A shared ‘lightbulb moment’ leads to change

Good training is the missing ingredient in many organisation’s efforts to change how they work. We need a ‘lightbulb moment’ if we’re truly going to change, and it’s difficult to have a lightbulb moment in the midst of hands-on delivery, with all the stress and context-switching this entails. We need space to think for a lightbulb moment to be possible. And we need our colleagues to have a similar lightbulb moment around the same time if there’s going to be organisational change.

Good training – that provides a shared experience for many people, in a safe space, away from delivery – can create the conditions for this shared ‘lightbulb moment’. Giving folks this space to think (which is so rare!) can help change to happen much quicker and more effectively than simply reaching into individual teams and tweaking their delivery. Here’s what I’ve seen.

A ‘lightbulb’ moment allows you to see clearly

What do I mean by a ‘lightbulb moment’? It’s a moment when something switches on in our mind. And a light shines on something in front of us we’ve not been able to make out, but suddenly becomes clear to us.

We can have these lightbulb moments individually in the midst of delivery but they are fleeting and quickly dim once again. Or we continue to see them but fail to share that vision with our colleagues.

I’m increasingly seeing the power of good training to create the conditions for a shared lightbulb moment across a group of people, setting them up to embark on real change.

Realisation

Over the years I’ve taken on delivery challenges, excited at the opportunity to affect change and improve how we do things. But the reality is, it’s hard to affect change in the midst of delivery. We’re not geared-up to change. Digital delivery is often, by its very nature, taking place in rapidly changing conditions. Our organisation’s often changing around us, we’re learning and adapting to our users, and we have a team of people to support and manage. There’s stress and context-switching. These are not the conditions for change.

I recently worked with an organisation to help them in their digital transformation, moving towards a product operating model. And their feedback was that two moments were the most transformative. The first was a whole-date, in person training session for the whole division. The second was a half-day, in person training session for the senior leaders. Feedback described these training sessions as creating ‘realisation’, for the first time: of where they were starting from, where they wanted to go, and how they needed to start.

This was their version of collective lightbulb moments. Training provided a space to think, away from delivery, alongside colleagues. A switch went on and they saw something in front of themselves clearly for the first time, at the same time.

Good training

I’ve used the term ‘good training’, because some training is more likely to create this shared lightbulb moment than others. I’ve worked in organisations that’ve sent folks on things like a shared Scrum bootcamp that doesn’t have the same results. Even if folks find the training interesting, their organisation is not ready to use ‘pure’ Scrum yet and so the gap between the training and reality is frustrating and the knowledge quickly dissipates, leading to disappointment.

The training in the example above that led to moments of ‘realisation’ was designed for the organisation itself, it wasn’t an out of the box approach. Each session had a run-in time of a month, allowing us to understand the people and their needs, and creating something for them. The approach to the sessions themselves was facilitative, not lecturing. There was certainly knowledge shared but more time was spent on asking powerful questions and giving people space to think and comes to conclusions they owned. This is what I’m thinking of when describing ‘good training’ in this context. Good training may be missing

Looking back at my experiences and the experiences of my peers, I can see positives when this training is present and gaps when it’s missing. When teams are being told they need to change but don’t have space to understand and figure out why this is the case, how it will help them, and what they need to do – the change just becomes another noisy element of delivery. When I’ve seen people and teams invest in facilitative training that provides a safe space to think, it has led to these shared lightbulb moments. It also improves the change – all of those people and brains and experiences in the room improve the reasons for change and how to make the change.

Make space for lightbulb moments with good training

I see excellent people (in-house folks and consultants) leading change from the front through delivery but struggling to land this change in a lasting or pervasive way. I’d love to see this people give time and space to lead on shared experiences, outside of delivery, setting the conditions for lightbulb moments, at scale.

We still need to make change within delivery too, but these shared lightbulb moments reduce the friction that often comes with change. Because people have been given a safe space to think, alongside their team, sharing an experience of understanding where they are, where they want to go, and where they’re going to start.

I’ve seen good training lead to these lightbulb moments. I have to admit, I’ve not always recognised this. I’ve been scattershot in my approach to training in the past when responsible for communities of practice. But I’ve had my own moment of realisation now and am factoring good training into my approach to strategy and transformation.

What’s your take?

Do you manage to make time to think within delivery? Have you experienced a great, shared experience that led to a ‘lightbulb moment’?

Scott Colfer helps organisations with product leadership, product management, and product operating models. This often includes help with strategy, and help with transformation. Connect on LinkedIn.