Tag: building

Legos, Change Management, and Inviting People to Build (5-6-26)

Last week was about Legos, change management, and making next steps easy to take.  This week is about inviting people to build.

I have invested hundreds of hours into building dozens of Lego sets throughout my life.  If we are being honest, it would be easier to buy things that were already assembled. However, there is joy in building things.  There is joy in putting my time and effort into creating something, even if I am following a pattern laid out by others.  At the end of the day, when I build, I feel part of something and that matters.

Let’s build on this.  Take a second to think about different initiatives you’ve experienced in your career.  Have you ever had situations where the initiatives were being done TO YOU?  How did that feel?  I’ve had this happen to me, and it doesn’t feel good.  These situations make me feel insignificant.  At this moment, I’m not part of this, I’m at the mercy of this.  It kills engagement and motivation.

Now, think about the other side of the spectrum.  Have you ever had situations where you felt like you were part of building the initiative?  How did that feel?  These things energize me.  Being brought along makes me feel like I matter.  Having the chance to shape things makes me feel valued.  Similar to our Lego initiative, I love building and feeling part of something.

The challenge: How are you bringing people along and inviting them to build with you vs making them feel this is being done to them?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Legos, Change Management, and Knowing What You are Building (4-15-26)

This week we are going to kick off a series focused on Legos and change management.  By the end of this, we will build concepts that you can leverage to lead change management efforts.  The first entry in this series will be about the importance of knowing what you are building.

Imagine for a minute that I dump a bunch of Legos in front of you and ask you to build something that is faster.  I then tell you that it’s important you get this right.  If you miss there will be negative consequences.  From here, I don’t give you any additional clarity.  How would you feel?  What kind of a thing would you build? 

Now, assume I go back to you and I show you this picture of a rocket house, and say this is what we are trying to create.  Would you have naturally built something like this?  How much rework would you need to do to create something like this rocket house?

Let’s make some connections.  If you were in our Lego situation above, I bet you would have felt frustrated.  You also likely would have wasted a lot of effort creating something that looks nothing like the rocket house.  At the end of the day, one of the most important steps in change management is being able to articulate where you’re going.  If we are unclear on where we are going, we can’t build something to get us there.

Think about your experiences at work.  How often has there been an organizational effort that was unable to paint a clear picture of where the company is trying to go?  The company might use all the right buzzwords.  They might say, “We are transforming.  We are trying to move faster.  We are trying to deliver better experiences.  We are becoming more agile.”  The buzzwords are not the same as clear direction.  As leaders, we need to be able to articulate a clear vision if we want to lead people to new destination.

The challenge- How will you paint a clear picture of where we are trying to go?

Bonus thought

  1. For the record, I’m not claiming I’m perfect at change management.  The reflections from this series are reminders for me as much as they are for anyone else.  This stuff is hard and requires intentionality to do it well.
  2. If you recognized the rocket house as Emmet’s dream house from The Lego Movies, then you get 579 bonus points.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry