10 Engagement Rules for leading while participating in change

When You are the Change Leader, not the Consultant

What do you do when you find yourself in the position of leading a significant change process at work, while also being involved in the change? In other words, you are not the consultant. I have worked with many consultants over my professional career and I always thought that they have it easier just being an observer. As someone working as the change leader, I needed to function different from the consultant’s role because I was not just an observer. I was also leading the change, and responsible for the outcomes. I had to teach myself how to play this dual role, and thankfully others had thought about it already so I could learn from them. In this article, I will show you how I learned to take an active observer’s stance and give you 10 rules of engagement that will help you do the same.

The simple definition of an observer is a person who watches or notices something. It can be attending a conference or noting proceedings without participating in them. You have been an observer many times over your career. You have also likely been asked to observe and participate in any number of change processes during your career.

These are the times when you are not in the classic observer stance because you are involved and actively working on a project. You may be the director or manager of the project. In these cases, you are not simply a witness to something, but involved with it. You are an Active Observer. An observer can be either an active or passive position. An active observer is one who participates directly while studying or observing a group of subjects. A passive observer is not participating but only watches a group of subjects under study.

As the change leader, I recommend you set some rules for engagement when you are the Active Observer. Here are rules I have found incredibly helpful when I am in this role.

Rules for engagement for the Active Observer

1. Take an active stance and seek information about what is happening around you as if you are going to include it in formal research and need to report your data at the end of the project. It will be up to you to insert yourself when and where needed. You can also empower others to be in an active stance. Then share your information with one another. Collaboration is critically important to make a successful change.
2. Remain both an observer and a participant. It will be your job over the course of the project to be both an active participant and an objective observer. You will need to keep some emotional distance to participate and stay engaged. This may be one of the hardest rules to keep. I encourage you to develop a method that will allow you to notice when you are getting triggered- emotionally hijacked. When you get triggered you will need to take a break, walk away, or focus on something else for a while until you get your emotions back in check. Please note that you WILL get triggered at some point. Because being a participant means you care about the work, and when you care, you are invested. And with investment comes attachment. And with attachment, emotions. Emotions are not bad or wrong, but you need to understand how to manage them otherwise you may become ineffective at leading or participating.
3. Seek to understand, not to be understood. Steven Covey taught this in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Your focus should be on understanding the situation and the needs of the people impacted by the change. I get that you want a voice too. You want others to understand your situation and perspective. Remember that thing about being emotionally invested? Another potential trap to being both the observer and participant is this desire to make sure your opinion is heard, and maybe even prioritized. You will have the opportunity to participate as you synthesize what you see and hear around you. Remember your position is to lead a successful change initiative.
4. Clarify and move on. Another way you can be helpful is to make sure you are clear on the goals and expectations of your role as observer and participant. Help others clarify their role on the project too. Give feedback to helps others move forward and see their paths individually and collectively.
5. Collect data, record it, synthesize it. You will be in constant data collection mode so that you can be in the best possible position to help with the change process. If you are the leader, then you may be the most observant person on the project and in the conversations. You may also be the one who knows the most about the team member’s behaviors and therefore are ideally positioned to be of the greatest value to the change process. Pay attention to the details.
6. Practice patience. I use the word practice intentionally since this is not simply being patient, or “getting” patience like it’s something that can arrive in a package from Amazon. I believe, like faith, patience is a verb not a noun. Be patient with the process and with other people’s ways of working. That will require you think about how your team works especially as compared to your style. It also means being patient with yourself and all the ways you might disappoint yourself as you move through a change initiative. This is tough work, and you will make mistakes. Practice and get better at realizing when you have made a mistake, learn from it, and then move on. Practice this skill with others and teach them how to do the same.
7. Stay engaged. I mentioned earlier about the need to take a break when you feel yourself being triggered. Sometimes we think we are just taking a break, when in fact we have disengaged. These are not the same. Taking a break means you are checking back in with yourself in order to reset. Disengagement is walking away. This is a form of self-protection and allows you to remain smart and in control, but not engaged. Your job as a leader is to stay engaged and do your best not to self-protect.
8. Remain steadfast. This is like staying engaged with a slight variation. Remaining steadfast means holding the course that you have set until the project ends. It is remaining constant and reliable. Are you good in a crisis? If so, use those skills when the project hits some tough times. Practice being calm while others are spinning. You can teach yourself to go slow, not react, to observe more deeply and to gather more information. While others may be reacting around you, remain steadfast and help your team stop twirling.
9. Default to generous. When you are making decisions about people, default to the generous option. I first heard this term while listening to a Motley Fool Podcast. I loved it. By being generous, your team will learn to trust your intentions and be able to count on you to consider their needs, not just business profitability. Profitability is critically important to any successful business but should not happen at the expense of its people.
10. Do your best. Do you see other people as doing their best, or do you ascribe some other meaning that is not as generous, or make up a story without checking it out? If you are more generous in your thoughts about others, then you will act as if others are trying to do the best they can at that moment in time. This is a helpful rule if you tend to be a judger. People strong in judgement can be as tough on others as they are on themselves. If you remain in a generous mindset you will give room for error and mistake which is the very space where creativity and innovation flourish. This is not about overlooking errors, it is about embracing them and harnessing their power to lead to breakthroughs. What if a mistake is simply a portal to another way of seeing something that is not available until you fail? Think of mistakes as opportunities instead of character flaws.

These are what I consider to be rules of engagement for leading change when you find yourself as both a participant and an observer. You may have other rules that are important to you. I would encourage you, before leading any change, to reflect upon your leadership tendencies and consider what rules of engagement will help you manage yourself and allow the team you are working with to engage in reflection as well. Remember, also, this is not about perfection. It is about reflection, engagement, collaboration, courage and intention.

Good luck, and if I can help you further, don’t hesitate to contact me.