A Change Case Study: Part 3

In previous posts in this series, I explored a phenomenon I call the Change Gap. The Change Gap illustrates the divide that is always present when one leader or group implements a change that affects others.  

The only way to close the change gap is through communication.  Specifically, my advice for leaders is:

1.    Expect and anticipate a cynical interpretation.

This piece of advice is somewhat counter-intuitive. When we are about to roll out a new approach or initiative, most of us look for all of the reasons why people will love the idea. In reality, there will always be a significant portion of the population who is cynical and skeptical.  Sometimes this is because of their personality traits.  More often, cynicism is a result of having been “burned before” by changes that ended up hurting rather than helping.

When we ignore the inevitable cynicism and communicate only the positive aspects of a change, we inadvertently come across as “spin doctors”.  We also tend to skip over the complex issues we’ve probably struggled with.  The result is that our ideas seem like another fad of the week.

To address the skepticism, first and foremost, change leaders need to:

2.    Take the time and care to communicate the reasons for a change.

While this second piece of advice sounds obvious, it is usually not done well. Change leaders tend to jump to implementation and skip the explanation.  

One good technique is to allocate equal time and space to describing and reinforcing the “why’s” along with the “what’s” of a change.  In other words, a 2-hour training about a change should devote 1 hour to the reasons for the change and 1 hour to the details of implementation.  A reinforcement poster that reminds people about a new rule should also include explicit text about the ultimate reason for the rule, or the desired outcome.

The final piece of advice I’d like to address here for closing the change gap is to:

3.    Ask people about their reactions to the change.

All too often, change leaders get caught up in being cheerleaders for an idea or initiative.  We look for signs that people are excited and onboard and we tend to run right over concerns and questions. The only way to close the change gap fully is to understand how people perceive and feel about the change.  This requires that we stop and ask explicit questions such as:

•    What concerns do you have?
•    What doesn’t feel right about this?
•    Is there anything about this that will hard to do?  

While extremely counter-intuitive, these questions help us gauge how other people are reacting to the change and provide us an invaluable opportunity to share and reinforce the reasons for the change. 

Summary

I started this series with two contrasting interpretations about the same idea – a 10/5 rule. I hope that this series of posts has illustrated the fact that there will always be a Change Gap and that the only way to close the gap is deliberate and careful attention to two-way communication.

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