Engaging Stakeholders
To Lead Change, Communicate With People Not To Them
I recently had a prospective client ask me how I would create a communication plan that would convince people to support a change. My response was that any communication plan should focus on communicating with people, not to them.
As Peter Bregman writes in his book, Point B: A Short Guide to Leading Big Change, providing information is important in any change. But, he writes, “tell & sell” isn’t enough. Real change happens when every person impacted is actively engaged in the process of change – to the point where they become owners – not targets of the change.
Just last week, Melissa Dutmers of RiverFork Consulting posted 9 questions to ask when leading a change:
Communicating Change Case Study: Part 2
Earlier this week I posted about a successful workshop I and several colleagues ran for 800 managers as part of a major transition. My previous post was about senior leader involvement. Today, I will address the topic of training.
For this particular transformation effort, our client recognized that mid- and frontline managers would play a pivotal roll in communicating the details of the change to employees. Therefore, the client hired my colleagues and I to facilitate over forty 4-hour workshops for managers. The response to the workshops was overwhelmingly positive – which surprised a lot of people because the change the organization is introducing is highly sensitive and counter to the way things have been done in this organization for more than 30 years.
After running 19 workshops myself, I reflected on what made the sessions work well. Here are my thoughts:
Communicating Change Case Study: Part 1
I disappeared from this blog for most of the month of January. No, I wasn’t on vacation. I was working with several colleagues on a large change communication project. Our client is in the middle of transforming their compensation structure. Our job was to lead 800 managers (20 at a time) through a 4-hour workshop. The workshop covered the purpose for the transition and the specifics of how the new compensation program would work. The overall objective of the workshop was to equip managers with information that they would need to communicate the change to their employees. Of course, before that could happen, the managers themselves needed to understand, accept and support the change personally.
Because the response to our workshops was overwhelmingly positive, I decided to take time to reflect on what worked. Over the next few posts, I’ll explore what we learned from this rollout and the lessons that it illustrates for all change communicators.
Topic #1: Senior Leader Support
For this organization, the rollout of the new compensation system has been a multi-year process. The internal HR/Comp/OD team worked closely with each division’s top leader and his/her direct reports on every aspect of the transition. This was not simply a process of getting surface-level “buy-in.” The division leaders personally made critical decisions at each point of the transition.
The involvement of the senior leaders ended up being incredibly powerful when it came time to introduce the new system to managers and employees. We ran most of the workshops with managers in intact teams. Each team heard from their division’s most senior leader at the start (and sometimes also the end) of the class. The next-level leaders who had been involved in the decision-making participated in the sessions along with managers who were hearing the details for the first time.
In every session that we ran, it quickly became evident that the involvement of senior leaders at every stage (decision making, planning, and communication) was the most powerful factor in getting front-line and mid-level manager support for the change. You could visibly see resistance levels being reduced at three points in the workshop:
Leading Change When You Are Not in Charge
You have a great idea for increasing sales, improving service, or saving your company money. But you aren’t the boss and others aren’t interested in your idea. What can you do?
Scott Eblin, author of The Next Level, recently wrote about the lessons we can learn from Subway franchise owner Stuart Frankel – the creator of the Five Dollar Foot Long. While the concept has been a huge success for Subway, getting the company to accept and implement the idea wasn’t easy for Frankel.
According to Eblin, lessons we can learn from Frankel include:
- Run some small experiments off the radar screen.
- Collect compelling data.
- Recruit some early champions.
- Show them, don’t just tell them.
- Stick with it.
Read Scott Eblin’s post: Five Change Leadership Lessons from the Five Dollar Foot Long.
For more on the topic, also check out Robert Rosen’s new book, The Catalyst.
Video: Rethinking Motivation
Dan Pink is the author of a trio of provocative, bestselling books on the changing world of work, including A Whole New Mind, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, and Free Agent Nation.
In his talk at TED this year, Pink discussed approaches to motivation and argues that the “carrot” approach can actually destroy creativity. Watch the clip below to see what he has to say.
Leading a World Cafe
A few years ago, my good friend Jennifer McCollum introduced me to a method of engaging people in powerful dialogue. The method, known as World Cafe, was created by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs. A World Cafe centers on inviting people to meet at small “coffee shop” type tables to have several rounds of conversations. Participants rotate from table to table, building on ideas as they move. Brown and Isaacs have used World Cafes with anywhere from 12 to 12,000 people and their method has been replicated around the world.
In my work, I’ve used the World Cafe method to engage employees at all levels in dialogue about the key issues their team, group, or organization is facing. By moving from table to table and focusing on having conversations, rather than making decisions, participants broaden their own thinking and begin to understand and value different perspectives.
To read stories about successful World Cafes and to learn how to host one yourself, visit www.WorldCafe.com.
Committee Leadership
I recently decided that, since our book is now done, it was time for me to come out of my cave and get involved in my community. So, over the past couple of months I’d joined several committees. I began to notice that after some committee meetings I was energized and excited. After others, I wanted to nap or pretend to be moving out of the country to avoid future meetings!
As I reflected on my experiences, I realized that committee leadership isn’t really that different from leading any team inside an organization. Here are a few observations:
Don’t Jump to Tactics Too Quickly
I was surprised by how often leaders jumped to assigning action items in the very first meeting of a new committee. Of course, there is always a lot of work to be done, but focusing on tasks too quickly can derail any team. Before assigning jobs or even asking for volunteers, leaders should:
Help Committee Members Build Relationships
How Do You Engage a Community?
Community engagement is an idea that has interested me for a long time. I am now thrilled to be a part of a project that is engaging and involving thousands of people in my home town – the Pikes Peak region of Colorado.
Dream City: Vision 2020 is a grassroots effort that launched last summer. More than 10o volunteer facilitators are conducting dialogue circles with thousands of people to talk about what we want our region to be like in the year 2020. It has been fascinating to hear from a wide cross-section of citizens about what our community needs to preserve and what it needs to create.
To learn about the Dream City 2020 project, check out the links below.
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Gazette Article: Dream City 2020 hopes to help the city realize its potential
If you live in the Pikes Peak region, please consider getting involved!
Goldmith’s Advice for Influencing Decision Makers
Is managing up and influencing decision makers one of your key challenges? Executive coach and best-selling author Marshall Goldsmith provided some great advice in a recent Harvard Business Blog. His suggestions include:
- When presenting ideas to upper management, realize that it is your responsibility to sell — not their responsibility to buy.
- Focus on contribution to the larger good — not just the achievement of your objectives.
- Present a realistic cost-benefit analysis of your ideas — don’t just sell benefits.
Check out his post: How to Influence Decision Makers.
For more on the topic, download my article on Gaining Executive Support.
Gaining C-Suite Access
A month or so ago I posted an article about gaining executive support. I thought I’d pass along another great resource on the topic. Meredith Kimbell’s January newsletter focused on the challenge of Gaining C-Suite Access. Her advice includes:
- Stop getting, start giving.
- Stop being interesting, start being interested.
- Stop bragging, start checking.
Click here to read Meredith’s newsletter.
