Dear Reader,

Have you ever heard of H-Day? I know about D-Day, but H-Day? Högertrafikomläggningen (Swedish) also known as Dagen H (September 3, 1967) was the day Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the street to driving on the right side. And apparently, they did it in 10 minutes!

In May 1963 the Swedish parliament voted in favor of implementing the switch to align with neighboring countries. At the time, Sweden had about 7.5 million inhabitants. So, how did they orchestrate this behavior change for millions of Swedes?

Traffic lights had to be reversed, road signs changed, intersections redesigned, lines on roads repainted, bus stops moved. Public relations campaigns, logos, and a song contest prepared the population.

Finally the day to make the switch arrived. At 4:50 a.m. on September 3, 1967, all vehicles on the road were instructed to stop. Then they were directed to move carefully from the left side of the road to the right side of the road and wait there. At the stroke of 5 a.m., after a radio countdown, it was announced that Sweden was now driving on the right and traffic was allowed to resume. “A brief, but monumental traffic jam,” wrote Time magazine.

Here is a picture of what that traffic jam looked like.

Obviously, this was a well-prepared and well-orchestrated behavior change affecting millions of Swedes over 50 years ago.

Fast forward to March 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank got great ratings, until it didn’t. The transformation seemingly happened in 24 hours. Upon closer inspection, it was longer in the making than a day, but still, the speed of unraveling was pretty astounding. Silicon Bank became the biggest United States bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis.

This bank failure also prompted behavior changes from millions, but this time it wasn’t planned and it raised some serious havoc. It’s not clear what the knock-on effects will be.

Look at that. Two types of change, planned and coordinated in Sweden 50 years ago and unplanned and uncontrolled now in the U.S.

In change leadership we often talk about change that we initiate, like a new product introduction or the desire to reduce carbon emissions of our fleet, and change that happens to us, like a takeover or a new boss. Either way, as leaders we are asked to respond to change thoughtfully, with measure and timeliness.

Have you ever said that it takes time to change one’s own behavior? It can and it does if there is resistance. But the faster you get on board, the easier it is. Resisting just prolongs the inevitable and elongates the messy transformative portion of the change cycle.

Speaking of going faster, speed also has something to do with time:

Speed = Distance x Time

Maybe we should talk about the elephant in the room that’s harming each and every single one of us. You guessed it, time has a lot to do with it. Time is the one finite resource we all have and we don’t have any control over how much of it we have. For more on this, take a look at my deep dive into time and what matters. It’s part of my Sustainability Blog Post Series.

Be nimble and agile!

Dynamic Dany

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Daniela S. Bryan

Chief Vision Officer | DBCoach

phone: +1-844-322-6224

site: www.lonelyatthetop.com​

email: db@dbcoach.com

schedule: https://dbcoach.appointlet.com​

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P.S. Remember when I wrote about ‘awe’ and made an entire year out of it? Well, I was on to something, apparently. Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, did some research and found that awe is healing. Check out this article. Thanks, Melissa, for pointing out Dacher’s findings to me!

P.P.S. Last but not least, I acknowledged some very inspiring women for International Women’s Day on LinkedIn this month. Interestingly, I made an assumption I want to highlight. My late mother was a very inspiring woman who always encouraged me to be myself and make the world a better place. So, when I saw a mug online stating, “Be the CEO your dad wanted you to marry,” I reflected on my mom and came up with the following statement: “Be the change maker your mom wanted you to become.”

And here is my assumption. Not every mom wants their daughter (or son for that matter) to be a change maker. I was extrapolating from my own experience. How often do we do that? How often do we point it out to others when we witness it? Thanks, Nancy! Well, for those of you inspired by your moms who wanted you to be a change maker, check out this page. If not, simply ignore. Lesson learned.

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