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Punchy, actionable insights and tips to make the life of the team leader a breeze.
[00:00:00] Pia: Change is truly becoming a constant today. Navigating the journey of transformations, restructures and layoffs is difficult for any employee, but requires specific skills and behaviors to understand and lead both yourself and your team through the transition. This miniseries gives you a clear perspective on what change is, how to navigate it, and how to compassionately lead your team through it. I'm Pia.
[00:00:29] Dan: And I'm Dan, and this is Squadify Connects. The US military coined the term VUCA in the 1990s to describe the nature of modern welfare. It stands for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. You recognize that? And Harvard picked it up after 2000 as a way to describe the challenging environment that many businesses and teams face, particularly in times of change.
[00:00:54] These may be organizational restructures aligned to typical growth and downsized business cycles, but the transition to hybrid working and challenges to mental health have all added additional layers of complexity. This is a real opportunity to focus on how to create the best conditions of success for you and your team as you transition through these changes, creating the right clarity, a supportive environment or climate, and the resilience and compassion to emerge stronger on the other side.
[00:01:22] Pia: And helping people to understand the bigger picture is a really good, useful first place to start. Charles Handy developed something called the Sigmoid Curve, and it really expresses this well and we've included in the show notes to print off and then to talk through with your team. It helps to make change a natural process of evolution. All products and organizations begin their early stage of development by trial and error, and then they build on their growth to create increased success.
[00:01:53] The thing is, this success isn't infinite and at one point, A, B, or C, there's a need for transformation, the creation of a new curve. And then this shaded area is often the VUCA part of change where your leadership is really important to both bring your team along and create the best assurance you can in times of Fluxx.
[00:02:17] Dan: Now this is a lovely addition to the sigmoid curve that we've talked about before. So this week, take a look the sigmoid curve in the show notes and think where you currently are at A, B, or C. This may help you to rationalize the change needed or the intensity experienced. Try talking to your team about it as this helps to normalize an experience that can be practically em and emotionally affecting for them.
[00:02:43] Prepare the team for the period of change ahead and talk about how you'll communicate and check in with them. Communication is gonna be really important, both for you to them and from them to you. So set the expectation that they won't be isolated, but will be included during this time. That's a critical first step towards psychological safety.
[00:03:02] Pia: In times of change, you won't have all the answers, and it can be a difficult period for you as well as your team. But knowing that this is a normal cycle and you are there to talk with each of your team is a crucial step. The next important piece of insight is to understand the psychological response to change and possible threats. As then you'll be more proactively ready to support your team going through it. We'll tackle that one next time.