by Angela R. Deschner

Remember when your parents or a teacher told you to do something and you asked why you had to do it, they replied, “because I said so”?  Despite how this phrase was used in your past, all of us grow up to realize that change in an action or behavior requires knowing “the why.”  If I want to make a difference through change, I must share my “why” behind my Innovation Plan.  Otherwise, I will not have the buy-in that I will need to be a catalyst for change.

Then, as the leader of organizational change, I must determine a sequence of actions that will create an environment conducive to change.  After researching the Influencer Strategy and the 4DX Plan, I realized that I could use pieces of my Influencer Strategy embedded into the 4DX Plan to lead organization change effectively. 

This can be accomplished by starting with the first source of Influence to encourage Personal Motivation after sharing my “why.”  The actions in this first source will also allow me get to know my participants more personally in my Innovation Plan. During the second source of Influence with Personal Ability, there is an opportune time for the team to focus on the 4DX Wildly Important Goal (WIG) during the Clarity stage to identify the Lag and Lead Measures.  In the Structural Ability source of Influence, more structure would be created using the 4DX plan of required weekly meetings to check the status of our Lead Measures on our scoreboard.  The other sources of Influence Social Motivation and Social Ability would come into play in the Launch stage of our work according to the 4DX model.  Then, the Structural Motivation source of Influence would be where Discipline 4 of the 4DX model is evident in the Adoption stage where a “cadence of accountability is created.”

While going through the combination of Influencer Sources and 4DX model actions in the Adoption and Optimization stages, I will need to be a Self-differentiated Leader utilizing Crucial Conversations to confidently address the inevitable resistance that comes when launching the initiatives of applied digital learning found in my Innovation Plan.  These conversations will be needed to coach the “not-yets” and “nevers” in the work to help all participants have the “vital behaviors’’ become “habits” during the Habits stage to positively affect our Lag Measure and achieve our WIG.