"Different kinds of stories can achieve different goals. To choose the kind of story to tell in the workplace, I start with the outcome I'm trying to achieve."
Friska Wirya is behind change management consultancy Fresh by Friska that helps organizations, and the individuals within them, more readily accept and thrive through change.
Friska brings digital transformation to life by accelerating adoption and building digital proficiency at scale, having worked for some of the biggest names in mining, engineering, and technology. A change and transformation expert for nearly a decade, she’s led programs influencing up to 23,000 people across 6 of the seven continents. She headed up change at the largest gold miner on the ASX, leading its digital transformation changes to achieve significant financial and innovation outcomes, winning the 2018 METS Ignited Collaboration Award and several other innovation rankings. Prior to this, Friska was the Global Change Lead for multi-million dollar projects at engineering giant Worley, and built the change management practice at Fujitsu.
Her expertise has been sought after at Women in Leadership Asia, Future of Mining Sydney, Female Influencers in Tech, The Tech Leadership Panel, Women in Mining & Energy Indonesia, Minerals Week Canberra, Mining Leaders Forum Perth, Salesforce, Microsoft, Women in Leadership Melbourne, Women in Construction & Engineering Australia and Women in Leadership Singapore. Friska is also a featured contributor to The Future Shapers and Thrive Global.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Friska Wirya: I help large organizations make – and sustain – changes. Changes to their operating model, their organizational culture, their structure, their strategy. Changes of all shapes and sizes.
I’ve been in this industry for nearly a decade, making the shift from traditional management consulting to niche down on change management.
As we’ve seen in the past 2 years – change came in thick and fast. Changes to how we worked, how we lived, how we parented. I manage this process for clients all over the world.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curveballs into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple of years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Friska Wirya: Adaptability is key, seeing challenges as opportunities and being embracing reinvention. Small business examples are Australia’s best fine dining restaurant (Attica in Melbourne) turning itself into a lasagna delivery service. Make up artists becoming YouTube sensations. Bookshops offering delivery on bicycles. When NSW was in heavy lockdown and the only reprieve we had was to picnic, every café, and restaurant worth their mettle started offering picnic hampers.
It’s no longer a case of the big beating the small. But the fast beating the slow. Lean into change.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Friska Wirya: The businesses and brands that did well during the pandemic are those that kept connected to their customers. Those that focused on connecting, not selling.
I just returned from Florence, Rome, and Milan – cities renowned for being in the beating heart of luxury.
Shops may have been closed. But closed shutters didn’t mean closed books. Brands such as Louis Vuitton actually sold MORE during the lockdown. Sales staff kept close to their customers using WhatsApp, keeping them abreast of new products and styles. It was mind-boggling to hear.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Friska Wirya: It brought change front and center to most people’s minds. I’ve been fully remote for 2 years, I had to upskill myself with new tools to enable me to do what I do via people’s laptops, not board rooms. When news of the virus first broke out, it seemed everyone hit the pause button.
No one was spending money on consultants. I diversified into training, coaching, and speaking, these offerings have become a permanent fixture.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Friska Wirya: I want to keep improving my content marketing game. My investment in this last year has resulted in several speaking engagements and workshops.
The advice I wish I listened to when the pandemic started was ‘don’t panic’.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Friska Wirya: Virtual meetings will plateau – each organization will come to realize which meetings are best in person, are best online, or best as a hybrid.
Online shopping – if we manage to master using augmented reality so we can see how items such as clothing and accessories look on ourselves, traditional bricks and mortar shops will die even faster.
Remote work is not going anywhere. Businesses need to stop demanding people return to the office and instead assess if there are real productivity and engagement gains to be had.
I just did a Zoom medical consultation the other day! Great for initial consultations and saves multiple trips, especially if the clinic is in a different city or country.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Friska Wirya: 6
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Friska Wirya: Different kinds of stories can achieve different goals. To choose the kind of story to tell in the workplace, I start with the outcome I’m trying to achieve.
When I want to communicate a new idea, get buy-in to a new vision or direction I use social proof stories. Stories of those who have gone before with similar new ideas and succeeded. When presenting to a resistant or closed-minded audience, I use stories that bring them down from a cynical place. I recall Christopher Reeve’s post shortly after the accident, ‘I can’t change my body but I can change my mind’.
When I’m wanting to improve morale and motivate the audience, I use inspiring stories containing an element of overcoming a large obstacle, against all odds. Real-life is full of these stories. I use ones that are relevant and similar to what the audience is going through.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Friska Wirya: Businesses need to discern what to change and what to stick to. Then INVEST in making sure these are sustained. There is no need for yet another new tool, another new strategy… if we optimized what we already have at our disposal the results would be incredible.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Friska Wirya: It would be reading body language in online environments. It’s incredibly taxing on the brain, we are constantly scanning people’s faces for signals of their true emotional state.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job in 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Friska Wirya: This is a chicken and egg scenario. I don’t think leaders are in denial.
I think many are stuck in golden handcuffs, not wanting to ruffle any feathers. Making changes, any change, has a certain degree of risk. Unfortunately in my experience, execs didn’t want to put their big bonuses at threat, hence it was easier for them to keep the status quo.
A greater systemic, mindset shift needs to happen. A reshaking of board membership and leadership composition to inject fresh thinking and change.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Friska Wirya: The ability to motivate and corral an entire organization behind a vision. If you think one person can’t make a difference, recall people like Churchill, Obama, JFK, Oprah, Greta Thunberg and how they were able to inspire millions to create a movement.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Friska Wirya: Doing well, feeling well. When your emotional, mental and physical health is good, it flows into your professional life. Success to me is firing on all cylinders.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Friska Wirya for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Friska Wirya or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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