As leaders in agriculture, we’re constantly navigating change—whether it’s implementing new technology, adjusting to market shifts, or reorganizing our teams. While change is never easy, there are two key areas where small shifts in approach can create dramatically better results.
Here are two simple (though not always easy) steps you can take to significantly increase your success in implementing organizational change.
Step 1: Honor the Emotional Side of Change
When we’re implementing changes at work, we naturally gravitate toward logic. We make decisions based on data, gather input, and analyze what needs to change. That’s important—but it’s only half the equation.
To lead change successfully, we also need to address the emotional side of change that both our teams and we ourselves experience.
The Elephant and the Rider
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt introduced a powerful analogy in his book The Happiness Hypothesis: the elephant and the rider.
- The Rider represents our logical response—looking at the long-term, bigger picture, focusing on steps and directions
- The Elephant represents our emotional response—focused on the short term and the feelings associated with change, whether that’s fear or resistance
Here’s the critical insight: The elephant is the one with the power. If the elephant doesn’t want to go, it’s not going—regardless of what the rider says.
As leaders, we often communicate through logic alone, outlining the steps people need to take. But when we do this, we’re only talking to the rider—we’re not acknowledging or supporting the elephant.
The opportunity: When you acknowledge the emotional side of change and create space for people to process their feelings, you’ll engage both the elephant and the rider. This is when real movement happens.
Step 2: Bring Your Team Along on the Journey
By the time we’re ready to communicate change, we’ve usually defined what people need to do differently. We come to them with clear actions: “Here’s what you need to do.”
But here’s the disconnect: As leaders, we’ve been discussing this change for months. We’ve had time to wrap our heads around it and understand all the reasons behind it. When employees first hear about the change, they’re where we were months ago. They haven’t been part of those conversations.
So when we jump straight to “this is what you need to do differently,” our employees are thinking, “Wait—why? Why are we doing this?”
The opportunity: Start from the beginning. Share why you’re making the change and what the decisions were based on. Walk your team through the thinking process. This brings employees along on the journey, reduces resistance, and increases buy-in.
Will everyone agree? Not necessarily. But they’ll have the information they need to understand and support the change.
Putting It Into Practice
Leading change effectively means taking both steps:
- Honor the elephant. Acknowledge that change creates emotional responses. Support both the emotional and logical sides of change.
- Share the journey. Start with why the change is happening and how you got to this point. Bring your team along instead of asking them to jump to the end with you.
These steps require intentionality and patience, but when you address both the elephant and the rider while bringing people along on the journey, you’ll see dramatically better results in how your team responds to and embraces change.