A few years ago, we worked with a technology company on the rollout of its new brand. We’d been asked to develop a training class that explained the new brand position. The changes that we were about to introduce would impact the work of every person in the company. There were new guidelines about how to talk to customers, new rules about how to use the logo and brand icons, and a new color palette for use in everything from external marketing to internal documents.

Any of you who have worked with high-tech companies know that the best way to kill an idea is that say that, “corporate says we have to do it this way.” How in the world could we get 7,000 “techies” to not only comply with the brand guidelines, but to want to? We knew that we needed every person to understand at a gut level why brand consistency, and therefore guidelines, were needed. So we started our program with a visual tour of some great brands—Apple, Starbucks, Ann Taylor, and Disney. We got people interacting and talking about why each brand was so recognizable. Time and time again, the audience saw that deliberate, consistent use of fonts, colors, and shapes helped to create a strong brand.

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:

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:

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.

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:

1. Run some small experiments off the radar screen.
2. Collect compelling data.
3. Recruit some early champions.
4. Show them, don’t just tell them.
5. 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

• Gazette Article:  Dream City 2020 hopes to help the city realize its potential
• Dream City website

If you live in the Pikes Peak region, please consider getting involved!

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.