Embracing Organizational Change: The Power of Perspective Swaps
A summary of a powerful in HBR by Rebecca Hinds, the head of The Work Innovation Lab by Asana.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, organizations must constantly challenge the status quo and reinvent themselves to remain competitive. While comfort and complacency can hinder progress, there is a powerful tool that can break traditional mindsets and spark transformative change: perspective swaps.
This blog post summarizes and references the article titled “How ‘Perspective Swaps’ Can Unlock Organizational Change” by Rebecca Hinds, published in the Harvard Business Review on May 23, 2023. Her piece offers commonsense approaches to changing view and changing minds!
Understanding Perspective Swaps
Perspective swaps involve intentionally shifting one’s point of view to gain new insights and understanding of a situation. This practice can be applied both vertically, up and down the organizational chart, and laterally, across different functional groups within a company. By adopting a perspective swap approach, businesses can challenge their assumptions, uncover blind spots, and foster a culture of innovation and adaptability.
Let’s imagine a company where different teams work on different parts of a project. The sales team focuses on selling products, while the design team focuses on creating the product’s appearance.
In a perspective swap, a member of the sales team would temporarily switch roles with someone from the design team. The salesperson would spend time working with the designers, learning about the challenges they face and the creative decisions they make. Similarly, the designer would experience the salesperson’s role, understanding the difficulties of selling the product and interacting with customers.
By swapping perspectives, the salesperson gains a better understanding of the design process, which can help them communicate the product’s features more effectively to customers. The designer, on the other hand, gains insights into customer preferences and challenges faced by the sales team, allowing them to design products that are more appealing and marketable.
In this way, a perspective swap helps both teams see things from a different angle, leading to improved collaboration, a deeper appreciation for each other’s work, and ultimately, better products and sales outcomes.
Vertical Perspective Swaps: Detoxifying Leadership
Vertical perspective swaps occur between leaders and their employees. Often, leaders become fixated on their own needs and ambitions, leading to distorted views of their teams. Perspective swaps can help leaders overcome “power poisoning” by immersing themselves in the day-to-day experiences of their employees. Hinds share the instance of Vincit, a mid-sized IT services company, has a program where an employee becomes CEO for a day, making a meaningful decision to improve the workplace. Such initiatives have proven effective in surfacing blind spots and enhancing leaders’ understanding of how to better serve their employees.
In the article, Hinds shares an example: To mitigate the potential risks associated with perspective swaps at the executive level, simulations can be utilized. HashiCorp, a cloud infrastructure company, conducts a virtual simulation during its annual planning summit. This exercise disrupts the traditional power structure and challenges leaders to step into the role of CEO. Unexpected events are introduced to test their agility and ability to respond to change effectively.
I imagine another example could be: In a finance organization, the CEO noticed a disconnect between the leadership team and the finance employees. To address this, a program was implemented where the CFO swapped roles with a finance team member for a week. The finance team member experienced leadership responsibilities, while the CFO gained insights into day-to-day finance operations. This perspective swap fostered understanding, empathy, and improved collaboration between leaders and employees.
Lateral Perspective Swaps: Fostering Collaboration
Lateral perspective swaps involve members of different teams temporarily swapping places to gain empathy and understanding. This practice can be particularly valuable in improving cross-functional collaboration, such as between sales, marketing, and HR teams. By gaining a deeper understanding of each other’s challenges and perspectives, teams can resolve conflicts, enhance communication, and drive productive organizational change. The example of venture capitalist Ben Horowitz in Hinds’ article illustrates how swapping the heads of two teams led to resolving collaboration issues and improving overall teamwork.
When I worked for Bank of America as a Change Manager, we had to do a ‘Day In The Life’ once a year. We were to work alongside a Banking Center representative to get a good sense of how the technology we were implementing worked in real life. Boy was it an eye-opener! I discovered how a tiny addition of a field in an application can disrupt operations. And even better, I forged a relationship with a Banking Center Manager with whom I could collaborate on future projects. Seeing the system from her perspective was invaluable to helping me a more pragmatic program director.
Perspective Swaps at the Project Level: Involving End-Users
Perspective swaps can also be applied at the project or initiative level. For instance, when implementing AI-related initiatives, involving end-users in the development process can significantly increase the chances of success. By allowing end-users to contribute ideas and insights, organizations can ensure that AI technologies meet their needs and deliver tangible value. The Work Innovation Lab conducted an experiment with Asana’s marketing team, empowering them to propose ways to incorporate generative AI into their daily work. By shifting the control from developers to end-users, organizations can foster a culture of innovation and empowerment.
I see this at play right now in a project I am leading. We are involving change champions in perspective swaps and finding it to be highly effective. Change champions from different teams or departments temporarily exchange project roles related to an S4/Hana initiative. This enables them to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges, perspectives, and expertise. By experiencing the change from different angles, change champions cultivate empathy, develop comprehensive solutions, and enhance collaboration across the organization, ultimately driving more successful and inclusive change initiatives.
The Power of Perspective Swaps
Perspective swaps work by challenging ingrained perspectives and promoting cognitive flexibility. They encourage leaders and employees to think creatively, adapt to change, and avoid confirmation bias. By embracing System 2 thinking, which is deliberate and critical, organizations can overcome blind spots and unlock new possibilities. Perspective swaps serve as a catalyst for organizational change, helping businesses adapt, innovate, and thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Conclusion
In a world where complacency can hinder progress, perspective swaps offer a powerful tool to drive organizational change. Whether applied vertically, laterally, or at the project level, perspective swaps foster empathy, understanding, and innovation. By stepping into someone else’s role and experiencing their challenges firsthand, individuals can truly connect with the human aspects of change. The concept of perspective swaps in Rebecca Hinds’ article is akin to “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.”
It is through this immersive experience that meaningful connections are forged, breaking down barriers and fostering a shared sense of purpose among those involved in driving change. Perspective swaps go beyond theory; they create a tangible bridge between individuals, enabling them to collaboratively navigate the complexities of change and propel organizations forward towards success.
© 2023 K. Joseph, All Rights Reserved
This article was previously published in 2023 in Medium.com.
ℹ️ Disclaimer: Much of this post references an HBR article cited above. Weaved among the summaries are ideas based on my professional experiences as a Change Management leader. AI writing assistance from Grammarly, ProWritingAid and chatGPT helped with my story’s birthing process.