Our last blogpost covered the diagnosis and planning of any change initiative. Change, though, will often be hampered by resistance from people who might be affected by it. So firstly, why would people resist change, and then, how can we overcome this resistance?

First, the reasons people resist? Well, some reasons are based on human nature and others on organisational dynamics:

* Selective Perception: People tend to focus on how they will be personally affected by change, rather than seeing the overall bigger organisational picture. The change may not fit in with their specific personal beliefs and values. Also, people live by the psychological Law of Certainty, and any changes can affect that law, as far as they are concerned.

* Lack of Information: If people don’t understand or appreciate why change is so important, they may think ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. If reasons for change aren’t clearly presented, they may assume the worse in terms of initiator intentions and personal impact. They also might not know what to do or how to do it.

* Fear of the Unknown: They may ask ‘how will this change affect my personal job security?’ They may fear loss of position, income, stability, power of status. Social changes may occur that would affect their job satisfaction. All these things contribute to resistance because of that Law of Certainty

* Habit: People prefer actions and events they are familiar with; it enhances their feeling of self-worth when they able to efficiently and effectively carry out their tasks. Breaking a habit is hard work for many, even if the new behaviour leads to favourable outcomes. So be aware of the effect habitual working patterns have on some people

* Not Liking the Initiator: When people’s thoughts and feelings about change are not considered, they feel controlled and fear they are losing autonomy over their work lives. These fears decrease trust in the initiator’s intentions, so they breed resentment, distrust and resistance to change

* Structural stability: Organisations create groups, subgroups, working norms, rules, processes, procedures, values and hierarchies in order to produce stability and order. Organisational changes usually alter this stability, and so are resisted

All these, and more, can produce resistance to any change initiative.

John Kotter and Len Schlesinger have developed six strategies that help in overcoming resistance to change. Each strategy is most appropriate in certain kinds of situations, and many of them can be applied simultaneously:

Firstly, Education and Communication: Extensive communication will help reduce anxiety and ensure people undersatnd the reasons for what is happening, what will be expected of them and how they will be supported through the change. You should let people know beforehand what is happening and why. If people are informed and persuaded that the change is necessary and result in benefits, it will help with implementation

Next, Participation and Involvement: This increases understanding, enhances feelings of control, reduces uncertainty and promotes a feeling of ownership. Encourage those involved in change to help design and implement the changes; that way, it is difficult for them to resist those things they have driven themselves

Then, Facilitation and Support: People’s anxiety should be seen as legitimate, so encouragement and support, training, coaching, counseling and facilitation can reduce resistance from those involved in the changes

Next, Negotiation and Agreement: With powerful resistors, you may have to offer incentives in return for agreement to changes. This is useful when people will clearly lose out because of the changes, but it also alerts people that they may be able to hold out for extra benefits if they continue resisting the change

Then, Manipulation: When the previous change stages don’t work or are too expensive, this can be a relatively quick and inexpensive way to avoid negotiation. It involves framing and selectively using information and implied incentives to maximise the likelihood of acceptance to the change. For example, the only way we can avoid redundancies is for us all to accept pay cuts has been a tried and trusted tactic used by many firms, even if the eventual redundancies could well have been avoided by other measures

Finally, Coercion: At times, managers may have to use their power and authority to threaten negative incentives to force acceptance of the proposed change. For example, if the necessary changes aren’t implemented, it may be necessary to close down the plant, cut salaries or lay people off. Where speed is essential and initiators have the power, this is an easy way to overcome resistance. However, if the change is not framed to benefit the organisation, it can promote distrust, anger and disharmony.

Change often means loss, which for many people is difficult to deal with. You’ll recall the change cycle that many people go through, involving denial, insecurity, resentment, anger and worry. When this occurs, it is best to employ one or more of the above tactics to ensure you get the best possible chance of buy-in from the people affected by the change implementation.

Many thanks

Mark Williams

Head of Training

MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Many managers have difficulties diagnosing what actually needs to change within their department or business, and then worry about how to plan for it.

When change has been recognised as a key component to successful future performance, it is time to analyse what steps you can take to implement it. There are several questions that need to be addressed at this point:

* What are our performance gaps between actual and desired states? You must be absolutely clear on what the current performance is and where you want it to be

* What are the reasons for this gap? Do you have the right resources and people in place, and are the reasons for shortfall within your area of influence?

* What are our specific goals? These are different to what we want to achieve overall, as they are more specific and precise

* Who are the involved stakeholders? Who exactly will be affected and involved in any changes we implement?

* What processes will have to change to achieve the goals? If there are process-changes needed, what implications will they have on clients or other parts of the business?

* What consequences do we anticipate from the changes? What other areas will be affected if we go through with it?

* Who will be responsible for the change? Do they know what their roles will be during the process?

* How will we measure success? Milestones have to be put in along the way, so we can see we are plotting the right direction for a successful implementation

By clarifying these thoughts, you give yourself great opportunities to plan any change initiative successfully.

Many thanks

Mark Williams

Head of Training

MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

As a manager, how do you discover what people expect you to do? What feedback do you want that will help you improve your game and create opportunities for expansion in the future?

The best way yet found to increase knowledge is to ask questions. So here are a few questions to ask that will help you discover what your team expect of you:

Management role: How do you define the quality of work I produce? What do you expect of me as your manager? How should I communicate with you?

Decision-Making: What do you expect me to do when making and communicating decisions? How should I include you when I make decisions? When would you like to be involved when decisions are made?

The working environment: What environment would you expect me to build and maintain? How would you define the company/department culture, and is this what you want it to be?

Creativity: How important is innovative thinking and creativity to our roles? Do I encourage creative thinking or is it ‘same-old, same-old’? How would you like to be motivated to generate new ideas?

Team development and productivity: What does a great team look like? How would you like me to help you develop your own skills and abilities? How would you like me to deal with poor performance?

Communication: What does effective communication mean to you? In meetings, what would you expect to see and hear? How would you like me to communicate with you if I see problems or challenges?

Partnership: How important is the way we partner and collaborate to you? In what ways would you like to see partnership and collaboration improve?

Growth and advancement: In what ways would you like to see me grow and advance? Which areas require more work than others?

If you think you already know the answers that your team will give, think again! Things change fast in business and people’s attitudes and ideas can change just as fast. Ask these questions annually at least, and have an open mind when you discuss their answers. Expect to be told things that will make you think. And consider changing things that you can when you hear things that show your team’s expectations are different to what you thought.

Many thanks

Nick Hill

Training Director

MTD Management Training Course

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Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

The article Four Levels of Employee Engagement evoked a lot of response from people, especially on the subject ‘how do you get people to level 4?’.

A typical question came from Henry, who asks, “Getting people to operate at level four is very difficult. Most people in my experience have too many other things going on in their lives to get total commitment from them. How do you get them to level four?”

Great point. Most people do not have the incentive or will to devote the kind of passion or enthusiasm that you would like at work. Their real passion lies outside of the working environment. They work to live, not the other way round.

The enthusiasm, loyalty and commitment you would like from team members can’t be forced on them. It only happens through a ‘culture of commitment’, where customer-facing staff reflect to the outside world the intense pride and ownership they are experiencing on the inside.

It’s what Vanderbilt professor Roland Rust calls ‘service climate’. He calls those attributes of overall workplace climate those that characterise how well-equipped employees are to deliver excellence at the point of contact with external or internal customers, such as adequacy of resources and equipment and job skills development.

Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration found that employees’ emotional commitment and sense of identity with the company is a key factor in providing excellent service.

And Henry Mintzberg, a key writer on all-things management, is quoted as saying, “Managers should function so that people can be naturally empowered. If someone is doing their job to an excellent standard, they should know their job better than anyone else, and so they don’t need to be ‘empowered’ but encouraged and left alone to be able to do what they know best.” (Italics ours)

This means creating a Performance Partnership with your team. It means you are all in it together. And it starts with you.

As manager/leader of your team, you need to show the commitment to the business that you would like others to show. This commitment doesn’t mean you work all hours of the day and night; it means that when you are actually at work (whether it’s nine-to-five or beyond), you bring your enthusiasm and commitment to every minute of that time.

You should communicate openly as much as possible with your partners. The more they know, the more they will understand. The more they understand, the more they will care. The more they care, the more you can trust them. If you’re serious about forming a Performance Partnership, then you’ll share information that is relevant and also some that is ‘nice to know’.

You should appreciate everything your team does for the business. Giving a salary is the base level of appreciation. However, building praise and recognition into the way that you lead will enhance your relationships and build pride in what people do and bring to the business.

Listening to what is being said may seem a strange way to gain commitment; but, if you take on board others’ requests, identify why they feel the way they do, endeavour to change processes so they support the teams’ activities and create a climate of change that emphasises the attention to results, you stand a far greater chance of people offering their hearts and minds to the cause.

All this isn’t easy. As we said before, engaging employees so they bring their hearts to work as well as their minds, is not something that an increased salary or better perks will bring. No, they need to be encouraged to commit to bring excellence to everything they do. You can’t buy commitment; but you can provide the conditions and environment and atmosphere that encourages people to support the purpose and objectives of the business. Becoming Performance Partners together is the first step on that journey.

Many thanks

Mark Williams

Head of Training

MTD Management Training Course

(Image by Ambro)

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Don’t think that Excel is just a spreadsheet.

To excel at something is a pinnacle of achievement. Personal mastery begins with a vision of what you want to achieve in your life or at work. Some of us may have goals and objectives, but these aren’t really visions. Visions inspire us. Goals are just stepping stones.

Having a personal vision to excel at something is about a desire to apply a certain sense of purpose to something that has real meaning to us. Whatever your drive to achieve, it is about wanting something passionately because of who you will become when you achieve it.

Personal mastery is about taking personal responsibility for making something happen. It’s a journey we take when we realise we are responsible for mastering our own destiny.

You may recall Peter Senge’s words in The Fifth Discipline: “Personal mastery goes beyond competence and skills, although it is grounded in them. It means approaching your life as a creative work, living life from a proactive rather than reactive standpoint. People with a high level of personal mastery are continuously expanding their ability to create the results in life they truly seek.”

Once we have a vision of what we want to excel at, what separates the achievers from the dreamers is a willingness to commit to action in pursuit of the vision. As the saying goes, “You can achieve whatever is most important to you in this world, as long as you are prepared to forgo whatever is second most important.” The choice may not be that obvious to you, but personal mastery does demand a certain single-mindedness.

Once you commit energy and resources to becoming what you want to become, you will find you become automatically more alert to opportunities to develop your skills and achieve your vision. Your brain’s reticular activating system will kick in to make you consciously aware of those opportunities and help you achieve those goals on the route to the vision.

Remember…personal mastery teaches us to choose. Choosing is an act of courage, picking the results and actions that you will turn into your destiny.

Looking to make the most of what you have and excel at it is a good life-strategy because it gives you the best chance of long-term success in the global economic marketplace. Don’t allow others to dictate how your life is going to turn out. And don’t complain that the world isn’t devoting itself to making you happy!

Take the necessary actions that will help you achieve your goals and, ultimately, your visions. Not long ago, adequacy was enough to get you by. Today, mediocrity is on the road to the scrapheap.

Take steps to enhance you career and life. Choose to excel. Decide what you want to master. And create the necessary steps to take you there.

Many thanks

Mark Williams

Head of Training

MTD Management Training Course

(Image by Renjith Krishnan)

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”