In this short monologue for the Building Better Cultures series, the host argues that meaningful organizational change starts with personal awareness. He repeats the mantra “Awareness precedes action,” explaining that without recognizing a need for improvement, no change can occur. He offers three practical habits to foster that awareness: (1) pause each day for brief reflection on recent decisions and behaviours, asking whether outcomes were achieved and if a better version of oneself was present; (2) use the organization’s core values as a decision‑making lens, constantly checking whether actions align with values such as transparency, honesty, and customer‑first; and (3) build a culture where honest, open feedback is welcomed and treated as a gift, because perception shapes reality. By integrating daily reflection, value‑based framing, and feedback loops, individuals can create the awareness that triggers purposeful action and sustainable change across the organization.
Chapters
Hi there and welcome to this episode of Shorts by Building Better Cultures. This week I wanted to talk a little bit about change because, as we know, change happens often one step, one person, one action at a time. You know, we talk about big change programs, but really big change programs are just the pulling together of lots of little bits of change happening across an organization. However, when we think about change happening one action at a time, what about if you're somebody who doesn't think they need to change? Or what about if you're somebody that never thinks about the fact that there's perhaps a better way of doing things or a different way of doing things? Three words that were once told to me by a friend of mine running a training course on change when I worked back in a bank a few years back, three words that you should write down right now in your notebook. Awareness precedes action. Awareness precedes action. Three really powerful words, because of course, until we know there's something to change, until we know there's a better way of doing something, until we realize that actually maybe there's a different angle to this, or there's a different way that I could think about achieving what it is I need to achieve, we're never going to change. So awareness precedes action, the whole idea that I need to be aware that something needs to change before I can take action to change it. And it's really changed my life because it's given me a lot more pause for thought. And I think that's probably the biggest piece of advice that I can give, the idea of pause for thought. So I pulled together 3 little thoughts just to give you, I suppose, something to mull over. And the first of those is exactly that, pausing for thought, taking time to reflect every single day about the decisions you've made, about how you've shown up or maybe how you've reacted in a particular situation. To take time to sit back and to think, is there a better way that I could have done that? Is there a different way that I could have done that? Did I get the outcome that I wanted to get? Did the other person get the outcome they wanted to get? And maybe the big question is, was I the best version of myself in that moment? We don't take time to reflect because we don't have time, because we're too busy doing the do. But literally to diarise 5 minutes or 10 minutes at 5 o'clock every day, just to take time to scribble some notes and to wonder, could I have done things better, is a really powerful thing to start doing. I guess an extension of that is when you think about the whole idea of purpose and values in an organization. We talk often about values not just being words on a wall, but about being lived. In organizations, about being how we do things around here, about being the types of things that we hold each other and ourselves to account for. Using those values as a lens through which to wonder, did I do the best thing? How could I have done that differently if I'd have been thinking about our one team value? Or how would I have done differently if I was thinking about our transparency and honesty value or our customer first value? So using those as a lens really brings them to life and helps you perhaps to think about how you reframe some of the ways that you've handled some of those situations. And I think the last one is a biggie, and we talk about it often, but it's really hard to do, and that is cultivating a culture of honest and open feedback. And it's hard to do because we don't like receiving, often, feedback that we might perceive as negative, that there's a better way of doing something. Did you think that the way that you came across was maybe a little, angry, maybe a little pushy, maybe a little forward. We don't particularly like that. So creating an environment in which it's okay to give people that feedback, to say to them, "Do you know how you came across?" Because perception is reality at the end of the day. How I think I came across to somebody else doesn't really matter. It's how they think I came across that really matters. And therefore, they're best placed as a third party to give me that feedback. We should see feedback as a gift. We should see feedback as an opportunity to change and do something better. Because if we never have that feedback, we keep doing the same things in the same way all the time. Nothing changes, nothing gets any better. So 3 little things, take time to reflect, think about your values as a lens through which to make decisions and do the things you do, and cultivating a culture of open, honest feedback, for me, are 3 ways that you can really drive that idea of awareness precedes action. That's it for this week. Take care and see you again soon.
