A Special Holiday Encounter – reprise

here comes santaIn Charleston, SC, just before Christmas a couple of years ago, I was wearing a Christmas tie with a drawing of Santa on the front from the charity organization “Save the Children”. The back of the tie read “’Hear Comes Santa’, Painted by Laura, Age 9.”

After the last day of work before leaving for Christmas vacation, the night was already black and cold at 6 P.M. On the way home I needed gas and stopped at a gas station I had never used. After I filled up the tank I went inside to get a bottle of water. As I entered the door of the crowded mini-mart a man did a double-take on the tie I was wearing, approached me and said, “Excuse me, sir, does your tie say on the back that it was done by a child?” I agreed it did, and as I said, “It was done by…,” he interrupted and said “Laura” at the same time I did.

His face brightened and he went on, “My daughter did that drawing years ago. She said, ‘Daddy, I entered a contest, I’m going to win a $500 Savings Bond.’ I told her it was probably a scam, but it wasn’t. She won the savings bond from Save the Children! She’s 23 now and lives in Long Island. Wow that is so cool.”

“We chatted a moment about the weather and then he asked, “May I use my phone and take a picture of that tie?”. I quickly obliged and posed for the picture, but it seemed hollow and somehow, just not enough. I followed him out to his car with the intention of giving him the tie. As I passed the tie through the window of his SUV, he at first refused. I explained to him that I never bought gas at that station, and that if I hadn’t wanted a bottle of water I never would have gone into the store; that somehow this was all meant to happen.

He held up the tie, cracked a smile as he examined it and said, “My daughter and I haven’t seen each other in a long time…she’s coming here next week for Christmas, I can wear this to the airport to meet her.” Then he started to cry.

We shook hands and I left; …damp eyed, without a tie, and with a wonderful feeling of how closely connected we all can be, even if it is just at Christmas.

Your Project…a Winner or a Loser?

 

Crown approval for POST

In sports and contests there are winners and losers.  It is entirely objective.  In organizations, the view of major projects and programs is mostly subjective.  Certainly, there are the on-time, in-budget measures; but, when it comes to how the organization “feels” about it…there is only some collective view of success that arises over time, long after the hard work is done.

Major efforts normally have a great deal of planning prior to beginning.  But as the project moves forward, things happen.  It is the response, the reaction that is the true determinant of ultimate success.   Sam Posey, said “planning is conscious, reaction is instinctive”.

It is important in driving change to have a cadre of people, up, down and across an organization who know what’s going on, trained in the tools of managing change, and who will have the “right” instinctive reaction.

Our instincts are both in our DNA and learned.  Change is not in our DNA, so we must teach people enough so that their reaction to resistance, to apathy and to passive aggression are new instincts.  New instincts upon which the project and leadership can rely.

Organizations typically work on a plan to support a change, an implementation or a major program.  What is often missed is the “change infrastructure”.  Providing the project and its supporters the tools, skills and guidance to react in ways that engage, inform, prepare and yeas, comfort the stakeholders who are being asked (told) to change.

Prepare your project for success.  There are legions of models:  McKinsey’s 7 S’s, Kotter’s 8, Lewin’s, Bridge’s and Prosci’s ADKAR.   All share some key points:  Leadership, Involvement and communications.

If you prepare the change teams and provide them support, you have a better chance of winning!

Change Won’t Rise If You Don’t

 

 

Change Won’t Rise If You Don’t

Sunrise

The sun does not rise or set, we do.  In dealing with change, leadership needs to rise to the occasion if they expect to succeed at the change.   All too often the team at the executive table decides on the change and tells managers to make it happen.  There is much missing in that approach.  What’s missing?

Include these, to fix what’s missing.  

WHY Share WHY.  Leaders may have spent months or longer digesting information and analyzing issues to arrive at the needed “change”.  Further down the organization, those not part of the evolution of that decision, need to understand the context, the need, the reasons for urgency and the destination.

SPECIFICS What is expected?  Not just a “get behind this and make it work”.  What is to be done and what accountabilities exist.  Who is involved, what is the time-line and who is the executive sponsor.  Be specific.  Provide the measures of success on how you will measure this journey and success.

SUPPORT Change is a constant.  Executives need to be guided to understand they must be involved and must support this change as well as on-going operations goals.  You need a coalition of leadership to succeed.  Managers should be given the tools necessary to achieve the change.  That includes training them in the management of change, negotiation, having difficult conversations and providing and receiving feedback.  Just because you have promoted someone, doesn’t mean you have prepared her for success.  Invest in this.

RESOURCES Pick a team.  Project Team members must represent the organization:  HQ and field, key departments, and both potential resistors as well as advocates.  Not just “the usual suspects’, that you always pick to get things done; but, some of the naysayers and key resisters to draw them into the fold rather than have them outside the project, throwing rocks.  Build a communications plan that addresses the concerns of ALL the involved personnel.  Don’t say  what you think they need to know.  Include answers to their fears and concerns that you uncover in interviews, workshops and surveys.

COMMUNICATIONS  As with the three “L’s” of real estate (Location, location, location)  the three “C’s” of change are all, “Communications”.   But newsletters, posters and emails won’t get you there.  In major change efforts, you need to have an open, honest and transparent conversation with employees.  Have “town hall” sessions or time at all-hands meetings for give and take.  Have more time for listening to the audience than time for telling the audience.

SAD I have guided change in organizations where the CEO would not get involved.  That is a tough project weakness to overcome.  You must demonstrate, across the leadership team as a group and as individuals that THIS change is one which you all support.  That support must be visible, vocal and consistent.  No one ever left a trench and entered a battle field, or left the bench and entered the game just because someone said…”ya’ all go out there now and fight.”  They need training, preparation and they need leadership in the fight with them.

This is meant to help you think about some of the bricks you need to put into the foundation of a change effort.    There are, many more things to consider.  But, every journey begins with a single step.  Change won’t rise if you don’t.

Perspective, Culture and Successful Change

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Someone once explained that the issue with trying to gain an understanding about what is really going on around us at work is a matter of perspective. How for instance would a fish describe water or understand water when water is all around? Gaining a true perspective on your organization is hard and if you are making a major change in programs, organization, technology ???….it becomes critical to have the most unbiased perspective you can have, BEFORE you begin the change.

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Albert Einstein.

When you need to make significant change in your organization, you need to think about how to gain some distance, and validate perspective. Changing your perspective is important to gain a true view of the work culture, what risks are related to making this change a success and building a plan for success. In my experience, the confidential survey of all affected employees and face-to-face interviews of a “basket-weave” of employees (top leadership, middle managers and task leaders) can help to gain the needed perspective.

Survey

A multi-dimensional survey covering the organization’s experience with change, previous changes and related training, views on communications, trust, leadership and any concerns relative to the change being planned is necessary. Responses must be confidential. The result needs to be an analysis that delivers an accurate reflection of the organization for leadership.

This isn’t about everyone getting to vote on the change, nor should it be. Leadership has created a direction and this is an effort to determine what communications, and training are necessary. It also, when compared to the interview findings, will help to determine where the risks are across leadership, managers, learning from previous change efforts and the key cultural needs of the organization. Knowing these risks will allow the building of a change strategy, change plan, measures and a change team with accountabilities.

Face-to-face

It’s hard to lie to someone who is sitting in front of you, asking every single interviewed person the same questions, promises confidentiality and asks only that you not share the questions you were asked with others so that the responses of others will be “top of mind” responses. This may require using a third-party person to do the interviews. This will encourage employees to trust that what they say will be held in confidence, that no statement will be attributed to any individual and only aggregate findings will be shared with leadership and ultimately blended with the survey results and shared with the whole organization. Shared with the whole organization? Yes! If you ask questions, you owe a response.

Note

Culture rules! What your organization values, how they work, together and across department lines, how they trust, how much change they have experience (how much of that do they view as successful) how valued do they feel……all of this and more determine your work culture. Your perspective on work culture must be obtained from the people in the organization who are living in the culture. Staff employees can actually see the water. Culture trumps strategy, every day of the week. Make sure you understand your culture BEFORE you make the change.

Ideas are just mental popcorn if you can’t drive the change.

We are all constantly bombarded about what we need to change to make our organizations more successful. Seldom does anyone offer guidance on how to achieve the needed change. Here are some thoughts to consider.
Change is never easy but it can be simple.
Whether you follow Prosci’s “ADKAR”, Kotter’s 8, McKinsey’s “7 S’s” or some amalgam of models in driving change, I believe the keys to lasting, organizational change require consideration of the engagement of: Leadership at the top, middle managers who must execute the changes and the employees impacted by the change.
o Leaders must be gathered together and aligned around the change. I do this through interviews and workshops. This requires some analysis on making a data driven analysis on the reasons driving the urgency of change and presenting the facts and opportunities in a compelling way.
§ Their agreement is hard won because passive aggression is sometimes a refined art at the conference-room table. It is important to discern what is merely tacit approval and what is actual commitment. You need commitment.
§ The vision you lead them to sharing must be concise, drive some urgency across the organization and be memorable. Messaging must be timely, transparent and consistent.
§ Leaders must be educated in change management to clearly understand their roles and the roles of people they choose/assign as: Sponsor, the Steering Committee, the Project Team, the Organization Design Team, the Communications Team and the impacted Staff.
§ Sharing with the Executive team and key senior staff the findings of all interviews and surveys is key in helping them to understand the dimensions of risk and key mitigation steps in the change.
o Middle Managers must understand the “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” of the project.
§ Managers and their direct reports buy in to leaders BEFORE they buy in to the journey and the vision. That is why the leadership alignment, visioning and messaging are important in guiding top leaders to be visible, vocal and consistent in their public support of the project and in leading the change.
§ Managers must be able to “get” the vision, the urgency and their roles in order to manage the change within their individual areas. This requires being open and investing some time with them to listen and to explain. You aren’t going to have them vote on the change. Just understand the change. Urgency and the united coalition of leaders are critical here.
§ I interview a cross-section of managers and share with the larger group of all managers the findings from the leadership sessions, the manager interviews and the e-survey which goes to the audience of impacted stakeholders. This aids their understanding of the key dimensions of the changes needed, the steps to be taken and the support available to them.
§ As with the top leadership team, I train managers on managing change, conflict resolution/pre-negotiation, and having difficult conversations.
o Employees worry about their jobs, the changes in their work life and the work load of doing daily work and supporting a major change.
§ The e-survey in concert with a cross-sectional interview of the people impacted by the change allows an enhanced understanding of the client culture, their experience with change, their belief in management and their concerns. The findings from the analysis of all user interviews, the e-survey and the gleanings from leadership and managers’ sessions define the project risks and lead to the necessary mitigation planning.
§ The Organizational Design team needs to see the issues/concerns found in the stakeholder analysis process and be led to understand the mitigation efforts as well as the importance of their roles, of not rumor-mongering and of having a careful focus on the opportunities of change in structure.
§ As the program/project unfolds and the org. design takes shape training must be developed that focuses on role based, business outcomes. Training is critical to ultimate adoption and leveraging of the new processes.
o Engagement and Communications efforts must be significant in scope and frequency.
§ Every reasonable channel of communication that works within the organization culture must be used in a multi-channel approach.
§ I like to instill some fun in the turmoil of a major change. I believe in big kick-offs, early success celebration, catching and publicizing the “WOW” moments that occur when someone says, “you mean we finally will be able to…” or “you mean we won’t need to…anymore”.
§ Frequent updates, showing the evolving form and early successes of the change should be used. These “road shows” allow group learning in a non-threatening way, long before any training is scheduled.
§ Any transparency possible in sharing organizational changes in structure should be used as soon as: business operations and project timing allow.
§ Timing of training should be shared as far in advance as possible.
Change is never easy but it can be simple.
This is not meant as a project plan or a treatise on change but merely as a way for you to balance the mental popcorn ideas of what you want to change with some of the considerations that can help to achieve your vision.

Time, Priorities and Change

The importance of Change Management is understood by everyone. Just ask them. The actual execution of change management, however, does not get the priority it needs as organizations try to change: processes, programs, technology, leadership, etc.

There is only so much time in the day of leadership and priorities are focused on the goals of the organization. Good. That makes sense. When a major change is undertaken, we talk about change management from the book of change: urgency, unity, communications, leadership, stakeholder engagement and training. As time moves forward we get busy on the daily work and all of those change efforts start to slip. It is important to note they slip at the peril of the organization’s future success.

Much of the research discussed by Prosci, McKinsey, Kotter, Harvard Business Review, Forbes and others (I will let you Google them) on the failure of change details the simple fact that if you don’t have a significant, effective and continuous change effort; your change will not succeed.

Yet, I encounter organizations that talked, but did not walk, change management. The reality is that no matter what change you are implementing if you do not understand the organization’s culture, engage stakeholders and hold leaders and managers accountable you will not achieve the goals of your change and the associated ROI.

Just as in a personal change we must have a plan and must be disciplined in executing the plan. It isn’t easy but it is simple. Just REALLY walk the talk, and stay with it!

Medical Technology, Adoption and Change

The current rate of change in technology is almost too fast to track.  In medicine it is even faster!  When it comes to adopting technology the medical field has always wanted, needed and quickly adopted evolving technology to speed discovery, and to improve speed and outcomes in surgical procedures.   Things like electronic medical records and health records have had much slower adoption in the U.S. than expected.  Initial cost and long implementations are part of the reason for that.  The use of big data and computational medicine in patient care, diagnostics and predictive analysis of populations could change the landscape of medical care.  What will it mean to your organization?

May I suggest that change management will need to be a critical component of success?

Change is hard and in a world of constant change we tend to avoid “one more thing” with which to deal.  Change isn’t about personal capacity; it is about “deciding” to change.  Change management is a means of helping people to make that decision.

There are many models of change management and like economic models, they are all right.  What is important is understanding that no one size fits all.  While urgency, leadership, engagement/involvement and communications run through all or most models; it is understanding the unique culture of an organization that should be the starting point.

How people share information, compete, trust, believe in leaders and what experience have they in dealing with major technology change are important to know.  What are the expectations of leadership and what are the concerns (fears?) of the involved community of future users?

Before you can get people to change you need to understand who they are as a unique work culture; only then can you devise a strategy and plans for engaging, communicating with and getting leadership to actually lead the organization forward.

See “Re-CREATIVE Change” at:    http://gilmansullivan.com/

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!