Painting the Picture of Change

In my previous article I discussed outlining three simple, yet powerful steps to bring humanity back into the change equation. This article expands on the first of these concepts, Painting the Picture of Change.

Gather materials

I recently completed an engagement with a client that wished to reverse a low employee morale situation. I start such engagements with a review session with the sponsoring executives to determine their specific issues and needs. In this case, my sponsor wished to validate his assumptions that low morale existed, why it existed, and what to do about.

I scheduled focus group sessions with staff to understand their perspective. It soon became apparent that the employees believed they possessed great motivation toward their jobs and the organization. However, they felt that management (my client) caused the low morale. To the employees, management displayed this attitude through minimal to no group communication, no status update meetings, strong adherence to assigned roles, and limited recognition for creativity or extra effort. The employees felt powerless to make changes, which generated an employee malaise, viewed by management as low morale.

I observed the organizational interactions over time to validate this assessment. I also checked with colleagues who had similar engagements with other clients. These served to validate the findings.

I now had the core materials from which to craft recommendations and paint a change picture.

When considering a change announcement, start by gathering the materials required to paint the change picture. Tap into the “hard” data available within and outside the organization. This may include historical experience, current market trends, organizational performance, emerging technology, new laws or regulations, supplier adjustments, researched strategies, etc. Collectively these provide the grounding and rationale for change.

People outside your organization, including recognized industry or market experts, can be tapped to provide additional, unbiased information. Incorporate their data with that internally generated.

Also include your own personal thoughts and feelings. This “softer” information has just as much validity as any metric or factual data. It places your personal emotion and drive, your humanity, directly into the change picture.

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The Human Side of Change

When implementing change, company leaders often have the belief that they simply need to announce that a change will be made, and the staff will follow.

It’s easy to come to this belief. Planning for change requires a great deal of energy, time, effort, and staff, just to get to the point where change can be announced. For those involved, it creates a belief that when announced, everyone else will be on board.

So when change initiatives get announced, why don’t staff members recognize the change reality? Why don’t they understand the need and just follow management’s lead?

Simply put, they have not been directly involved.

So what can make change real? How can the company’s staff get involved with change?

Being Human

The simplest, and perhaps least common approach to making change real lies in the openness to being human.

People have families, friends, thoughts, emotions, fears, and desires. They come together each working day to engage in activities they perceive as valued and valuable. They care about what they do, who they work with, and the company they work for. They wonder about their careers, and where their current jobs will take them.

Yet, when they cross the company’s threshold, “people” somehow get transformed into “resources.”

Three steps

Three simple, yet powerful steps can bring humanity back into the change equation. These steps don’t take a lot of time or money, advanced degrees or high-priced consultants. Rather, they recognize that people make change real. They establish a respect for people and engage them in shaping future changes.

1. Paint the picture
2. Honor the past
3. Demonstrate the future

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