After Corporate Changes; are you still a fit?

Whenever some kind of organizational change happens, both employers and employees can experience an unexpected “crisis of confidence.” Whether the change is a merger, upgraded software system, marketplace positioning, new CEO—here’s what emerges:

• Suddenly and mysteriously, people don’t feel quite as talented and capable as before.

• At the same time, the organization is wondering where its talented people went.

The real fact: no one suddenly got stupid!

Second fact: Something else will now need to change.

You or Them?

When you were hired it was a good fit because of how business was conducted. Now it doesn’t seem that way. Here are some considerations when companies and employees find themselves in a talent mismatch as a result of changes:

1. Companies: Take time to re-assess the breadth of talent that exists in your employee base. You may not have been using the range of talents that individuals possess because you (naturally) hired them against a given set of criteria.

Real-life example: In the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to assess three executives who were on the, “We’ve changed, their role isn’t needed anymore, I guess they have to go even though they’ve been really effective” list. In two of the three cases a broader assessment showed that they were gifted in areas that hadn’t been tapped into before. Those two remain with their organizations in new roles and are contributing meaningfully and productively.

2. Individuals. Maybe it isn’t such a good fit. The faster you figure out the reality of the situation the faster you can make a decision to stay or look elsewhere.

Important Tip: The longer you hang out in a mismatch the more you will question your adequacy. So, knock it off! You are talented and you’ve been performing in a talented way. The situation changed, not you. Get yourself into another winning situation before you conclude that the problem is you.

Driving Change

Nobody likes change and some of us hate it. As a leader, your job is to get others to want to change. I remember when I had a Palm as my smart phone and tried to transition to a blackberry. Didn’t work for me. My husband suggested an iPhone, I wasn’t even going there. However, when I needed to upgrade, he bought me an iPhone and gave it to me as I was boarding an airplane for a business trip. I went a little crazy, but I had several hours to play with it on my flight without any pressure and I knew I would return it when I got back, but, I began to see the value it offered. I learned to use it and have loved it since.

Getting others especially other leaders to open up to change is hard. You have to help them understand what’s in it for them, because suddenly you are changing something in their very comfortable lives. They are going to resist and find every reason to point out that your conclusions and recommendations for change are wrong. If you want change to happen, you have to help them understand that change is in their best interest. Show them you are trying to drive results or metrics they care about. Help them understand that they stand to benefit from the changes you are recommending.

Here’s an example of what I mean: When I was part of a large call center, there were very different sets of metrics that people received incentives on. There was the call center, which was receiving incentives based on operational efficiency. They were rewarded for how many calls they were handling an hour, their abandon rate, their customer service scores, and how many dollars were they collecting while they were on the phone (it was a credit card collections call center). On the other side of the fence, there were people like me who were looking at the long-term customer satisfaction and retention. Sometimes we were advocating for treatments in the call center that met short-term operational goals but missed the long-term goals. The leaders in the call center wanted their teams to get you on the phone and say “you owe us $100. Please pay now.” All they wanted to do (and what they received incentives for) was to get you to say “yes, I will pay you,” take a payment, and then get off the phone and move on to the next one as quickly as possible.

My team was concluding that the long-term value was building a relationship with the customer and understanding their financial situation. If we better understood how we could help the customer and what his long-term goals were, we found those accounts were more profitable than others. The operational effect of this approach, however, was that those phone calls started getting longer and longer and longer.

In the short-term we were messing up the call center’s metrics, but long-term building a more profitable relationship with the customer. What we had to do was sit down with the call center leaders, and help them understand the long-term behavior we were trying to drive. We had to explain why it was in the best interest of the broader organization and of the company as a whole. We were pretty up front with the call center leaders and we told them we understood how we were going to mess up their metrics. We knew if we wanted to achieve the long-term changes that drove profitability we had to blow up our call center operating efficiency metrics.

We as leaders knew if we wanted to make those changes happen, we had to be willing to stand side-by-side with that call center leader in front of their boss and ask that boss for relief on those operating metrics. He had to say “if you want to make a change that’s good for the long-term business, this is going to be bad for the short-term for operating metrics. We need you to change the operating metrics incentive plan.” As soon as those call center leaders knew we were willing to go to bat for them and they weren’t going to get penalized on their personal incentives, they were much more willing to support the changes.

In the end, we made the changes, changed the incentive plan, and improved the overall profitability of the business. If you want to get other leaders to change, you have to be willing to stand side-by-side with them. You have to help make their case for change and do what you can to protect their interests while simultaneously pursuing your own. When you partner with others in change, change can actually happen.

Communicating Change

Image via Wikipedia

Whether it’s telling employees that there will be no increases for the third year in a row or dare I say it health insurance changes are going to take place, there seems to be no break in the information that needs to be communicated to employees.

So, if employees expect constant change, why do they take it so hard? Because when it comes to communicating changes to employees, companies don’t do it very well.

It’s not that companies don’t care or don’t try; it’s just that when you are dealing with decisions that affect human value systems, emotions run high. In those situations, it’s hard to get the right message through. Good communication, then, becomes the dynamite that breaks down those barriers. And it’s what employees want most in times of change.

Employees want and need to trust the management of their organization. Work is still a place of structure for people, and when that reliability is shaken, when things change, there is a natural anxiety. Keeping workers in the loop is essential to keeping their trust.

If you know there are going to be a number of changes in the company, it’s much better to let employees know as much as you can as soon as you can. Prepare them. If you are going to be changing benefits, don’t just cut one, and then a few months later reduce another, and then a month later make changes to a third.

The slow drip approach tends to create more anxiety and a sense of mistrust in employees. So, what happens is, not only are you telling people they are losing a benefit they have come to expect, but you are also creating an expectation of ‘Oh, what’s next?’ It ends up building up levels of dissatisfaction that spill over into productivity.

Many times the organization doesn’t know all the details or have all the answers, but if communication has been up-front and honest, employees generally have more confidence in management’s ability to work through the change effectively.   It’s imperative, however, that you give them specific time frames for when and how they will receive more information.

Certainly, companies sometimes have excellent reasons for withholding information. For instance, public companies may be under specific disclosure requirements for announcements such as mergers or layoffs. The key is to let the information flow as soon as you can.

Another key to providing good communications, especially during times of transition or change is to develop a communication strategy before you need it.  A guideline for communicating different types of information with your employees. This reduces the anxiety of deciding how and what to communicate and allows you to focus on getting the right information out at the right time.  Remember, if you don’t provide a place for employees to get information, rumor mills will fill the void.

“Change is inevitable, Progress is a choice.”

Dean Lindsey, author of “The Progress Challenge was recently interviewed by Miri McDonald, an expert of organizational development and strategic communications. Dean’s book adds a fresh perspective on change management. When asked to talk more about the concept behind his motto, “Change is inevitable, Progress is a choice.” Dean explained.

It’s natural to view change as negative. Nobody wants their change managed. No one plans to change. We plan to progress. We want to make things better. Companies usually focus on telling people what needs to be done, but not why or how it will be progress. Involve your team in progress not just process. How did Dean arrive at the “6 Ps of Progress?” I was studying the works of many of the world’s top minds on motivation and commitment. I became very interested in Viktor Frankl’s work, the founder of Logotherapy. I came to the conclusion that people make decisions on emotions and back it up with logic. In other words, everything we do is because we believe, consciously or subconsciously, that the projected consequences of those actions will be us feeling the right mix of six core feelings:

• Peace of mind • Pleasure • Profit • Prestige • Pain Avoidance • Power

How can organizations make use of the “The Progress Challenge,” especially if there has been a negative history with change?

• Get to know your team member’s parameters of progress. Really connect with people where they are, in emotion and in feeling. Have an open dialogue that leads to true consensus and commitment. Some people are amazing progress leaders, and there are others who haven’t taken team members’ parameters of progress into account. Then they wonder why initiatives don’t get implemented.

• Maximize your personal potential. Meaning, look sharp both mentally and physically. Make yourself attractive to other people so they see you as a positive force.

• Cherish and cultivate constructive communication.

• Help others choose to feel positive about their work and lives.

• Be human and humane.

• Share expertise.

The “Parameters of Progress.” is really looking at each person’s perspective on the 6Ps. What would bring each person the most pleasure, peace of mind, profit, prestige, power and pain avoidance? What are their goals? What do they want out of life? If leaders take time to learn about how their team members would answer these questions, they could show how the change is progress for them.

What does it mean to “Be Progress”?

Team members need to feel that you are progress long before something needs to be done differently. Sometimes people confuse being progress with making progress. People want to make progress. But you must be progress in the minds of those you wish to propel into positive action. Initiatives must be positioned as progress and not change. Not just by saying it but by showing how the progress will lead to the right mixture of their 6Ps. This will lead to more confidence in the company and when something new comes up, people won’t be as resistant to it. Help people find progress in the change. You can’t control what happens to you but you can control your reaction to it. People need help finding the progress or how they can create it for themselves.