Ten years ago, fresh out of graduate school, I took on a Herculean task: I was assigned ten of Berlin’s lowest performing schools, given a small project team, a meagre budget, and told: Go turn around these schools!
Phew. Needless to say, it was the most challenging assignments I’d ever taken on. We built work plans and strategies to drive change, but often had little to show for them. I brought together key players — principals, school officials, parents — but they disagreed about the right way forward, blamed each other, or looked to me to fix their problems. It often felt like a lonely and futile endeavour.
Many of the change agents we work with at KONU share similar stories. Here are two voices:
Driving change is just so challenging. It’s tempting to throw your hands up in the air and proclaim: “It’s too much! I can’t do it.”
My own experiences — both the triumphs and trials — of driving change are what motivate me to support change agents in their endeavours today.
At KONU, we bring together practical, research-based frameworks and insights from leadership development, change management, and adult development theory to help you successfully drive change in your teams, organisations, and communities. Here’s how we help you:
CHALLENGE YOURSELF: BUILD YOUR CAPACITY TO LEAD CHANGE
Driving change requires challenging others — and that will be challenging! Being the person who drives change won’t earn you brownie points. As Steve Jobs said: If you wan’t to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader — sell ice cream.
For many of us, leading change means starting with the person in the mirror. What are the assumptions and patterns that are holding you back from leading change? If you, like me, lean towards people pleasing, that might be a desire to avoid the conflict that comes with change. We help you develop yourself, so you can be the change you want see in your team, community, or organization.
CHALLENGE SYSTEMS: VIEW CHALLENGES FROM A SYSTEM PERSPECTIVE AND UNCOVER ROOT CAUSES TO ENABLE PROGRESS
You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created them, Albert Einstein said. Driving change therefore requires shifting the way we look at challenges, taking a more comprehensive view. A low-performing school is often the result of many stakeholders’ failures.
At KONU, we draw on frameworks from systems thinking, and organisational learning to help our clients diagnose challenges, uncover perspectives, and understand resistance. By digging deeper, we help you go beyond surface-level change work. Some questions that guide us are: What will be preserved and cherished? What sacrifices are required and how can we grieve in order to forge a way forward? What does a compelling vision for the future look like?
CHALLENGE EVERYONE: BUILD CHANGE COALITIONS THAT HOLD STAKEHOLDERS ACCOUNTABLE
Complex problems can’t be fixed by one person alone: Heroic leadership looks great on movie screens, but rarely matches reality. Change leadership means mobilizing groups to take on their challenges collectively. When I worked with schools, that meant holding principles accountable for developing and upholding their school’s mission and programming; holding teachers accountable for improving instruction; and school operators accountable for much-needed renovations.
Today, at KONU, we equip change agents to do just that: To identify relevant stakeholders, have them articulate their part in the change, and hold them accountable for implementation. And we support clients by holding the space to engage in collective change work, offering support, provocation, and accountability. A recent example are the UN SDG Leadership Labs we facilitated in Somalia, the Philippines, and Bangladesh.
Driving change ten years ago, I wish I’d had these learnings and insights to guide me. Join our community of change agents and receive the support you need to drive change: Get in touch or join one of our upcoming workshops.