The speed of transformation in your organisation depends on how fast you can involve and gain ownership from all employees. And this depends on how fast you are prepared to ‘let go’ of control.  We discuss a case where we used a world-class tool called Howspace to engage employees in a large company and the implications for leaders.

[01:20] Changes/trends that set the condition for successful transformation.

• Companies are on longer and more complex transformation journeys, e. g.,  towards greater sustainability. Managing change the traditional way is  too slow.
• People are less and less likely to just accept change. We must involve people at scale, from early on in the journey.
• With high complexity,  ‘the top’ of the organisation can’t possibly know everything. People across the organisation must take ownership.

To speed-up transformation, we need to scale-up how we involve every employee. Not only gain buy-in but also create a sense of ownership through 2-way dialogue. People need the opportunity to understand the change, to feel heard and understood, ask questions and co-create solutions with their peers.

[05:58] But is it even possible to involve everyone, and doesn't that take long time? With traditional approaches, yes. But with new tools we can actively involve all employees in shaping and co-creating change, and with help of AI, the tools makes for faster and more transparent 2-way dialogue across the organisation. 

[10:24] CASE: Without change, this company and 5,000 employees are at risk of going out of business. With a new vision and strategy for greater sustainability,  deeply impacting 8 countries, it’s a top-priority to involve all employees. Unspoken questions among employees were: What about our future? Will HQ invest in us? Will we have a job? Critical  to quickly scale-up involvement to not start losing the best people.

[13:16] SOLUTION: We used a new digital tool called Howspace. With the tool:

• People can explore and discuss what is changing and where the company is heading.
• The AI lets us easily understand the input and sentiment of thousands of employees. Not possible without new digital tools.
• We created one centre where all 2-way communication was placed. Management could easily get a sense of what is happening and get directly involved in the conversations.

Contrary to initial concerns, people participated very positively and with a lot of passion. They shared real concern for the challenges, but also optimism and motivation to be part of the journey. 95% of shift operators participated actively. It's easy to underestimate how much people actually want to be involved.

[21:07] IMPLICATIONS: It's a success case, but with important learnings for leaders. As the scale of involvement increased, we noticed some leaders began to hesitate and even try to slow things down. They might feel too uncomfortable not having all answers, or loosing sense of control. Leaders must think of how they will deal with high level of involvement, transparency and not being in total control.

[24:23] Wrap-up of key points

• Involve people at scale, get buy-in, and ultimately ownership across the organisation.
• Use tools such as Howspace to make this possible.
• Leaders must be mentally prepared for a different speed of change.

[26:56] Reflection questions

• What degree of control are you prepared to ‘give-up’,  to make transformation faster
• How would that make you feel ? 
• And how can you deal with that?

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