Unconventional advice to weather the storm
October 28, 2009
Last week I hosted an interesting discussion with a group of strategy management professionals. The topic was open, but it turns out most had the same general theme in mind: how to keep a focus on strategy and change during times of turmoil.
The scenarios were different but the challenge was the same. Whether the organization was suffering from the recession, or undergoing a merger, or experiencing a change in leadership, the common question was: “How do we maintain continuity of strategy and long term focus when our people are focused on short term survival?”
Leadership and change theory would suggest to double-down on the vision at that point. Keep your eye on the future so you can make sure you’re still headed in the right direction. Beat the strategy drum so everyone knows it’s still important.
The advice that bubbled up from the group, however, was different. As change agents and strategy practitioners, they were not in executive leadership positions. From their perspective, the best thing to do was to help the organization focus on the right short-term efforts. If everyone was going to be stuck in the present, then they should stay there too and not fight it.
By maintaining focus on the projects and initiatives that were developed to implement the strategy, the group felt they would better be able to weather the storm. Behind the scenes, they would continue to make sure projects were linked to the long-term strategy.
What is your experience making sure your change initiative survived turmoil? What advice would you give?
My Change Agent Challenge – Part 3: Identity
October 22, 2009
Earlier this week I invited readers to participate in The Change Agent Challenge, to take the opportunity to make a change in yourself to better understand how people change. This post is a continuation of my own observations as I take part in the Challenge.
After all this thinking about flossing, it occurred to me (while flossing) that an important factor in change is identity.
When the change is truly accomplished, a necessary caveat is that the person who has gone through the change has in some way incorporated it into their identity. That is, they see the new attitude, behavior, etc. as who they are and what they do.
In the context of my Challenge to start flossing, I thought, why can’t I just start thinking, “I’m a flosser. I floss.” If someone asks, “Do you floss?” the answer would be “Yes.”
Instead of thinking of all the ways to remember to floss, or motivate myself to floss, I could just think of myself as someone who flosses.
If I continue to think of myself as someone who doesn’t floss, or doesn’t like to floss, or can’t maintain this healthy habit, then this exercise is an uphill battle. But, if I can change my perspective and just give myself the new title, I can eliminate a lot of struggle and resistance.
“If you want to be somebody else, change your mind.” – Sister Hazel
A comment from yesterday’s post made me think that to truly incorporate flossing into my identity that it needs to go further. Martin said “floss for your family,” which reminded me that if I’m a flosser then my kids should be flossers as well. My next step will be to see if 4-year-olds can floss.
Enough about flossing!
I hope you enjoy and learn from taking on your own Change Agent Challenge.
My Change Agent Challenge:
My Change Agent Challenge – Part 2: Integration
October 21, 2009
Earlier this week I invited you to take part in The Change Agent Challenge, a learning experience in which you try to change yourself and see what happens. This post is Part 2 of my own personal Challenge.
In Part 1 of My Change Agent Challenge, I discussed the ways that I increased my motivation to start and continue flossing.
Even though it’s something that I want to do, I still have a hard time remembering to do it. Since flossing is not part of the daily routine, once the autopilot is on, the new step is easily skipped.
Realizing this was happening, I started by paying attention to the autopilot itself. And when I thought about how it worked, it turns out it was counting. That’s right. Each night my brain would do a mental checklist to make sure I had done all the required activities before going to sleep. If I had forgotten to wash my face, for example, there would be a disconnect.
So, to integrate flossing into the routine, I had to consciously add a +1 to the activity count. I wrote the new number on a Post-It and put it on the mirror to try to retrain my brain on the new count.
I still found myself reaching for the toothbrush first when the new step before brushing is now supposed to be flossing. The next step in my analysis was to look at the physical environment. There were two problems.
The first was that the counter was too cluttered so I had to look for the floss each time. That’s an obvious fix. Clear off the counter so only the necessary tools are available.
The second was that the toothbrush holder was far from the rest of the floss and toothpaste. If my first instinct was to reach for the toothbrush, then the floss should be right there so I grab it instead. So, I bought a new toothbrush holder so now my husband and I don’t share one across our long counter. Now my toothbrush is right next to the sink. And the floss is right there next to it.
It takes time to retrain your autopilot, but if you pay attention to what it’s doing, you can find ways to stop and integrate new activities.
My Change Agent Challenge:
My Change Agent Challenge – Part 1: Motivation
October 20, 2009
Yesterday I posted an invitation to The Change Agent Challenge, to try to change something about yourself and take notes. This is the series of posts on my own observations in taking on the Challenge.
“People who smoke cigarettes, they say ‘You don’t know how hard it is to quit smoking.’ Yes I do. It’s as hard as it is to start flossing.” – Mitch Hedberg
After a dentist appointment two weeks ago, I decided that I needed to start flossing. Neither the dentist nor the hygienist gave me a guilt trip about it. They obviously know that doesn’t work, and don’t bother trying.
No, I just know that I need to do it if I’m going to have my own teeth when I’m 80. Plus, it occurred to me that as a change practitioner, I should be able to figure out how to make myself start flossing! And so began the challenge.
Let’s talk motivation.
By the time you have a burning platform with flossing, it’s too late. The effects of not flossing are long-term, or at least not immediate. The risk of getting cavities or gum disease are not enough to have made me floss in the past. In fact, they found a cavity that needed filling at that appointment, and it was nowhere near the part affected by floss. So how is that for mismatched consequences!
The feeling that made me start flossing was a combination of embarrassment and a little paranoia. It was obvious in the cleaning appointment that I hadn’t been flossing, and in the middle of it I thought, “I should have remembered to floss for the last 2 weeks before this appointment so it wouldn’t be so obvious that I don’t floss.” Also, there were 5 days between the cleaning and the filling appointments, and I was sure that if I didn’t floss in between that somehow they would know and would somehow judge me. Really, I was just judging myself. Why can’t I do something that takes just moments and is so simple?
So I had successfully started flossing, but the next dentist appointment isn’t for 6 months. I had to come up with more reasons to continue flossing after the second appointment.
And really, this is it. I decided that I would blog about it in the context of The Change Agent Challenge. And if I was going to do that, I would have to keep flossing. Knowing that I would be making my intention to keep flossing public gave me a reason to continue the effort.
The primary motivator at work here is commitment. When someone makes a commitment to someone else they are more likely to meet that commitment. And so here it is: “I’m going to keep flossing.”
I’m also linking the activity to something that is more interesting to me than the activity itself. By making it a challenge about change, I’ve raised the importance level of flossing in my mind. It’s not just about my teeth any more. It’s about my ability to implement change.
My Change Agent Challenge:
The Change Agent Challenge!
October 19, 2009
Sometimes I think organizational change agents are so focused on figuring out how to facilitate change in others that we forget that our best opportunity to understand how others change is to learn from our own experiences.
With that in mind, I invite you to participate in a challenge that I expect will both increase your learning about change and also result in change itself.
The challenge is this:
- Implement a change in yourself.
- Take notes.
The change you take on might be an attitude, a habit, lifestyle, or anything else. Perhaps you have a New Year’s resolution that you’ve long since broken, or something else you know you need to do but haven’t done.
For me, it’s flossing.
The impetus for this idea was a not-so-perfect dentist appointment two weeks ago. I decided I needed to start flossing and found myself journaling about it as I started thinking about how to best influence my own behavior. It turns out there is a lot to consider about change even when trying to implement a seemingly small change in what might seem like the easiest subject: myself.
For the rest of the week I’ll post what I’ve learned in the last couple of weeks as I try to make a regular habit of flossing.
I hope you’ll take me up on The Change Agent Challenge and share what you learn. Please start by sharing your challenge in the comments below.
If you’re a blogger and will be sharing your own results on your blog, please link back to this post and I’ll be happy to add a link to yours.
Are you up to the Challenge?
My Change Agent Challenge:
Influencer: Required reading for change agents
October 15, 2009
I just finished reading a book that all change agents should have on their shelves: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything
The book further subdivides Motivation (Will it be worth it) and Ability (Can I do it) into three categories – Personal, Social and Structural – that form a framework for how to influence change:
- Personal Motivation: Make the behavior desirable.
- Personal Ability: Provide training to show how to perform the behavior properly.
- Social Motivation: Use peer pressure and existing power structures.
- Social Ability: Enlist the help of others.
- Structural Motivation: Extrinsic rewards and punishment.
- Structural Ability: Alter the physical world to make the behavior easier or inevitable to perform.
The authors feature several stories that run throughout the book and demonstrate how these six sources of influence work individually and in combination to change deep-rooted behaviors. It’s a definite must-read for change agents!
The importance of pre-Meeting meetings
October 6, 2009
I spoke on the phone with someone this morning who has had tremendous success getting leadership buy-in from multiple levels in a large organization. As he shared his story, he reminded me of something that seems like overkill but that contributes to successful change initiatives: having meetings before the meeting.
Having pre-meetings is far different from having post-meetings. Post-meetings happen because not everything that needed to be said came out during the actual meeting, due to fear, mainly. Pre-meetings are held to make sure that what needs to happen in the actual meeting actually happens.
What do I mean by the actual meeting (herein referred to as the Meeting)? The Meeting is where people with crazy schedules (usually in leadership positions) somehow find a way to meet all at the same time. The topic for the Meeting, in whole or in part, is your change initiative.
To make the best use of the team’s time during the Meeting, only do the things in the Meeting that need to be done together as a team. Focus the team on the task at hand, whether it is a discussion about solutions or whether a decision must be made. Everything else should be done beforehand in pre-meetings with individuals or small groups.
Some of the things you can take care of in pre-meetings are:
- Training
- Seeking opinions, to see how each person is leaning
- Answering questions, since some will not ask in front of the rest of the team
- Target key people to speak up during the meeting
- Persuade people who need persuading
Notice that I’m not talking about a pre-meeting e-mail. This is a real sit-down (or phone call if necessary) meeting where you are preparing individuals for the Meeting (and also helping you prepare for the Meeting). If the Meeting and its desired outcome are really important to the success of your change initiative, an e-mail is not going to cut it.
Having pre-meetings may seem like overkill, or even like playing politics. But, if you’ve ever been in a leadership team meeting that has careened out of control or that has become stuck on an irrelevant or minute point, most likely there was not enough preparation of the attendees beforehand.
Take the time to have pre-Meeting meetings so you can focus the Meeting on achieving the desired outcome for your initiative.
Traits and skills of effective change agents
October 1, 2009
Yesterday I received a call from a recruiter who found my site through a search engine and saw that I worked with change agents. She asked if I either had or knew of an assessment to qualify candidates for change agent positions. Her client was specifically looking for a canned proven test. Unfortunately, I had to share that I didn’t know of any (and asking my network has also not netted any existing assessments).
In fact, if implementing change were that scientific and predictable, success would certainly be easier, faster, and occur more often. One of the reasons I offer one-on-one coaching for change agents is that each scenario is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to implementing change.
I do believe there are certain characteristics or skills of change agents that are important, and that I watch for while coaching. If any of these are lacking, I might explore further to see if improvement might pave the way to success.
- Systems thinker. Seeing the relationships between moving parts. If you pull one lever, what cogs are likely to move?
- Relational. Cultivating relationships at multiple levels of an organization.
- Analytical. Using data and measurements to assess progress.
- Influential. Using multiple forms of influence to get people to try new things and adopt different behaviors.
- Resilience. Organizational change is rife with obstacles and resistance. Resilient individuals will keep going.
- Facilitation. Most change projects I know involve some form of team facilitation.
- Difficult conversations. For example giving feedback to executives.
- Communication. Beyond conversations, speaking and writing are also important for change agents.
- Energy. Drive. Conviction that the change must happen.
- Observant. Having a knack for seeing opportunities for improvement and discrepancies that are hurting the initiative.
What else would you add to this list? Any that you agree or disagree with?
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