This was part of an article on CallCentreHelper.com
When we think about agility in contact centres, it’s natural for us to begin with processes, policies and efficiency approaches. After all, agility is the ability to move quickly and easily; to adapt to change.
Yet most teams don’t struggle to adapt because they lack capability or clarity around processes. They struggle because adaptation carries social risk.
Agility asks people to experiment, to revise opinions in public, and to admit what they don’t yet know. For advisers, whose credibility has traditionally been built on expertise and confidence, this can feel threatening. As a result, resistance to change is often less about technology and more about identity.
One way to understand this hesitation is through David Rock’s SCARF model[1], which highlights how social threats are processed in the brain as strongly as physical ones[2].
Agile behaviours often trigger threats to Status (appearing less competent) and Certainty (moving without clear answers). In contact centres, where performance is visible and metrics are closely tracked, these threats are amplified. What looks like resistance is often a self-protective response to perceived social loss. Advisers may understand what is required, but hesitate because the environment quietly penalises missteps, questions, or visible learning.
In these conditions, agility can become performative. This is where leadership matters most. Agile teams are not created through encouragement alone, but through the social conditions leaders establish.
When leaders model curiosity over certainty, reward questions as much as outcomes, and treat early failures as data rather than deficits, they make adaptation psychologically safe. In practice, this means deliberately designing interactions where learning is visible but safe.
These interactions should celebrate curiosity and normalise adjustment as part of the work itself. Leaders who do so transform social risk into collective confidence, allowing true agility to flourish.
References:
- [1] Rock, D. (2008). SCARF: A brain based model for collaborating with and influencing others. NeuroLeadership Journal, 1(1), 1–9.
- [2] Lieberman, M. D., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2009). Social cognition and the brain: A system for understanding others. In K. Ochsner & S. Kosslyn (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Cognitive Neuroscience (pp. 136–157). Oxford University Press.
