Who’s watching?

You never know who’s watching and you never can tell how far your example of driving change will travel.

Often, when we drive change, we focus only on how we impact the people right in front of us.  In reality, we are creating second and third order effects in the people who observe our example of driving change and then in the people those first observers share their story with.

Last week, I had second and third order effects of driving change presented to me directly.

Early Tuesday morning, a woman stopped me in the hall to thank me for all the help I’d given her with a class presentation she’d given the night before.  I’d never talked to her about her class, nor interacted with her directly regarding change management, so, I was more than a bit confused by the gratitude.

She explained how she’d used my driving change work to prepare herself for her report on change management.  As she studied my work, she felt more comfortable presenting the topic and as a result of her knowledge and excitement with the topic her class enjoyed and appreciated her presentation.  She was smiling from ear to ear as she told me the story.

Her story brought a smile to my face too and prompted me to remind you, in case I haven’t told you this enough already:

Always remember how powerful an example you are when you walk the talk of driving change.

Everyone is watching and everyone can benefit.

Be the example.

Drive change.