Change

Determining the core strengths of your business

A focus on strengths takes stock of the what is working well in the business and what has fuelled its success to date. Adopting a strengths based approach is powerful as it identifies and builds on the positive core of the operation and clearly defines what you would like to see more of. Creating a future or just letting it happen is a conscious choice.

We have a planning framework that can assist you identify the core drivers of success and develop the actions to develop the business in the direction you want it to go. Typically a workshop with key decision makers is the best way to progress this.

Building a strategy and a story that your people can engage with

A good plan defines the desired future in operational terms. While vision statements can be a concise description of the future, being brief increases the risk of loosing some of the meaning. What helps is story telling and scenarios. Without scenarios and a shared picture of a successful future, it is hard for people to really engage with the big picture and direct their efforts. So strategies and plans need to be talked about and shared frequently. In the same way that successful athletes practice mental rehearsal in preparing to win, leaders need to talk about their ideas for how the organisation will perform again and again to ensure alignment and engagement with the purpose of the business.

We have worked with organisations to put these stories and scenarios together and we can assist you create an effective communications plan.

Working with the informal structures

Who are your key communicators, how does information travel in the business?

We can help you identify and navigate through these opportunities

Having the conversations and engaging people in finding solutions

Change is not facilitated through programmes or events. Sustainable change occurs when leaders engage people in a compelling future that is safer and more attractive than the current reality. People come to work to be treated as contributing adults engaged in delivering service because it feels good to get this right and meets their fundamental needs to be involved in something worthwhile. They want to feel the satisfaction that comes from being recognised as being part of something that works. When people feel productive and begin to see tangible results they engage their effort and get things done.

When things change your people need to be part of the process of working out how to make things work. We can work with you to make this happen.

Managing resistance

Change upsets people. Talk to them and identify what the points of resistance are. Select the big issues and confront them. Deconstruct the issues by asking:

• Why is it an issue?

• Why is that important?

• What is the worst thing that could happen?

• What is the best thing that could happen?

• What could we do about this as a group?

• What can individuals do about it?

Maintaining momentum and communicating progress

Wherever possible, break the change into easily understood phases. Communicate progress through these phases even if there are only two or three. Everyone should know where he or she stands. Our goal as a change leader is to communicate, communicate and communicate again. Plan for and create short-term wins. Real transformation takes time and when it becomes clear to people that major change will take a long time, urgency levels can drop and people can loose confidence Hope is not a method, we should actively look for ways to create short-term objectives, establish goals and achieve objectives. Reward the people involved and recognise their efforts. Use the credibility afforded by short-term wins to tackle the bigger issues. If you are getting this leader stuff right you can expect to see people becoming positive and looking for opportunities to tell encouraging stories; drive and morale will improve and there will be confidence that current events will work out positively in a controlled manner. Communicate, communicate and communicate again.

Anchoring the changes

Changes stick when they become "the way we do things around here". Helpful actions include; modelling the behaviours yourself, Gandhi said “ you must be the changes you want to see in the world”. Recognise and encourage the behaviours in others. Changes are subject to degradation as soon as the pressure for change is removed, we need to be vigilant and never underestimate the value of repetition.