Around the world, people want to change others and their biggest problem is that others are not ready to listen to them. **For example:** - A husband feels like he is made only for meeting his wife’s needs and buying vegetables. - On the other hand, the wife feels that she has not received anything from her husband in her entire life in return for all the hard work she does for him. Everyone wants to convince others. **For example:** - A shopkeeper tries to convince his customers. - A lawyer wants to convince the judge. - A boyfriend wants to convince his girlfriend. Throughout life, we try to convince one or the other person. Our entire life is spent on convincing others but people do not change. The leaders who learn the strategy and skill to change others are able to achieve everything in life. # 1 Stakeholders of your business Your stakeholders are your: - Customers - Employees - Suppliers - Channel partners or distributors - Investors These stakeholders help you to grow your business. If you are able to change all your stakeholders, then you will be able to achieve your goals early. But, the questions that arise are: - Do people want to change or not? - Is change easy or difficult? **People are ready to change; when they know the change is favourable.** **Examples of When People Are Ready for Change** - A boy/girl is very excited and happy on the day of his/her marriage because he/she feels that this change will be favourable for him/her. It means that he/she thinks that marriage will bring happiness in his/her life. - If you offer the position of CEO or Vice President to your manager, he/she will be happy and ready to accept this change because it is favourable for him/her. On the other hand, if you give a demotion to your General Manager and make him the Assistant Manager, then he will become sad because this change is not favourable to him. So, if a person thinks that a change is favourable to him/her, then he/she will get excited and accept the change. **For example:** When a baby is born in a family, it is a very big change that the parents experience, but they welcome this change instead of resisting because it is favourable to them. # 2 Four Quadrants Framework This framework contains four quadrants: - Quadrant 1: Merits of Adopting Change - Quadrant 2: De-Merits of Adopting Change - Quadrant 3: Merits of Not Changing - Quadrant 4: De-Merits of Not Changing If you want to change someone, then you need to make him/her understand that this change is favourable to him/her. While convincing him/her that the change is favourable to him/her, you need to check whether he/she is also feeling that the change is favourable to him/her. **For example:** If you want your team member to relocate to Hyderabad from Delhi as he will get good growth, then he should also feel that this change is favourable to him. If you think that this change is favourable to him but he does not think that it is favourable to him, then he will not be ready to change. Now, let us take the four quadrants discussed above, in this case, to check whether the employee will relocate or not. You need to first understand that all four quadrants are not beneficial for everyone. Some people find Quadrant 1 beneficial and accept the change, some will change due to Quadrant 2, some for Quadrant 3 and others for Quadrant 4. People will change by getting motivation either from one of the quadrants, two quadrants or three quadrants. Let us discuss the four quadrants in the present example of relocation from Delhi to Hyderabad. ### **Quadrant 1: Merits of Adopting Change** You tell your employee that you will get the following benefits by relocating to Hyderabad from Delhi: - Salary Hike (you increase his salary from Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs. 1,25,000) - Designation Hike (you give him a promotion and make him General Manager from Manager) - Free accommodation On knowing about these benefits, the employee may accept the change and relocate to Hyderabad. ### **Quadrant 2: De-Merits of Adopting Change** It may be possible that he may not find this change favourable because he may think that he will get a hike of only 25000 but he will have to take the work of 250%, i.e. Rs. 2,50,000. So, he may think that he needs to work very hard to set up a new office, new infrastructure, the Internet, develop a new market, search for new clients, etc. He needs to work as a servant because he will be the only one to take care of all the office work. Thus, sometimes, people find the demerits of adopting change more than the merits of adopting change. To convince the employee in this quadrant, you can do the following: - Tell him that you will provide him two or three people who will work with him at the new location - Tell him that he just has to direct and supervise these people and they will do the whole work So, the employee might get ready to change on hearing these benefits. ### **Quadrant 3: Merits of Not Changing** The employee may want to remain in the current city because he has his family, wife, girlfriend, and friends in the city. He wants to spend time with them rather than going away from them. So, this can be the merit of not changing. In such a case, you can tell him: - You are giving him a 2-BHK house wherein he can live with his wife or family. - You will be giving travelling and relocation expenses. - You will support him in relocating with his family. So, he can accept the change seeing the benefits. If he did not change after that, then you can tell him the de-merits of not changing. ### **Quadrant 4: De-Merits of Not Changing** - He will de-grow because he did not get the salary hike and the cost of living and children’s education is increasing. - Due to increasing inflation, the money value is decreasing. For example, the things that you could have purchased in Rs. 1 lakh earlier you cannot get even by the 1/4th of those things in Rs. 1 lakh today. - So, the cost of living is increasing. In such a case, you need to make the employee understand that if he is not getting a salary hike, then he is not just stagnant but he is de-growing. So, you need to identify in which quadrant your employee lies. # 3 Framework of Execution The Framework is as follows: 1. Write the name of your “Navratna” you would like to change. 2. Write the changes you want to bring in your “Navratna.” 3. Plan the communication with your “Navratna” in the four quadrants discussed above. Write what your “Navratna” wants and what you will give him in the four quadrants. 4. Create a small sample script before going to meet your “Navratna.” You need to prepare yourself before meeting him so that you are thoughtful and “Navratna” also feels happy that you think about him. You should give him suggestions that are beneficial from his point of view and not yours. 5. Communicate with your “Navratna” and analyse his needs and motivations based on the four quadrants. This will help you to identify what is the real motivation of your “Navratna” and you can use this point to make the changes you required in your “Navratna.” For bringing change in someone, you need to remember: **Today’s hardships mean comfort in future** **Today’s comfort mean hardships in the future** A person is comfortable today and he didn’t want to change because he feels that he will face problems in the future with this change. In such a case, to change him, you need to show him problems in this comfort zone and comfort in the future’s difficulties. You need to show him the small image of the problems that he will face while changing and you need to enlarge the image of the benefits he will get by this change. **For example:** If you want a person to quit smoking, then you should reduce the problem he will face while quitting smoking by giving him support in the form of knowledge, information, association, experience, money loss, etc. You also need to show him the enlarged image of the benefits he will get by quitting smoking. If the person is not ready to quit smoking, then show him the enlarged image of the problems he will face in the future like tell him that: - His lungs and throat will be damaged. - He can be diagnosed with cancer. - He has to be hospitalised and go for chemotherapy wherein a huge amount of money will be needed. Ask him that if he died or remains bedridden, then how his family will survive? Exaggerate the problems to an extent that he will start visualising and thinking about the problems he will face. Looking at such problems, he will definitely change and quit smoking. So, you can change anybody through this framework. Start applying the framework on your “Navratnas” (Leaders) and then ask your “Navratnas” to apply it on their “Navratnas” (Team). This will help in building a community, which will help you to bring a J-curve in your business. If your customers, vendors, employees, investors, partners, and senior leaders agree to you, understand the organisation’s vision and align with speed, then they will take your organisation to the next level. For changing them, you need to implement the framework.