The Demand

Before you announce your next change to the cast, you identify what the change threatens about who each key person believes they are. If you announce the change and walk away, the cast will figure out adoption alone, the veteran will read it as an attack on their judgment, and the change will revert the moment your attention is elsewhere.

The Work

Design the adoption path for your next change this week.

  1. Before announcing, ask the identity question for your most resistant senior cast member: what does this change threaten about who they believe they are?
  2. Identify the one cast member whose adoption will most influence the others. Invest in them first, privately, before the group announcement.
  3. When you talk to that influential cast member, name their identity directly: “your experience is exactly why we need you to model this for the newer cast.”
  4. Sequence who hears what, in what order, with what support, and with what early evidence that the change is working.

This week, do not announce the change to the full cast until you have run steps one through three with your key influencer.