This HBR IdeaCast episode discusses how to navigate continuous change in business, advocating for a shift from traditional 'change management' (control) to collaborative 'ownership.' It highlights the importance of embracing discomfort, fostering curiosity, and prioritizing competence over confidence to drive innovation and dynamic strategy, especially in the age of AI.
Summarized by Podsumo
Traditional 'change management' is often a form of control; true change requires collaborative ownership where teams decide the direction together, fostering commitment.
Leaders and teams must embrace discomfort and the 'not knowing' phase, as this uncertainty is crucial for formulating new questions, gaining insights, and fostering innovation, particularly when AI handles data and known answers.
Organizations should reward competence and a willingness to admit uncertainty rather than just outward confidence, as genuine collaboration and new ideas stem from honesty about what is not yet known.
Democratizing change by inviting people from across the organization to participate in problem-solving (an 'invitation to play') leads to faster, more effective solutions and unlocks latent innovation.
Strategy is no longer a long-term, top-down plan but a dynamic, iterative process; leaders must act as co-creators and active listeners, building collective intelligence rather than dictating solutions.
"What we're describing in the change management literature is actually a subjugation. It's us telling other people and directing other people to it, two things. And what we want instead is the ability to actually decide together."
"If we're coming up with a new insight or we're doing innovation or we're doing grocery energy, it's supposed to be hard, but we have to be willing to go into that discomfort and trust that at some point we will figure it out."
"Strategy just has to be dynamic... you need to do strategy with us, not to us."