Crossing (Over) the Change Chasm — How To Successfully Adopt New Knowledge and Tech

If you are part of or managing a team in Tech (or any industry for this matter), you would have probably experienced at least once in your career having to accept change, be it in your direct work, your team or across the organization. The trends we see in technology; the evolution of cloud services, toolchains, development frameworks and team management practices, see changes at such a remarkable rate today, that many people find themselves in a race to play catch-up. Employees scramble to gain new knowledge needed and if they are unable to gain the required knowledge in time (and related skills), end up playing catch up with the rest of the team or organization. Given that everyone has to balance learning with their day-to-day commitments, for some there may be little opportunity to apply, experiment & learn, hence results in people lagging behind.

In my experience, the one constant I’ve observed is that changes in any organization are usually slowed down (or worse still, blocked!) by the most common element in the equation— People. Something I’ve experienced is that people reject change due to many reasons; fear of doing things differently especially if their actions are of a familiar routine or part of the status quo (though not always producing positive outcomes), or if the change is being forced though formal authority and with knowing that it likely comes a whole set of new outcomes and possible problems too. Hence it is only normal to understand why people tend to reject change.

To quote Heraclitus ‘Change is the Only Constant in Life’ and so I think we should start taking a pro-active, people focused approach to helping those around us be open toward change by guiding them in understand why in some cases change is necessary.

To any adoption or learning something new, we need to start by understanding the dynamics and psychographics of people when faced with learning something new. A useful reference I like is the Tech Adoption Lifecycle (with interesting origins from agricultural research*). Though focused on tech, I think this template could be applied to many other scenarios especially if it involves learning something new be it knowledge on a methodology or a skill (like coding, skateboarding or how to wear a mask! **)

The Chasm to me is the interesting bit. To me (or someone who loves fantasy themes or geography), this sort of gives a negative view on change; it is a large gap, deep, dark, blank — an abyss of nothingness telling you to stop, turn back and go another direction. But what if we change this approach, change the mindset that in fact you can cross this chasm no matter how difficult it may seem to to do. The key message here is that it is possible with supportive colleagues and management.

The other aspect is the different groups of people within the lifecycle. I believe that within each group lies a different mindset to the reception of each towards new information or experiences they are exposed to.

As described in the Tech Adoption Lifecycle, these groups are:

• Innovators
• Early adopters
• Early majority
• Late majority
• Laggards

There are many ways to approach change when considering the groups above and this list can be exhaustive. However, I hope to impart some of my observations in this article to help guide you in finding the right solution for your team. Here are some recommendations….

Firstly, BE THE CHANGE

From experience, what I have realized is that many people say No to change, due to fear of the unknown; of not knowing what’s beyond the chasm or worse still not knowing how to cross it. A key part of this change is finding who the enthusiasts and visionaries are and stick close to them. Seek their knowledge, learn from their experiences or if this is lacking, Be The Change — seek like-minded individuals in your team or organization with the growth mindset to learn and understand the new piece of knowledge. Learn from each other and share your learnings with others to generate interest and awareness.

Secondly, CREATE A SAFE SPACE FOR LEARNING

If you are a team manager, or in a position of influence, don’t sit back and assume that someone in your team is going to do something — instead take responsibility in initiating action especially if you know your team needs that nudge to help them learn and adapt. Take the saying ‘Lead by example’ literally — start talking to your team and listen to their concerns to help you understand how you can help them navigate through change. Guide them towards useful knowledge that would help them. Better still, if you are aware of the change incoming early, take steps to learn the new knowledge yourself, and plan ahead; anticipate questions and concerns your team may have. And don’t forget to document your responses ahead of your 1 on 1s or team meetings so that you are mentally prepared. In my experience, I have seen many excuses from leaders or team managers who say they just don’t have the bandwidth as they’re bogged down with meetings and deadlines. Well, my advice is: Your People are your greatest asset. If you can’t value their time and prioritize their concerns, then you may have already failed as leader.

With the right learning environment, you would start to observe that your team will be comfortable in dealing with change and take an approach of continuous learning & improvements towards adopting and adapting in time.

Thirdly, BE OPEN & HONEST WITH YOUR PEOPLE

As leaders, there are assumed expectations that you, as decision makers, know exactly what you are doing and that you’re doing it right. But, in reality, this is not true for everyone. For some, there are times where you realize that a significant change in the organization is required to ensure the success of your people and their contributions. This could come in the form of a shift in mindsets and methodologies, and in some cases an organization re-structure. And you may come to realize that you may not be the right person to lead this change in your organization. Hence you should be open in relying on others to help steer you to making the right decisions — others with the right knowledge, skills and most importantly experience in handling change management across an organization.

Now you may think that in doing so, you’re showing signs of a lack of leadership and that it could affect the perception of your employees on how good you are as their leader — I can tell you that this is untrue. If you are not the right person to manage the change, you should be open and honest that you aren’t the right person for the job at hand. Instead, you let everyone know that you rely on the expertise of others in your team to plan for and lead people through change.

So then what do you do while all this is happening? Take an active communication stand to keep everyone informed on the status in the organization — highlight good examples that others (especially Late Majority and Laggards) can take initiative from and maintain an open channel for questions & concerns to be raised i.e., using an internal forum or through regular AMAs. If you do so, you will help give confidence to others around in helping navigate your people through a challenging time.

There are probably a lot of more creative approaches that one can use to help adapt to changes in the workplace, so I would say do not be afraid to experiment and try new things too. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” so empower your team to be the change!

*Originally specified by the North Central Rural Sociology Committee, Subcommittee for the Study of the Diffusion of Farm Practices, by agricultural researchers Beal and Bohlen in 1957

**If the reader doesn’t get the context, this article was written and published during the Covid-19 pandemic.