 So, welcome everyone to the session Accepting to Embracing Change, an Unknown Tool to Thrive in Uncertain Times by Parul Bhakava. Parul is an agile coach with ThoughtWorks and she brings a rich experience in the IT industry as she has been a lean agile practitioner for over 14 years. While you would know more about her through her story, through her presentation, I wanted to share that she is a theatre actor and a professional voice over artist and she has also recently won her rising award. So, congratulations Parul on that and we are really excited to hear from you. Thank you Yashasree. Thank you so much for the wonderful introduction. Hello everyone and welcome. So, I want to start today's talk by conducting a small exercise with all of you. So, are you all ready? Okay. So, I want you to take your right hand physically and raise it as high as you can. So, take your right hand and raise it as high as you can. Good. Now, I want you to take the same right hand but this time raise it a little higher. Just a little higher. Awesome. You can bring it down now. So, I want you to think and I want to ask this question to the audience and you can answer in the chat as yes or no. Did you raise your hand higher the second time? You can answer in the chat. Did you raise your hand higher the second time? I'm seeing a lot of yeses. No. Okay. I see Abhinav is also saying yes. Yes, surprisingly by Tom. Okay. All right. So, I see most of us have said yes that we raised our hand higher the second time. We may want to reflect why that happened. It's because of the human tendency to remain in the comfort zone. Whether it's because of inertia, fear of failure, fear of the unknown, we want to remain in the comfort zone. The world around us is changing drastically and we can see that during the pandemic, digital disruption, technological disruption, digital transformation, the ability to embrace change is a superpower not just for organizations but also for individuals. Charles Darwin once said it is not the strongest of species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. In fact, researchers have shown that individuals who are more open to embracing change are more successful and happy in their careers and lives. And in today's session, I'm going to talk about something that I'm really passionate about embracing change as a tool to thrive in uncertain times. What I'll be discussing today is my story of persistent change. If change is everywhere, let us also understand why do people resist change? I will also share with you a tool which I have used at individual, team, and organizational level for embracing change. And lastly, I will be sharing my secrets. My six-step model of embracing change, which has really worked for me and I would love to share it with all of you. So my life has been a rollercoaster of change at every step. So let me take you to my childhood. My father served the Indian army. I have lived in seven cities, studied in nine schools, and stayed in 15 different addresses during the first 17 years of my life. Change has been the only constant since the beginning. I was born in Jodhpur. After a couple of years, my father was posted in Amritsar. Then we moved to Pune in Maharashtra after two and a half years. At Pune, we were staying at Kadakvasla. The weather was nice and bright. I used to go to school in auto rickshaw and bus. People spoke three languages, Hindi, English, Marathi. I also learned a bit of Marathi that time. We stayed there for two and a half years and life was going great. But one day, suddenly, my father's posting orders came and we were to move from the cosmopolitan city of Pune, 2700 kilometers, to a tiny town in northeast called Tanga Valley. This was the first time I was experiencing change as I was now at an age to experience it. My first reaction to this change was happiness. I was excited about the mountains. It would even snow there. When we reached Tanga, I was shocked. I was even angry. It would rain all the time. It was really cold. There was no television. Electricity came only four hours in a day, two hours in the morning from six to eight and two hours in the night from four to six. The sun would rise at four in the morning and it was pitch dark by five. Imagine three children below the age of 10. There is no electricity. It is pitch dark, no television, no source of entertainment and no vehicles. And at school, all the subjects were in Hindi, including science and social studies. People spoke a different language. They looked different. My mother used to say I would get up in the middle of the night and start crying and saying that I don't like it here. Let's go back. It took me six months to cope with the change. After six months, things got a little better. So since there were no vehicles, we used to walk to school. So talking to people. I made some friends. I even started reading books using the Laltain in the night. I started going outside and playing. And I also started speaking very good Hindi. Things were going good for me now. And again, two and a half years, my father's posting orders came yet again. And this time, we were to move 2000 kilometers to the north of India from the tiny town of Tanga to the biggest city in India, New Delhi. And since I'd already experienced change, this time I wasn't ready. So what did I do? I stopped eating. Yes, I was this kid who said, I like it here now. We are not going anywhere. Let's just stay here. With a lot of efforts, my father sat me down. And he asked me, what is bothering you? What are some of your puzzles? And as a young kid, I had all these fears and these questions that were bothering me. Like, would we have electricity? What about television? What kind of food we'll have? Would we have the mountains? Would I be the only new girl in school? No verbal affirmations were helping. No confirmations were helping. It was also the time of no internet, no cyber cafes and no television. With a lot of effort, and I don't know how my father arranged for it, my father arranged for a brochure of Delhi, which had information about the climate that Delhi has, the food. It also had pictures of the zoo, which got me really excited. The monuments that Delhi has. And he also telephoned an uncle to inquire about the new school. With this new found information, my emotions changed from anxiety, fear to acceptance of this change. I accepted that we are going to Delhi before we left. But was the change easy? Absolutely not. In Tanga, all the subjects were in Hindi. And in Delhi, all the subjects were in English. Since I got mid-term, all the subjects were haphazard. In Tanga, there were only two sections. In Delhi, the school was huge, so you had 10 sections. People spoke English. I could only understand Hindi. Life was difficult. I want to ask this question to the audience and you can answer in one word. So if you were Parul, at that time, how would you deal with this change? You can answer in the chat. Saili saying Rebell, Sandeep Peer. Tom is saying observe within interest. Abhinav saying somehow find a friend. He's facing the same challenges. Ramesh is saying difficult. So let me share what I did. So by this time, I realized one thing. And maybe you also would have realized that every two to three years something was happening. Every two to three years, my father was getting posted. So I accepted that this change is going to be inevitable. And once I accepted that, I started looking at this change as an opportunity to maybe learn a different language, maybe learn about a different subject, to explore and to excel. And how did I do that? So language was a problem. So I joined extra classes. I even joined the Western Music Society thinking that if I sing in English, I will learn better English. I had no friends. So I joined hobby classes and not having any vehicles in Tanga actually worked for me because I was literally running around. So I also got selected in the athletics team. Fast forward to today, in my career spanning more than 14 years, I have worn many hats. I started off my career as a business analyst, moved on to digital consultant, e-commerce consultant, product owner, scrum master, agile coach. I have worked in more than six industry areas, oil and gas, manufacturing, retail, banking, financial services. And I have lived and worked in more than five geographies, US, UK, Australia, Netherlands and India. My ability to embrace change helped me in my diversified career. Some of these changes were planned, but most of these were unplanned. And through my childhood, I understood one thing that change is going to be inevitable. So acceptance of change became hardwired in me. And every time there was a change, I started looking at change as an opportunity, as a gift to learn, explore and to excel. And through my experiences, I observed the emotions I was feeling, the actions I was taking and through that, I devised my six step model of embracing change, which I will be sharing with you today. So change is everywhere. So I want to ask this question to the audience and you can answer in one word. If change is everywhere, why do you think people resist change? You can answer in one word. Why do people resist change? Krishna is saying fear, Usha is saying fear, because of risk, Pallavi, so true. Psyli is saying comfort, uncertainty, anxiety, so true. Why change? Pradeep is saying, interesting. I've been of saying Newton's first law, due to commitments, uncertainty, inertia, all of these are actually true. And when I was doing my research, I identified that in order to understand why people resist change, which is very important to understand the human brain. So even though the world around us has changed drastically, the human brain has remained the same for the past 20,000 years. It weighs the same 1.3 kgs, it has not expanded or shrunk. The human brain actually operates in the hunting and gathering society of the early homo sapiens. Our ancestors could live without food, without water, but if there was a predator's attack, it was came over. The human brain from that time has been hardwired to survive. And I must say our ancestors did a great job at that because that's the reason why all of us are here, we survived. So to enable us to survive, the brain needs two things. It wants to seek reward and it wants to avoid threat. Let me repeat this for you. To enable us to survive, the brain needs two things. It wants to seek reward and it wants to avoid threat. This has also been substantiated scientifically. So let's explore that. So let us take an example that there is a change within our organization. People's energy to this change are usually down, neutral, or up. If people feel that this change is good for them, or actually when people feel negatively about the change, what happens in the brain is that it secretes a chemical called the cortisol, which acts like an avoider, like a blocker, and people want to move away from the change, which is also shown in the three arrows on the left. People treat this change as a threat. So on the flip side, what can we do so that people think positively about the change? When we create certainty, provide information of what kind of change is going to come in. As leaders, we provide information to our teams about the change that is going to come, what changes are going to happen, what structures are going to get implemented. What happens is, people start thinking positively about the change. And what happens in the brain is that it secretes a chemical called the serotonin, which is also the feel good hormone, which creates hope and optimism. And people think of this change as a reward and get into an action oriented space and are more likely to move towards the change. From this, we can actually summarize three things, survival. Number one, the brain is hard wire to survive. It wants to seek reward and it wants to avoid threat. Two, the brain loves certainty. And three, in case of uncertainty, the brain gets into a threat response and is more likely to have a fight, flight or freeze response. There is a model called the scarf model, which helps us to understand how these threat and rewards are processed in the brain. The scarf model has been used extensively by coaches, by leaders, change practitioners across the globe to understand what motivates and demotivates people through change. Scarf is also an acronym for the five domains which we are going to explore today. So let's explore. S stands for status. It is a relative importance compared to the other. When a change is likely to attack a person's current status, which could be his current role, or a promotion that he is anticipating, what happens in the brain is that it triggers a threat response and people want to resist the change. Conversely, if there is a change which people feel is going to help in their career growth or is going to help in their promotion, what happens is it triggers a reward response and people want to take up that change smoothly. C stands for certainty. The brain loves certainty. When the brain is able to predict the future, the brain is relaxed. But in case it is not able to predict the future, what the brain does is it fill in the blanks with the worst case scenario. So if we want to combat that as leaders, when we don't want our teams to think about the worst case scenario, we should provide them with as much information as possible, communicate with them what the change is going to bring in and what happens is the brain triggers a reward response and people feel more comfortable about the change. A stands for autonomy. Autonomy to be able to take decisions. When people feel that they have autonomy towards this change, they are more likely to be open towards the change. Conversely, when people feel they don't have a choice, they want to resist the change. So let me give you a team tip. So the next time you're in a meeting and deciding on the next steps with your team, give your team a little bit of autonomy. Let them decide on the priority of the next steps. Even a tiny autonomy goes a long way in creating a reward response which otherwise would be treated like a threat. R stands for relatedness. We are social animals. We work best when we work with people. When people feel that they are accepted for who they are, they are more creative, more collaborative and better in their thinking. Conversely, when people feel that they are not accepted for who they are, they are more restricted. They are going to restrict their talents to themselves. An F stands for fairness. The brain fundamentally wants to be equitable. When people feel that this change is not fair for them, what happens is it triggers a threat response and people want to run away, literally run away or resist the change. So the next time you're talking to someone about a change or any situation, ask them intentionally. Do you think it is fair? Even a small statement intentionally like this is going to have a big impact because it will trigger a reward response which otherwise would be looked upon as a threat. So now that we know about the five domains of SCARF and how threats and rewards are processed in the brain, let us look at SCARF model in action. Let us look at a case study, an example. So I would like to share an example with you where I was part of an agile transformation which involved a restructuring where people's role were to change. So there were project managers who had to take up the role of a scrum master and there were also project managers who were asked to take the role of product owner. So the situation that we have right now is the agile transformation which involves restructuring and people's role have to change from project manager to scrum master and for some people project managers to product owner. So what we are going to look at is the emotions that people who are having this role change their experience at an individual level. We will also see what they can do, what is in their control from an action standpoint that will help them to move towards the change. And we'll also explore that what we can do if we are the leaders or the managers of the teams who are going through this role change, what actions can we take so that it triggers a reward response and people move towards the change. So as an individual, I may feel that my responsibilities are completely going to change. And as an individual, what I can do is make a list of the roles and responsibilities that I will continue to do, which means that there is no change, stop doing, which also means that there is no change and start doing which is the delta. And what happens in the brain is that it identifies that it is only a subset of what the brain had actually thought as completely going to change. And what happens is it triggers a reward response and people are more likely to be open to embrace this change. And as leaders, what we can do is share details of the role transition, the training plan, the new archetypes, the new career path, the growth path for those individuals, because providing this information would trigger a reward response, give them clarity, and they are more likely to move towards the change. From a certainty standpoint, a person may feel that they are not sure when this change is going to be implemented and the training needs for the role. A lot of times, and this is for everyone, when we are facing such a situation, we get into denial. We have males which are asking us to sign up for training which is providing us information, but what do we do? We want to resist this change, so we stay away from that. And what happens is it causes a lot of stress for us. But if we want to move towards the change, embrace that change, what we need to do is discuss expectations, have that one-on-one with your manager that we are avoiding, sign up for the trainings which will help to bridge the skill gap. And as leaders, what we need to do is the brain loves certainty. So communicate, communicate, communicate. Communicate a clear vision, roadmap. Even tentative timelines goes a long way in creating a reward response with otherwise no timelines. Similarly, for autonomy, relatedness and fairness. Feel free to take a screenshot of this. We could discuss one of them if you have any questions during Q&A or during our hangout. One actually I want to touch upon is relatedness and I want you to think about it. It is not only this example, but relatedness happens a lot of times whether we are changing a city or a new job, changing our technology, our roles. So think about how relatedness affects us and what we can do at individual level to embrace the change, move towards closer to the change and as leaders, how can we help our teams when they face with such a change? All right. So I want to give you all a tip. So the next time you face a situation that makes you uncomfortable, a change that makes you uncomfortable wants you to avoid it due to things. Number one, pause. Identify which of the domains of SCARF are getting affected. Is it status, relatedness or multiple of those? And once you identify that because self-awareness is power, the next step is take action that will help you to mitigate the situation. So do you remember my childhood story? Do you remember the time when I was to move from the tiny town of Tanga to New Delhi when I had stopped eating and I was this kid? I can actually now relate the SCARF model. I can relate the emotions that I was feeling which was making me resist the change and what my father did which helped me to be accepting of that change and eventually embracing it. So I want to ask the audience and you can take a stab at it. So there are three emotional drivers, status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness out of the five. Three of them were affected during that time. Any guesses? You can put it in the chat. Sarah is saying relatedness. All right. I see more of those. Tanuja is saying relatedness and status. All right. So thank you. Spot on for one of that. So the three emotional drivers that I experienced. All right. Yashastri also that's correct, certainty. Was certainty, relatedness, fairness. I wasn't sure about how the new place would be like. The shock that I had got when we moved from Pune to Tanga, I wasn't sure about anything. I could not relate to Delhi. It was just a word for me. I wasn't even sure if I would be the only new person in school and what my father had done to help me move towards the change was to provide that brochure, create that relatedness after looking at the pictures. I could relate to Delhi and speaking to that uncle gave me confidence that yes, it is certain that certain things are going to be in Delhi in a certain way, including the school. What I want to share with you through this example is that the scarf model can not only be used at team and organizational level, but it can also be used at individual level. So the next time you have a situation which makes you uncomfortable, think about the scarf model and maybe try it out. Now moving to my six step model of embracing change. So through my life experience of growing up, working across the globe and my agile journey, I identified that there are these secrets of embracing change. And since they have been my moment of discovery, I call it the aha model. So let us explore the aha model. The first three steps of the aha model refer to what one needs to do to embrace change. And the last three steps talk about the behavior one needs to exhibit on a continuous basis to embrace change. So let us explore. The first step is accept. Accept that all change is inevitable because it just is. And that not all changes are going to be good. There are people who are going to stand up and say, oh, change is good. It's great. But no, not all changes are good, especially when we experience them. But even if some changes are bad, at some point, we'll have to embrace them because only when we embrace them, we can move on and look at other options. The next step is acknowledge. Pause and acknowledge that all changes are emotional. Identify which of the scarf domain is getting impacted. Is it status, relatedness, fairness, or multiple of them? And once you do that, the next step is act. Start moving, take action. Because without taking action, you cannot embrace change. Act stands for action changes things. The book that you wanted to write may be a post that you wanted to try for. Take action because without taking action, we cannot embrace change. The next step is accountable. Be your own change catalyst. The change that you're looking for, the help that you're looking for may not arrive. You will have to be your own catalyst. You will have to take stock of your own strengths. Look at the options that you have and start taking actions. The next step is actually the opposite of the previous one. Helping others embrace change. Helping others embrace change is not only a wonderful thing to do, it is also therapy. Because when we help others embrace change, we not only learn from their experience, but we reinforce the entire cycle of embracing change where we help people to accept, acknowledge, and act. And the last step is attitude. It is all about the attitude. There is a saying. There is little difference in people. There is little difference in people and that little difference makes the big difference. The little difference is the attitude and the big difference is whether it's positive or negative. We may not have control over how big the change is. We may not have control over when the change happens to us. But what we have control over is how we react to that change. So in the end, it's all about the attitude. With that, I want to leave you with the thought, something that I truly believe in. The only way to make sense of the change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Feel free to take a screenshot of this because this is something that I truly believe in and look at during times of difficulty. Thank you, everyone. It was a pleasure to present to all of you. We are now open for any questions. Thank you, Parul. Wonderful session. Thank you. Audience, please put the questions that you may have for Parul in the Q&A section. Getting a lot of reactions, Parul. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tanuj. Thank you, Usha. Hello, Sneha. Thank you. Thank you, Saili. Any thoughts people have? You can put it in the chat. We can discuss that or anything that you want to share. Sandeep has raised his hand. May Shalaya allow him to talk, Parul. Is that okay? Yeah, that's fine. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys. Yeah. Hello, Sandeep. Hello. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. Yes. So just wanted to check. I mean, you have implemented the scarf in some of your transformations. So is it a part of the agile transformation or it's driven as a separate initiative? And before you implement the complete agile part or the process part or after it? So scarf is intertwined in it as we start because any transformation would involve people at the core. So this has been intertwined in the agile transformation journey. And I have also implemented scarf in executive coaching, leadership coaching as well. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So before you leave, I would like to let you know that, you know, thank you first of all, Parul for sharing your experience. As you can see, it has definitely been a lot of interest and help to people who attended. Thank you.