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What is change, and how I happened to be endeavouring for it
What is change, and how I happened to be endeavouring for it
My name is Laura Viviani, and I work in the biomedical sector fostering change at the global level, bringing together stakeholders from the whole world to overcome deeply held convictions and embrace innovative methods for the production and testing of life saving medicines.
I believe in people, and in their ability to transform themselves, and champion new causes or perspectives if given the appropriate support, and I have experienced that no change can happen without winning the hearts and minds of others until they are convinced change will be for the better, and not just for themselves.
I learned that humans need – and take – time to change.
The shift of deeply ingrained opinions and convictions happens through often submerged mental processes encompassing a wide gamut of needs, expectations and preconceptions. And these processes are constantly influenced by social and technical considerations, and personal moral compasses.
The famously touted “right conditions for change” are certainly necessary, but rarely sufficient for change to happen.
Change needs be promoted, appropriately proposed, its uptake carefully influenced, and the reactions to it managed to ensure the benefits become obvious, and the (often subjectively perceived) criticalities assuaged and eventually dismissed.
When change is sought at a global level, the difficulty is multiplied: cultural, social and economical and legislative differences require planning and adaptability, the capability to listen, interpret, and rework messages and strategies out of the comfort zone.
This is what I am currently trying to accomplish at the best of my abilities: trying to secure change at the global level on how biomedical research operates and how biologicals products are produced and tested based on new innovative and effective approaches.
It is a work of relation-building as much as it is a promotion of technical transfer. A constant fostering of the unimpeded flow of opinions and competences as much as a constant engagement of new actors that can significantly contribute to the projects, and become themselves champions for parts of it.
It is like looking for players who have been used for decades to play different tunes in different styles and together with them set up the largest orchestra in the world and have it rehearse a single tune – that of embracing transformation for the benefit of society – but with each representative also soloing according to his/her own traditions, needs and expectations.
Computers – and especially Ais – require only appropriate programming ingrain change. As human beings, we need proper support and engagement, plus the time to transition to new ideas and to embed them enough that our perspective leverages them fruitfully rather than fight against them.
This is what I do: I strive to help people and stakeholders take part in change to reap its benefits as pillars of a global endeavour of great significance for our collective health and wellbeing.
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