Monthly Archives: April 2016

To Get CHANGE, you really need to ask…

We can learn about others, learn what they value and believe from what they volunteer to tell us, from what others tell us about them and from what we see.  Since what others tell us about someone else always needs to be considered as only an opinion, and what people volunteer is often how they want to be perceived – I favor asking. In order to know an organization, it is very much the same.  There is gossip, there is how they want to be perceived and there is asking.

When it comes to organization change, it is pretty critical to ask.  You need to truly understand the organization, the issues and the needs going forward to successfully implement lasting change.

Often when I work with organizations, leadership is certain that they have the pulse of the organization.  Yet when I interview some of the people about a pending or active change and survey the broader stakeholder group there are always surprises.  Once the leadership team was very surprised to learn most people who had a cube, possessed a sign on their partitions that read, “the only difference between this place and the Titanic is they had a band.”

Most change initiatives fail because of a short list of reasons.  Research often shows misses such as lack of: management commitment, sufficient resources, or a significant change management effort.

A key component of change success is understanding the “who, what, why and where” of the people who are impacted by the change and in order to do that you need to ask.  The change management effort has to start with the expectations of leadership as well as the expectations of those impacted by the change.

When you ask about expectations, concerns and hopes, leadership will start with the goals they agreed to as a group.  When you dig deeper, you can get to what they as individuals are thinking.  Those impacted start talking about what they think you want to hear.  If you can gain some trust and ask questions with a promise of confidentiality on the response, you will open the door.

No matter what the change you want the organization to accomplish, you have to talk to those driving and to those who are impacted. When people have a voice, the change begins to happen during the conversation.

Leadership in Change Management

 

All too often I encounter people at the top who signed the implementation contract or decided on the change and think they have done all that is necessary for the change to happen. They haven’t.  The link between human behavior and organization success is huge.  Our resistance to change requires that much be done to help us move in a different direction and act in a different way.

In the research about “change or die” and people’s response to knowing they will die if they don’t change a bad health habit…9 out of 10 times, people WILL NOT CHANGE.  The odds are 90% AGAINST their changing!   Given those odds against success in a life or death decision why should they change their work process, or their approach to team-work and collaboration, or use the new software just on your say-so?  The reality is… they won’t.

There are many models on the management of change and in them leadership is a critical component of success.  But Leadership isn’t about your title, or even your position; it’s about your willingness to influence, to show by example and to listen to your people.  Joel Ziff, a motivational speaker says, “you are a leader if someone is behind you.”  Leadership is found at many levels in any organization:  some are visible on the organization chart and some very important peer leaders are in the background, providing information and context to people whom you need to engage and lead.

Ultimately, people look for leadership to be demonstrated and gravitate towards that demonstration.  If you want to make a change engage those peer opinion leaders by giving them the right information in an open and transparent way. Begin by talking to the entire organization about the change, articulating what is changing and why.  Do that loudly, often and publicly.  Hold people accountable to meet your clearly stated goals and expectations.  Measure and talk about progress – all of it!  Not just the successes along the way but the miss-steps and failures.

Please know that driving change with leadership alone will not succeed.  But even if you do everything a change model directs in support of change and you don’t provide leadership – the change will merely die.

           “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.”                                                                                                               John Maxwell

Information, Power, Entrepreneurship, and Change

February 10, 2016

In many organizations, information is power.  If I have information you don’t, I have power.  I am needed.  I also can do what I need to do in my department because I have the information “I” need even if the organization as a whole does not.  Power and a “functional area only” focus on information are driven, I believe, by the entrepreneurial spirit of people in the organization.

Not many people come to work with bad intentions.  Successful organizations have been built by the people who were there before and who are there now.  Built by entrepreneurs.   It is in part that entrepreneurial spirit, that belief of, “I know what we need to do” within functional areas or departments; that separates and divides an organization and builds silos.  It is that attitude which starts to drive the passive aggression that is often seen in organizations.  Many of you have seen it.  Leaders sit at the conference table and nod support on a direction or plan and then go do what they want; often in direct conflict to what they agreed.

Achieving any real organizational change in that situation requires some strong focus on being authentic and being accountable.  We all need to remember the organizational shoulders upon which we stand; all of those who came before us.  In addition we are accountable to other people to whom we owe the continued success of the organization; donors, constituents or in business stockholders.  The need is for organizations at some point to look in the mirror and understand that the behavior that got them here won’t let them get to the next level.  Organizational success requires a state of leadership, shared information, rigorous, followed processes and behavior that is cohesive, collaborative and open.  It should never be about “me” or “mine” and should always be about “us” and “ours”.  Getting to that state is a journey of change management.

Difficult Conversations

Mediocrity only happens when we let it.  When an employee doesn’t follow rules and protocols and closes a big sale or brings a big gift into a nonprofit should they get glory?  What about all the rule followers who are doing what you want and will also succeed?  Why should the rule followers bother doing things right?

Management requires having difficult conversations.  It’s a key requirement in your staff’s knowing that you are fair and worthy of their trust.  But many managers find any conflict or giving any criticism too uncomfortable and just ignore the issue.  You shouldn’t ever let that be your choice.

Have the conversation!  But PREPARE for it in advance.  You would never present a PowerPoint without preparing first.  Ask yourself: what are you observing, what impact is it having on results, what impact on the rest of the team, what is your expectation, what help to change will this person need, how will they respond, how will you, what is the timeline to see change?  Then have the conversation!  You lead, don’t allow yourself to be distracted by excuses, and the truth is if this person says, “you need to understand…”…you don’t.  Fairly means that within this person’s skills, her/his job description, the team’s needs, his/her role and your expectations that they need to listen and respond.  Yes, they need a voice, but you need to stick to your plan and end up with an agreement that this behavior will change.

Now of course you need to be human, to manage with your head and your heart and make sure that every day your employees know what they do is important, they are valued and that they count with you.

I think corrective conversations should be held in private unless you are challenged in a meeting and need to stop an unacceptable comment there and then take the conversation off-line for later.  Positive feedback should be both in private and in public.  Let the team know you like to comment positively on their success, but are willing to hold them to task.  A good boss earns the evolving trust of employees when actions match words.

The Manager’s Creed

More than 25 years ago, reporting on my first day to a new job after grad school, I reported to my new boss.  I had been hired by the corporate HQ, and sent to his plant to train.  He and I had a conversation which I wrote down at the time and think I should share again.  I have shared it face to face thousands of times, but this is more effective.  It is a 90 second MBA in developing people.
I call it The Manager’s Creed.

My new boss had never met me and only knew me from my resume.  We shook hands, walked into his office; he lit a cigarette and started talking.

“Here is how I would like us to work together:

  • Anything you do and do well, the whole world is going to know about, because I am going to tell them.
  • Any mistake you make, I am going to have to own, because I didn’t train you correctly.
  • We’ll try to keep those between just us.  You are new here so you are allowed some Rookie mistakes.  After you have been here awhile, don’t make rookie mistakes.  Make great big “boy no one ever thought of that before” mistakes.  I will try to help you over those, and protect you.  If the stuff that comes at us a result of a big mistake knocks me over and then you…we’ll work it out, together.
  • When you do something for me, an analysis, a presentation, whatever, I will always give you credit. I will never, use your work as my own.
  • I try to treat everyone fairly, don’t confuse that with equally.
  • The more I learn about you the more I know how you think. When I understand how you think and solve problems, I’ll know how to trust you, because I’ll know how you’ll react to a situation.  I’ll know how big a canvass I can trust you to paint.
  • If you are in a meeting and I’m not, be careful of what you say. People will assume that because they KNOW I trust you that you are speaking for me and we may just have to actually do what you said.
  • Sometimes I may ask you, sometimes I may tell you. It’s never personal.  It just is.
  • If you have an issue or problem, please ask for help. Don’t drown quietly.
  • My job is to teach you all I know, and learn from you anything you want to teach me. If I have a chance to be promoted, I want to have developed 2-3 people on the bench, who can do my job.  If you get promoted, I want you prepared to do a really good job. If someday, I have to work for you, I want you to know enough so that I have a really good boss.
  • Do you have any questions?”

I didn’t have any questions.  And later that year when I made a mistake that shut down a production line and two packing lines for more than half a day, I learned what “fairly, don’t confuse that with equally”, really meant.  (Some future post, perhaps.)       

If it’s a change…what can you do?

Change! It’s hard. We all experience it, and it is seldom easy but it can be simple.

The decision before you is, “in this change am I a victim or a survivor?”  It is just a decision and if you want to survive, you may as well THRIVE.

Ask yourself, What can I do to make this good for me? What can I do to get involved? How can I help? How can I learn more? With whom do I need to speak?… not easy BUT simple.  Then get moving!

When Someone Disagrees with You, Listen HARDER!

Sometimes people disagree with my assessment of a situation, my suggested response to an occurrence, or my view on a situation.  What can I do?  I ask some questions and then listen really hard!  I listen to their words, their tone and watch their body language.  You can’t change an emotional decision with logic, but you need to understand the journey of their thoughts.  They may know something you don’t, have a parallel issue, are afraid of something…you need to try to understand.

  • Ask questions like:
    • Help me understand why you believe that?
    • Do you have some information that could help me better understand your view?
    • Do you have any questions of me, about why I think this?
    • Is there something I don’t know about that is causing you concern?
    • Assume for a moment that my alternative and your alternative are not the only ones, what else might we consider?

Be open in your posture, listen actively with visible interest and try to understand how they arrived at this view.  Sometimes when you understand HOW they got to this view/decision you can offer a fork in the road for them to take.

  • Keep your response short and simple. Fewer words is best.
  • Show some empathy for them in your words.
  • Try to find something in your view or answer that gives them something. How do they benefit?

You should go in knowing that sometimes you can’t change a human mind.  Like a Hail Mary pass in the closing seconds, it’s always worth a try!