It's Easier Than Ever to Make a Difference

One person can change an entire institution - even more so in the age of social media.

Last weekend, a record number of Canadians turned out for the advance polls, despite pollster and media predictions of general apathy about Canada’s fourth election in seven years. As of today, no one has any idea what this means for the election results, but one thing is certain: Canadians do believe they can make a difference. Social media is allowing people to connect in new and interesting ways, and it seems to have awakened voter engagement that the “experts” had not predicted.

I’m delighted to see this. Apathy is the enemy of everything that is good and the friend of everything that is bad. When people involved in organizations come to believe that they can’t make a difference, the organization is doomed to mediocrity at best, and to failure at worst. In my years of experience with client organizations – going back long before the rise of social media – I have seen many examples of how a single person who is determined to effect change can start a movement.

Here’s one example: Many years ago, I worked with a woman who was a secretary in the finance division of a large, multi-national corporation. This woman’s rank in the organization was lowly, and she could easily have gone unnoticed. The company had been through a difficult series of downsizing measures. Morale was at an all-time low, customer satisfaction was suffering badly, and there were many issues inhibiting productivity. That year, the division was ordered to reduce its work force by 40 per cent as part of an across-the-board cost-cutting measure. This was a devastating blow to the team.

The secretary volunteered to chair a team focused on taking care of the people being let go. She was determined to help everyone (who wanted assistance) find alternative jobs either inside the division or externally, thereby minimizing the morale issues. She worked diligently, with great passion and courage, to pursue her mission. She and her team succeeded in securing jobs for a large percentage of the employees. That year, employee satisfaction rose significantly, and so did customer satisfaction. Most people attributed the remarkable outcome to this one woman’s leadership.

Although she had previously been perceived as a “nobody,” the woman became a widely recognized, admired, and respected leader. Her courage and commitment brought her influence, credibility, and status. She was promoted, and was frequently invited to senior leadership team meetings because senior executives recognized her immense value and contribution to the organization’s advancement.

Here’s another example: I once worked with an organization in which the salespeople were kings and the engineers felt like badly treated paupers. As a result, the engineers were not on board, and the organization was suffering. One engineer took a stand and convinced a handful of his colleagues that things had to change. They were determined to transform the organization, starting with a regular call. On the first call, there were five people. These five determined that they would go out and enlist other people and inspire them to support change. Their efforts began to pay off; their numbers grew to eight, 15, and then 30. Three months later, a large proportion of the group was on the call. They had generated enough credibility that the division head and the CEO began to participate – by invitation – and they talked through the real issues impeding the organization’s progress. The impact was extraordinary.

Twenty years ago, this kind of transformation required slow and painstaking efforts. Now, technology is transforming our ability to propagate change, and recent events in Asia and the Middle East are the best illustration of this. Social media and technologies that allow people to communicate easily over long distances are making profound changes in our society.

It takes no less courage to organize a movement through Facebook than it took to stand up and be counted in an organization where transformation required reaching one person at a time and convincing people one by one. That said, it is simpler today to make a difference in organizations because it is so much faster and easier to generate and facilitate a broad-based dialogue. But courageous leadership was taking transformation viral long before we had the technology to speed it up. If you ever feel that you cannot make a difference, remember this constant truth: The human spirit, courage, commitment, and determination are still the things that drive all change.