“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” – Ben Franklin
Every organization seems to be in a state of perpetual change today, undergoing “digital transformation” of one kind of another. But as leaders know, change does not come easy, and habits can be hard to break.
But by leveraging Purpose, leaders can increase their chances of success and this is precisely the topic we explored in Conscious Capitalism NYC’s latest “Higher Purpose” event, a series sponsored by BrandFoundations and aimed at exploring all the ways in which purpose can improve organizational performance (including communications, change, operations, strategy, M&A, etc.)
It was my honor to welcome more than 60 conscious capitalists from organizations such as Moodys, AT Kearney and Visa last night, as well as two friends and leaders in change management – Danny Dworkin from Kotter and Gordon Robinson from Changing Management – to yet another sold out event in this series.
Danny and Gordon opened the session by explaining how Traditional Capitalism is evolving into Conscious Capitalism and drawing the parallel to the the way traditional Change Management is evolving into Conscious Change leadership.
Then they dug into the psychology of how people embrace or reject change, demonstrating the “justification continuum” that leaders can employ to rationalize change and knowing when it’s appropriate to draw on Transactional forms of justification (“Because I have power over you” or “Because it makes sense to me.”) vs more Conscious forms (“Here is why it makes sense to you” or “Here is how it connects to our shared higher purpose”).
They followed this with a deep dive into the neuroscience behind embracing change and how people are mentally wired to respond to it. We learned how to recognize when people were responding to change with a “survive channel” that is fear based, or a “thrive channel” that is opportunity based, and how to toggle between the two for maximum effectiveness.
There were a number of exercises that allowed participants to experiment with these concepts and of course, plenty of networking and “conscious connections” made during the evening.
To view and listen to a recording of the presentation you can click here.
If you have not yet had a chance to come to one of our events – or experience the buzz being generated by one of NYC’s most thriving business communities – check out our of event calendar today at: http://consciouscapitalism.org/nyc
Wondering if your purpose strong enough to inspire effective organizational change? Download our self-diagnostic assessment – “How Strong is Your Purpose” – to find out, and then contact us!
