I am reading the newsletter in Holland every week and again I am very happy with the start question from ‘trying to help’ and the great answer form Joseph. I can also see what I can do better as a HRM Advisor. I tend to forget the respect for that what works, because I assume everybody is already aware of that. So I skip that part and dive immediately into the possibilities of change. And then I think ‘hey, where are the others?’. So, thanks again, I will practise and learn in order to improve this skill.

Best regards, Martiene

You have a great idea here — if you want people to commit to a change effort, they need experiences, not lectures. Role playing exercises may be good, but take care to ensure they’re well-designed before and well-briefed afterward or they can cause more problems.

One thing I’d suggest is that people need to both experience the reasons behind the change effort and the effects of the change effort — they need to feel pain in the status quo to want to change, and they need to feel relief in the new state to want that change to lead there.

May I recommend you set up some small, low-risk experiments with the change effort you seek — choose things that are likely to show positive results quickly. Research shows that early wins can help a team become motivated toward a goal.

In your case, you are thinking of expanding geographically. There are many small ways to do this that don’t require the opening of a field office, which can seem like too much of an investment of money and time right now. Options include: partnering with an organization in the location in which you are interested to do some small amount of the work you do; hiring contractors in that location; opening a small sales satellite office there; licensing an existing product and using your own sales structure to sell it; and more.

While you are putting your toes in these geographic waters, you may want to acquire technology that will enable your team to feel close to the operations that will be now far away, such as online meeting tools and web-based information-management systems. Be sure to create pages for staff interaction, such as “who we are” pages with pictures, birth dates, etc. These help with the “I can’t walk next door” issues as people see their colleagues as real people; feelings upon which trust can build.

Just some ideas; hope they help.

Best of luck,
Illysa

For example, the need to expand geographically in order to take advantage of other job markets. There’s fear that this means the old location is going to be closed. Probably a feeling of loss of control, no longer being “top dog.” A resistance to the change in the work environment. Communicating via electrons vs. walking next door is hard. The sense of community changes. Hard stuff.

I keep imagining massive role-playing exercises….Any thoughts?

One thing I would add to the notion of not overwhelming the client with a huge list of things to do, is to help them identify (recommend, collaboratively identify, etc.) the key step or steps they can implement first. I find it especially helpful to ask: what’s the one thing you can do right now that will make the biggest difference (and ideally leverage implementation of the other key steps). The faster they can see a result at the outset the better, and this creates momentum to move forward with the other steps.

My two cents.

If this is true, then effective Project Management skills are required. Most projects fail because no clear, measurable outcomes and exclusions are captured upfront in a document. This must be signed by the top level decision maker and any changes must be OK’d. With this, a clear direction and filter now exist for implementation. It is a document, not you or the resistant employee that is in charge. Take it up to the signing person for a decision if needed.

As the project proceeds, discoveries are made and the document may need to be modified and resigned. In the end, the outcomes can be measured and compared to the expectations.

I have found that this approach upfront, will separate those who want and expect change from those who have hidden objectives. We do not go forward when we can not establish clear measurable outcomes. There is an underlying Story, the Real Story (Crucial Conversations) below the surface. Much success.

The same can be said for consultants in general, in my opinion. Unless they are paid based on hard results (e.g. increased sales volume), they should present their professional advice, let the client make the decision, and then help the client succeed with whatever decision he made. The consultant can take satisfaction in knowing that it was a better thought out decision as a result of his/her input.

Also, I agree that offering results after conducting my analysis, while providing that “wow, great job” response, does not result in long lasting change as does including the client in the analysis process. They own the answers, so they use them to implement change.

Thanks again. Love the newsletter,
Illysa