Inspiring people to sign up to a new journey – growth, change or both – is an important leadership objective for many ambitious organisations.
Obtaining buy-in and support from others in the organisation can be difficult to achieve.
Describing reluctant support from others as natural ‘resistance to change’ is a common reason given for individuals who may not support the new journey.
This isn’t always the case.
Pharaohs recognised that in order to gain buy-in and commitment to their vision – the construction of the perfect pyramid – the powerful participative experience of the journey could be used to inspire others to support the cause.
Today in many organisations, very few leaders view work and the workplace experience in the context of a journey. The day-to-day pressures of managing the organisation often get in the way of thinking of work as anything other than an intense process of actions, activities and decisions.
It is understandable and not meant to be a criticism of leaders but they miss an important leadership trick when they don’t use the momentum influence of the journey context.
A change in mindset and thinking linked to the journey context will reap massive benefits for everyone connected to the organisation. There are many reasons for this.
Journeys are important. Journeys are a part of all of us. We spend most of our lives on a journey to somewhere, whether a change of location, a career path, even a new relationship.
We start out dreaming of the future, full of hope and ambition. We set off into the unknown with fear and excitement, facing challenges, unforeseen events and surprising interventions. We experience despair, frustration and the odd disaster along the way, but we pick ourselves up and overcome the most difficult hurdles. We celebrate key milestones and dine out on reaching seemingly impossible goals.
Is that life or business? The answer is either. The journey of each organisation is no different to any other life journey, and is just as rewarding.
But only if leaders are prepared to view the day-to-day work experience as an adventure – as a journey.
All leaders dream of building a successful, growing and sustainable organisation. Likewise, their teams dream of being part of the same workplace experience.
Pursuing that dream should be seen as an adventure for everyone connected to the organisation.
The journey to achieving sustainable growth should be lived and enjoyed by all, and this includes suppliers, partners and other stakeholders.
The ‘growth journey’ is surprising to some people, challenging to many and rewarding to everyone.
It is a dynamic and demanding process, giving people the opportunity to explore new possibilities and achieve their full potential – whatever that may be – whilst helping the organisation grow and prosper.
It is often viewed by ambitious leaders as a never-ending journey. Success and growth feed the need for more success and growth. And your people will love being on it.
So what can you do?
Well, you can take a leaf out of the ‘Book of Pharaohs’ and produce a vision of your own, describing the type of pyramid you want to build.
You can also decide the type of journey you want to take your people on.
Inspire them to sign-up to it.
Great journeys live long in the memory of those who participate in them and considering how much time people devote to their work, creating a journey worth embarking on will make work and the workplace a more enjoyable experience.
The resulting performance benefits will be immense.
Best wishes on your journey, wherever it may take you.
John