 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Making
it happen
To make it happen you need to:
| · |
Have a plan |
| · |
Make the planned changes
happen as efficiently as possible which means: |
| |
| · |
Understanding the
barriers to change |
| · |
Understanding how
to motivate people to change. |
|
Set Out Your Plan
Having decided what to do, set this
out as specific actions:
Ask yourself:
| · |
Is your plan realistic,
based on the resources you have available: |
| |
|
| · |
Are the key staff (and
external stakeholders) sufficiently motivated to stay
with you and see it through? |
| · |
Does your plan balance
the short-term needs to generate cash and long-term business
need to invest in developing the business? |
| · |
Does your plan take into
account any resistance to change? How are you going to
deal with this? |
What Are The Barriers To Change?
Creating effective change can be difficult.
It is often a matter of breaking long ingrained habits and introducing
new ones. This usually entails going through a process of:
Established habits will not disappear
easily. Unless you make changes happen, there will be no changes.
Barriers to staff changing break down
into:
| The
problem is that staff: |
Issue |
Solution |
| Don't know they have
to change |
·
Lack information
|
·
Communication of plan, goals and actions |
| Can't change |
·
Lack knowledge of what need to do
· Lack knowledge of how to do it
· Lack resources (time, money, people, equipment)
to allow them to do it
|
·
Communication of plan, goals and actions
· Training and support
· Project management skills
|
| Won't change |
·
Do not wish to make the changes |
·
Understand motivation
· Manage culture change |
Reluctance to change can result from:
| · |
Psychological -
uncertainty, fear, disorientation (so change needs to
be as swift as possible to avoid nagging doubt, but slow
enough to bring everyone with it). |
| · |
Personal attitudes
and beliefs - 'we cannot deliberately underquote in
the initial stages of an assignment (like everyone else
in the industry does) to get the work as it just isn't
right'. |
| · |
Group loyalty -
the sales team may fight like cats and dogs but just watch
them stick together if you try and put production in charge. |
| · |
Habit - 'but we've
always done it this way'. |
| · |
Politics - 'not
if Joe is going to be in charge'. |
| · |
Physiological -
the new roster of nightshifts is unworkable |
How do you motivate staff
to change?
Recognise that your staff will have
a variety of personality types and will be motivated by, and
fear, different things. Pretend for a moment that there are
only two personality types:
| · |
Square pegs are
driven by success, praise and recognition (and fear failure
or rejection). They tend to be entrepreneurial, quick
to take decisions, restless, active, and open for change.
|
| · |
Round pegs are
steadier types who value security and structured policies
within which to work ('so they know where they stand')
and fear change, uncertainty or conflict. |
To get the best out of square and round
pegs in normal times involves managing them in the different
ways that are appropriate to them:
| · |
Your sales staff may for
example be square pegs and need to be managed in a square
peg way with clear targets of sales to achieve and lots
of praise for success. |
| · |
Your production staff
may however be mainly round pegs, in the round holes of
structured work and need to be managed in a round peg
way with detailed specifications of what is needed or
clear instructions as to the standards needed for the
job against which to work. |
When you want to change things, these
differences become critical:
| Your
characteristics |
Your
drive/ pace of change |
Square
staff |
Round
staff |
| Square |
Fast |
You will move at a speed
they feel comfortable with |
Your rush to change things
will frighten these staff. You (and your other square
staff) will need to slow the pace of change and provide
more support so that these staff feel secure in their
ability to handle change |
| Round |
Slow |
Will be frustrated by
your pace. You will need to speed up your pace of change
to keep them with you |
You will move at a pace
that they feel comfortable withNeed to build confidence
in ability to cope with change |
To make things worse, there are of course
many personality types, not just two. Simple psychometric
tests, can provide a rapid structured insight into your
staff's personality types and can help you to manage them through
change.
|
|
|
|
