How to Lead Systems Changes That Stick

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• January 25, 2024

How to Lead Systems Changes That Stick

You’re an entrepreneur or small business owner and have a great new idea for an internal system to make your services more efficient. In your excitement, you start mapping it out, pulling all-nighters to create detailed plans, and picturing how it will transform those messy workflows. But then it hits you – shouldn’t you ask your team for input before locking this system in place? 

We’ve all been there before. Whether it’s a new piece of software, an updated policy, or revisions to an existing process, it’s tempting as a leader to forge ahead based on our own ideas of what will work best. However, while founders and executives provide critical vision and strategy for the business, our teams know the inner workings and pain points of our systems better than anyone. Tapping into their firsthand knowledge is crucial for creating systems that actually work. 

The Outcomes Speak for Themselves

Some leaders worry that inviting criticism of their ideas feels risky or that unfocused input could delay action. But let the results speak for themselves. Research affirms the vital role employee perspectives play.

86% of employees said involvement in decision-making is crucial to engagement, according to a 2020 Preferences Group study. In contrast, only 56% feel engaged when they don’t provide input.

In a 2021 McKinsey and Co. impact study, 83% of organizational change efforts succeeded when enabled by a culture of employee participation versus just 53% success rates among efforts without participatory leadership practices.

A 2020 Bain & Company study found that when workers are actively engaged in change initiatives, companies are 30% more likely to succeed in organizational redesign. Conversely, projects with poor participation statistically fail at higher rates.

Clearly, leaving teams out of systems planning is unwise. But what exactly does meaningful input look like?

Strategies for Incorporating Team Perspectives 

Soliciting surface-level feedback or basic reactions to your ideas won’t cut it. To lead ecosystems where innovation thrives, we must redefine change management itself through:

Conduct discovery sessions: Don’t go straight to the drawing board as the sole planner. Begin by running structured sessions for teams to fully describe current workflows, pain points, and wishes. Let them educate you on realities before assumptions muddy the waters. Consider getting a neutral facilitator to lead the session so you can focus on listening and not unintentionally guide the conversation to align with your ideas.

Brainstorm together: Host creative working sessions for staff to envision system changes themselves. What would their dream workflows look like? Where do they repeatedly get stuck? Compiling these front-line experiences is gold for building the best systems to solve actual (not perceived) problems.

Design with cross-functional representation: Don’t inadvertently create an echo chamber of leaders designing systems. Pull together a cross-functional employee group across levels to collaboratively map out system changes. People support what they help build. Empower teams to actively shape solutions. This ensures buy-in and practicality from the start.

Prototype and pilot early and often: Testing potential system design changes via small prototyping stages and pilot programs enables real-time feedback from staff actually utilizing and engaging with them firsthand—iterate based on their input before implementing wholesale. Share initial mockups for reactions and hidden concerns around UI complexity or niche feature relevance sooner rather than later.

Promote ongoing dialogue: Client and internal needs evolve. Build feedback loops enabling continuing guidance from staff’s frontline user insights.

You know your teams, and you know your business vision – but marrying the two for effective systems requires a blend of perspectives. Facilitating robust, inclusive participation when designing internal changes means you build for reality, not ideals. 

Where Leaders Fall Short

Despite ample evidence of its benefits, many entrepreneurs and executives still struggle to incorporate team perspectives meaningfully, if at all. Sometimes, we simply don’t know where to start, but often, leaders share certain unhelpful mindsets that inhibit participatory design:

Assuming you know best: No one understands every team function and workflow intricacy. Shed the notion that your expertise means you know how to design flawless systems without input.

Worrying you’ll lose control: Enabling others to shape plans means embracing some ideas not your own. But it leads to better solutions with shared ownership.

Valuing rapid decisions over buy-in: Quick, unilateral moves have their place. But lasting, adopted change comes through participation.

Lacking participative leadership skills: Leading ideation sessions versus dictating plans requires competencies like active listening, asking good questions, building psychological safety on teams for honest input, and synthesizing insights. Develop these through coaching and training.

Transforming your leadership approach presents authentic challenges in balancing diverse inputs. But done meaningfully, the payoffs can fuel unicorn-status growth. 

Overcoming Resistance to Participative Design

Truly transforming leadership behaviors and culture to embrace participative design raises very real challenges, including:

Feeling threatened by critical feedback: Leaders must check their egos. Feedback is about the system, not you.

Staff fears of speaking openly: Psychology safety takes time to develop. Leadership tone and behaviors set the stage.

Added time commitment: Yes, it requires more effort upfront through added meetings and discussion sessions. But it pays off dramatically in alignment and engagement.

Tensions between different suggestions: There will always be debates about priorities and approaches. The role of leadership is to facilitate these professionally through data gathering vs. unilateral decrees.

The Destination is Worth the Journey

Shifting to deeply participative design may feel uncomfortable at first. As leaders, it means releasing rigid control and instead gathering circles of collaborative creativity. However, organizations that learn how to tap into their own talent and ground-level insights create systems and processes that stand the test of time. Their team owns the solutions because they built them together, fueling that coveted culture of engagement.

If you want to transform the inner workings of your company successfully, heed the collective wisdom. Bring teams alongside you to shape systems that solve actual needs instead of assuming you know best. Champion participative design through sustained, inclusive practices that draw out your biggest untapped asset: the team itself. Getting team input when designing systems requires an upfront investment of effort and time – but it pays off exponentially on the back end.