Change also brings opportunities
change
In the book Expedition Agility, you’ll find a variety of exercises designed to make the journey toward agility lighthearted and engaging. In each blog post, we highlight one of these practices to inspire you and invite you to experiment with it.
This time, we’re exploring the exercise “Change Also Brings Opportunities.”
Discover New Possibilities
Change often triggers resistance because it challenges us to let go of what feels familiar.
But what if we approached change as an opportunity — a chance to discover and add something new?
The exercise “Change Also Brings Opportunities” offers a playful and interactive way to explore this idea. By asking team members to make three small changes to their appearance — three times in a row — it becomes clear that change doesn’t just mean losing something, but also creating or adding something new.
This fun activity demonstrates that change isn’t only necessary; it can also be enjoyable and full of surprises. It’s a wonderful metaphor for change within teams and organizations: sometimes you discover far more possibilities than you first imagined.
The Exercise: Change also brings opportunities
- Ask team members to pair up and stand facing each other. Look at each other for a moment, then turn around so you’re standing back to back.
- Each person changes three things about their appearance. Wait until the signal is given, then turn around at the same time.
- Tell your partner what you notice has changed about their appearance.
- Repeat the exercise twice more. Each time, participants must change three different things about themselves. You’ll notice it gets harder with each round — until people realize they can also remove or add things (for example, take off a watch, add a post-it, or borrow a colleague’s glasses).
- During the reflection, ask what insights this exercise brought up. Usually, people realize they can change much more than they thought. Point out that change isn’t just about loss — it’s also about adding new elements, opportunities, and perspectives.
- Observe what happens next: right before and during the reflection, many participants start putting everything back the way it was. You can share this observation with the group — it shows how strong our tendency is to return to the old state. But why should we? Change can actually be fun! Invite people to keep their new look as it is for a while — which often leads to some good laughter!
After completing the exercise, it becomes clear that change has much more to offer than we often realize.
The laughter and lighthearted moments during the activity reveal an important lesson: you can change more than you think, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or heavy. Adding new elements — instead of just removing old ones — opens the door to fresh possibilities and opportunities.
You may notice that many people quickly try to undo their changes afterward. This shows our natural tendency to return to what’s familiar. But why not embrace the new instead? Change can be refreshing — even fun!
Let this exercise be an invitation to look beyond what you might lose and focus on what you can gain through change. Who knows — it might just be the beginning of something even better.
Source: Expedition Agility
By: Els Verkaik, Edwin Clerkx & Jeroen Venneman
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The power of invisible rules
change
The book Expedition Agility includes various working methods to tackle changing to agility in a playful, light-hearted way. Each blog article highlights one working method to inspire you and to experiment with. This time it is ‘this is how we do it’.
The unwritten rules
The culture of an organization is often hidden in unwritten rules, habits and quiet expectations. Only when we make these implicit behaviors explicit can we understand and address the real culture.
The ‘this is how we do it’ method helps teams to expose these hidden rules, so that an open conversation can be had about them. By shadowing teams and observing how they work together, who makes the decisions and what patterns occur, you gain insight into the deeper layers of the organizational culture.
This working method challenges teams to reflect on the questions they often don’t ask out loud. For example: what do you have to do to belong? And: how do we deal with criticism or change? The answers to these questions not only make the culture visible, but also offer the opportunity to consciously reflect on what works well and what needs improvement.
Format: This is how we do it
- Walk along with one or more teams where the change will start, for example the teams that will be the first to try out a new way of working. Observe how people work, how they work together, what the interaction patterns are, who determines what, what the pecking order and power relations are, etc.
- Name a number of questions to which the relevant teams will give ‘this is how we do it’ answers. Examples are:
– What do you have to do to fit in?
– What do you have to do to not belong? When are you out?
– What are we not talking about?
– Who or what always gets priority?
– How do we deal with compliments?
– How do we deal with people who are critical?
– What is our reaction when another change is announced?
– What makes us run faster?
– Who is actually in charge? - Invite the teams to discuss the similarities and differences in the answers. Also give your observations back to the team. You can ask questions such as: what is the strength of the team? What would we like to improve?
This working method makes it clear that culture is not only something that happens, but also something that we form together. By making the unwritten rules and silent patterns explicit, a shared awareness is created within the team about how they work together and which norms determine daily practice. This provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on what works and what doesn’t – and to jointly determine which elements of the culture should be preserved and which should change.
The strength of this working method lies in making the invisible visible, so that teams can not only grow in effectiveness, but also in mutual connection. The conversation that follows is a first step towards a more conscious, stronger and more open organizational culture.
Source: Expedition Agility
By: Els Verkaik, Edwin Clerkx and Jeroen Venneman
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Take a moment to be amazed today
change
The book Expedition Agility includes various exercises to approach the transition to agility in a playful and lighthearted way. In each blog article, we highlight one of these exercises to inspire you and encourage experimentation. This time, we explore the exercise “Take a moment to be amazed today.”
Rekindle your curiosity
In the hustle and bustle of daily work, we often lose the ability to see our own organization with fresh eyes. What once seemed unusual or impractical has now become the norm. The way we work, the rules we follow, and the habits we have are rarely questioned. But what if we take a moment to consciously marvel at our surroundings?
The exercise “Take a moment to be amazed today” invites teams to look at their organization with a curious and critical perspective, as if stepping inside for the first time. By asking yourself and each other questions about why things happen the way they do, you can uncover hidden inefficiencies as well as creative solutions that often go unnoticed.
Exercise: Take a moment to be amazed today
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Try looking at your organization as if you were seeing it for the first time. Ask yourself why things are done the way they are.
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Investigate and discover the oddities in your organization—things that have become normal but might not be normal at all. For example: always needing consensus for every decision, consistently missing deadlines, or accepting that agreements are not followed (because, well, it happens, right?). Or the unquestioned acceptance of fixed remote workdays where someone never comes to the office.
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Pay special attention to the “desire paths” in your organization—the unofficial shortcuts people take that aren’t documented in processes and procedures. What detours are being made to speed things up or bypass obstacles?
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Ask yourself a different kind of question: What isn’t being talked about? What are the recurring topics in your organization, and what stays out of sight? Consider aspects like customers, employees, budgets, results, satisfaction, culture, and behavior. What does this say about your organization? Why might this be the case? And what could change if these topics received more attention?
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Dive into your colleagues’ needs. Are they openly expressed? Do these needs align with the organization’s agility goals, or are they in conflict? How could you bridge that gap?
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Examine your work processes. What causes slow decision-making, delayed delivery, and resistance to change? Why is it so hard to improve?
After a day of curiosity, you’ll often come away with surprising insights. By investigating strange habits and illogical workflows with your colleagues, you’ll realize that much of what is considered “normal” is anything but. What starts as a playful exercise can spark valuable discussions about what is truly needed for your organization to become more agile and effective.
By using humor and laughing at quirks, you lower the threshold for change and create a safe space for transformation. The insights you gain can ultimately lead to concrete improvements, helping you make faster decisions, deliver results more efficiently, and adapt more easily to change. This exercise not only fosters a sense of wonder but also paves the way for growth and innovation.
Source: Expedition Agility
By: Els Verkaik, Edwin Clerkx, and Jeroen Venneman
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Expedition agility as a culture accelerator: How to change mindset and behavior in your organization
change
Changing the culture in an organization is a challenging process, especially when it involves embedding an agile mindset. The book Expedition Agility offers concrete tools for sustainably shifting mindset, attitude, and behavior. In this blog, I’ll share an inspiring approach based on a successful real-life experience that can help you and your team make progress toward an agile culture.
Theme: DO! What we agreed upon
Cultural transformation often starts with a clear theme and an inspiring slogan. In this case, the theme was “DO! What We Agreed Upon.” This focus helps teams work together on concrete actions and make visible changes.
What we aim to achieve
To become an agile organization, it’s essential that mindset, attitude, and behavior are aligned across the board. The core question becomes: How can we help everyone not only understand what’s needed but actually DO it? The solution started with recognizing the problem and defining the desired change;
Problem: A lack of follow-up on agreements, a tendency to take on too much at once, and an absence of a culture of accountability.
Desired mindset and behavior: A continuous improvement mentality in which team members demonstrate ownership. We wanted to see everyone working together on one priority at a time, fulfilling agreements, and holding each other accountable.
From X to Y: The movement we’re looking for
To make the cultural shift concrete, we clarified the specific transitions we wanted to see. This included:
- Moving from “starting many things” to “finishing one task before beginning another.”
- Shifting from “not speaking up” to “holding each other accountable when agreements aren’t kept.”
- Changing from “focusing on problems” to “seeking solutions and opportunities.”
By naming these concrete differences, it becomes clear to everyone what is expected in the new culture.
How we measure the change
Behavioral change also requires measurable moments, such as structured reflections. In this approach, feedback loops were built in—discussing progress during lunch sessions or reflecting on cultural changes in retrospectives. This makes the change visible and helps the team stay focused.
The intervention: A playful start with behavior cards
To make the desired behavioral change tangible, we used a creative method: behavior cards. These cards serve as a tool to talk about behavior in a playful way within teams.
Workshop idea – behavior cards in action:
- Preparation: Use behavior cards (or create them) with examples of both desired and undesired behavior. Allow the team to select or add what they consider typical behaviors of their team, both positive and negative.
- Choose and discuss: Ask each team member to pick one desired and one undesired behavior card. Place the undesired behavior cards in the “Do Less” column and the desired behavior cards in the “Do More” column.
- Dive into the behavior: Together, choose a behavior to explore (desired or undesired) and answer these questions:
- What are the possible reasons this undesired behavior persists?
- What benefits could a shift to desired behavior bring? What could we achieve?
- What do we need to make this change?
- Define actions: Have the team formulate actions to transform undesired behavior into desired behavior. Think about ways team members can keep each other on track.
This method raises awareness, stimulates open conversations, and makes behavioral change accessible and engaging. By involving leaders actively, you foster a culture of role modeling.
Final thought
Expedition Agility is not only a book but also a guide to achieving cultural change together. By fostering ownership and embracing continuous improvement, your organization can think and act agile. Ready to get started with behavior cards or another idea? Every step toward agility begins with action.
Do you want to know more about agility? Then take a look at our book Expedition Agility and visit the website amigos.nu/book for more tools on desired and undesired behavior.
Written by: Els Verkaik
Els collaborates with Edwin Clerkx and Jeroen Venneman as part of the friends of change at amigos.nu
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