A great conference presenter I know once began a talk on
organizational transformation by asking the audience what mattered most to them
during times of change. Some said looking
after their direct reports, others talked about the success of the initiative, a
few mentioned being able to sleep at night and one harassed-looking executive admitted
his top priority was maintaining EBITDA.
“You’re all lying,” said the presenter.
The audience reacted just the way you would expect. People frowned, sat up, shook their heads as
if they must have misheard.
“You’re all lying,” the presenter repeated. “What matters most to each one of you when
you are going through change is YOU.”
He was right. Especially
at times of uncertainty, our number one priority is ourselves. What’s
in this for me? Unfortunately, time
and again change architects and implementers forget this truth and use
statistics, grand statements, over-detailed presentations and myriad resources
to send one simple message: There Is
Nothing In This For You.
Why should businesses care whether they are stroking their
employees’ self-interest? Because change
lives and dies by how it is implemented, and the ultimate unit of
implementation is the individual. Over a
third (38%) of employees in companies going through change don’t accept the need to change,
and almost half (44%) report not understanding exactly what they are meant to
do differently.
Put simply, they don’t see what is in it for them.
Many change leaders start scratching their heads at this
point. But we told them! they say. We gave them the big picture, we talked
about the impact on individual divisions and functions. What more do these people want?
They want you to notice that they matter. Part of this is about making sure you don’t
use the tone deaf one-track communications I talked about in a previous post. The rest is about reassuring people’s fears
and engaging their hopes – fears and hopes as perceived by them, that is, not
by you.
The fears part is easy to map out. Just about everyone embarking on
organizational change is concerned about job security, about their future
prospects with the firm, about what exactly is going to be asked of them and whether
they are better off seeing how things evolve or starting immediately to look
elsewhere. These concerns are real and
urgent. They demand honest, factual
answers, or facts about when you will be able to provide answers. Crucially, answers should not be presented
ready-wrapped, but arrived at through discussions with your people where you
contribute the big-picture goals and milestones then talk through and agree the
details together. People who feel more
in control feel less fearful, so think guidance and facilitation rather than barking
out orders.
Engaging hopes is trickier, because motivating discretionary
effort is highly dependent on aligning perceived incentives with cultural
expectations, and cultural expectations are very organization-specific,
sometimes even workgroup-specific.
In some companies, people feel good about themselves when
they are coming up with innovative products or processes; in others, high value
is placed on operational efficiency, or customer satisfaction, or contribution
to the team. Some teams take pride in
internal competition; others get motivated by using the latest technology or a
sense of ethical contribution or social prestige. Every organization has its own unique
cultural blueprint, and you will most effectively motivate people to get
enthusiastic about change if you leverage the factors that culture prizes.
How do I figure out my organization’s culture?
If only more change leaders asked that question! Too often, a leader assumes that everyone in
the organization or work unit shares her cultural values. The best way to find out the unspoken
assumptions, values and motivators is to ask.
There are good, quick-and-easy-to-administer surveys based on research
into the aspects of culture that have been proven to motivate high performance. The best ones
look not only at how individuals perceive the
culture in which they work, but also at what they personally would prefer, so
you can get a map not just of what’s generally valued, but of what specific
individuals are most likely to respond to.
While you don’t need everyone in the organization to complete a survey,
you may find it useful to get this detailed personal data on key employees,
especially those who have a high degree of influence over others, so you can
tailor your communications and implementation towards energizing change
champions, deepening the day-to-day connections between your strategic program
and how employees actually go about their work.
But what if the organizational change you are involved in aims at changing the culture?
Good point. Here it’s
a case of looking for continuities. Your
culture change initiative is not going to involve completely reversing the existing
culture – if that is your plan, for goodness’ sake change it immediately as
there is no way it is ever going to work.
Look instead for the aspects of the existing culture that should be
maintained, even strengthened, in the new organization. Use those cultural factors to get people engaged
with the change program and, as with combating fears, make sure you get them to
take an active part in setting goals, in implementing, in assessing progress
and adjusting plans. The more involved
they are in terms that resonate with their values, the more they will feel
there is something in it for them and the more successful your change process
will be.
So, to improve your change outcomes, avoid NIIFM and instead
pull those cultural and emotional levers to get people truly involved in the
change process. But don’t forget that
there are other ways in which it is all too easy to mess up change. Next up: Talking Stats, Not Stories.
