My guests this month are Dr. Victoria Grady, President and Principal Consultant at PivotPoint Business Solutions and creator of the LOE Index, and Jinnie Lee Schmid, an independent consultant certified to administer and interpret the LOE Index. In this episode, Victoria shares how the LOE (Loss of Effectiveness) Index identifies those behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes that emerge in organizations in response to change. Jinnie joins the conversation to share a practitioner’s perspective.
Listen in to hear the research behind the LOE Index and how the assessment measures resistance to change.
Listen to the show here (30 minutes):
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Great interview! My confirmation bias sensor was off the charts listening. I do wonder if trying to understand resistance more is a symptom of a bigger problem. We know people will “resist” change for a variety of reasons (losing something, not understanding the change, incongruent leadership etc) so I wonder if this approach takes too much focus away from the change itself and puts it on the “those pesky resisters”.
I don’t think that’s the intent at all, I’m just curious to see this in action!
Hi, Jason – Thanks for your comment! I think that’s a good point and it resonates with something that I often think when I hear “resistance to change” or “the reason change initiatives fail is because people resist change” – which is, why are we “blaming the victim”? The fact that people find change to be challenging is a basic aspect of our human nature and something that should be a fundamental consideration when designing change initiatives, rather than something we use as an “excuse” for failure on the back end. One of the things I like about Dr. Grady’s LOE Index is that it is based, in part, on an understanding of Attachment Theory, so it is very well aligned to the realities of human nature as well as organizational theory. That said, I think your point is very salient in conversation among practitioners – but in practice, I think it’s transparent if not invisible to the client and the audience. The LOE Index survey itself does not directly reflect or refer to the individual or organizational symptoms of change resistance, and it is posed around a question or set of questions, customized in collaboration with the client, that directly reflects the specific change going on in the organization. Does that answer your question? What other questions or reactions does it raise for you?
Hi Jinnie – That does answer parts of my question. The LOE index is new to me so once I learn more about it, it’ll sink in more. It would be great to chat with you about it sometime, I’ll send you a note on Linked In.