You only know what you know.

In other words, you can identify all the impacts that cross your sphere of knowledge and understanding. What you need to  find out is whether there are other impacts that you don’t know about.

For example, you may be completely across how changing the sales entry process will affect your sales force and customers.  What you may not know is:

• that it will require changes to the back end systems that feed the database or the proposed functionality will not work
• and that these changes can’t be made before year end or the year to date totals can’t be reported on
• and that there’s been a freeze on IT changes because the company needs to bed down the new operating system for 3 months….
• and so on.

There’s only one solution to knowing what you know. And that is getting people from multiple functions at multiple levels to have a  conversation about the change and it’s potential flow on effects. Many a change program has  had ordinary results because the change impacts were not properly identified, leaving people scrambling to fight fires and create last minute workarounds.

Recognising that you only know what you know will make you a better change leader. Not only wt will force you to enquire broadly about how the change could affect all other parts of the organisation, it’s also a great engagement strategy.

There’s so much that interests me in this field. So much so that I’m heading off to the Annual Summit later this year in Boston.

The gem that stuck with me yesterday was the role of humour and fun in adult learning. I’ve always tried to make my client interactions fun and lighthearted. It reflects my own approach to life. If I’m not having fun, well then why am I doing it?

And it turns out that when people are having fun, it actually opens neural pathways in the brain that facilitate learning and take-up of information.  Conversely, it turns out that lectures where words are spoken sombrely, or the dreaded powerpoint presentation with slides full of bullets,  actually turn off our ability to learn.

So if you thought it was impossible for you to get a lot out of those kinds of interaction, there’s a physical reason why.

Meetings where people laugh and have fun will help people to listen and learn and lead to better outcomes with less effort.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Published by Stanford Business Books,  2008

This book goes beyond the steps required to implement change and asks us to think more wholistically about the context for change as well. The authors propose a change framework that encompasses several additional elements:

1. Our personal agendas – recognising that our experiences and motivations might cause us to adopt one change path over another
2. Examining who should lead – who is the right person for the job, nder what circumstances should there be more than one person
3. Who is expected to follow – what are the charactersitcs , skill level, motivations, leadership and interest of this group in the proposed change
4. What is the internal context of the change – what BAU activities are going on, what other changes are planned, or have ovccurred, what has been the success of prioir change efforts, are resources available etc
5. And finally, what is the external context for the change – economic, social and regulatory environment, state of labour market and impact on retention and recruitment, state of third party organisations who will need to be involved (eg suppliers, vendors)

I found this book an excellent read, both in terms of the content – which was highly valuable – and readability. Sometimes change books can be on the academic side, but not this one.

If you are in the change field I highly recommend this one.

Sadly, the people implementing the system were not very computer literate. They didn’t realise, and failed to consider, that our hardware was not powerful enough to run the reports (I was using Wordstar at the time, which will give you an indication of how long ago it was-if you’re even old enough to remember!). I spent literally hours attempting to run these reports for my boss. The system with its 16 kb of RAM just kept on crashing.

This is an example of the people leading the change failing to consider the organisational context of their clients. Failing to realise they couldn’t run the software adequately. Failing to ask the simple question about what kinds of PC’s they had.

It’s always these simple questions we forget.

The context for change is just as important as the process used to implement the change.  Change leaders need to understand what’s going on for the receivers.

• Are they already aware of the need for change?
• Will they buy in to your story or will they shrug their shoulders and say “here we go again”.
• Who are the influential followers that you should engage early?
• What is the organistional context forthe “receivers” – what else do they have on their plates?
• What is the quality of leadership within the group – will this help or hinder the change initiative?
• What are their current skills? Will skills need upgrading?
• How much support are they likely to need, and what should it look like?

These are just a few of the questions you could ask. Getting your head around their motivations, drivers, skills and current context will help you design a better implementation approach.

Never forget to ask what kinds of PC’s they have.

They may be customers affected by the change, they may be key influencers in the business, they could be leaders who are critical to success, or even external parties. Whoever they are, how do you make sure they really are on board with what you are proposing, not just making the right noises?

5 ways to work out if your stakeholders are on board

1. Listen carefully – what sort of language do they use? If you hear lots of “buts” and reasons why things will be difficult, that’s a good sign they haven’t completely bought in yet
2. Watch them carefully – their body langauge will convey more than their words. Enough said
3. Ask them to present the change and its benefits to another group with you – reluctance could be a signal
4. Ask them what they would do differently if they were you
5. Ask them how their teams feel about the change, and how you both can turn that around.

I’m not talking about the senior leadership of the company, I’m talking about the guys in the middle. The leaders who are required to implement the changes within their teams, deal with the individual issues that arise from the change, make sure the change sticks, and be supportive the whole way through. They are often expected just to get on with it, and to magically know what they should be doing and saying to make it all work.

In my experience, this group have the worst of both worlds – maximum expectations from above (with insufficient support), and maximum chaos from below if the change is not widely understood, poorly managed, and impacts people’s worlds (doesn’t it always?). They have minimal ability to affect decisions or direction, and are expected to implement things with a smile and reassuring voice.

To help middle-tier leaders not just cope with change better – coping is a pretty ordinary expectation – but feel confident in their abilities to support and implement it, we need to significantly upgrade the time and effort spent. And not just when the actual change is happening but as an ongoing part of their development.

Helpful information would be:

• Information about how change actually manifests at the individual and team level
• the change process and framework being used
• how to handle various reactions to change
• leading in times of change
• the importance of their role in successful implementation
• How to manage their own uncertainty while dealing with the team’s issues
• how to apply these concepts within their own teams

There’s more for sure – but this would be a great start.

I’ve often felt the middle managers get the raw end of the deal on so many levels. Don’t make the mistake of assuming they’ll just get it, be fine with it, and do whatever’s required.

It took 4 weeks for me to get my head clear (the long holiday has a lot going for it). And here I am. From this year I am going to pursue one goal with enormous passion and energy.

I want to help people have a better time at work – whether that’s in business or coroprate life.  This is near and dear to my heart as I’ve been in a bad space at work several times throughout my working life. It took me way too long to make the changes I needed to. So maybe I can shortcut that process in some way for others.

I am going to focus my energy in 2 areas: I will take a macro view with organisations, and a micro view working with individuals. Let me explain….

Organisations can and are doing a lot to improve themselves. I want to help those companies work through their changes effectively, taking into account all the people and process implications. Changes that improve the culture, the work experience, the processes and the behaviours will bring improvements.

Improving leaderhsip capability – to lead people, to work in a aocnstantly changing environment, to have constructive conversations. This is a fundamental part of the equation.  How many of us have had managers with little or the wrong skills sets? And how much harder did that make our working lives? It doesn’t have to be that way.

At the individual level, I want to help people find more meaning from their choice of work. Perhaps they like where they work and their profession but need new skills or strategies for getting ahead. These things can be learned. And I   suspect there is a large number of people out there who know in their hearts they aren’t doing “the right job”  for them (is there such a  thing?) . All I can say is – been there myself – know how you feel

The answer for these people might be a transition to something completely different. Whichever – the time for doing nothing is well over! We won’t be here for ever so we might as well spend our time doing things that mean something to us.

So enough with the sharing. It feels good to be back.

How many people do you know who long for something more but haven’t taken any action? And what are you all being fierce about this year?

Sure – email is a convenient form of communication. Its fast, we can reach a lot of people,  and we can attach content like there’s no tomorrow. And once we hit the “send” button, we can tick the box and say communication is complete.  And afterwards we feel as though we can absolve ourselves of responsibility because after all – we did tell people.  If they aren’t doing what we told them in the email, it’s their problem right?

I think it’s still our problem actually. We already know that:

• depending on how much email people already receive, there’s a pretty good chance that your’s won’t even be read
• Or, it will be scanned through but not absorbed
• Or people will read the first paragraph, and when it doesn’t capture their attention they won’t read the rest
• Or it will go into a “reading” file, never to be read
• Or worse – for external contacts – it slides into the junk folder
• Or culturally, people are not used to changing their ways by reading emails, so it falls on deaf ears

Our responsibilities for ensuring the right information gets to the right people in a way that is meaningful to them, demands that we think beyond using email as the primary information channel.

 A good piece of communication should provide context and rationale, create trust, help people to understand how to change, enable people to make informed decisions, and answer the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the change.

So nex time you’re ready to bang off an email with important information inside that you want people to act on – think again! You may need to task your managers with discussing it in team meetings, doing some presentations or workshops, even creating visual reminders. Post your information in multiple locations and find a way to get feedback on whether people are “getting it” and “doing it”

See the Top 100 here.

Google remains at the top for the second year running, although half of the top ten have changed from 2007.

Check out some the unusual benefits being offered by these companies:

• scuba diving certification (Chesapeke Energy – rank 52)
• prayer and meditation rooms (Ebay – rank 68)
• $200 grocery voucher (Methodist Hospital System – rank 10)
• travel subsidy for using public transport instead of own vehicle (Genetech  – rank 5)
• free lunches Mon-Thu (Factset Research – rank 52)
• 20% rental subsidy for living on one of the companies properties (Camden property Trust – rank 50)
• get married in a chapel on the grounds of an Erickson retirement village for free (Erickson Retiremetn Communities – rank 93)
• charity donations matched dollar for dollar up to $60K (EOG Resources – rank 64)
• free bus ride and ticket to Cavalier team baseball games (owned by the CEO of Quicken Loans rank 2)
• tuition reimbursement up to $20K per year (Mitre – rank 42)

To get a flavour of why these companies score so highly, check out this post from an employee. 

These organisations do more than pay lip service to the saying “people are our most important asset”.  They invest heavily in understanding what their employees want, and delivering it. 

As the economy contracts, having your best people working to their best is critical to riding out the storm.

What’s happening in your world – what does your business do to retain people and make them delighted to work for you?

Background to Top 100 – How are companies rated?

Most of the company’s score (two-thirds) is based on the results of a 57-question survey created by the Great Place to Work Institute® - sent to a minimum of 400 randomly selected employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about the management’s credibility, job satisfaction and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company’s responses to the Institute’s Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about demographic makeup, and pay and benefit programs, as well as a series of open-ended questions about the company’s management philosophy, methods of internal communications, opportunities, compensation practices, and diversity efforts, etc

It wish I could say that 50 minutes was all it took to  say everything that needed to be said.  Unfortunately most of us know that  you could spend 2 days talking about this and still not cover everything. Still – here is the essence of my talk.

Creating a Dream Team

Dream Teams are created when leaders initiate and take ongoing action on numerous fronts. Typically, doing one or two things once or twice won’t get you anywhere – you an integrated and considered approach encompassing multiuple strategies. So what are soem of the key strategies??

1. Recruit the right people into the right roles – and if you’re not sure of your recruitment skills, get some outside help. Research shows that gut feel doesn’t actually cut it.

2. Think of managing performance as something that happens all year around, not once a year when the annual review or salary review becomes due. The cycle of planning, doing and reviewing is continual.

3. Your ability to give (and receive feedback) is a critical success factor. If you’ve ever been on the end of poorly delivered feedback, you’ll know how important this is. I talked about simple models for giving feedback – which I’ll share in future blog posts.

4. Watch our for Performance Killers – some of the big ones are:

• different rules/standards for managers and employees
• a vacuum – no feedback, especially for good performance
• not dealing with performance issues of others
• no plans – either for the team, the business or the individual

5. Balancing your focus – we often spend time talking about what has happened, especially as it relates to what people have done incorrectly in the past. People get energised about the future, so balance your messages between the past (what has happened), the present (what is hapenning now), and the future (what will happen).

6. Developing your team – growth is a huge motivator. So you need to work out whatr each person needs to do to a) grow in their current job, and b) grow into a future role or career that they want. An individual approach works best, using a variety of mediums:

• on the job training
• formal courses
• buddying and mentoring
• project work
• job shadowing etc