All across organizations, no matter if big or small, you find people with the weird interest of improving things, making things better, make of their companies, units or teams best in class. These rare animals assume as their "confort zone" exactly that that others run away from: change, change, change.
These people are continiously finding different ways to make things, even irrationally, it's in their DNA. Rules usually don't work too well for them and have an internal permanent frustration that moves them to evolve.
For all those, I'm going to share some tips, rules that I apply in my day to day. These are my learnings after several years of hard work, failures and hits against brick walls wherever I've been working in. These have been generated working in a big corporation and also small businesses. But the most relevant comes from my years in a big Corporation so you'll realize they are clearly applicable there but probably most are useful in other environments.
Trick 1. Choose the battles to fight in: Change is great but focus on what you CAN change.
There are lots of things to change so choose based on answering two different questions: can you change it? Have you been invited to the party?
If you see you cannot do it, find another battle. If it's too big, concentrate in small pieces of change. If you deliver differencially, at the end of the day, you'll find out that you've changed more things than expected.
And of course, if you haven't been invited to the party, don't go! I've done myself the failure of trying to force a change in something that wasn't my responsibility and it always ended up in high energy crash with fire.
Trick 2. Prepare the best sales pitch ever.
This is about preparing a great argumentary. Do it, be ready, you'll need to use it a thousand times. I learnt this from a business colleague. Thanks Michael for it! The steps are:
2.1. Challenge the Status Quo.
If you want to change something, first you need to answer the question: why do we need to change at all?
Most people dislike change so this question will come. Be sure about it. And some will be really rude so be ready.
2.2. Share your vision.
There's a second question coming from your colleagues the, let's call them, "change challengers". Ok, so what you want to do?
Prepare a great answer. Be as bold as possible. Figure out where you want to be once the project is finished. THINK BIG!!! But remember, be realistic, figure out which boundaries you can afford to jump over and which you don't. One thing is been visionary, another is being a dumb.
Once the answer is ready, use only a 10-20% of it. Yep, do you think that people that don't want to change and are probably far from beeing like you are going to say yes to your dreams? Sorry, no, so tune it down. That will set the expectation of your organization on your iniciative.
But keep your own personal and private target in your first estimation. Fight for it, maybe someday it'll become real.
2.3. Define clear small steps to get to your vision.
There's a third question you must answer: how do you want to do that?.
Probably they'll say something like, that's impossible, cannot be done because bla bla bla... First barriers mate! So define those baby steps. That's going to be your WORKING PLAN. That will define your sucess so be fair with your estimates. Not too positive, not too pessimistic. The right point is exactly what you are able to deliver
Probably, the most difficult to dimmession is the third point. Naturallly positive people tend to make timing short and targets high. I've learnt on the way that in order to be adjusted to reality I need somebody to pull me down to reality (I'm naturally optimistic). That works if you have those profiles near. It can be a colleague, a team member or your boss. Sorry, mate, you are not perfect, let others help you in your imperfection to make your delivery an optimum.
Trick 3. Win friends, you'll need them.
You cannot change the World alone so win as many friends as possible. Read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" of Carnegie. It may help.
Avoid to create enemies for free. There will be people that won't like you, it's natural, but don't generate negative sentiments around you, that will hinder something sooner or later.
Actually you'll be surprised if you invest enough time on some people that initially may look negative, they can become your best allieds.
Of course there will be people you will not convince. No matter if you have the best sales pitch, if you are lovely, fun and brilliant buddy or if you bring the cure of cancer to Menkind. It doesn't matter. There will always be one guy saying you: "NO WAY". To this, apply trick 4.
Trick 4. Find ways around. Be creative!
This is the moment of the bad news. Nothing is going to be ready to help you. Processes were created for another kind of business, the resources are always limited and probably you don't have all the skills required in your team.
So be prepared to create ways around, imperfect solutions for all poping up barriers. One good colleague told me once: perfection is the enemy of what's good. That trick can be used whenever it doesn't break trick 5.
Trick 5. Don't compromise the quality of your delivery.
When you find ways around (trick 5), sometimes you must compromise certain parts of your vision. That's OK whenever it will not affect your result.
If after all compromises required by your organization, environment, resources, whatever, you deliver a piece of crap, nobody will remeber that it's because of all the difficulties. Nope, you'll be a failure. Bad luck, no time for losers, go back home!
One small hint, prepare your Santa's list with bulletpoints but make sure you know which of those you cannot renounce to.
Note: This rule doesn't apply if you are Steve Jobs, He never compromises his vision
Trick 6. Bring your passion in! Work harder, work longer.
No real trick. Talent is great. But hard working is needed. Simple. Waking up earlier and going to bed later helps. Be very efficient in your time usage too, it costs millions.
And when you leave the office, disconnect your brain from business... if you can.
Trick 7. Be prepared to frustration.
Nothing is going to be easy. Everything will be a pain. Lots of things will fail and lots of people will critize you so be ready for it. If you love what you do, that will make it easier.
Trick 8. Stop often, watch how things go and reshuffle plans.
Sometimes the picture changes while you are working, so be ready to realize and react.
And also iterate fast. If you can deliver pieces of what you are doing to others (in SW this fits well), do it and ask for feedback. That's really useful. Of course some trolls will show up and will try to put you down, don't pay attention to them and focus in constructive feedback.
But listen more to those that say you the failures than the good things. Those will help you grow, will help you to be better.
Trick 9. Find inspiration wherever you can.
No matter what you are trying to achieve, there's been people before you trying to do things that were more difficult than your challenge. Find them, read about them, listen to them and, if possible, meet them. They'll be glad to share, I've learnt that this kind of people are usually altruistic in sharing views, so be open to learn...
Trick 10. Have fun!
You are going to be the weird guy, the enemy, the green dog, so at least have fun.
If you are able to put distance in between things and you, that will make you happier and capable on laughing about all things happening around.
A friend of mine told me that when he was in a "war" of change, he used to meditate once per week and work out everyday. I'm sure that helps but I prefer laughing.
