Selling Change

My wife and I have moved many times in our marriage; eighteen times to be exact.  We have moved across town, across the country, and even across international borders.  

For those of you thinking we must be on the lam from something, that's not quite accurate - more likely we are in pursuit of challenges, opportunities and discovering new places... but I digress.

When you decide to move, you go through an inventory of all your possessions and decide which ones you would like to keep, which you can give away, and those you should throw away.

The more often we move, the number of things we deem precious enough to keep grows smaller and smaller. Most often, their value is not monetary, but in the richness of the history or stories behind the objects.

One of the things that has survived countless moves is this picture. It is by the Canadian artist Robert Bateman. I do wish it was an original, it would be worth a significant amount of money. It’s not even a limited edition print. It is actually a poster that has been framed. Monetary value? Zero. Sentimental value? Priceless.

We originally bought this picture because 1) We liked it. And 2) it was in our price bracket. Mountain goats are amazing creatures, and Mr. Bateman captured them well.

But the real reason I insist on this picture coming along on every move is an anecdote I heard on the radio when Mr. Bateman was being interviewed. (I can’t cite when and where I heard it, so you’ll just have to trust my memory on this one.)

He stated (and I paraphrase) “When I first painted this picture, I’d have friends come and look at it. For some reason, as they viewed the painting, they would all develop a very worrisome look on their face. When I asked them what was wrong they replied ‘How do they get off the mountain?’ I had to go back and paint an actual exit route (which you can see to the left of the goats). After I did this, they no longer became worried and could enjoy the painting.”

This was an epiphany for me.

In my career I bring in big (and I mean big) change into organizations. It means defining strategies, goals and objectives for an organization to differentiate themselves, do new things, or at very least keep themselves from disappearing into obscurity.

People like me get excited about such things.

I have discovered in my career that others do not get so excited about change.

As a matter of fact, they are fearful, worried, and (if they are Canadian) experts at passive aggressive resistance.

So, a second major part of my job is selling change.

Through Mr. Bateman’s insights I have discovered that selling change isn’t about convincing people they are wrong... it is about showing them a ‘path to the end’.

It’s not that people don’t agree that all the strategies and goals you have defined are not right, it’s that they can’t imagine in their wildest dreams how they would or could ever get there.

Your job is to help them see the possibilities.

Like the path in the painting, it doesn’t have to be big and bold and take away from the drama of the scene, but it has to be there.

Steve Jobs is famous for a lot of things.

One of my favourite is his concept of design.

“Begin with the end in mind”

In the same way, we can sell change more effectively if we provide a roadmap to success (even if some of it is speculative) for those in our organizations who are not quite as imaginative as we are.

So, I will keep dragging that poster along with me wherever we end up, to keep reminding me that when I'm working to bring change into a place, I must be very cognizant to frame things in a way that will allow others to buy in.

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Image source:  Photo by KWPashuk of a print by Robert Bateman.

About the Author:

I'm the Chief Information Officer for Appleby College, in Oakville, Ontario Canada, where my team is transforming the delivery of education through innovative application of technology.

I'm convinced that IT leadership needs to dramatically change how IT is delivered rather than being relegated to a costly overhead department.

In addition to transforming IT in my role as CIO, I look for every opportunity to talk about this... writing, speaking and now blogging on BeBee, LinkedIn (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kpashuk), ITWorld Canada, or at TurningTechInvisible.com.

I'm also an avid amateur musician and photographer (but not at the same time).  Check out my photostream on Flickr  or on beBee hive: serious-amateur-photographers