reflections on leadership
Just about a month ago I had the honour of keynoting at Adaptive Path's LX Conference in San Francisco. I spoke about how change, when it's not our idea, impacts us psychologically; the human capacity to counteract threat, and what we should cultivate in ourselves and our organisations to make the best change possible. Here's the video:
As experience leaders, change is what we’re about. We’re naturally gifted at invention, and as agents of digital transformation we’re often change champions; in our own organisations, or our clients’. In serving this role, we’re surrounded by the meme that humans can be divided into two camps: those who embrace change and those who resist it. The first group is heralded as enlightened inheritors of the future; the second dismissed as retrograde troglodytes. But this is a false dichotomy. It masks a whole load of complexity, and ultimately, our common humanity. It threatens to obstruct our most powerful tool as designers: empathy. Instead we should ask: What part of all of us, as humans, does change trigger? And what can we hold as our centre as we all flex and stretch? As we iterate, launch, and observe ourselves and our organisations. And iterate, launch, and observe again? What strengths do we have as designers, and what choices as leaders, to effect change in our lives and those around us for the better? Access Julia's slides here: slideshare.net/secret/80jOKkISPYedmz