S2 E38: Understanding leadership transformation and culture change to prevent burnout
with organization development specialist Allison Tsao
Key Takeways
But what I started to notice in my transformational practice was that a lot of the processes and systems were really challenged because it was the people who needed to adapt to the change or adapt to the change. I think it's a buzzword right now in corporate environments where people will say that they desire transformation, but they don't actually know what that means or what that might demand of them as an individual. And so being that coach and advisor, and I almost like to call myself a Sherpa, how do I guide people through a transformational process? Because it is all about process. How do I guide people through a transformational process so that they can achieve the outcomes that they're desiring?
Yesterday I was clever and I wanted to change the world. And today I am wise, so I am changing myself. And so a lot of my own personal transformation journey, as well as the journey I've seen organizations through all requires the bravery to confront that if you really want to change the system, you must start with changing yourself. Changing your mindset, the way you view the world, the way you think about things, perhaps some of your biases. And or blind spots. And once you start to do the work on yourself, the system will start to change as a result. And so when we talk about systems change, a lot of times leaders can be tempted to say, everyone else needs to change, or we need to change processes and policies. But none of that was working because we didn't recognize that the humans behind the processes and the systems also needed to change
One of the biggest type of burnout that I'm seeing right now in organizations is change fatigue. And that's a result of changes being introduced one on top of the other. So many change initiatives that are happening that people actually can't keep on top of what is changing. What's expected of them and also how they're relevant. How they stay relevant because they're trying to keep on top of new skills, new policies, new laws, etc. And so one of the key ways that I work with organizations to handle that is to get them hyper-focused not on a long list of change priorities, but on one or two things that really matter.
If we start to break out incremental goals, to help people stay focused and also build their momentum and confidence that they can change. Because I think the other thing that leads to burnout in organizations is that people feel like they're being left behind. I don't have the skills or the relevance. You're not giving me the support and training I need. And so therefore I'm simply going to sit still and feel left behind and I don't know what to do about it.
Do you, as a leader, firstly, believe that in order for the system to change that you yourself play a role in that? That's probably the biggest question I ask leaders early on. If the leader continues to believe that change must happen outside of them. That's where we start to get incongruences, because when that leader will start to lead that change, their people will start to ask for role modeling. I need my leader to role model and walk the talk of change. And that typically tends to be the disconnect and where change programs start to fall down is when me as an employee in the organization, looking around at my leaders and saying, wait, you expect all of this of me, but I don't see you doing any of this. So why should I try so hard?
And to be honest, some people don't even know what the change looks like that you're asking for. So above and beyond that they can also see, oh, that's what you mean by shared leadership or innovation or more trust or inclusion when they see you actually demonstrating it.
If you stop focusing on how you want to change the other person and you focus on how you want to change yourself. By sheer magic your interaction with that person will change because you have changed the pattern. You have disrupted the pattern of how you engage. If you can change the way you interact, that's an invitation to somebody else for them to change the way they've interacted with you in the past as well. And that's how change happens. And that is such a real and lived experiences.
So many people that I coach is that when they've decided to act or behave differently than they normally would, the entire interaction will change. You imagine if you started to do that then with groups of people. Imagine if you start to do that with groups of white men. You imagine you have that conversation with groups of white men who typically sit in positions of power and authority in our organizations and our systems. You could imagine how much systemic change could happen. If those insights were gleaned with those groups of people. So you start to see then how individual work can start to translate into systemic work.
Once individuals can start to see the system and start to see the role that they play in the system, then they can make more self-aware choices on how to influence or disrupt the system. Because many of us think that we don't have a lot of influence in the systems we live in. And so we need enough people to say actually, as an individual as a part of a system, I can affect change if I'm brave enough. And self-aware enough, self-aware enough to disrupt it.
If you look at an individual as a beautiful system, we are such complex systems ourselves. You can't just take the work part of you and fragment that out and bring that work part of you to work. I struggled to fragment myself and just be work. Alison and mom, Alison separately and friend Alison differently. I bring all of those parts of myself to all parts of my life. And this pandemic has been an invitation for people to embrace more of that.
I see more and more organizations stepping in being proactive about people's health and wellbeing, because there is a direct translation to, if you're happy and healthy at work, you are more productive. You're a more creative. And you're more pleasant to work around.
I think the most precious resource for moms is time. There's so many demands on our plate. And so early on, I really had to find that bigger perspective around what was important to me. And how could I find a fluidity in that and let go of the guilt and shame that easily accompanied that journey.
We have we as women we have to get better at defining and standing up for our boundaries. And our societies and systems also have to get better about respecting those boundaries. I think, husbands partners, bosses are so used to asking women to do things or not even asking and just expecting and women rise. They rise to the occasion, but my question is, should we always be rising? Or should we let others take some on and recognize that systemically this is not sustainable for women to operate this way.
Bio
Allison is an Organisation Development Consultant and Coach, based in Sydney, AU. Her career has spanned previous lives in NYC at Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America), Deloitte Consulting, Accenture, and American Express. Her global curiosity led her to move to Sydney, Australia in 2014 to work with progressive workplace strategists at Veldhoen + Company in whole system change, helping people shift their behaviours through the design of the physical workspace. Allison has worked alongside 30+ organisations across various industries, geographies, and sizes on their most pressing human capital challenges.
Allison started Humans Who Lead in 2017 to evolve the organisational paradigm and help humans in leadership roles thrive in growing complexity. She recognised burnout, perfectionism, and analysis paralysis as workplace ailments of our modern times. By educating organisations about complexity, systems thinking, and human development principles, Allison believes organisational life can be more energising and meaningful. Her OD practice focuses on the intersection of change, leadership, and culture, grounded in deeply humanistic principles, theories, and practices. After all, we are humans first, leaders second.
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