Do You Really Want To Get Ahead? Don’t Be Afraid To Make Waves

Somewhere, sometime, someone may have told you “don’t make waves.”

Maybe you challenged an idea you thought needed closer examination. Maybe you proposed a solution that ran contrary to the thinking of everyone else in the room. In any event, someone may have urged you to simply go along with the status quo.

Patti Johnson suggests a different approach. She explains it in her book Make Waves: Be the One to Start Change at Work and in Life.

Johnson is founder and former CEO of PeopleResults, a change and organizational development consultancy. She was previously a senior executive at Accenture, a global management consulting firm. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and many other media outlets.

Waves, Johnson says, begin with “If only we could …” She explains how people can gain confidence in adopting that mindset.

“Once we have a dream or a vision, the key is turning that into action. Goals can feel too big to achieve if they’re too grand,” she says. “This is why New Year’s resolutions are often forgotten by February. Wave Makers use strategies like starting small and taking one step at a time. They are incrementalists who start and then learn and adjust but keep going. Wave Makers also get comfortable starting without all the answers because of an ‘I can figure it out’ mindset—even if they don’t know everything they need to know when they start.”

Johnson explains how “self-talk” can sometimes sabotage a person’s ability (or even willingness to try) to make a positive wave.

“Our thoughts are very powerful and the hidden domino in starting a wave,” she says. “We all have invisible backpacks we carry with us wherever we go based on how we grew up, how we see ourselves, and the messages we have taken in from the world around us. Yet, if we know and anticipate our triggers and vulnerabilities, we can manage through or around them.”

For example, she says, perfectionism is common in high achievers and can even be viewed positively in our culture. “Yet, perfectionism by design means everything has to be perfect! This desire for perfection can be an underminer. If you are starting a change—whether it’s a new business or a community effort—it won’t be perfect. Since you haven’t done it before, there will be setbacks. Perfectionists also can be slower to act because of the fear of not being good enough and not having all the answers.”

What roles do curiosity and effective listening play in a person’s ability to make successful waves?

“These are both huge factors in creating a successful wave,” Johnson says. “Research tells us our curiosity peaks at about age six and crashes once we are adults. The most common answer for this trend is because ‘we are too busy’ or ‘we think we are supposed to already know all the answers.’ Yet, a lack of curiosity directly affects your ability to ‘learn your way’ through doing something new.”

Johnson says, Wave Makers are voracious learners who quickly assess their knowledge gaps and how to cover them. “They decide to learn new information themselves or involve others who know what they don’t. Without learning and listening to take in new information, there’s a big risk in bringing yesterday’s answers to today’s problems.”

Johnson quotes Steve Jobs as saying, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” How does that perspective apply to a Wave Maker?

“It’s a great quote and a reminder that you can’t rely solely on past experiences when starting something new,” she says. “It’s human nature that our views come from what we’ve seen or done before. For example, it can be more difficult for someone who has worked at only one company their entire career to picture doing their work differently—just because they haven’t experienced it. Also, be prepared that if you’re starting a change, you will face resistance just because you are changing ‘normal.’ The status quo and our individual habits are extremely powerful forces.’

Johnson offers advice to potential Wave Makers whose “why” seems to be unclear?

“I’ll speak from my own experience,” she says. “For years, I said, ‘I want to write a book.” When I got more serious about it, a mentor asked me for my ‘Why?’ I started by saying it was a bucket list item. But, she kept pressing me, ‘But why?’ until I finally got to ‘because I wanted to feel I was sharing what I’ve learned in case it could help someone else.’ I needed to be clear about that because it affected everything. So, if you have an idea or a change you want to make, do the same thing – really press yourself on why it matters to you. The answer may affect whether you take it on and how you’d go about it. Knowing your ‘why’ is important because it keeps you going when you hit bumps and setbacks – and you will.”

In leading a change initiative, how can a Wave Maker create cascading sponsorship for the change throughout the organization?

“Change is rarely a solo sport,” Johnson says. “Involve others early in your ideas and let them put their fingerprints on it. This is how you create a change more about ‘we’ than ‘me’. Gathering ideas and involving others is also how you build champions for your wave. Expect you’ll get pushback but be open enough to understand why and consider it. You can’t make everyone happy, but you can listen, take in what you hear, and then consider it all and make the best decision for your change.”