A Change Question - How Do I Initiate Change in the Workplace?

Welcome to A Change Question — a special mini-series from The Inner Game of Change.
In each short, solo episode, I bring you one question worth sitting with — the kind that can spark both personal and professional shifts. 

In this episode, I explore a question we often avoid: How do I initiate change in the workplace?

History shows us that change rarely starts with permission. It begins with a first step — often small, often risky — and gains power when followed by the second step that makes it stick.

From neuroscience to practical strategies, this episode unpacks why the first move matters, how to position it well, and what happens if you don’t make it… because someone else will.

👉 If there’s one step you’ve been waiting to take, what will it be — and what would the second step look like?

Ali Juma
@The Inner Game of Change podcast

Follow me on LinkedIn

Chapters

• 0:00 Historical Change-Makers
• 1:07 Introduction to A Change Question
• 2:12 The Biology of Taking Action
• 5:01 Position, Pilot, Pattern Framework
• 6:48 This Week's Reflection Question

Transcript

Ali: 0:10

One nurse deciding that America needed a better way to respond to disasters. One teenager refusing to move to the back of the bus in Alabama. One basketball team stepping into a court they were told to avoid. Clara Barton in 1881, claudette Colvin in 1955, mississippi State's Game of Change in 1963. Different people, different causes, but one pattern Change starts when someone takes a first step and then follows it with a second, the step that keeps the momentum alive and turns an act into a shift. They acted and they acted again, positioning those actions where they could be seen, understood and carried forward.

Ali: 1:07

Welcome to A Change Question, a special mini-series from the Inner Game of Change. I am Ali Juma. In each short solo episode I bring you one question worth sitting with, the kind that can spark both personal and professional shifts, because a statement tends to close things down, it tells you what is, but a question opens things up. It makes you pause, reflect and sometimes even see yourself or your work differently. And it is often in that pause between knowing and wondering that change happens. In our last episode, we explored a deceptively simple question that pause between knowing and wondering that change happens. In our last episode, we explored a deceptively simple question what am I tolerating that I no longer have room for? For some of you, that question may have lingered in the background this week. A quiet but persistent voice. Awareness is powerful, but once you see something, that can't stay the same, the next question is how do you take the first step and then the second, especially in the workplace, where change is rarely straightforward.

Ali: 2:19

The truth is, most change in organizations doesn't begin with a big announcement. It begins with one person noticing a gap, an opportunity, an outdated practice and deciding to act. But here's the thing Initiating change isn't just about the idea. It is about positioning that first step so others can connect to it, and then following through with the second step before the moment fades. And if you choose not to initiate change, that's fine, but rest assured someone else will. The question is do you want to live with the changes made for you or be part of shaping the changes that are coming anyway? If the landscape is going to shift regardless, you might as well make the shift one you believe in.

Ali: 3:13

When I talk about initiating change, I am not asking you to flip the table or rewrite the rules overnight. I am talking about the first deliberate step, the one that shifts a conversation reframes a problem or opens the door to a new way of working. It might be a bold public stand, like Claudette Colvin's Act of Defiance, or it might be a small, quiet test, like Clara Barton's first group of Red Cross volunteers. The size of the step matters less than the clarity of the intent behind it and the readiness to take the second step that cements it into the fabric of how things are done. Neuroscience tells us the brain resists uncertainty. Big, undefined change can trigger the amygdala, the part of the brain wired for threat detection, leading to hesitation, fear, even paralysis, leading to hesitation, fear, even paralysis. But the moment we take a first step, however small, the brain shifts, dopamine is released, reinforcing action, rewarding momentum and making it easier to take the next step. As Martin Luther King Jr said, take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. It is not just poetry, it's biology.

Ali: 4:52

The act of starting changes both your psychology and your physiology. So how do we translate this into work? I call it position, pilot pattern. Position Anchor your idea to something people already value, link it to shared goals, current priorities or a recognized problem. That is your first step Pilot. Test it small, recognize problem. That is your first step. Pilot Test it small, show it works without threatening the whole system. This is the bridge between first and second Pattern. Repeat and normalize that's the second step, the act that makes the change stick and turns it into a rhythm. Now will it be easy? The answer is no. If it were easy, the change would already have happened.

Ali: 5:54

First steps often feel awkward, uncertain, even risky. Second steps are just as hard because they demand persistence when the excitement of beginning has worn off. But the difficulty is the proof that you are in motion and that motion is what makes change possible. Let's say you want to introduce a new way of handing over projects between teams. Instead of requesting a company-wide rollout, you position it as a fix for missed deadlines in one department.

Ali: 6:21

That's your first step. You run a two-month pilot, track improvements and share the results. Then comes the second step bringing those results to other teams and helping them adopt the same approach. Before long, your pilot has become the new standard. First steps spark. Second steps solidify. Together they create change. So here's my question for you this week If there is one step you want to take, what will it be and what would the second step look like, because change rarely begins with permission. It begins with someone sees what needs to shift, takes the first step to start it and the second step to make it stick. That step doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be taken, because once you move, the ground shifts for you and for everyone who comes after. Until next time, stay with the question, thank you.