How to introduce and establish change in a Hostile Environment

 

How to introduce and establish change in a Hostile Environment

There are many approaches to introducing change. However, establishing change in a hostile environment demands that the change goes an extra mile to create a new reality. The following steps will be helpful

First, study the values that underpin the current practices. What you see is often just the tip of the iceberg supported by a substructure of belief systems. Understanding the scaffolding, without being judgmental of the practice, arms you with sufficient insight to address the roots that create the outcomes.

Second, pragmatically determine those values that are ethical that should continue and those that need to be challenged and changed. Take care not to “throw the baby out with the bath water” and be keenly aware that your personal biases in the situation do not always qualify as right or even righteous. There are multiple lenses in which reality exists and can be projected. The ideal calls for prudence rather than change for the sake of change.  

Third identify the mechanisms, publics and environmental institutions that can be used to lobby and build support to dismantle undesirable practices.  

Fourth, construct an institutional culture, structure, policy, procedures and systems that introduce, surround, protect and support sustainable change within the environment.