In the midst of an uncertain economy, polarized politics, and pushback on ESG and DEI initiatives, you may be wondering if now is the time to step up to drive positive change within your company. Maybe it’s better to sit on the sidelines and wait for the storms to clear.
Quite the contrary, say organizational change experts. Instead of stepping to the side, change makers should see this time of disruption and uncertainty as an opportune moment to step into the fray.
In a recent webinar, “What Does It Take to Make Work Matter: The Pulse of Corporate Change Now.” I was delighted to have a chance to share insights with three experts—Matthew Breitfelder, Andrew Ohm and Maureen Scully—who have worked with many change agents throughout their careers. I wanted to get their take on how corporate intrapreneurs might find opportunities to drive positive change in these complicated times (and to share my own perspectives!).
You can listen to the full recording of the webinar here. As a preview, I have noted five insights I took away from the conversation.
1. Social innovation can help companies create long term value.
Maureen Scully, our moderator, set the stage as the conversation opened: “Today’s leaders realize that social and environmental sustainability is not a desirable differentiator. It’s really a business imperative.”
Although many companies have promised action to address the risks and seize the opportunities embedded in social and environmental trends, actions often fall short of achieving stated goals. Corporate social intrapreneurs, the innovators inside companies who offer purpose, institutional savvy, and business acumen, can help close that gap.
Matt Breitfelder amplified this point, “The job of a leader is to create value which is typically defined in commercial terms. Corporate change makers ask a fundamentally different question: How do you create commercial value, while simultaneously creating social value without diluting the commercial value? They see opportunities others may miss for further integrating the two which has long-term value creation potential.”
2. Disruption creates angst AND opportunity.
Change can feel disruptive. Andrew Ohm noted that in his career, including 11 years at Starbucks, he has never seen as much change, uncertainty and disruption as we are experiencing now. He acknowledges that this causes a lot of ambiguity and angst. In this environment he strives to help his colleagues “skate ahead of the puck.”
Andrew runs a design team, but he reaches out across the enterprise to encourage curiosity and understanding, not only of opportunities but also to develop shared perspectives on the problems that need solving.
Andrew believes that there are possibilities for innovation no matter where you are within a complex organization like Starbucks. He sees his job as helping to unlock individuals’ superpowers and to work collaboratively to find solutions.
My experience echoes Andrew’s perspective. Effective corporate innovators, I have found, amplify their impact by working more as catalysts than advocates. They are experts at working with others to co-create pathways for change.
3. Engagement at work is linked to personal purpose.
Matt Breitfelder pointed to the oft cited statistic that only about 20% of people in companies rate themselves as highly engaged in their jobs. He thinks lack of engagement is not only “a crisis of human potential,” it’s an economic crisis as well.
Companies, Matt believes, have “a fiduciary duty to do a better job tapping the human potential” of employees. How do you do that? “When you invite an individual purpose discussion in you start to get access to all this latent potential.”
Corporate change makers can play a role here. They work on challenges that matter deeply to them, to their companies and to society. And the most effective of these intrapreneurs help others do the same. Their ability to unlock the potential of others to do work that matters to them could begin to change those dismal engagement statistics.
4. Slow down.
When you do get a chance to work on problems that matter deeply to you, Andrew noted, you tend to want to move fast, to keep up with the pace of change that envelops you.
However, “I think one of the best things during those times is actually to slow down a little bit.to really just reflect in terms of where you’ve been, why you’re doing what you’re doing and where you’re ultimately trying to go and try to imagine what those future scenarios might be.” In these times of reflection, you can also consider what your values are and how those values can serve as your compass, “a way to navigate through ambiguity,” Andrew said.
In over 15 years working with corporate innovators, I have found this advice to slow down and make time to reflect on purpose and possibilities one of the most important lessons we can impart. Setting aside even a few minutes a week to think about what matters to you and how your work is connected to that purpose can help build resilience that serves as ballast for your efforts to drive positive change throughout your career.
5. Think counterintuitively
In response to some of the remarks made during the conversation, Maureen pointed out how often some of the insights shared may be considered counterintuitive. If you want to be a change agent, you think you must have clarity. Instead, what you need is to get comfortable with ambiguity. You think if you want to drive change, you must go fast because the problems are urgent. And yet, what we need to do is to slow down. You think you must have a great innovation team to find new solutions. In fact, it’s probably more effective to form that team and then go outside of it. Bust the boundaries. Make space for everyone to help! I have found this to be an effective strategy and to play out time and again in my work with the First Mover fellows.
And don’t let the current disruptive environment dissuade you from action. There is opportunity in the midst of uncertainty and complexity.
Want to learn more about organizational change and how to make it happen? Listen to the entire webinar here. Also, check out my new book Making Work Matter: How to Create Positive Change in Your Company and Meaning in Your Career. For additional insights on how research on insider change agents is evolving read “Catalyzing Action on Social and Environmental Challenges: An Integrative Review of Insider Social Change Agents,” co-authored by Maureen Scully, published by the Academy of Management Annals, January 2024.
This blog post was originally published on LinkedIn. Follow Nancy McGaw for more insights on business and society.