You and your significant other are sitting on the couch when you begin to feel a chill. You get up and adjust the thermostat.
Congratulations. You have made a change. You have demonstrated agency. You are a change agent!
Reactions
One possible reaction (whether internal or overt) from your SO (significant other) is, “Knock yourself out.” They don’t care either way.
Another possible reaction is, “Oh, good. I’m glad somebody did that.”
The most likely reaction is, “Why the hell did you do that? I was fine the way it was.”
Resistant to change
As an official Change Agent, it is now your duty to lecture your SO on the dangers of being resistant to change.
Perhaps you can have them reprimanded, reassigned, or sent for positivity training.
Take the temperature of the room
room tem·per·a·ture
nouna comfortable ambient temperature, generally taken as about 70°F.
Room temperature may be “generally taken as about 70°F”, but that may not be what is desired by the others in the room – or even by you.
When we say Design Thinking is “human centred” we mean that the number isn’t as important as the feeling. If everybody is comfortable at another temperature, then that is the goal.
Being human centred also means going through the messy process of consultation and observation. Did you ask what people wanted before you appointed yourself Change Agent? Did you observe people donning or removing sweaters as a way to see what would improve their comfort?
If you are changing the temperature because you Googled “room temperature” and the “right” setting is 70°F then you may taking the temperature of the room literally, but definitely not figuratively.
Overcoming resistance to change
No doubt, many people are resistant to change. I’m no exception, when the change seems neither warranted nor beneficial to me. If you are hoping to avoid resistance, Design Thinking, and its empathy with the end user, is a great approach.
