Today we’re going to talk about how to drive change at work. 

Now this isn’t about the actual development of the idea of the change you want to drive because that’s something you already know how to do. You already know how to come up with ideas. Today we’re going to talk about what happens when you share your idea with others. You can also think of this as being about how to influence others. 

And the model I’m going to share today will help you understand the human behavior behind adopting something new. Because while some people are very adaptable to change and some are highly resistant to change, the truth is, everyone goes through four phases of the model I’m about to share. Some just do that more quickly than others.  

As a person who’s introducing a new idea into your organization – no matter how big or small the impact might be – it’s helpful to know. Whether you want to introduce a new strategy, recommend changing outside partners, streamlining internal processes, shifting an organizational model or team structure or pretty much anything else you think of that’s about moving someone else’s cheese, this approach will help you.

This was a hot topic recently for one of my private coaching clients. 

She’s in a CMO role inside a Fortune 500 organization. She’s still kind of new, having taken the role six months ago. And given the C in her title and the fact that she’s new, pretty much everything she does it about change. All day, every day. 

In the short time she’s been there, she’s repositioned the brand, introduced a new advertising company and now she’s starting to look at some bigger disruptors like changing a long-time agency relationship, streamlining her organizational model, and shifting some of how the work gets done inside her team. And those changes in and of themselves are easy for her. Innovating and finding new and better ways to do things is her superpower. 

But for her, doing this inside a big, established, set-in-it’s-ways Fortune 500 is very different from doing so inside a startup. And that’s where she’s spent most of her career. Startups by nature are still being formed so they’re naturally more nimble and agile. 

So, as she’s recently taken on this role inside a large decades old – and maybe slightly stuck corporation she’s found that driving change – honestly, even sharing new ideas – inside that type of environment is a very different thing.

Instead of finding numerous allies who see her vision and readily expand on it, she finds herself endlessly explaining the ideas again and again. And in general, just being met with this ‘wall of resistance’ (that’s what she calls it) whenever anything new is even proposed.

She’s frustrated. Irritated. And feels more than a little defeated. 

As a result, just six months into the role, she’s dubbed most of her peers and many of her direct reports ‘the no people’ and lately has been fantasizing about greener pastures, which for her is about moving back into the more pliable start-up environments where she cut her teeth.

As we discussed it, I could empathize because I’ve spent most of my career in brand driving change as well. So, I know it’s not always easy. But I was lucky because in my first corporate role, I had a very wise boss that was amazing at driving change inside the global corporation where I worked. And he shared with me the model I’m going to talk about today. I call it The Change Curve.

And by the way, this is help

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