Who’d want to be a champion?
If you have ever had that burning feeling in your gut for a change that needed to happen, then you might have had the urge to become a champion. And, for many, there is a reason why that was as far as it got. And it comes down to self-esteem, courage and culture.
For change to succeed, the conditions need to be supportive. That support is most easily seen and felt through the culture that we exist in. And we, as potential champions, need to have the self-esteem and courage to step up to the stage and be counted.
Every initiative starts with a champion, and what happens next depends on the culture that exists.
In the business world, we can consider three different existing cultures. The startup, the merger/acquisition and the reorganisation. In all three, the champion is for their new vision, which will lead to the emergence of a new culture. One barrier, if not the most significant barrier to a new culture emerging, is the attachment people have to the existing culture.
The existing culture feels comfortable; it is known and often considered ‘safe’, even if it is negative and not safe.
The existing culture has not been designed or curated. It has emerged from the conditions that have existed for as long as people can remember - conditions such as working practices, established relationships, hierarchies, emotions and long-established rivalries of conflicts that few remember how they started.
Where there is a negative or resistant culture, it would seem impossible to change the whole organisation because of the huge effort and involvement required to suppress the existing culture.
Instead, the place for a champion to start is with a small team of people, people who can be enrolled in the vision and people who are willing to work under a new set of conditions. If you want to make big changes, make small changes first.
When the possibility of change is greater than the security of not changing, the conditions are right for change to succeed. The possibility for change is a function of the power of the vision for the future, the dissatisfaction of the status quo and the clarity of the first steps, knowing what to do next.
That is where the role of a champion starts. Not in trying to change the world on their own, not taking on goliath with a single stone, but enrolling a few people who share the vision and with them creating the conditions to increase the possibility of change.
So if you have a burning feeling in your gut for a change that needs to happen in your organisation or want to start an organisation, register your interest for our new book to be published before Christmas. We will update you with more fresh thinking and ideas and let you know about our progress. Click here to learn more.
