Solid Ground in Shifting Times

About this webinar

Change becomes especially difficult when the old way is no longer working but the new direction is not yet clear. In this conversation, Rebecca Reynolds and Stuart Easton explore how leaders and change-makers can work through that uncertainty without rushing prematurely to a solution.

Rebecca introduces her Thresholds of Change framework, an iterative process for understanding where people and organisations are during change. She focuses particularly on Instigation, when something previously stable is no longer working; the Liminal, when people are between the old and the new and cannot yet know the full answer; and Metabolization, when new thinking and behaviours begin to take hold.

What you’ll hear

• Notice change before jumping to solutions by recognising signals that something previously stable is no longer working.
• Work with uncertainty rather than hiding it when change is necessary but the eventual answer is still emerging.
• Build a shared view before choosing options by using strategic planning to understand the terrain and establish a common frame of reference.
• Bring operational knowledge into the conversation because people throughout the organisation often see constraints, dependencies and practical realities that executives cannot see from the top.
• Take people through the change rather than doing change to them by involving them in the process and exposing them to perspectives beyond their own.

Rebecca also describes a federal-government project from her work with TransparentChoice, prioritising land-treatment projects across a 2.5-million-acre landscape spanning mixed jurisdictions. The challenge combined agreed strategic outcomes with hundreds of participants, from specialists in areas such as forestry and water chemistry to people who lived locally and had a direct interest in the decisions. The example shows how structured participation can help people hear different perspectives and understand why some priorities come before others.

For more from Rebecca, read her TransparentChoice guest article Beyond Headcount and Budget: The Hidden Constraints on Organizational Capacity, which explores the specialist skills, dependencies and other constraints that headline capacity numbers can miss. For her fuller treatment of the change process, explore Thresholds of Change: The Way Through Transformational Times.