Why change is like leading an elephant, and how to do it

When we’re leading a team through a major change, it can feel like directing an elephant through the jungle. Why is that?

Elephants are intelligent and have complex emotions, just like us. If we don’t get to know the elephant and its preferences, we might think they’re impossible to understand or predict. And when an elephant charges off course, things can get messy... 

I first came across this analogy in Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath. The more I support leaders in organisational change, the more I see what the Heath brothers mean. 

How to think about change 

Let’s take a look at Chip and Dan Heath’s model of change. They identify three essential elements for effective change: 

1. Direct the rider

Make it crystal clear where you’re going. Explain how you’ll get there. Continually remind people what the direction of travel is.  

2. Motivate the elephant

It’s not enough to say “go this way.” You need to motivate the elephant to want to go this way. 

Every elephant is different, just like every person in a team is different. A generic statement like “If you join us, you’ll get to meet new people” isn’t going to motivate someone who  wants to get a promotion. That would be like trying to tempt a herbivorous elephant with a juicy steak. 

3. Shape the path

If there’s a path already cut through the jungle, an elephant is more likely to go down it than to tear off into thick vegetation. 

So make it as easy as possible for people to follow you. How can you clear a path for people at your organisation?  

Directing, motivating and shaping the path are all important. But it’s not enough to do just one or two of them; you have to do all three.

The rider can help direct the elephant for a short period of time, but the elephant is big and strong and can go where it wants, when it wants. You have to do all three parts at the same time: direct, motivate and shape. 

How to make change happen

So how do we put this model into practice? I believe there are 8 essential elements to making change work. 

1. Prepare 

When you’re helping people embrace new technology, skills and processes, you can’t just show up and be spontaneous. 

Every meeting you hold and every email you write will take extra careful thought. Ask yourself: Have I involved the right people? Have I included a range of perspectives? Have I given people clear information? 

Assume that people won’t welcome change. 

I always advise people preparing for a change project to assume that people won’t like it. If you assume that people will be fine with it, you may be shocked or derailed by their opposition. Assume they’ll be distraught. Then make sure you put in the work, are clear and empathetic, and invest the time needed to bring people with you.

2. Be patient

Depending on the culture of the organisation, there may be a huge appetite for change or practically none.

People can get so used to constant change that they don't pay attention, or they can be so comfortable with the way that things are that they find change terrifying.

It won’t always be obvious how people in your team or organisation feel about change, so you need to take the time to listen deeply and see things from their perspective, address their concerns and explain what you are doing over and over again. You need to try to make people feel safe.

Change takes time, and it takes as long as it takes.

3. Say it and then say it again

Every day we encounter huge amounts of information. We process complex messages, action some, ignore others, commit many to memory and discard the rest. To cope with this mass of data, most of us filter out information that we don’t think we need. Or we may pay attention yet misunderstand or misremember the key message. 

This means we should over-communicate our plan for change. Even though you feel that everyone must have heard and understood it by now, keep repeating it. Set out the vision, put it in the relevant context and repeat it in many different ways to help people absorb it and understand how it’s relevant to them.

4. Be a tanker, not a submarine 

Many years ago, I was working on a CRM implementation which included improvements to a donations process. We managed to reduce donation processing from six steps to just three. But the finance team didn’t want to simplify the process. They halted the project. So in order to finish off that part of the CRM implementation, we ended up ‘breaking’ the new, efficient process to recreate the old, more complicated one.

If we had taken more time at the start of the project to explain what we were doing and then listen to the finance and IT teams’ feedback, their needs and wants, we would’ve ended up with a better solution and much less frustration and anger on all sides. This was a perfect example of change being done to colleagues rather than with colleagues.

At work, we sometimes need to choose between being a tanker or a submarine. A tanker moves slowly, but everyone can see where it’s going from the start to the end of its journey. A submarine zips fast under water. People only see it at the beginning of the journey and at its final destination. Both approaches have their merits in different situations. In my CRM implementation, choosing to be a submarine felt like a more efficient solution. In reality, it got us in a difficult situation which took time to resolve. It took as much time as if we had chosen to be a tanker in the first place.

5. Work in the open 

Change is scary. We worry about what we will lose when things change, so we often push back against it. 

An information gap begs to be filled. If we don’t have all the details we fill in the gaps with our own ideas, which are often based on worst-case-scenarios. 

If you don’t tell everyone who is affected about the change, they’re still going to hear about it. But they’ll hear about it through rumours or gossip. Once these stories are out there, it’s hard to separate the truth from fiction and rebuild people’s trust. 

So think through very carefully how you communicate to people, keeping information gaps to a minimum. Be open and consistent, sharing as much information as you can. If you can’t tell people about something yet, tell them when you’ll be able to tell them, and keep your word. 

6. Listen deeply 

If you’re directing a major change project, some people will want to get on board so they can gain new skills, others might want to work with new colleagues, or build their profile. Nobody has exactly the same reason for supporting - or opposing - change. 

When you’re familiar with people’s problems, wants and needs you can frame the change relative to those. Rather than saying “Everything is going digital so you need to change your processes” you might say “There’s technology that can help us simplify the admin process so you can focus on the more important bits of your work”.

7. Encourage people to take ownership 

You can never lead the change totally on your own, you’ll need a team. The team needs to own the vision and lead the change process with you. Take a coaching approach to foster a sense of ownership. Invite their feedback and ideas, ask them for help. Be clear on what parts of your vision are set in stone and where you’d welcome input.

It could take weeks rather than days for people in your team to make a decision and they might come to a solution that isn’t quite what you hoped for. But if you can support them using a coaching approach, they will have a sense of agency, ownership and connection to the change. This will be much deeper than if you told them what to do, and you’ll almost certainly get a higher quality outcome this way. 

8. Ask for help

I often work with leaders who feel that they need to know everything and, therefore, mustn’t make mistakes. But it’s impossible for one person, especially in a senior position, to know every single detail of what their teams do, or have an in-depth understanding of every area their teams cover.

A leader’s job is to have a vision, motivate the team and shape the path. For detail, they need to rely on their team members, wherever they are in the hierarchy.

Wisdom isn’t having all the answers, but knowing the limits of our knowledge and who we can ask for help.

We don't need to be perfect or all-knowledgeable, we just need to be willing to learn.

What if people don’t want to change?

Whether you’re trying to make the  smallest tweaks or the biggest strategic changes, some people just won’t share your vision. 

If you’ve been transparent, empathetic, honest and empowering, then you’ve kept up your side of the bargain. But you can only influence one half of that relationship. 

Some people will just not buy into the change you’re calling for. Eventually, they will need to decide if they want to be in or out. If they don’t want to get with the programme, they can move on. And that’s OK.