#88: To Create Change, Bring People on The Journey With You
How to scale your impact by inspiring others
Hello, and Welcome to All The New Subscribers. Feel free to drop me a note (alex dot dea at gmail) to say hello.
Here is what we got this week:
Bring People On The Journey With You
What We’re Watching
Career and Leadership Advice
1.🫂Bring People On The Journey With You🫂
One of my most important lessons I’ve learned in my life is the importance of bringing people on the journey with you.
Whether it was in leading complex transformations and organizational changes in my consulting and technology career, trying to lead during uncertain periods, or in building my own communities, companies and organizations, it’s hard to underestimate the importance of not only championing great ideas, but finding ways to incorporate those around you to scale the impact beyond yourself.
I was reminded about this lesson because of two things that happened this week.
The first event was when I attended my friend Jerry’s gathering in Los Angeles for Asian Creators. This event was an opportunity for Asian Creators, to connect and meet one another and share ideas as well as to lay the groundwork for the work he is doing to build a community (a la third place..) for Asian Creators.
I was able to meet Creators of all types, ranging from Career Coaches, DTC brands, podcasters, and solopreneur/entrepreneurs and many more. It was cool to be able to connect with others who not only shared my business/personal interest in being a creator and identity, but also, to be different in the way that we choose to run our business.
But more than that, it gave us a space and place to connect and share. Asians are still underrepresented in media as well as in leadership positions in corporate america at large here in the US. To see so many others who were doing incredible things in their own way who shared a similar identity was inspiring and exciting. Jerry has long been an advocate for amplifying Asian voices and ensuring they are respected, and in addition to doing that, he’s also found ways to bring other people into the fold to also support the cause and build the movement.
Every movement needs a leader, and Jerry is definitely one of those, but a great leader can only lead change so much alone. By enlisting the help of others, fostering a space to connect, and empowering others to join and giving them a role, the cause advances and so do the people that are involved.
When I was building MBASchooled in the early days, I quickly learned that writing content was hard. I would run out of ideas to write about and didn’t have a lot of time, but I realized if I created a process to help others share their story, I could create a larger content calendar, and also amplify voices beyond myself. This is what has helped me sustain the success of MBASchooled 8 years later, and to date, I have featured over 500+ diverse stories and experiences of MBA students and alum.
Similarly, when I wrote my book MBA Insider, the book features plenty of my own experience and a ton of my research, but also features the stories of 60+ MBA graduates who have gone through the experience.
Source: Solutions Day, 2022
The second experience this week came from a keynote talk I did for an audience of non-profit association executives about how to lead in a changing world of work. Many of the leaders in the audience were changemakers and looking for new ways to create value for their organization or their members/audience through new products, services, programs to remain relevant in a changing market and industry.
Having advised numerous organizations on change initiatives and transformation programs over the years and being attuned with the changing nature of the workplace, I had plenty of research, ideas and insights around how to lead change. But I wanted to go further and get some case studies from past clients and other leaders, especially in this industry who were leading the way with leading change.
My research turned up some amazing examples of diverse leaders who had led different types of change initiatives in their organization, mostly resulting in some technology transformation or new way of working. The common thread through all of them was in their ability to bring people on the journey and to give them a seat. Many of these individuals were leaders, so while they had formal power, they could only do so much as 1 person. What made them successful, was their ability to look to the help of other people, see from their perspective, and design a role for them on the change journey. So often, with leading change, we default to the tried and true playbook without considering the human on the other end.
The difference with these leaders was that they not only considered that human, but actively designed roles for these individuals to take part in the change, which gave them purpose, encouragement, and belief. Change and working in new ways can be difficult, especially when we don’t opt into it, but by finding ways to empower people with a role, tools, and conditions to thrive, these leaders were able to scale their impact and accelerate the ability to drive change within their organization.
To bring people on the journey change, you need to be human-first. Here are three ways you can do that:
Design For human needs - In his book Drive, Daniel Pink shows us how humans are wired to seek autonomy, mastery and purpose. As your designing roles for people in your journey, make sure to think about how these roles play to those core needs
Create Community - Bringing people together fosters connection and relationships. It also facilitates learning, knowledge sharing, and support. Finding ways to bring people together who are also a part of the change or initiative is a great way to do that.
Build Conditions to Make it Simple - Another way to make change or get buy for your initiative is to try to make it easy. Removing barriers so that people can easily opt into the change or to say yes. In the case of Jerry, it was getting a sponsor (Thanks Adobe) to host the event.
Humans are wired for connection and love to make meaning out of things. In a fast-moving and ever evolving world of work, change is one of the only constants.
Whether you’re leading change in an organization, trying to scale your impact around your business, or initiative, or trying to make a personal change yourself, finding others to bring on the journey with you and giving them a seat on the journey is a path toward achieving your goal.
2.👀 What We’re Watching 👀
CoRise Raises $8.5M with a New Twist to Cohort-Based Learning - CoRise, an early stage upskilling platform announced a raise of $8.5M to sell expert-led courses to employers to help their employees upskill in their career. While they are not the first cohort-based learning startup out there (ex: Maven) their unique twist is going “deep” instead of “broad''.” Instead of having a diverse set of courses and instructors across all disciplines, they’re focusing on a small number of topics with large amounts of learners. Corise is taking an aim at the “messy middle” (similar to Hone..) of corporate learning and training, where it’s not quite personalized instruction like 1:1 coaching, but not fully “off the shelf” like a LinkedIn Learning or Udemy subscription.
Why Are So Many MBA Admissions Directors Resigning? (Poets & Quants) - In the past quarter, 5 MBA Admissions and Recruitment Directors from Top 25 MBA programs have stepped down from their posts to pursue new opportunities. 5 people is a small sample size, but given the outsized and public role these individuals play in an MBA Admissions program it’s hard to not raise an eyebrow.
More Equitable Ways of Working with Roleshare - I had the chance to speak to Sophie Smallwood, The Co-CEO of Roleshare, a job sharing platform where applicants who want to work part-time can team up with someone else to fill a full-time role. Instead of 1 smart brain, you get two. This is an interesting conversation about how Roleshare is trying to create a more equitable, engaged, and diverse workplace.
SHRM Acquires Linkage - The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has acquired Linkage, a leadership development firm that specializes in leadership development programs and offerings for women and inclusive leadership. Associations buying companies and service providers is not something that is new, but it is always interesting to see how investments like this tip their hand toward a specific business outcome they might be optimizing for, or gap in their offerings that exist.
3.📙 Career and Leadership Content 📙
This week, I’m highlighting some resources and content that talks about how you can define, refine, and reframe what success means to you.
Career Pivots and Making Use Of Free Time with Jenny Blake (MBA Insider Podcast) - I had the chance to interview someone who I have looked up to for over a decade in Jenny Blake. Jenny is an author, entrepreneur and speaker, author of several books and a former Google Program Manager. In our conversation, we spoke about Jenny’s two books, Pivot and Free Time, as well as how all of us can identify ways to use the time we have on the most important things and ignore the rest.
What is Your Rich Life? (Think-Boundless) - Paul Millerd, (who I previously interviewed) is a really good thinker on examining the role that scripts and stories play in our own narratives of work and career. This article is a good look at the kind of reflection that you can go down to determine a greater understanding of how you define success for yourself, and then how to architect your life and work around it.
Building a Values-Aligned Career and Life (Sustainable Ambition Podcast) - I have the privilege of knowing Kathy (host) and Stephanie (Guest) and really enjoyed the conversation they had around you can use your values to design a life and then align that to a career that works for you
Rethinking Our Ideas Around Success Featuring Brad Stulberg (Unsiloed Podcast) - Brad is author and researcher and in his book The Practice of Groundedness” takes an aim at examining how we’ve gone too far for striving for more, and offers a practice of “Groundedness” as a means to help us reset and reframe our own thinking about what success is, and how we can achieve it in a more sustainable way.
3 Ideas About The Evolution of Work and Careers (Work in Progress) - Three ideas to spur your thinking about how you might think differently about defining success in your career on your own terms, and fit for today’s new world of work.
PS - How are you defining career success for yourself?
Have a great week!
Al