So as you think about all the stuff that you've learned thus far in this great learning experience, I want you to think about what is the ultimate role that you've gotta play? In this learning experience, we've given you tools like empathy, given you frameworks for understanding yourself as a transformative leader. Given you examples of where this work really matters, the lenses, data collection, qualitative, quantitative. The next part of the journey is about being a change agent. And being a change agent requires, well, in my view, three things. As I reflect back on the most effective change makers that I have seen or the change that I have been able to enable in the range of organizations that I've worked with. The first thing that change agent has to be is knowledgeable, right? So we hope that through this course and the modules and the sessions and the videos and the quizzes and the work, all of which we hope you've been doing, [LAUGH] you are picking up skill. You're learning new tools, you've got frameworks, you've got ideas, you've got examples, you've got case studies. Knowledgeable does not necessarily have to be expert. And I want to say this to you, one of the most miserable kinds of change agents I have seen are the ones who try to come across as being the smartest people in the room. I advise you strongly never to aspire to be that person. Because what they end up doing is they end up being an excuse for people not to latch on to change. Being knowledgeable means knowing your content. But it also means knowing your people, knowing your organizational culture, understanding what may in fact enable or hinder your ability to connect with folks. So to me, being knowledgeable is about having both the technical expertise and having knowledge of the process side, the culture side. Secondly, effective and impactful change agents are authentic. Now, there's a lot of buzz about this thing called authenticity. And you might think authenticity just means you come to work in your pajamas or whatever you wear to sleep. No, that's not what I mean by authenticity, that's not what I'm advocating for. Authenticity is actually about being true to your values, being true to your aspirations, about not trying to impress people with an alter ego that is not you. Authenticity is your ability to really appreciate the nuances of a situation and to be transparent about them with people. Authenticity is your ability to recognize the fear anxiety that you may be feeling as you embark on transformative change. Authenticity is recognizing that you don't have the answers, I don't have all the answers all the time, but that you can actually create a process by means of which you can get there collectively. Authenticity, lastly, is about giving ourselves permission, back to psychological safety, to fail and then to feel better. I want to actually talk a bit about the connection between authenticity and failure. Professor Amy Edmondson at the Harvard Business School speaks about the fact that not all kinds of failure has been created equal. There's some failure that is not to be celebrated. That is failure to adhere to clearly laid out expectations and ground rules. But the kind of failure that is to be celebrated is a failure that comes from trying out something new, failure that is a natural byproduct of innovation. So being authentic is also about allowing yourself permission to fail and to try again. Lastly, effective and impactful change agents are adaptable. They're adaptable by taking in new insight, new feedback, and reading the room. Understanding what people are sharing with you as a process has been ongoing allows you to reconfigure and perhaps even reset a little bit some of your expectations and your ways of doing things. The way that you build alliances, the way that you call attention, the way that you actually give people permission to try some new things. And this adaptability, again, believe it or not, is more evidence of our authenticity. So how do we connect being knowledgeable with being authentic and being adaptable? Well, it begins by asking what experiences are you bringing into the range of organizational contexts, stakeholder contexts, interpersonal contexts. And even deeply personal context of how you see yourself and starting from there. I wish you not just luck but I wish you impact as you embrace the role of change agent. And make this part of how you make gender analytics a stronger and a central part of a leadership journey in transformation.
