Three Reasons Colleagues Won’t Hesitate to Join Your Cause
August 19, 2010
Many people who implement change wish that colleagues would just immediately go along with the program without much resistance. It would be nice and easy if you could just announce the change and have people automatically get on board and say, “Just tell me what I need to do!”
To think that everyone in the organization would instantly participate without hesitation is only a dream, of course. If change were that easy, they wouldn’t need you to lead it! Plus, the change and its outcomes are made better by understanding and working with the resistance that comes up. However, it does help to have people on your side from the start, who don’t need much convincing to help you out.
Most likely, there are reflexive followers in your organization, people who only need to hear about your project and they want to know how they can help. The following are three reasons people impulsively participate in change:
1. They connect with the change.
Occasionally, your change initiative will trigger someone’s curiosity or passion. The minute you say you are working on a [sustainability, innovation, leadership, Lean, you-name-it] initiative, they want to be involved. The topic is part of their expertise, or perhaps they would like it to be. They know the problem you are trying to solve, and they want to be part of the solution.
2. They have nothing better to do.
Have you ever gone into somebody’s workspace and they seem relieved that you interrupted? If you asked them to do anything at that moment besides what they were working on, they probably would. Some employees stuck in the daily grind are looking for something more meaningful, interesting or just different to be involved in. The opportunity to use their skills (or learn new ones) to help make a difference in the organization may be just what they have been waiting for to get them out of their rut. Extend an invitation, and they will likely show up.
3. They believe in you.
Some of your colleagues will get involved simply because it’s you. If you were not involved, they may not have considered it. There may be a variety of sources of this adulation. Some may view it as an opportunity to learn from you. Some see that you are headed toward great things and want to follow in your footsteps. Others may just know that if you are involved, it must be a good idea. Your friends will naturally want to work with you on a project that you are passionate about.
You may think that in order to have that kind of magnetism, you must be charismatic. When you are passionate about your project, your charisma appears. Far more important traits, however, are integrity and respect. If colleagues believe you are trustworthy and that your intentions are noble, they will honor you with their time and attention.
Locate people in your organization who connect with what you are doing, who crave something new, or who are your personal fans, and you will have found instant followers for your change initiative.
3 Traps that Keep Change Agents from Getting the Support They Need
May 13, 2010
It is common knowledge that in order for your change initiative to grow beyond your own span of influence you need leadership buy-in. The truth is you need much more than approval; as a change agent you need leaders in your organization to take action that supports your initiative.
The trouble is, leaders often don’t do what is needed to implement change, even if they agree it should happen. You may think, If only they would (fill in the blank), you would be able to make some real progress.
This lack of proper leadership support is the top challenge for most change agents. It frequently stays that way because change agents get stuck by the following traps.
1. “It’s not my place.”
Allison was a supervisor who had been given a special assignment to implement the recommendations that resulted from an employee survey. The biggest roadblock to improvement, she decided, was her boss’s boss, the very person who had commissioned the survey. Allison’s boss agreed but would not do anything about it. “What can I do?” Allison asked, “It’s not my place to address the issues with my boss’s boss.”
The organizational hierarchy can seem like an insurmountable hurdle over which to affect change. When the person whose support you need is outside of one degree of authority, it can seem like political suicide to attempt to do something about it. From this position of helplessness, it is easy to get stuck hoping he will figure it out on his own.
2. “That’s just the way they are.”
Dan was a senior manager who worked directly for the CEO. Dan’s key initiative to improve the company was to develop and solidify accountability to procedures. The CEO, while supporting the initiative verbally, did not want to abide by procedures himself. It was the CEO who had embodied the previously lackadaisical culture. “I can’t do anything about it. That’s just the way he is,” Dan lamented.
We often assume that the behaviors of others reflect an inner character trait. This assumption is so common that psychologists call it the fundamental attribution error. When you consider that someone will not support you because it is part of his DNA, of course you would automatically chalk it up as a lost cause. You get trapped knowing it is impossible to change someone else.
3. “He just doesn’t like me.”
John was a project manager who needed key data from the manager of another department. However, John’s phone calls and e-mails requesting the information were repeatedly ignored. John asked his boss to request the same information, and it was immediately handed over. “Maybe she just doesn’t like me,” was John’s reasoning.
This trap is the mirror image of the fundamental attribution error. Instead of thinking the lack of support is caused by her character, you think the lack of support is your own fault. Whenever you interpret her behavior as a personal slight – she doesn’t respect you, she doesn’t like you, she doesn’t trust you – it traps you with self-doubt. Insecurity is a lousy place from which to exert influence as a change agent.
Allison, Dan and John are composites of real change agents who were stuck. But none of their traps were inherently real. The traps were assumptions they made about the leaders and the organization.
The first step in getting out of a trap is to recognize that you may be in one. Separate the facts from your assumptions about them. From there, you can select a new point of view and step out of the trap, so you can find new ways to get the support you need to implement change.
You can get the support you need to make a difference!
Join me for The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders webinar series on May 20 & 27. I’ll be sharing practical ways to get unstuck from these common traps.
The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders
So They Help You Implement Change
Dates: Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Cost: $149 (The first 5 tickets are only $99!)
Maximum attendees: 20
New Webinar Series: The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders
April 23, 2010
It is common knowledge that in order for your change initiative to grow beyond your own span of influence you need leadership buy-in. The truth is you need much more than buy-in; as a change agent you need leaders in your organization to take action that supports your initiative.
The trouble is, leaders often don’t do what is needed to implement change, even if they agree it should happen. This lack of proper leadership support is the top challenge for most change agents.
Introducing a 2-part online course that will help you get the leadership support you need for successful change:
The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders
So They Help You Implement Change
Dates: Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Cost: $149 ($99 for the first 5 people who register!)
Maximum attendees: 20
Course Description
During this 2-part online training session, you will learn:
- Whose support you really need, and who you ignore at your own risk
- What leaders need from you most as a change agent
- How to tell which of five levels of support you have, and which you need
- Six reasons why leaders don’t do what you need them to do, even if they want change to happen
- What you can personally do to gain the support you need to successfully implement change
All attendees will receive:
- Two 90-minute interactive webinar sessions
- Access to the webinar video recordings
- Influence Factors: A checklist of 99 strategies to help people change
- Two article reprints: “Tips for Getting Your Project Approved” and “How to Deal With a Clueless Boss”
- BONUS: You will receive the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, a $34.95 value, when you register to attend.
Who Should Attend
Mid- to senior-level managers and individual contributors who are responsible for implementing change in their organizations won’t want to miss this series. Specifically, this webinar series will help people who need to influence change without having direct authority over people going through the change. Examples of roles that typically require the support of leadership to get things done include (but are not limited to): IT, engineering, human resources, strategic planning, internal communications, process improvement, and project management.
Without real leadership support, your change initiative will have diminished impact. Register today to learn practical ways to help leaders help you implement change.
Tickets are regularly priced at $149. The first 5 people who register will pay only $99!
Ten Essential Tools for Change Agents
February 2, 2010
Change agents are individuals within organizations who influence change without having direct authority over people who are going through the change. The following are ten things that effective change agents use to influence change in their organizations. Read more
Change agents are leaders
January 21, 2010
Yesterday I talked about how leaders are not change agents, pointing out a difference in roles between individuals who have authority within a change initiative, and those who don’t.
While people who are in leadership positions are not the same as the people who are change agents, change agents themselves must demonstrate leadership qualities to be effective. In that sense, change agents are leaders.
Because trust is essential for change agents, the same standards of integrity and credibility apply.
To gain buy-in, change agents consistently communicate the vision and purpose of the initiative.
Change agents frequently gain their own tribe of followers who also believe in the vision and want to be involved.
Savvy change agents may even be leading the leaders!
The tagline for Enclaria is “Equipping individuals to lead organizational change.” I frequently add “from the middle” in conversations, because my focus is building up the capability of change agents to influence their organizations. To that end, I believe it is important to distinguish between the leadership position in a change initiative, and the leadership characteristics that change agents must have to increase their power and influence.
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Leaders are not change agents
January 20, 2010
Leaders are not change agents. They are leaders! Leaders and change agents hold two separate positions within an organizational change initiative.
Leaders have power and authority within their organizations primarily due to their position. They are able to hold people accountable for changing their behaviors and activities. The organization watches and listens to leaders to see what is true and what is expected.
Change agents, on the other hand, need to enlist leaders to help them make change happen. As a change agent, you do not have the same authority to get things done as leaders. Instead you rely on your ability to influence the organization indirectly. Leaders look to change agents to do the legwork.
This difference does not mean that a senior manager or executive cannot be the change agent for an initiative. The change agent role is not defined by position, but by the relationships to the leader of the change initiative and to those going through the change. You can be a leader within your own department and still be a change agent for a broader initiative (think IT, Strategic Planning, Lean Six Sigma, Communications, Organization Development, etc.).
With which role do you identify the most?
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post: Change agents are leaders.
Three Myths About Organizational Change
January 5, 2010
Our beliefs about what change is and how it works can influence our willingness to take on the challenge appropriately. Change agents who believe these three myths might find their initiatives stuck in a rut.
Myth #1: The goal is change.
Perhaps we are victims of language. Organizational change practitioners commonly talk as though the end goal is change itself. It is common to say “implement change” as if the change itself is the goal. It’s not! Change is the process of bringing about the desired future state. Read more
Five Rules for Facilitating Productive Leadership Teams
December 8, 2009
As a change agent, you might occasionally need to facilitate a leadership team to drive your change initiative forward. Like many meetings, leadership team meetings can be boring and ineffective. Leadership team meetings are especially challenging because the time when the entire team can meet in the same room is rare and easily squandered.
Follow these five rules to increase the productivity of your leadership team meetings, and thus make progress on your change initiative. Read more
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.
The Dance of Change
August 24, 2009
I’ve been thinking about how despite our better intentions, changing organizations is never predictable, and doesn’t perfectly fit into a nice theoretical model the way we wish it would.
As change agents, we frequently Dance in the Moment (a term I learned a few years ago in the CTI coaching program). While we work toward an envisioned future, we can only handle what is right in front of us, which is constantly shifting based on the reactions to the strategies we’re using to try to influence change.
If you think of the process of change as a dance, you realize it’s a partnership between two entities. Even if you haven’t taken ballroom dancing classes (or watched Dancing With the Stars), you probably know that each person in the duo has a specific role: leader and follower.
A few of the moves that the leader does to show the follower where to go are overt gestures that can be observed from the audience. However, most of the time the follower just seems like she knows what to do next, even if the dance is not choreographed. For the most part, the dance is a series of subtle nudges by the leader: a tug of the hand, a slight pressure at the waist that indicate the steps and the direction to go next.
The follower, for her part, responds to the nudges with what she interprets as appropriate movements, and adds her own flair to the dance. Sometimes the corresponding movements are what the leader intended, and sometimes they aren’t. Depending on the leader’s ability to react quickly, the result can be a seamless transition, or it could be a disastrous fall. Either way, it is the role of the leader to make the follower look good.
It’s important to note that the dance doesn’t work at all without a third element: the music. The nudges by the leader mean nothing to the follower if there is no context, no framework that they share. The music tells the dancers if they are doing the Waltz or the Mambo. They won’t get very far without stepping on toes if they are performing one of each. The music also keeps them in step, moving together at the same time.
The analogies of the dance’s leader and follower to the subject of organizational change are obvious. But the music might be a lot of things. What do you think?
What role does music play in the dance of change?
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