From Passengers to Change Drivers

Transforming engagement into ownership

“No one ever washes a rental car before returning it!”

—Tom Peters, author and commentator on business management practices.1

Chapter at a glance: Chapter at a glance: Most change initiatives fail not because employees resist change, but because organizations stop at engagement when ownership is essential. This chapter provides insights for how leaders can transform frontline employees from passengers to drivers of change by making a defining leap of faith: trusting that employees closest to the work have the wisdom to solve complex problems. Learn how combining this trust with practical tools creates a powerful engine for sustainable results, setting the foundation for methods explored ahead.

PICTURE THIS: It’s the end of a hectic day at a bustling transportation company. The scene repeats every evening: Fifty diesel trucks jam the yard, horns blaring, exhaust thick in the air. Drivers, desperate to end their shifts, jockey for position at the fuel pumps. Time and money burn with every passing minute. The company’s leaders had tried everything from complex scheduling systems to strict refueling rules, yet the problem persisted.

Then something remarkable happened. Given one hour and the straightforward question “How would you solve this?”, a team of drivers proposed an elegantly simple solution—a “snake line” system inspired by one driver’s recent family trip to Disney World. One lane, one direction, steady movement. No jockeying, no chaos. Within days of implementation, fuel consumption dropped, overtime decreased, and drivers got home earlier. Even the surrounding community noticed less noise and congestion.

The solution’s brilliance lay not just in its simplicity, but in its source: the very people who lived with the problem daily. More importantly, because the drivers owned both the solution and its implementation, they ensured its success.

You’d think such obvious wisdom—trust those closest to the problem, give them ownership of solutions—would be standard practice. Yet most organizations continue to ignore these truths. Research tells a sobering story.

Find out the real obstacles to making frontline employees drivers of innovation and change and the keys to breaking the impasse to better results.

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