3 Questions to Ask When Facing Change
2023 is showing up with a bang. Post-pandemic work life is as challenging, volatile, and
uncertain as those past few years we just experienced. Rapidly responding to the speed of
change has become a crucial skill for leaders in these times. Leaders need to be able to adapt
and navigate unpredictability with mastery, and this requires an investment and additional
tools for themselves to become secure, resourceful, resilient, and engaged.
Change can be desired or not, radical, or incremental, viewed as a loss or gain, and sourced
from within or catalyzed from external circumstances. Regardless of how it shows up, here are
three things you can ask yourself right now to help steer through and even capitalize on these
strategic moments. They are:
Where are you right now?
Where do you want to go?
What Quest/ion do you need to be asking?
Where are you right now has to do with the present circumstances you are facing. Forces for
and against you, resources, constraints, knowns/unknowns, timing, demands, etc. Think of
your present moment like a polaroid photograph and capture these circumstances in an
immediate timeframe.
Where you want to go is a desired outcome or goal. Think of the impact in terms of multiple
indicators of success, not just immediate results or long term objectives. Don’t forget to include impact on people, business processes, culture, customers, and communities.
Then define your Quest/ion. This is a tool I created to help leaders consider strategies and paths forward as a well-framed line of inquiry. It allows you and your team to be curious and open- minded while being focused. The Quest/ion involves change and growth. It helps you to gather new data, consider options, make better decisions, even prompt aligned action.
Your Quest/ion should be compelling, if not an irresistible question to explore further. For example:
If we were to start from scratch, how would we address our challenge?
What examples of agility exist in other industries, systems or even in nature that we could adapt for our needs?
If we were to look at our current challenges as opportunities to try some different, what would we test?
This is just one tool to create a transformative perspective to help you gain mastery. I invite you to consider even more ways to increase your change making capacity. Empowerment amidst chaos is no longer a nice-to-have, and it's not just for certain change agents in the organizations. All leaders must adapt to this new reality, as our traditional leadership and
management approaches are no longer effective. So, grab the moment, there is good work to
be done and joy to be had.
Kathleen Joy, Founder & CEO of LumiereWork™