In a recent article I wrote about organizational change. In the CRO field, you have to spend a lot of time teaching your organization to be experimental and data-driven. That's how CRO really comes to life and how your organization can begin to grow.

One way to enable organizational change is to adapt the social environment. For example, by creating a community of colleagues who are enthusiastic about experimenting. You can also organize brainstorming sessions together to come up with experiments based on insights from your research. And don't forget to ‘celebrate’ your losing tests. 

What we often forget is that CRO specialists and analysts are themselves a vital part of the social environment. With our behavior and beliefs, we can facilitate organizational change, or block it completely.

How CRO specialists block organizational change

I have seen it happen a few times. The CRO specialist is enthusiastic about his way of working and tries to convince others of this way of working. Instead of helping and engaging others, finding a common goal and being a sympathetic authority, the CRO specialist tries to impose his way of working on his colleagues. Often this is done with attempts to convince others with mere facts. But imposing and using (only) facts is usually not the right way to go.

This behavior actually results in unwanted behavior from colleagues, which in turn stimulates your behavior. This creates a vicious cycle. If you expect your colleagues to show resistance, you automatically become more determined and distant. That way, you get the resistance you feared (self-fulfilling prophecy).

Breaking the circle

If you are in such a vicious cycle, it is essential to break out of it as a team. If you try to break out on your own, others may be susceptible to your new behavior and push you back.

Recognize that you are in a negative circle

If you don't know you're in a vicious cycle, you can't get out of it. But if you feel like you're spinning in circles and not making progress, that's probably the case. Recognition is therefore the first important step.

Are you in a negative cycle? Then well-intentioned initiatives can actually make the situation worse. Problems keep coming back, it's impossible to continue, and it's probably costing you a lot of energy. In that case, stop immediately. Take a step back. And try to understand the situation before you intervene.

Analyze your behavior

When a situation becomes threatening or uncomfortable, which is the case in a vicious cycle, your autopilot (system 1) takes over. It causes you to do and say different things than you intended. The most important advice: make sure you stay in control.

If you find it difficult to stay in control, I can mindfulness recommend. More and more research confirms its usefulness for both everyday situations and leadership skills.

The next step is to evaluate critical situations, such as meetings where undesirable behavior occurs. When evaluating, ask yourself, “What does it have to do with me that my colleagues behave this way?”

Discussing issues openly and learning together

To stop the vicious circle, you must learn together. Together you must answer the following questions, “How do we keep each other in this circle?” and “What can we do differently?”

Discuss the situation openly with the people involved and be sincere about your own behavior. This is a skill. Don't start judging people, but name things neutrally: “This is what we want, but this is what we do.”

Learning together means understanding how both of you are blocking the change process. Finding out together how things can be done differently. It means openly revealing what information you are relying on and mapping out together how you will proceed next. Learning also means evaluating the steps you have taken and analyzing their effect on the process.

Break the circle

If you want your organization to embrace a data- and experiment-driven way of working, be very conscious of your own influence. Engage people, build trust, find a common goal and be a sympathetic authority. Are you blocking change and ending up in a vicious cycle? If so, are you getting frustrated, or are you the leader who will work with your colleagues to break the circle?

Arend Ardon's book ‘Breaking the Circle’ is an absolute must-read For any CRO specialist or analyst looking to motivate an organization to adopt a data-driven mindset.

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