Archive for the ‘Change Management’ Category
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
For most organizations employee engagement is not just about the majority of employees but also about leadership teams. This is the greatest challenge, because if you have a disengaged leadership team you have no chance of engaging employees. The reasons why are clear:
- Employees look towards their leaders for direction – if they are not interested no amount of communication efforts will change that
- You need to change process to change behaviour – unless you put in place systems and processes which force the behaviours of leaders to change, any attempt at change management will fail
- What gets measured gets done – clearly if the systems are focussed on something other than the focus of your engagement strategy there is no incentive for the leadership team to change
Now we should all remember that change is hard, and it is scary for individuals, no matter what level of leadership. The other point is that just because someone has made it to a leadership role that does not mean that they have the skills to engage their teams. People generally learn from role models and whilst people might be technically brilliant at their role and achieve outstanding results they may not bring out the best in their teams.
Here a few ideas of how process can change behaviour and therefore achieve employee engagement at all levels:
- Focus on the leadership team and put in place a process for them to engage their teams. In one organisation the leadership team was unsupported of a new software system that was going to be introduced, and all communication with staff was left to the IT area. By making one simple change and requiring the business leaders to find out how the system will work and impact on their area they have the confidence to speak about it. Then put in place a simple format and support them in designing a brief presentation on the system to their teams. Like a sports team, one win and momentum and enthusiasm increases but you need to make sure that they feel “safe” about taking this step and don’t set them up to fail.
- Build on this momentum by identifying business decisions that need to be made and hold the leadership team accountable. Bottom line is that once they feel that they have ownership they will be more comfortable and confident talking about changes. By letting all team members know what is happening, what the focus is of the leadership team on the changes and what decisions they are focussing on will require the leadership team to come on board.
- Open communication channels so that team members feel confident to ask questions about changes and make sure you provide real answers. So again put in place a new process whether this is a dedicated email address, formalised team briefing process or regular change updates. Most importantly it is not only two way communication but across communication talking with their peers and conveying the merits of change.
Without change in process there is no formal reason why behaviours will or should change. The only way employee engagement at all levels will be achieved is when something in the way they reach decisions, do their work or are measured changes and requires them to behave differently. Change communication on its’ own will not achieve the level of employee engagement that brings about sustainable change.
Posted in Change Management, Employee Engagement | No Comments »
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
The greatest challenge any CEO faces with a new business strategy is getting traction. In terms of developing an engagement and change strategy, determing strategies for how to deal with leaders that publicly support the change but in reality don’t is the first issue you need to deal with.
Here are some reasons organizations fail to get traction with leaders and employees on business strategy and what to do about it.
1. A divided leadership team
2. Launch with huge fan fare then no messages on actual updates or achievement
3. Change fatigue – organizations that appear to constantly change direction
4. Organization has a poor track record in successfully sustaining change
5. Waiting too long to implement employee engagement strategies
So let’s tackle each point and identify some things we can do as employee engagement specialists to minimize the impact of these impediments to successfully implementing change.
A divided leadership team
One of the most overlooked aspects of change management is alignment of the leadership team with the new business strategy. One quick tip is to facilitate a session on how the successful implementation of change is largely dependent on a united leadership team. They need to understand their role in engaging employees in the change process and what employees will be looking for in terms of signs of support and commitment. This is the key message, whilst the leadership team may not all be in agreement, and it should be noted that they rarely are, they must be aligned. That is, they will give 100% commitment to the new strategy and what they need to communicate and do to engage their teams. This is important because the first thing employees look for is a divided leadership team to discredit the new strategy.
Launch with huge fan fare then no messages on actual updates or traction
Another important tip is to make sure that as the “expert” on change management you are able to convince the CEO and their executive team of your strategy. Often they are so excited that they tell you what they want in terms of employee communication and usually this involves major announcements and forums when they have finally reached alignment on the new business strategy. However the significant risk is that the time between the launch and the actual first visible achievement of some change is too long and employees begin to believe that change will never happen. Loss of credibility is an enormous risk for the leadership team when implementing change so you need to provide convincing reasons for your employee engagement approach. Drawing a timeline indicating the gaps between the launch and expected first actual achievement of a project milestone should be enough to convince any leadership team of the importance of taking a strategic approach to employee engagement.
Change fatigue – organizations that appear to constantly change direction
Leaders and employees become increasingly disengaged when they do not understand why the organization seems to continue to change direction on business strategy without giving the prior change strategy enough time to work. Often these are not new strategies but enhancements or the next progression of the original business strategy. When developing your employe engagement strategy you need to establish the links between each business strategy and be able to demonstrate to leaders and employees what these links are. The best way to do this is to design activities that engage employees in the process of change as it relates to them. There are many change strategies that you can implement that are focussed on activities that will ensure leaders and employees will finally say, “Aha, now I get it!”
Organization has a poor track record in successfully sustaining change
Employees have a long memory and if the organization has a poor track record of successfully sustaining change they will be quick to justify why they shouldn’t become engaged with this latest change in business strategy. Therefore part of the engagement strategy needs to include specific data and facts about what is different this time and how the changes being introduced will be sustained; reverting back to the “old ways” of doing things will not be possible. Where ever possible real examples that demonstrate the each step of implementation need to be communicated, not only emphasizing why employees can’t revert back to previous processes but also the benefits of the new changes.
Waiting too long to implement employee engagement strategies
Finally waiting too long to engage leaders and employees will also risk traction on business strategy. At the outset of any discussion of change in business strategy, the employee engagement expert needs to be involved to understand timeframes, key milestones and impact. It is only then that you can develop meaningful strategies that focus not just on information and key messages about what is happening and when; but also engagement strategies that focus on the individual and how the changes will impact them and the way they do their work. By implementing employee engagement strategies early on, rather than what most change strategies focus on which is information, employees will feel some ownership and connection to the new business strategy from the beginning.
Whenever an organization embarks on a new business strategy, whether for a division or the whole of organization, and this includes government departments, leaders and employees react in exactly the same way. There will be those groups that support the new strategy even without all the facts at hand, those that preach the mantra, “it will never happen” and those that wont support the strategy until they see some commitment and evidence that it will happen. The challenge for change managers is to focus on the leadership team first and develop a strategy to deal with each of these three groups.
I look forward to hearing more about how you have managed to ensure traction with new business strategy.
Tags: business strategy, Change Management, Employee Engagement
Posted in Change Management, Employee Communication, Employee Engagement, business strategy | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
If there is one issue that is constantly raised by clients and workshop attendees about employee communication it is what to do about senior managers that continue to block your attempts to communicate with employees in your organization.
There are many steps you can take to ensure that management understand the value of your employee communication strategies and why they should be supported. One of the biggest mistakes communicators make is assuming that senior management should surely know how to communicate face to face with their teams, after all that’s why they are in a management role. Wrong. Very few managers have formal training in communicating with their employees and running team meetings, maybe somewhere along the way they were taught how to communicate one on one, but to a large team, particularly communicating complex messages about change it is unlikely. So just handing them a power point presentation or a script is not going to work. And human nature being what it is, they will avoid delivering the message you have so carefully crafted or just mumble some general information about the team and the business without focussing on the real issue. When implementing a change communication strategy it is vital that all employees have face to face communication with some level of management. And this may be team members with team leaders, state managers with divisional heads, executive teams with their Company President or Chief Executive Officer. Regardless, all levels of management have to be part of the face to face change communication strategy for it to be effective.
Here are a few tips to consider when faced with this dilemma.
1. How can you make it easier for managers to communicate? Provide a sheet of key messages, meeting outline and allow them to talk to the key points using their own natural style.
2. Provide support – you can always volunteer someone from the communications team to be present at the meeting or have a communication champion to attend. Their role is to take notes on any questions that are raised that can’t be answered then and there and to “fill in the gaps” should the manager fail to stay on message.
3. Make sure that what you are asking them to communicate is clear, concise and not too long. A 15 minute meeting is much easier to get agreement to than a 1 hour meeting.
4. Provide each presenter with some tips on how to manage communicating and presenting to large groups – 5 key points – again don’t overwhelm them.
5. Finally you may wish to brief the management team at their regular meeting about what is required. It is highly unlikely that they will raise questions at the meeting so follow up with an email or phone call afterwards to ensure that they know what is required.
Most importantly, one of the key reasons management don’t communicate is because they don’t think that they are responsible for the change message, they think the communications team is. Clarifying the difference between everyone’s role and responsibility in communicating change is essential at the outset so there is clarity about what is involved. Face to face communication is uncomfortable for many people, just because someone is in a leadership position does not mean that they know what to do, they need coaching, they need simple clear messages, they need support and they need to understand how what they are requested to do fits into part of an overall change strategy.
I’m very keen to hear about the challenges you face with managers blocking the communication process and to share your solutions to this issue so I look forward to your comments.
Marcia
Posted in Change Management, Employee Communication | 3 Comments »
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
One of the critical factors that distinguish an organization from its competitors is the quality of service – the customer experience. Let’s take banks for example, basically they all offer exactly the same products, and at the same interest rates. So why do customers choose to deal with one bank over another and how can you be sure that your people will deliver the customer experience that keeps them coming back and recommends your organization to others.
Innovation: The smart companies during this economic downturn are using this time to engage employees in coming up with innovative ideas to set them apart from competitors when times turn good again. The key here it to examine customer satisfaction feedback and determine exactly which attributes customers value the most – for the banking sector it may well be convenience, friendly and helpful employees and ambiance of the branch. If this is the case then the focus is on how to think outside the square and offer convenience in banking over and above what competitors do, which may not be about hours but might be about location. Similarly with friendly and helpful employees – how well do you staff understand what the customer experience is like, have they tested it as a customer? And with regard to ambiance, are employees encouraged to become involved in design and facilities and comment on those little things that they have noticed would improve the customer experience?
It goes without saying that if you want to create a service culture you need to engage employees in the design of that culture. So how can you do this for the least cost but highest impact? One way is to form teams across divisions and levels, communities of interest that come up with innovative suggestions for improvements. Tap into employees’ collective knowledge about the customer experience, what they have noticed, what customers have complained about to them, some of the best research is not the survey that researches customer satisfaction but the comments made to employees during their actual encounters with the organization. If you take this information, divide it up into segments, pilot, evaluate and implement and then reward employees for their contribution you are well on the way to creating a culture focussed on service and not just focussed on turning up to work and not contributing.
An organizational culture will only change when you set up systemic practices that support the change. So you need to ensure the following is in place for to achieve optimum outcomes:
1. That managers and team leaders have specific accountabilities in encouraging new ideas from their teams and understand the concept of communities.
2. That a process is developed for selecting those ideas to improve the customer experience that can be implemented as a pilot.
3. The evaluation process is determined against business results and that successful ideas ARE implemented.
4. Employees are rewarded for those innovative ideas that customers truly value - the reward system may not be about money – it might be about dinner with the Executive team – therefore again reinforcing the culture of having access to people who make the final decisions and that innovation in customer service is valued.
5. Finally the communication strategy needs to focus on the success of the program and continually reinforce the positive impact on the customer experience and business outcomes.
So something to think about, how are your strategies in employee engagement and change management encouraging employees to make a positive impact on the customer experience and create a service culture?
Looking forward to hearing about the strategies you are implementing.
Posted in Change Management, Employee Engagement | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
 Energising a change fatigued workforce is one of the hardest things to do in change management. It is so much more than team building events and celebrations and more and more communication. Most change communication focuses on information about what changes will occur, when, by whom and so on. This doesn’t inspire anyone, fails to energise and above all it creates apprehension about the unknown and the impact on employees. After all the most important take away from all change communication for employees is what’s in it for me. And despite the fact that you may have organised road shows, CEO blogs, email notices, staff meetings about the changes; until an employee experiences that change for them it is still the unknown because they have not had to deal with it.
So let’s examine some of the lost cost but highly effective strategies you can implement to energise your workforce and inspire them to do their best at work by looking at a few case studies.
In this instance we are looking at a car manufacturing plant. Whilst this is an old story about energising employees the principles remain the same. The Saturn Motor Company in the USA was after many years coming out of, yes you guessed it budget cuts, a poor economy, sliding car sales. Employees were proud of the company they worked for, but were fatigued and tired of hearing of new visions for the company and strategic reviews. The company decided to hold a three day event for customers and staff and they called it “The Saturn Homecoming.” The rest of the story is incredible, not only for the way it energised employees but also the fact that thousands of customers drove all over America to learn more about how their car was made and because they felt connected. I have attached a link to a brief video overview; the story is one to be seen to be believed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHpSsf9AeJU&feature=related
Another completely different case study is one I worked on focussed on energising a workforce again going through budget cuts and changes in strategic direction. The organisation was moving to new premises from old tired offices, the IT systems were changing completely as was the way employees would be managing the customer experience. And we needed to do this quickly with nine new competitors in one year. We brought the new office design and fit out to employees, in their current work environment so they could touch and feel the difference. Then we developed a simulated team environment, with computer screens trying to explain the different workflows and impact on the customer experience. This is very different from taking people out of their office environment to a room on another floor to show what the new office will look like and how we will work as teams. People need to be able to compare, and most importantly experience the difference.
Now I know some of you will say with regard to the Saturn story that good times don’t last, absolutely, there will be economic booms and busts as there will be changes in CEO’s and the focus of executive teams. But this topic is how to deal with the here and now, how to energise a workforce and connect the journey and the vision of the organisation.
Please let me know your experiences of energising change fatigued employees and what has worked.
Posted in Change Management, Employee Communication | 2 Comments »
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
 When you think about the millions of dollars your organization spends each year on IT programs of work, wouldn’t it be prudent knowing that employees actually understand and most importantly embrace the reason behind the changes?
If your approach to technological change is new skills training and employee communication strategies that include stakeholder management (translated briefings), intranet and email updates that’s not managing change, rather it is focussed on information. So what is the difference and why do we need to do anything more than provide information.
IT systems are not introduced for the sake of a new system itself, they are introduced because there are benefits to be realised from a business management perspective. This may include more information on customer profiles and identifying other products or services they may be interested in purchasing, they may focus on back office systems such as greater information for human resources management or accounting or they may focus on the supply chain and logisitics. Whatever the reason there is a business reason for change and this is what employees need to understand if the full benefits of any system implementation is going to be realised.
Let’s look at an example. This financial services organisation was introducing a new back office system. In the past employees worked in separate divisions so customers were transferred from one area to another to process their request. The new system meant that all of the customer details were now available to employees and that they would now work in teams and “own” the customer from the commencement to end of transaction. It was a complete system and work style change so before specific system training was introduced a simulated work area was established and employees were taken through the customer experience. It was important that they understood the benefits to the customer looking at the changes through the eyes of the customer. This way we created the “Aha” moment, employees got the message better than any intranet, information session or email bulletin could have conveyed it. And when employees went into system training they clearly understood the benefits and business reasons behind the changes.
So as change professionals, can we take the same approach to managing system changes and apply it to every new implementation? The answer is clearly no because as every organisation’s culture is different, so it follows that every approach to change management and employee communication must be different to maximise the investment and potential of the system changes that are implemented.
Look forward to your comments.
Marcia
Posted in Change Management | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 13th, 2009
Everywhere you look these days the focus in Human Resources and Employee Communication is managing change within organizations. But most of these programs fail to achieve their objectives. During bad economic times the focus is usually on providing coaching to understand the emotions people go through during change, helping employees deal with the complex emotions of watching colleagues leave, communication strategies the utilise management hierarchies to communicate face to face with their teams on what is happening next in organizational restructures and so on.
The reason why this does not work is because the focus is on managing fear, not change. And this is why managers don’t follow through with the key messages and face to face discussions with their teams that you have so cleverly crafted. Yes.. I know that “studies” show that employees trust their immediate manager or supervisor more than anyone in the organization. Therefore it must follow that if you are designing a communication and change strategy focused on organizational restructures and downsizing the smart thing to do would be to utilize them as a key part of your face to face strategy.
Wrong. This is not the way to approach change during these times. Think about it. Here you have an entire organization paralysed with fear. Budget cuts all around, negative media speculation, no one is secure. And the only person who really knows what is being planned is the CEO. Is it any wonder, when you give a script for managers and supervisors to communicate to staff, their teams ask what’s going to happen with our jobs, and the manager or supervisor in the spirit of trust and honesty says, “I don’t know, I don’t even know what is going happen to me.” So this is why you need to take a different approach to face to face communication during these times.
I mentioned in my previous blog the need to focus the organization on growth and innovation strategies and thereby give specific accountabilities to managers and supervisors. During this time, whilst trying to balance negative news as well, your face to face strategy needs to utilise the CEO and not only at town hall forums. Here’s an example of a strategy I implemented during another “bad” economic time, when the organization had 9 new competitors in one year. The CEO met with each of the state managers of the business divisions individually. He explained to them honestly the reality of the situation and why he had to rely on them. He gave them specific requests of what he wanted from them and they in return delivered and stepped up and managed in some instances the total closure of state offices in true leadership style. We then held “Business Reality” workshops for one day in each state which all managers and supervisors attended. The CEO was present at each and shared with them real business data related to their state operations and the issues facing the organization and asked for their input in coming up with options and innovative ideas to grow the business.
The outcome was that despite going through extensive downsizing, restructures and everyone having to reapply for new roles, the business grew by 25% in that year. Obviously the strategy I designed was far more detailed than outlined above, but the purpose of this blog is share why I think managers and supervisors are not the best face to face communicators during times of change.
Posted in Change Management | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
My interest in employee communication is to distinguish between the tools communicators use that inform and those strategies that engage employees and therefore impact business outcomes. The concern is that there seems to be confusion in the market place where roles are advertised for ‘Change Managers” when the organization is really looking for an internal communication professional not a change practitioner.
So what’s the difference?
Well clearly both information and engagement tools are important. An internal communication professional focuses on tools to impart information and in some cases create dialogue including:
- the corporate intranet
- staff information bulletins
- emails
- providing information for managers to brief their teams face to face
- organising staff forums for the CEO
- briefing kits for supervisors and team leaders
Whilst all of this activity is important and provides the support that employees need to find out what is happening. But, and it is an important distinction, so what if you tell people what is happening, will it change their attitude and therefore change their behaviour? In my experience which is across many sectors, industries, professional roles and all types of change programs I have to say no. And this is the problem, when a CEO and senior executive team think “change” will happen because they have hired someone to communicate the changes taking place and then when there is no impact on the business or the outcomes they were looking for they are disappointed.
Think of it this way. Smokers buy a packet of cigarettes, the health warnings are featured on the packet and yet we see intelligent, literate people continue to smoke, packet after packet. The only time they truly become engaged in changing their attitude toward smoking and therefore behaviour is when they are in the doctors office and are personally facing a health risk. And then Aha! they finally get it.
So how do we use this analogy when we are tying to communicate change? Let’s look at this example. An organization wants to communicate the financial results to employees and the usual approach is to post the employee annual report on the intranet. But this time they need to do something different, they want employees to understand why the company needs to improve and what shareholders base their decisions on. So they decided to run free lunchtime information sessions for their employees on how to invest in the share market and held them for one hour each week for four weeks. The topics progressed from understanding the share market, categories of companies listed etc till the final week they examined annual reports. So in this final session they were reviewing annual reports and came to the last one for the session and after reading through the data the question was asked of employees, so who would invest in this company, few put their hands up. And you guessed it, the company was their company and with a collective Aha! the employees finally got the message.
As in this instance, a large transformation program including HR, training and operational initiatives was developed to build on this. What I hope is that this posting illustrates that whilst information is important, change professionals need to focus on the Aha! moments and engage their employees in the process of change.
Posted in Change Management | 2 Comments »
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