Monday, August 6, 2018

Three Attributes of Change Agent

Digital is all about changes, and change is multifaceted with increasing speed and velocity.


Digital is all about change with increasing speed. Change Management is about mentoring the human side of the business through the profound and unsettling change. Therefore, change agents are critical, as they have been an invaluable source of courage, knowledge, business direction/insight, and company brand advocates. Here are three attributes of the change agent.

The game-changing mindset: The change agent is not a title, but the game-changing mindset and a set of differentiated capabilities to make the change and be the part of changes. In the organizational setting, to embrace change requires the change of mindset at every level and gain the good understanding that things cannot stay the same. This is the prerequisite groundwork that has to be done at all levels of the organization prior to initiating major changes or the large scale of business transformation. Nowadays, digitalization disrupts not only the business boundary but also the industry boundary. The digital change management process/practice begins with the digital professionals discovering ways to challenge current thinking, beliefs, and assumptions about important elements of the organization. Digital leaders and professionals who are equipped with changeable mindset are more comfortable with the overwhelming growth of information and continuous disruptions, uncertainty and ambiguity. They can explore the new possibilities and apply interdisciplinary knowledge to solve either existing and emerging problems. Keeping digital fluidity requires mind changing because the radical change has to deprogram old mindsets, let go of the “voices from the past,” absorb the new knowledge and establish a new digital blueprint.

Change attitude: In the industrial era, the pace of change was more predictable and planning for execution was the focus. Now, everything requires shorter term planning without giving up the strategic endgame. After developing the mind for the change, it is important to cultivate the good change attitude. Attitude is a vibration, a frequency our human personality carries within it that it exudes around and then affects the world outside through the frequency of this vibration. What are the great attitudes to adapt to today’s fast-changing and over-complex business dynamic? Digital attitudes are about curiosity, being experimental and persistent, risk tolerance, persistence, creativity, learning agility, and humility. Etc. With overwhelming information and abundance of knowledge, one of the true tests of a professional is to know when you don't know, cultivate healthy digital attitudes to keep learning, adapt to change with the right speed, practice a profession and improve professional skills. It is important to cultivate the learning culture that has awareness and understanding plus setting a new behavior expectation of proactive participants.


Change aptitude: Developing changeability takes effort and time. Changeability gives you confidence because you know you are able to positively adapt to any given situation accepting, embracing, and lead changes. What a Change Agent or champion most often does is to instill drive, passion, and enthusiasm, expand knowledge, harness skills, build capabilities, and make continuous improvement. Mental agility will be as important as the personality or characteristics. People with change aptitude continuously seek new challenges, solicit direct feedback, unleash the potentials, self-driven, and accomplish the work resourcefully. They keep updating the skillsets and build the dynamic digital competency. The dynamic business environment keeps throwing a new set of situations to deal with, learning agility is fundamental to develop the ability to change. Limitations on learning are barriers set by human themselves, as learning is a continuous process and everyone has an enormous capacity to learn. Thus, change aptitude depends on how fast you can learn as well as how skillfully you could apply the fresh knowledge to understand and solve the real-world problems as well as improve the individual’s professional skills and qualifications.

Digital is all about changes, and change is multifaceted with increasing speed and velocity. Change mindset, change attitude, and change aptitude are all interconnected attributes of becoming a change agent. Change is a continuum and once you accept that life will be a constant shift going on around us, then you are able to seek ways and means of adjusting your perspective and those around you. Change becomes the new normal and the healthy life habit.

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