Senior Leaders Share Strategies for Driving Impact and Change
Robots & Pencils President & CEO Tracey Zimmerman hosted our sixth Women in Innovation event this June in New York City. Started in 2019, this series celebrates how women, their teams and their companies are shaping the world. These women-focused events bring together senior leaders and innovators to network and discuss their strategies and lessons learned from driving change across their organizations and industries.
Our latest event attracted a fantastic group of men and women, with a focus on the convergence of industries, technologies, and disciplines. Yet while technology has made it faster and easier than ever for ideas and tools from across industries and roles to converge, achieving significant, lasting change is still a daunting task. Here are a few of the most important takeaways from our discussion on how leaders can make change initiatives more successful and impactful.
3 Takeaways from Our Event Panelists & Discussions
1. Change only occurs when your priorities are clear and teams and leaders are aligned and working together. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what people you bring in or the tools and platforms you introduce. It starts with prioritization and communication.
2. One effective way to drive change is to rally people around the customer, using customer experience as a shared true north. Everyone wants what’s best for the customer, so utilizing the voice of the customer can persuade others of the need for and benefits of change. (However, know your audience; there are also times when financial impact should be your primary talking point, and women need to be comfortable talking about dollars.)
3. Connection and relationships are key. Bringing together people from different disciplines and with different perspectives will unlock value. You need people who understand the industry deeply as much as you do people who understand technology deeply. As leaders, our job is to create a culture of teamwork and collaboration, where people bring their whole selves to work, feel heard, ask questions, present and debate ideas, and learn from each other. Ideas often don’t come from the places you expect, so we have to get to know people and listen to them, and then help facilitate and guide our teams in execution.
Driving Change Inside Your Organization
We hope these notes help you to examine the change management and innovation processes across your organizations and teams. Know that you can always ask for help if you need it — there is no need to do it alone!
If you need support with your change management or digital initiatives, Robots & Pencils has the expertise and experience to help. Send us a note at hello@robotsandpencils.com or contact us through our website to learn more about how we can help.
