5 Steps to Positive People Transformation

People transformation. It’s a term we use without thinking. It’s funny how when you do or say something regularly it can lose its meaning.?It happens when we repeatedly look at the same view, travel the same journey, meet the same people on say a regular commute (what’s that these days?!). We become numb to the nuances of our environment. ?Shifting our physical position, however, can change the view that is in front of us - it adjusts the angle, perhaps increasing the scale and scope of what we can see. Sometimes deliberately shifting our perspective can help to reveal new insights or help us to reconnect.?

Getting a new perspective

So, let’s change the view here slightly by just swapping those words around so that we are now focusing not on People Transformation, but instead on ‘Transforming People’?

Imagine launching a new programme and communicating it to your team with the opening words: “We are looking forward to telling you all about our new programme where we will be transforming people!” No doubt such an introduction might raise a few eyebrows and probably voices …. "Excuse me? Transforming people into what?", "I’m not sure I want to be transformed? That sounds a bit drastic!!”

Actually, this new lens tells us all we ever needed to know about the most important thing to consider when engaging teams in a transformational programme – it can be scary, unnerving stuff for those on the receiving end!

So, how do we mitigate the fear which presents as resistance ( and which we have probably felt ourselves at times) and bring everyone on the journey? Well, you will be pleased to know it may only take 5 key steps to make a significant difference.

?The 5 steps to Positive People Transformation

Step 1:????????????????Understand

So, you follow Stephen Covey’s advice and ‘begin with the end in mind’ (Habit #2). You know where the organisation needs to get to, you do a deep discovery, you recognise where the gaps are, you carefully plan the approach and then you launch the programme with great aplomb! And then that bubble, which was fit to burst with excitement as you envisaged the end outcomes and the new positive impact for both the organisation and its people, slowly but surely begins to deflate as the masses mutter and mither and ‘melancholize’ (no it’s not a word but maybe it should be?!). Why don’t they get it?! Why don’t they just ‘get with the programme?’

Well, as it turns out for this particular context, whilst you may be thinking 'the future is bright', they are thinking - 'the future is yours', and certainly not theirs. And that’s the sobering problem. So often we spend so much time planning for the future, we forget to remember the here and now. ?We consider the journey and the end state, but do we really think about the beginning? Their beginning? How they might be feeling on the back of relentless change? relentless ‘asks’ on them to be 'resilient'? To accept one initiative after another driven with great gusto but then dropped like a hot potato or slowly exorcised out of the BAU 'playbook'? The simple key here is, by all means we need to 'begin with the end in mind' but we also need to do our homework first, really understand not just where the people in our organisation are now – but where they were, only very recently. Use the benefit of hindsight to plan the transformation – or carry on regardless and don’t be surprised when not everyone shares our enthusiasm!

?Step 2:????????????????Involve

Notice I use the word 'involve' rather than 'engage'. To engage (if you check out dictionary definitions) actually means to 'attract' or to 'participate'. Typically, when we are motivated to participate or 'attracted' to an idea (or indeed a person!), we recognise a connection or perhaps that there is 'something in it for us'. The only way we can know that is by being part of the journey from the start, involved in the discovery, the discussion, and the debate.

Too often organisations 'involve' the very people most impacted by the 'change' when the deal is done, the ink is dry and it's way too late to change tack. No wonder so often they are met with resistance and dis-engagement. It's like expecting you to be excited about a new intense 'spin' class at the gym when you are more of a relaxed yoga type guy or gal!

Steps 1 and 2, 'understanding and involving', go hand in hand. I once read a quote, "if it doesn’t involve you, it shouldn’t concern you!" ?It meant something different for the context in which it was written, but actually, makes so much sense here. Unless you 'involve' people, they will not be 'concerned' (or engaged) with what is 'concerning' the organisation.

?Step 3:????????????????Listen

'Listen' or 'hear'? I'd like to suggest that organisations are often great at 'hearing' but that 'listening' is a whole different art form often rarely practiced. Hearing is passive. It happens in spite of you, despite you, irrespective of you. Interestingly the only way the brain can cope with the masses of information and 'noise' it is constantly flooded with is to focus on what's important and tune out the rest. Unfortunately, because organisations don't always follow Steps 1 and 2, they 'hear' the 'noise' but don’t ‘actively listen’ to it. In fact, it may surprise you to know that we don’t even need the 'active' adverb to help us out here. According to dictionary .com to listen means to: 'attend', 'take notice', 'tune in', 'concentrate' and even to?'take notice of and act on what someone says'!

And of course, to 'listen', you need something to listen 'to'? – cue Steps 1 and 2…….

?(And for those who enjoy the science check out Michael Halassa’s work with the McGovern institute ?Cognitive Neuroscience - MIT McGovern Institute or his ground-breaking sensory control research Prefrontal Cortex Regulates Sensory Filtering)

?Step 4:????????????????Respond

Listening in and of itself is of course only of value if something happens on the back of it. So even listening as opposed to being 'active' has the potential to be ‘inert’.

So taking action, or more specifically re-acting (taking action 'in response' to a stimulus), is what’s needed. And when it comes to artfully managing People Transformation, where does the stimulus come from? Well, when People Transformation is done badly, it comes as a reaction, often knee-jerk, to that 'muttering, mithering and melancholy' already referred to in Step 1.

When it's done well it is of course the natural response to Steps 1,2 and 3.

?Rather than happening during or after the transformation process, the response ‘informs’ the process. It precedes the process. It fundamentally ‘founds’ the process.

No – forget all of that - the response IS the process. That is – the transformational design is dependent on the combined insights drawn from these first 3 vital steps. Get those right and you’ve nailed it!! Everyone’s happy. Everyone’s ‘attracted’ to the process and the proposition and truly ‘engaged’. Well, they are for now!

Enter the final and most important step!

?Step 5:????????????????Learn

Apparently, Socrates once said: "true wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us". Now you would think if you had completed Steps 1 to 4, then surely, it’s enough?

The key here is that yes, it’s enough for now. For today. But what about a few weeks into your carefully constructed and considered People Transformation programme?

The challenge here is that transformation isn't a 'one and done' process. It's 'alive'. To transform is to shift and alter - it's not binary. People don’t start the transformation at one point and just suddenly switch to the new state in the middle or at the end. ?So, before we pat ourselves on the back for ticking all the boxes or completing the steps, we may benefit from a quick reminder that whilst Confucius may have said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", you can guarantee that the person taking that journey had a map, or knew how to read the stars i.e. they knew how to stay on track.

Human-centred design

?In the case of People Transformation, this is critical. Just because it has started well doesn’t mean it will end well. Taking the opportunity to continually learn through the process, flexing and adapting iteratively to ensure a positive transformation outcome is secured, is key.

We can learn a thing or two here from 'design thinking'. In fact in many ways the '5 Steps to Positive People Transformation' have a lot in common with its principles i.e the combined power of empathy, invention, and iteration. It is this final principle which is vital. The iteration is informed by a powerful 'act, plan, do, review' cycle of learning repeated multiple times throughout the process, deepening the understanding and empathy of the customer need, and constantly enabling the flexing, adapting, and evolving of the solution.

?Human-centred design thinking has been responsible for many great inventions and success stories – Airbnb, UberEats and Tesla to name just a few. Millions if not billions of pounds are squandered each year through transformational programmes failing to provide the benefits they were designed to achieve, and research suggests this is mainly down to a lack of understanding and empathy.

Empathy is not only key to 'design thinking' but also to the 5 Steps. Simply by following these we are offered with an opportunity to re-think the way in which we approach 'transforming people', supporting not only a positive journey, but effecting lasting change and true transformation.