EDGE – Leading For Change

To wrap up EDGE’s Q1 thematic of CHANGE, and in celebration of Women’s History month, we welcomed guest speaker Kathryn Simpson. Kathryn is a change leadership consultant with many years of hands-on experience. Kathryn collaborates with leaders in organizations of all sizes across North America and Europe, to create pathways to organizational success through focus and alignment.

Ahead of the session, each Match Retail team member received a copy of Kathryn’s best-selling book Leading For Change. How to thrive during uncertain times. During the interactive discussion, Kathryn shared her own stories of change, examined learnings and highlighted how the process was effective. We reviewed the eight factors of successful change and discussed how each person, at any level, can play a role. Through survey results, we were able to identify as an organization where Match Retail has succeeded in leading through change as well as areas of opportunity. We left the session with a stronger understanding of why it is important to lead change effectively in 2021 and beyond, and the key success factors to doing it well.

After our session with Kathryn we had the pleasure of hosting a live question and answer session through our social channels to gain and share some great insights and learnings on leading change within the workplace and personal life. Here is what Kathryn had to say;

Why is it important to you to lead change well?

I am very energized when I am part of organizations coming together to create a strong future. I’m grateful I have been able to help leaders at all levels guide their organizations and teams to successful futures.

How can we ensure that change is being implemented and measured flawlessly both in the workplace and personally?

Measure change from many perspectives, not just the easily quantifiable finance and process measures but from the more difficult and important people measures whether they are customers or employees.

What advice would you give someone who wants to be a leader of change within their organization but is currently not in a leadership role?

Learn from customers or other functions what is going on and what is likely to happen in the future. You will also be able to spot opportunities to change and influence those around you, by describing the change you want to make.

How would you advise employees in an organization to adapt to changes that may be outside their comfort zone?

Express your feelings and what you see as the barriers to change. Understand why change is happening and ask what is carved in stone. Find out if there are opportunities to design something that will work better for you and your team.

We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to listen and learn from Kathryn Simpson in last months EDGE session and look forward to working together as a team to lead change here at Match Retail.