I read this post by Nina Kern today about how to use questions to drive change. If you are leading a change project, I highly recommend reading the entire post here.
Most change initiatives fail not due to lack of good strategy but due to lack of agency on the part of the people who need to make these changes.
When we mandate change, we usually trigger a threat response within people who have to make the change.
However, if we lead with curiosity and questions, we invite them to partner with us and define why and how they change.
It is human nature to answer any question that is posed to us. We are hard wired to close any open loops. Think of your own experience.
Every time someone asks you a question, any question, you tend to answer it, sometimes out loud and sometimes within yourselves, but you definitely answer it. And If you don’t know the answer, it is quite possible that you seek the answer. And it is your very own answer.
So, in any change initiative, leaders would do well, if instead of prescribing and mandating change, we led with questions that if answered, would lead the people to the change we want to see in our organisation. This is what is called – cognitive ownership. They now become the architect of their own transition. It is now their idea. It is a decision they make to change.
However, it does require that as leaders, we put in the work to identify the right kind of questions to ask. This is when our skill as facilitators can come in handy.
It is also important to know whom do we ask these questions. Each stakeholder group needs to be addressed and the question we pose to them needs to be customized to that specific stakeholder group. This level of customization helps us make the change and the end goal that we aspire real for them. This is our work as leaders.
When we involve the different stakeholders by asking them questions that are relevant to them, the answers that they come up with is their own. It gives them agency over their work as part of the change initiative. This agency shows up as improved engagement and increases the probability of success for the change initiative significantly.
This is what I mean when I say that we need to work with how we are wired as humans, when we are leading change initiatives.
And as we stand today, all initiatives are change initiatives. Leadership is all about helping our teams change their behaviors to continue to stay relevant and create value for our organizations and our customers / partners.
