Boss: “I wish the team would engage more”...
If we put this into a translator, what is the boss actually saying?
A – "I wish they would just do what I expect from them".
B – "I wish they would bring in more ideas, and I am open to the conflict it might bring".
If the answer is “A”, then the boss will fail.
If the answer is “B”, then we have something to talk about.
If the leadership is genuinly interested in employees’ ideas and questions, and is willing to have an open dialogue, then the change initiative has a good chance of being successful. In fact, the probability can double, according to a recent survey by the Changelab on what makes change initiatives successful.
If we want Change to be better, to engage employees more and to achieve better results, we must rethink how we design and do Change:
Here are 6 ways that we can make this happen:
1 - The Vision must be for both the business and the organization
Most companies communicate about the rationale for the change in regards to the business, and exert great efforts for the workforce to make sense of the goals and strategy. If it is done well, people will be OK with following the strategy. But “OK” is not good enough.
Unless there is an inspiring and engaging vision for the organization, employees will not be able to envision their own role in it. It will leave employees puzzled; “What’s going to happen with me?” And this opens the door for insecurity, anxiety and people potentially leaving the organization. The stuff we need to be careful about not becoming toxic.
2 - Communicate on how the future of the organization will be
The Change program must continuously communicate on how the future of the organization will look like. It must outline what is important for the future organization, what are the values and behaviours that will be important. It must make it clear, what the future company culture will be.
By building this vision for the organiation, we enable employees to find out if they want to be part of it, and to develop themselves towards the future expectations. Ideally, the Change program then links this emotional engagement back to business objectives and strategies afterwards.
3 - Focus on creating the future – not only repair the past
For sure, there are many things that are not working well in organizations. Otherwise, there would be no need to change anything. But, if we focus only on identifying what is wrong and then repair it, we are establishing a culture of “fix it” rather than building something new.
If we want sustainable changes and true innovation, then we need to leave the deficit mind-set. One way of doing this, is to appreciate what works, and then expand on it. Build on the positive energy from people, when they can expand on what they have done well so-far.
4 - Make sure that employees understand what is expected from them
In some companies, it seems to be a privilege for few to be an active part of Change initiative. At best, employees only see the “inspiring” posters displayed, or receive an update email from the CEO. But that is not helping them to engage, and it is key critical that the workforce is given the opportunity to be deeply involved, and engaged.
Therefore, the change initiative must be part of the supervisor’s daily informal interactions with the staff, it must be a topic for cross-functional workshops and it must all happen in an environment without fear of loosing the job or being ridiculed.
5 - Make sure that the leaders facilitate - instead of manage the change
If the Leader takes on the role of a “Facilitator”, then she/he creates a different environment for the organization. It becomes accepted to ask questions, and even accepted to have divergent ideas. The facilitator’s role is to bring this into the context of the change initiative, and to derive new ideas and thereby foster a higher level engagement and energy.
But this type of facilitation may not come easy to all leaders/managers, and therefore it is important that they are given the opportunity to learn and practise these new skills. It is the company’s responsibility to make such trainings available, and for the higher level leaders to become real role-models of facilitation.
Using Experience Design to Transform how we do Change
It is easily said that we need a new approach to Change. But it does not come naturally for many, and therefore we suggest that you adapt an Experiene Design approach to guide your Change initiative in a new way. If you utilize this approach the right way, you create an entirely new view on how you will start and run your Change initiative.
To learn more about how to design and enable positive change, please contact Henrik@novosensus.org or visit www.novosensus.org.
Check out our seminar on Positive Leadership and Change, 22-23 August in Singapore.
#positiveleadership #novosensus #change #futureofwork