Unlocking Your Change Agency: Making Sense of Change
Audio • 32 minutes
Learning Objectives
- Recognise the sense-making process and how past experiences shape reactions to unfamiliar situations.
- Identify external factors, including impact, capacity, resilience and timing, that influence responses to change.
- Apply curiosity-driven questioning techniques to uncover assumptions and foster alignment within teams.
Lesson Description
This podcast-style audio lesson introduces the concept of sense-making, where we draw on past experiences to interpret unfamiliar situations and predict outcomes. Business change expert Ket Patel explains how this automatic mechanism can lead to assumptions, misunderstandings and what organisations often label as 'resistance'. The conversation explores how emotions serve as valuable data during change and why checking assumptions with colleagues prevents conflict. It also examines how external pressures such as timing, capacity and personal resilience affect our ability to respond constructively. You will gain practical strategies for slowing down, asking better questions and creating psychological safety for open dialogue.
