INTRODUCTION

We are living at a time defined by constant and accelerating change, which gives rise to two big problems that need to be solved, and solved fast:

• Problem 1. Our ability to lead and respond to change is not good enough (to put it kindly).
• Problem 2. Change is best managed through great teamwork and collaboration, yet most people work in mediocre teams, limiting their ability to perform at their best.

These problems lead to flawed or failed change initiatives, wasted human potential and low productivity. The resulting social and economic impacts on the wellbeing of people, organisations and societies are significant and unacceptable.

So how do we fix it? By improving the way leaders and members of their teams think and act in the face of change. This can be any kind of change such as responding to external forces, improving a product or process, or taking action to help teams work better together.

We must urgently address this problem of wasted potential and productivity in the workplace by learning how to be better at change.

Organisations don't change unless their people do, and without the right approach to engaging people and teams, the status quo outweighs the change agenda every day and progress stalls.

Despite successive waves of hype around new technology, it isn't technology doing the disrupting; it's people! Technology amplifies the potential of people. But at the same time as being the force behind change, people also offer the greatest resistance to it. Change is hard for people because our natural reaction to it is shaped by:

• fear?-?an important instinctive response to change
• conditioning?-?from our social and workplace influences
• attachment?-?to past success and knowledge.

Now more than ever, the human element of change must be a constant, front-of-mind obsession and focus of attention on any change journey.

In this book I share the most important things about leading, responding to and overcoming the human challenge of change that I have learned from 40 years on the front line of the technology industry. I also share the most effective tools I use to enable people and teams to perform at their best in the face of change.

Change is a human thing more than a technology thing, so being good at it requires focus on who you need to be and what you need to do to make change happen better.

The right place at the worst time

I know what being disrupted feels like. I've been at the right places at the worst times throughout my career, from being the CEO of software company Xero during the COVID-19 pandemic to experiencing crises at IBM, Apple and ninemsn. I am a survivor from the front line of virtually every significant shift and shock to the technology sector and industry over the last 40 years.

Figure I.1, a snapshot of my professional journey through four decades, shows the shifts of change impacting computing, technology and society, and the shocks of disruptive industry, economic and global events.

Figure I.1: career chronology shifts and shocks

Back in the early 1990s, as General Manager of IBM's Western Australia branch, I announced the company's first-ever layoffs in Australia. The announcement ended the longstanding ideal of 'jobs for life' at IBM, the giant of the mainframe computer era that dominated the information technology industry for decades. The layoffs, which were called a 'voluntary relocation program', were hardly voluntary, as offers of alternative roles in Sydney or Canberra were generally unpalatable to our Perth-based people.

As Vice President of Apple Australia and then Apple Asia Pacific, I led through the company's most difficult times in the mid 1990s. Apple's troubles included enduring massive quarterly losses and three CEOs in a little more than two years.

I was CEO of the Microsoft and PBL joint-venture start-up, ninemsn, when the dotcom crash hit in 2000. I remember how it felt being in a meeting room with a hundred young people looking at me with fear in their eyes, asking me, where to from here?

Working as Managing Director of Microsoft Australia, and as Vice President in the Online Services Division in the mid 2000s, I experienced the impact on the company of the US Department of Justice anti-trust rulings, the rise of the open-source or 'free' software movement at the time, and the emergence of Google and other competitors in the mobile and internet space.

Over nine years as a non-executive director of Telstra, Australia's leading telecommunications company, I experienced a major shift with the emergence of voice messaging services, once exclusive to telcos, becoming available free of charge from 'over the top' services like FaceTime, WhatsApp and Viber. We navigated through another major shock to our business with the Australian government's decision to build and operate the National Broadband Network.

As a non-executive director of large organisations like Medibank, David Jones and Fletcher Building, I experienced the consequences of change and technology disruption in the health insurance, department store retail, and building products and construction industries.

Leading Xero, a fast-growing global technology business, through the pandemic required me to lean on every bit of learning from experience I had gained about confronting change and uncertain circumstances.

Despite the unique nature of the pandemic (I hadn't managed through one of those before), I felt clear and confident about how I needed to be and what I needed to do to guide our business through the challenge. That's not to say I always got things right or executed as well as I'd have liked. Facing into change and uncertainty is not the domain of perfection; it is about learning as quickly as you can and correcting course as you go.

During those long days, weeks and months working from my apartment in Wellington, New Zealand, I was thankful for the people and experience that had shaped me and prepared me for what I had to face.

Who is this book for?

This book is intended to help anyone who wants their team to perform better, their work environment to improve or the change initiatives they are part of to succeed. In an immediate and practical sense, people who lead organisations and teams will gain most, because they have the greatest influence on the nature of teamwork and the success of change initiatives.

However, any individual contributor can also use the actions and tools to encourage and help the leader of their team improve performance. Individual team members can have a very positive influence on performance especially if their team leader is receptive.

Whatever your aspirations are for a better future in whatever domain you care about, the superpower you must develop is how to effectively lead and respond to change.

Whatever the change being initiated or confronted, at work or in life, Through Shifts and Shocks will help anyone improve the change process they are working on.

How this book can help

This book takes you on a journey, from exploring the nature of change, and why change is so hard, through to how you can best think and act in the face of change.

Part I looks at how technology has amplified the potential of people, and trends that are changing the nature of our workplaces, and at why change is hard for humans.

Part II explains how you need to think and behave to be your best in leading change and building a great team, and how having the right mindset, self-awareness and care for people is critical.

Part III covers the most important things that must be done to drive change, execute strategy and build a great team, and how to do that by confronting difficult conversations and making hard choices.

Part IV outlines how to make effective change and great teamwork happen. This section includes a diagnostic, playbooks and tools that have served me well over the years. You will also find playbooks that can help individual contributors and Board Directors take appropriate action.

Finally, I reflect on the rewards of doing the hard work of being a leader of change and great teams. For me, one reward has been the opportunity to work with talented people, especially those who have shown appreciation for how I have helped their career and development. I also reflect on the reward of learning from and observing up close high-profile technology industry leaders, including Xero founder Rod Drury, Australian media and entertainment giants James and Kerry Packer, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Two domains and eight Must-Do actions

Two domains, 'Being' and 'Doing', frame the eight Must-Do actions in the book:

• Being reflects the important character attributes of a leader and team, such as self-awareness and having the right mindset and motivation, when initiating or confronting change.
• Doing reflects the words spoken and actions taken to execute change by confronting difficult conversations, making hard choices, seeking clarity, driving alignment and focusing on performance.

Great change and teamwork come down to activating across these two domains.

Across...