Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in organizational development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Rochelle Roos, Co-Founder of We Do Change, located in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
WE DO CHANGE is an avid catalyst for change working alongside organisations, teams and individuals to combat change fatigue by incrementally impacting positive change and improving work lives for the better. The company was founded by a team of highly certified and recognised experts who bring together a powerful combination of skills, and decades of experience in system design for value flow, organisational agility and process facilitation, coaching and training, as well as strategy and communications. WE DO CHANGE focuses on the customer and their organisational needs and takes a pragmatic approach to agile coaching and training; meeting the customer and their teams where they’re at to
become a dependable partner in their improvement journey.
Tell us about yourself
I want to be involved in creating my own voice and identity without restrictions, and have the opportunity to do what I am passionate about. I strive to work with organisations to explore and take their ideas to realisation. I am passionate about making the impossible possible in the context of the 21st century. I strongly believe that people matter, relationships matter and we need to create a work environment that fosters this. I am motivated by working with passionate people who inspire me and stretch my thinking; where we can imagine a world where we truly make a difference in people’s everyday lives by challenging our own mental models and inspiring others to join us on this journey.
What motivates me each day:
- To enable my clients to have clear direction, focus and achieve quantifiable success in all areas of the business.
- For organisations and individuals that I work with to take ownership of their role, have job satisfaction and happiness, to prosper and be profitable while growing, learning and developing into the people and organisations they would like to be.
- Coaching people to find their own power and to empower others so that we can transform our society and our world.
- Coaching to help others find new ways to achieve their professional goals and to empower others to push the boundaries and thinking models around them.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My ability to relate to the problems that people are facing without judgement and collectively finding a way to navigate it. Above all else I see myself as a sense maker partner rather than a coach. I am able to pivot and respond to what the group, individual or organisation needs quickly.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
As a business owner I find myself needing to wear multiple hats and am often caught up in busyness; juggling multiple things at the same time. One of the pivotal points for me was the realisation that I cannot go on this journey alone. One of my favourite quotes is from Simon Sinek who said: “ To go fast go alone, to go far go together”. Another challenge is creating meaningful connections in a “remote space”. I’m seeing a pattern where more and more people are less present during meetings; not only that I’m noticing it in others but myself too. It is too easy to be distracted and disengage from a meeting; to take yourself out of the “online moment” and do other work at the cost of losing focus on what’s important now. This leads to less genuine interactions and connections, and increases the number of opportunities for people to talk past each other. This ultimately requires more and more synchronisation sessions, creating the need to be stuck in more meetings! This puts further strain on our available time to be productive; forcing us to do other work in those meetings just to keep up. This cycle leads to overburdening and unnecessary multitasking which further reinforces the loop. As a business owner it’s important to remind oneself to lead by example on what is acceptable to be more effective in our day to day. The quality of our interactions has a direct impact on the quality of the outcomes of any group.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Creating true safety in work spaces when dealing with difficult conversations - in a remote or hybrid world - can be very difficult and needs to be prioritised. I strongly believe that people matter, relationships matter and we need to create a work environment that fosters this.
- Change is all around us and still not always understood (or the impact of change on people). For me a big challenge is to create a shared understanding of what and why we want to change rather than just jumping into action and causing more harm than good; even though our intentions might have been good from the start.
- Lead by example!
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.wedochange.io/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeDoChange/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wedochange_wdc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeDoChange_WDC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rochelle-roos-ab0921167/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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