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THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGEHoward TierskyCEO

Are all of today's large, pre-internet enterprises doomed?

A digital tidal wave of

change is sweeping the

world.

Startups and tech companies keep out-innovating previously dominant industry leaders.

Today's global companies can sometimes seem like poor Gulliver the Giant – unable to move while relatively tiny companies have them outwitted.

Are you struggling to drive some sort of change, innovation or digital transformation at your enterprise?

FROM has been successful in helping large enterprises achieve ambitious digital transformation projects.

And we've figured out a

few key things along the way.

Change is uncomfortable.

Have you ever lived through remodeling a kitchen? It’s easier to just buy a new house!

Resistance to change is a major reason why large companies struggle with innovation.

Even if a change sets us up for a great future, people don’t warm up to it. (Kind of like they don’t warm up to a healthier diet, even if it means a longer life.)

As an innovator, you might have a blind spot in understanding the idea that most people are averse to change.

You like change!

(me too!)

Liking change makes us a little bit, well, odd. We have to remember that we’re in the minority. To make change happen, we need to influence the majority.

An innovator’s influence in important, because people don’t just dislike change, they actively resist it.

Beyond actively resisting change, people will go so far as to sabotage it!

For company management, who have built their empires using the status quo, progress doesn’t sound great in comparison.

Ten years ago, I did a project for Blockbuster.

The idea was to lead a digital transformation effort to define the

future of the business.

We created a vision that looked a lot like Netflix’s current model: on-demand video and original programming.

The people in charge of the stores, who held most of the power, were threatened. They preferred to focus on improving store performance. Without support the project, and soon Blockbuster, failed.

The upside? My team and I learned a lot during this process that helped us save other companies from the same fate.

So if people don’t like change, but change is essential to survival, how do you get them to change?

There are four key ways you can successfully drive change in your organization.

The first is to create a burning platform for change, so that NOT changing feels more painful than changing

Secondly, create a compelling future for what it will look like when the change is complete.

Third, a lot of people resist change because they fear they will fail at change.

Give them the confidence that they can be successful!

Lastly, allow people to parent the change.

People support the change that THEY create. Give them a chance to be parents of the change, and not victims of it.

FROM helps clients win the digital customer by developing and optimizing properties, creating new digital products and transforming teams, unifying the digital experience online, in stores and everywhere you need to touch the next generation of digital consumers.

More at FROM.DIGITAL