Shrinking Big Changes Into Smaller Moments

Look, to their credit, you know, with all of that pressure around restructure, I mean, the focus can often just be honing in on that.

But to their credit, the executive leaders made a commitment in the midst of this restructure and leadership change to tackle equipping leaders to identify, assess and monitor psychosocial hazards at the same time.

So they're actually giving them tools on a practical level to actually navigate this complexity.

They set up prioritising consulting with their teams around psychosocial hazards, these emotional and social dangers through the change.

They normalised talking about hard things and big feelings.

God bless them.

I know.

And so, you know, they actually gave permission for that as they navigated these changes with their teams.

And they used our safety check chat shell where teams were able to have a shared language to talk about not only what was working well through the change, but also what was a struggle, what they were learning and what they could try next, that innovative element, which is so important as you're wrestling through uncertainty.

So they equipped leaders to effectively manage their nervous systems as well so that when those big feelings hit, they actually had the tools to navigate these emotions and communicate these effectively.

Yeah, it can sound so simple, right? A bit of language, very simple four-question structure, like how is that really going to help? But I think what wows me every time we watch teams in hard situations is use that safety check chat? Is it kind of like the guide rails are there then to have these more honest conversations and to know that you're going to come through each piece like, okay, yeah, let's not miss what's working.

And now it is safe to talk about the struggle without that turning into a blame and shame or finger pointing game.

And then most importantly, what are we learning from the strength and the struggle? And then to your point, how do we calm some of that uncertainty by focusing on the things that are in our control and what we can do next.

And what always surprises me, Katie, is how quickly teens, once they get used to sort of using those four questions, actually get a really good rhythm with them going.

Shell,

it was really interesting.

I was talking to a leader today and they said that a lot of their executive leaders are intuitively using at least the first two questions.

What's working well? Where are we struggling? But they often stop there.

that's so

interesting why they often stop there and don't move into so what are we learning and this is not what's the latest professional development course you've done but what are we learning about each other what are we learning about our resources what are we learning about how we're navigating this what are we you know it really honed in this growth mindset of framework to move through change that we're all learning we're all growing and then it allows this innovative next step and it propels you forward so i think those question three and four around what are we learning and what will we try next are actually critical and often neglected

Yeah, and it's so interesting that you point towards the growth mindset work of Dr. Carol Dweck, because it was actually in conversation with Carol that we added those two questions.

And I'll never forget Carol saying, look, the most important question we can be asking is, and what are we learning? Because it makes the learning and the mastery process more visible we get to celebrate the progress and build that sense of self-efficacy and belief that what we're doing matters and can make a difference and so it also Katie leads so beautifully into the E in our heart little framework which is for engaging purposefully which is finding what makes changes meaningful for each of us, not just our workplaces or what we've been told we have to do, and what is within our control in the change, even if it's not a change we chose like this restructure.

And of course, often the only thing ever really in our control in any situation is the learning that we might be able to take from the context that's unfolding around us.

So how did this educational institution help their teams engage purposefully in the change given I'll take a safe bet most people were not that excited about this change