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Welcome to the fifth edition of
our quarterly newsletter - Implement.
changefirst® provides tailored solutions for clients
to build sustainable change capability through
knowledge, skill and process transfer. In that spirit
Implement
will focus on giving you information and advice on how
to improve your change implementation performance. We
also know you are incredibly busy so Implement
will always be short and action oriented
In this edition of Implement
we invite you to review the topic of resilience and the
way it contributes to delivering critical business
changes successfully.As with previous editions, this is
not an academic summary - rather it is a source of
practical information and advice about how we can use
resilience to help improve our change implementation
performance.
Audra Proctor
Partner
changefirst® celebrates its 10th
anniversary!
We would like to thank all our clients for their
support during this time. We have enjoyed working with
you on building change capability and partnering with
you on many of the 'leading-edge' implementation
projects during the last decade
The last 10 years has seen a great deal of
'innovation'. Some of it sustained, some of it a passing
fad. Among many others we have seen outsourcing,
off-shoring, dot-com, e-learning, ERP, CRM, shared
services, appreciative inquiry, six sigma etc. The list
is almost endless. But the common denominator has always
been the people factor. The big issue remains 'How
do we motivate our people to change their behaviours,
skills and way of working in complex
organisations'.The 'bottom-line' may be that the
most successful organisations of the next decade will be
those with the most resilient, adaptable workforce
Hopefully you have learned as much from us as we have
from you during this time. We look forward to working
with you in the second decade of our existence!
David Miller
Managing
Director
Change Methodology
Transfer |
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It is interesting how some people, when faced with
disruptive situations tend to "bounce back" while others
tend to flounder. Both groups will experience the same
fear and apprehension when faced with change, but only
one group will recover quicker from its effects to
adapt, cope and maintain results.
"About a year ago, I hired a developer in India to
do my job. My employee is none the wiser. I pay him
$12,000 to do the job I get paid $67,300 for.He is
happy to have the work.I am happy that I only have to
work 90 minutes per day (I still have to attend
meetings myself, and I spend a few minutes every day
talking code with my Indian counterpart).The rest of
the time my employer thinks I'm telecommuting.They are
happy to let me telecommute because my output is
higher than most of my co-workers."
- Slashdot.com
February 2004
The story above from Slashdot.com is a great example
(if a little extreme) of how some people are able to
demonstrate - what the French call - bricolage; bouncing
back and even prospering in times of change and
disruption.It has renewed our interest in an area of
research that started over 40 years ago, but which -
over the last few years - has been a hot topic for
change leaders who are challenging their people to
engage in more and more change so that organisations can
be responsive in their chosen market.
So what is it, and what does it contribute?
Aron Ralston, the Colorado climber who, two years ago
saved his life by cutting off his arm, after it became
wedged behind a boulder, calls the experience a "miracle
and a blessing".Ralstron credited his education as a
mechanical engineer, outdoor experience, and training in
search and rescue for his survival. Of course there is a
lot of truth in that, but it is also clear that more
than education, experience and training, it was Aron's
reflex at this
extraordinary time - coming to terms with the reality of
his situation, recognising his strength and believing in
himself, being able to innovate and improvise -
that was to determine whether he would survive or
not.Further, it was the personal adaptability that
Aron showed after the fact - recovering from the shock
of the situation, learning and drawing strength from the
experience - that was to help him bounce back and
go on to do more than he thought was possible.
Life breaks everyone and afterwards many are
stronger in broken places
- K Ernest Hemmingway
We can learn to be more adaptable during change
Some people seem so capable in times of workplace
disruption and change that it is easy to assume that
they are born that way. There is some truth to that of
course - early theories about highly adaptable people
stress the role of genetics and the formative influence
that early experiences can have on resilience. However
we can improve our personal adaptability and performance
during change by first, better understanding how we
respond to disruption and then developing key
areas.
Current trends continue to point to a system of
seven characteristics that
provide the energy that resilient people need to help
them through a disruptive situation. These are
characteristics that can be developed to either release
energy (optimistic, self-assured and
innovative) or conserve energy (collaborative, purposeful and
structured) to make sure we can retain a balance
of energy to be proactive as
appropriate to the change situation.
AID- using a simple process of
Assessment,
Interpretation and
Decision you and your teams can learn a
more resilient reflex during change.
Assessment
Working with Knight Chapman Psychological Ltd., a
leading provider of ground breaking psychometric
assessments, our Personal Adaptability Questionnaire
provides a profile to explain the main features of a
person's response during change.
This assessment reflects the extent to which the
individual will value deploying a particular
characteristic during the disruption of change.
Change leaders are askers of questions!
- Ask people to reflect on a time when they remember
using the characteristic with the high score - what
were the benefits and downsides?
- Also ask people to think about a time when they
remember NOT using the characteristic with the low
score - what were the downsides and benefits?
- What has stood in the way of developing
characteristic(s) with the low score in the past?
- What would be the price / sacrifice to develop
that particular characteristic now?
Interpretation
Tailored coaching questions help people transform
data into insight and draw out the potential
implications for their life, work and a particular
change situation.
2 key AID
Decisions to get started
Practical ideas for self development and support help
people focus on one or two areas to improve their
performance with specific ways to measure and get
feedback on progress.
-
Balance optimism and self confidence with
the true reality of the situation - six days
after being trapped Aron realised that exhausted,
dehydrated with a decaying arm and with no one knowing
where he was, his situation would prove to be
fatal.
Similarly when organisational change disrupts
people's balance it is those change leaders and
impacted individuals who can personally connect with
the reality of the situation that are more prepared
and will maintain their focus and survive
change.Research suggests that most people will slip
into denial as a coping mechanism, and so for big
change challenges spend time focusing on the
consequences and costs of not changing to get people
to start to engage with the change.
-
Build innovation and creativity as a core
skill - on his sixth day, Aron was able to
imagine a possibility to release his arm that would
confound most of us. Similarly in change situations we
could help people by providing some meeting time,
empowering and encouraging them to look for innovative
solutions, "think outside the box" and collaborate
with people of different perspectives and with
unfamiliar ideas.This helps people regain a sense of
control during change, bounce back from the disruption
and even prosper and thrive during change.
Provide a constant learning process
Identifying the things that can be learned from a
change situation help provide meaning, structure and
perhaps new values to frame our work in the future. We
realise we have high levels of resilience and personal
adaptability after the fact and as long as we have a way
to use life experiences to grow we can learn to be more
resilient and adaptable during change.
So for big change challenges use simple questions as
a template to help people reflect and capture the
learning:
- What was/is the situation and what are we trying
to achieve?
- What process/method are we using, and what has
worked well?
- What is not working and where are we still trying
to make a breakthrough?
- What are other people doing in this situation?
- Is there a set of principles that we could capture
and re-use?
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