Harajuku Girls and Effective Change Management

What's the connection between Harajuku girls and change management?

What Harajuku Girls Can Teach Us About Effective Change Management

The first time I visited Tokyo was back in 2009, and one of the places I remember most clearly was Harajuku. I saw people dressed in a way that felt like they had come from another planet.

They were mainly girls in outfits that mixed punk, anime, dolls, neon, lace, platforms, school uniforms and cartoon characters. I was probably standing there in jeans and a T-shirt, looking like I had accidentally wandered into the future. Which, to be fair, is also how some Perth people look at me when I start talking about putting employees at the centre of workplace transformation projects.

What struck me was how normal it seemed to them. To me, it was extreme. To them, it was just another Tuesday dressed like a cyborg nursery rhyme character.

You don't go full Harajuku overnight

That always stayed with me, because they can't be getting dressed like that on a whim.

You don’t wake up one morning in standard clothes and suddenly decide to go full Harajuku. You test things. A pair of shoes. A bit of makeup. A different hairstyle. You get used to seeing yourself differently. Slowly, what once felt extreme becomes your normal.

That is much closer to how cultural change should work in organisations.

The big switch problem

Too often, organisations treat change like a big switch that gets flicked on go-live day. In workplace projects that can see one week people have an assigned desk, a pedestal full of stuff, their favourite spot, their routine, their certainty. The next week they are told they’re desk sharing and now need to book a desk, use a locker, sit somewhere different, trust a system they barely understand, and immediately adapt to it.

Then everyone acts surprised when people are resistant to change.

To many employees, adopting desk sharing can feel like leaving work on Friday dressed as you always do, then coming in on Monday and being told you now have to dress like a cyber punk doll.

That is not transformation. That is culture shock.

Step by step, before go-live

The better way is to identify all the things that need to change, then work through them iteratively before go-live day. Not all at once. Not as a surprise. Step by step.

In practice that means introducing the desk booking app while people are still at their old desks, running the clear desk conversation weeks out, walking teams through the new floor before they move, and having the etiquette debates early. This is pure investment in time and energy with all the key stakeholder groups, the change champions, the middle management and the leadership. When the workplace change management is done right you see it pay back dividends at the end.

By the time go-live arrives, the change should therefore already feel very familiar. People should not still be trying to understand the concept, the rules, the technology, the behaviours, the etiquette and the practical details all at the same time.

Pro-Tip: On go-live day, put on a big free welcome breakfast. Let employees focus on settling into the new space, finding their team, working out where the coffee is, and getting a bacon and egg sandwich.

Trust me, it’s very hard to complain with a bacon and egg sandwich in your mouth!

The new normal takes months, not a morning

By then, you have given teams time to work through what the change means for their habits, rituals and anxieties. You have let the new normal develop over months (3 minimum, ideally 6), rather than forcing everyone to absorb it in one dramatic reveal.

The best change does not happen in one big bang.

It happens incrementally, step by step.

FAQ section

What makes it effective change management?

Effective change management introduces workplace change in planned steps over weeks or months rather than in one big reveal at go-live. Each step gives people time to adjust before the next one arrives, so by go-live day the new way of working already feels partly familiar.

Why do big bang workplace changes fail?

Because people are asked to absorb everything at once. New concept, new rules, new technology, new behaviours and new etiquette all land on the same day, and the result is culture shock rather than adoption. Resistance is the predictable outcome, not a surprise.

When should change management start on a workplace project?

Well before go-live. On a desk sharing or activity based working project the change program should start months out (3 minimum, ideally 6), working through habits, rituals and anxieties team by team, so go-live day is about settling in rather than starting from scratch.