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Managing Change: Engage people to implement change

Written by: Greg Schinkel

Article Overview: Change is constant and accelerating. The only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty. And we need to get used to it. Why is it then that many change initiatives are more stressful, time consuming and ineffective than they should be?

Managing Change: Engage people to implement change

Change is constant and accelerating. The only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty. And we need to get used to it. Why is it then that many change initiatives are more stressful, time consuming and ineffective than they should be?

As a leader, the impact you bring to your organization is by facilitating change and creating change-readiness in yourself and your team.

To lead change more effectively, think about how you will engage people at the Head, Heart and Feet level:

Head: At the head level, people need to understand the logical reason change is required and have a clear understanding of what they specifically need to do in order to change.

Engage the Head: Give the reason for the change and tell people specifically what they need to do. This is not the time for complex models and ambiguous goals. Clarify and simplify so people understand.

Heart: At the heart level, people need to feel the motivation to change. They gotta wanna. This involves reaching them at an emotional level. Existing habits are hard to break and people don't generally have the necessary will power. Your head may tell you not to eat those chips because you want to lose weight but your lack of will power can easily overcome the logic.

Engage the Heart: Give people a sense that they are already part of the way towards success instead of starting at ground zero. Remind them of past successes and encourage them that they are bigger than the change. Make the change itself smaller so that it doesn't feel as overwhelming. By making the person feel bigger and the change smaller, they are more likely to succeed. Feet: At the Feet level, we want to make the path as easy as possible for people to change. If we remove obstacles and make the path towards change easier, the change will happen quicker, with less resistance.

Engage the Feet: Create tools, checklists, systems, etc that support the change. You also want to make the existing habits harder to continue. A good example of this is freezing your credit card in a block of ice to avoid over spending or not having tempting junk food in the house when you are dieting.

The best change strategy is to combine all three elements in a powerful trifecta.

Reflection Question

Are you providing people with the logical, emotional and logistical means to accomplish your desired change?

Action Items

• Select a current or future change initiative.
• List the logical reasons for the change and specifically what you want people to do differently.
• Make people stronger by showing them they are already on the way and that what you are asking from them isn't really that overwhelming.
• Remove any systemic obstacles and create support tools that help them move in the direction you desire.
• Watch how much faster, easier and less stressful your next change initiative will be.

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Article Tags: employee engagement, leadership, managing change



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Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
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