I was doing, Once I got authority to implement, I could move quickly due to the rich understanding of the problem and solution that I had developed in my own time.

4. Patience and persistence

In the end, we operate in a hierarchical authorising environment and at some point, we must get the organisation on board and get approval for the solution to be implemented.

This may take some time. My experience is to give yourself at least 6 months to do the required groundwork and engagement to get Executives to get on board. Don't rush. The first time I moved to fast and a breakdown in stakeholder engagement, meant that the concept was rejected at the Executive board level and delayed implementation for another six months. The second time, multiple project proposals and plans over 9 month had failed to get the interest of management. In the end it came to timing when management was ready to listen.

There is a point to formalise the work you are doing. Learn from past experiences, adapting your approach to improve stakeholder engagement and be ready to the right moment to strike. These increase the likelihood of management engagement.

5. Build partnerships and training

The success of the initiative is not just design and delivery but whether it will continue after you have moved on.

There are two approaches to achieve this.

1. Let someone else do the work: While your idea may be great you will not be the only or the best person or team to implement or manage the solution. As they say, you can achieve way more if you don't want the credit,

A corporate risk profiling approach refined over 6 months was able to be implemented within weeks by an Intelligence team who had just implemented a data warehouse and were perfectly positioned to conduct the data analysis as a demonstration of their new tool. A win-win for both. I now had multiple teams and stakeholders with ownership in the solution, increasing the likelihood of ongoing success.

2.Training and Documentation: Draft training manuals, run training sessions. Support the staff one on one. Enable and encourage testing, engagement and feedback. Most of all be receptive.

You are changing the way people do their work and change causes upset. In early stages have tools, resources, and support on hand and take feedback seriously. Include management and provide regular reporting of outcomes and benefits. It is critical to get people on board for the solution to become part of the organisational lifeblood. Developing peoples' skills, creating buy-in and handing over ownership increase the chances the solution will embed itself in the organisation in a durable way.

Closing remarks

Instigating change is challenging, especially if you don’t have the authority to do so. But just because you don’t have authority doesn’t mean you cannot lead. Ideas matter and people that turn ideas into action at all levels matter more. Walking into the CEO's office to demonstrate the effectiveness of work you initiated is a priceless experience. Back yourself, reach out, learn, and be patient. And rest assured that a good idea with consistent action over time will pay off… eventually.