The power of light actions
Action creates clarity, not the other way around. But we often stall because we want to take bold steps, yet it’s impossible to know which ones when we’re seeped in ambiguity.
But the more things are uncertain, the less you should do.
So the unlock is to identify Light Actions (small, safe, easy) to get moving without resistance or hesitancy.
At Collective, we support leaders in honing their ability to lead through uncertainty with creativity, curiosity, and confidence.
For instance, a major brand’s consumer design team wanted to rethink how they were approaching AI. What they’d done so far felt heavy: team members had to commit significant time. Plus, there was resistance to the idea of using AI tools. So we reframed from tool integration to AI curiosity. That yielded a switch from a big commitment to a light ask: an invitation to a month of AI inspiration. Once people are comfortable with the tools, integration is bound to follow.
On a bigger scale, a major brand wanted to move from print to digital by empowering their team to be owners. We invited a select set of teams within the organization to light action leadership sessions, where we covered experimentation, gathering inspiration, and more. These weekly sessions were complemented with permission to run small experiments evolving the brand (think Google's 20% projects), as long as they were structured, intentional, and required minimal outlay.
This went over the course of several months, and as a result, not only did new product ideas come out of this, but employees began acting like owners.