Don't demand a seat at the table - wait to be invited

Waiting to be invited is a sign of Respect

I was once told a story about the what a 'Welcome to Country' means to the traditional owners of Australia, our First Nations people. That when travelling the lands of Australia they would wait on the border of the other tribes lands and light a fire so that the smoke would raise into the air and signal their presence. They would then wait until someone from the neighbouring tribe would arrive and welcome them onto their country. What a profound sign of respect. 

This story had many layers of lessons for me. One lesson, is that it is far more powerful to respectfully wait and be invited, rather than barge in or 'force' any change. Now that's not to say that in my career in the early days I didn't drive a lot of change. I certainly like progress and have a knack for driving action. However as the years of lessons have built up, I have certainly changed my approach and have learned patience. 

Pace in line with business understanding

When working in organisations that are new to change management and change leadership, many suggestions you make as a change professional aren't trusted or even understood. 'That won't work here' or 'they won't agree to that', or 'I have tried that before and it didn't work', are the responses I have typically received. I worked out pretty fast that I would simply be wasting energy trying to change minds that were not yet open to new ways of working. 

So rather than insist, I soon realised that the best thing to do was to meet my stakeholders where they were at. Compromising on the preferred approached at times and allowing lessons to be learned and more understanding through application of some change practices to take place. This can be challenging but it is critical.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles and it more powerful when you are invited to the decision making table eventually. Unfortunately, change management isn't a discipline that is understood enough in practical terms to be in the same boat as standard business disciplines. That is one pain point that project management can also share. In the next 10 years however I expect that the organisations that survive and thrive will be those who are agile in the way they approach change and who embrace and embed this discipline.

Create the space for learning through application of change and the seat will be granted. In the meantime, wait with respect and you will eventually reap the rewards of your patience when the results speak for themselves.