Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups

This is one of my favourite movie quotes. It comes from a pretty average film ‘Under Siege 2’, probably not one many have watched. In the film, one of the henchmen presumes the hero is dead and is challenged by his boss – ‘Did you see the body?’ when he says he didn’t but there was blood everywhere, the boss utters these immortal words.

And how right was the boss? Spot on in my view and they could easily have been talking about what happens day in, day out. For me, it’s particularly evident in the world of change and improvement and stems from many different types of assumptions being made leading to a less than ideal results.

These assumptions can all be avoided by taking simple and effective steps. The challenge is always to put the steps in place. So, what are the assumptions that I have found most common when delivering improvement and change? 

Number one on my hit-list is the assumption we are all talking about getting to the same place 

Comments like ‘ I’m not sure where this is heading’, ‘I don’t know what this all means for me’, ‘the manager gave us a presentation on it but I can’t remember too much’ can be all too common from the outset. Even at senior level, while it’s a challenge to ensure everyone understands and can fully articulate the direction and why we are heading there, it’s absolutely critical. 

So, what can we do better as agents of change and improvement to remove the room for f*** ups? For me, two things:

1. Create a tangible and meaning vision and clear direction for everyone. That’s not one size fits all but a tailored approach to the audience. Better still, have a two-way dialogue and encourage them to share what they think 
2. Communicate often and in different ways, people will think and reflect (and forget) so keep checking in and reminding them of where you want to get to. Mix up how you do it; informal chats in the workplace, small groups, large groups, sometimes to listen and learn, others to remind and re-emphasise messages.

Coming in at number two, the assumption we all really want to go there

Most projects, programmes or improvement initiatives start either with an intention to make things better or are based on a good idea. In most organisations it is unusual to get open challenge to a new project or programme or even introducing proposed changes or improvements particularly once someone supports the idea. To raise an alternative view introduces the potential for conflict which we tend to have a desire to avoid, this can be particularly evident when things ‘come from the top’. Equally, I’m sure we’ve all heard the classic phrase ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’ and it comes to mind, front and centre here. Add this to the belief that most people dislike change and we have a recipe to lose buy in. Often what’s worst is that it’s not shared or encouraged, and it can create ‘saboteurs’ who actively or passively disrupt the change.

To tackle this, I suggest two things:

1. Understand what is important to those involved and the impact on them. Use this insight to inform how you engage and work with people. An exercise like capturing peoples hopes and fears and then checking in on them throughout can be a big win. Link what you are doing back to what they have said they want as often as you can. Don’t forget the humble change curve too, it really helps people see that it’s ok to feel how they do.
2. Make some quick changes if you can. Nothing builds credibility like seeing positive changes that link together what is important to people with the direction we are going in. My personal favourite goes back nearly 20 years and was a simple as getting the post room team a portable phone so they could take calls whilst working. Really simple, super quick and they thought is was amazing and proceeded to tell the whole office – credibility raised for the whole project for ￡20 outlay.

At number 3, the assumption that we all see the situation with the same perspective. 

One of the most valuable lessons I learned is that perception is reality. This is very relevant when working within improvement or change. I suspect everyone of us has had a conversation, delivered a pitch or presentation or something similar and have been surprised (or much stronger thoughts) that the audience either doesn’t get it or worse disagrees with what we’ve said. We feel it even more acutely when we have lots of evidence to back it up. Our problem is we haven’t fully tuned into their perspective and therefore haven’t connected to what’s important to them.  Often this comes down to the evidence itself, particularly when too much emphasis is placed on data and logic or feelings and thoughts. Both are valid data, one is quantitative data and the other is qualitative, and it is about understanding the balance needed to engage and influence your audience. 

We also need to reflect how perceptions and perspectives are now developing. Social media has created a dynamic where, in some cases, we have lost the ability to separate opinions and facts. Even more challenging is what I see as growing inability to recognise that it is ok to have different opinions and still create a way forward. Equally there appears to be real issues in knowing that it is ok to change your opinion, particularly when faced with facts or knowledge that contradict it.

What can we do about this? Two things from me:

1. Get to know your audience and stakeholders if you can, particularly what tends influences their decisions. If you can’t, for example in an initial pitch, then look to balance how you present across thoughts and feelings and data and logic. We all have our own tendencies, I tend to be more logical and data focused, so use others to challenge that you aren’t presenting with a bias to your own preference
2. Make sure you are clear between what is and isn’t opinion. Be open and say when it is your opinion or view. Check with others whether what they have said is an opinion or has supporting evidence. Good open questions show interest and inquisitive such as ‘what makes you say that or what can you share that supports that/what you just shared?

The 4th assumption I see is everyone knows what they are doing and has the skills and capabilities to get things done.

The improvement and change world is constantly creating different ways of doing things. These new ways require people to work, think and behave differently (at least if they are doing it right!) which often creates a skills or capability gap that needs to be closed. In my experience, the assumption everyone knows what they are doing is magnified by a lack of vulnerability and humility.

Firstly, it is rare to find organisations where people feel comfortable to say they don’t know how to do something. I’ve found it a significant issue in professional services environments where reputation and expertise is seen as massively important whereas vulnerability is seen as a weakness. However, this is not unique to those environments it happens everywhere. So, people can deliberately hide the knowledge gaps.

Even when the gap is acknowledged, how often do we hear ‘don’t worry if pretty much the same as before’ or ‘you’ll pick it up quickly’? Anyone thinking about the Dunning-Kruger effect where a little knowledge can create over-confidence. This works from both the perspective of those delivering the change (it’s low impact, pretty much BAU…. Etc) and those expected to change (We know what we’re doing, just let us work it out for ourselves…etc). Overall a lack of humility, failing to recognise that we all have something to learn

There are a couple of things a good improvement and change practitioner can do to mitigate these:

1. Create a deep understanding of the current situation and the skills, capabilities, tools and techniques that will be needed to make the transition to where you are going. Develop a baseline position early on and review throughout. Use the experts such as training teams, IT teams, the people doing the work to broaden out information sources and get them engaged in solving the challenge.
2. Tackle the ‘cultural’ barriers. A great tip is to focus on change and improvement as being led through learning. It’s about learning a new and better way that increases expertise rather than a reflection of past limitations. Add this to engaging with the people affected directly and early in any change activity to make it their change not yours then you can avoid the assumption tripping you up later on. I also take a cynical view that vulnerability and humility is absent until proven otherwise. 

And the last of my top 5 in the assumption chart, everyone has the confidence to do things differently to get there.

Anyone experienced those projects where everything is in place and then…. nothing really happens or changes. People are slow to adopt the new ways of working or even worse are trying to find out how to do it the old way again. It could be any one or all the previous assumptions at work but even having mitigated these it can still happen. In my mind, this is the final and often critical piece of the jigsaw where we want people to work, act, think or behave differently and no-one want to take the first step. I often compare it to a wedding dance floor where no-one wants to lead the way and be first. However, once they do then people will follow because they see it as being ok to display those new things the change needs. 

So, what can we do? It comes to two things:

1. Setting the expectation amongst the leadership to role model the new ways expected. They have a couple of vital roles. Firstly, is visible leadership of the change explaining what is expected and building confidence. This includes creating a safe environment where mistakes are expected and accepted. As the change happens, spending time asking questions to learn and understand how it’s going, what’s working and what’s not and continuing to do this on an ongoing basis not just on launch day. After all, it’s their change as much as anyone’s.
2. Within all organisations, in departments and teams there those who can and do influence the people around them. A good improvement practitioner will seek out these and engage them in the same way as all other stakeholders to help make the change happen. By working with and developing these ‘champions’ of the change we create the potential for peer role modelling and many other engagement and communication benefits. When done well, they even adopt the change as theirs and take the lead. One thing we need to avoid though is thinking the most vocal (often negative) is the necessarily the opinion former. Take time to identify who the team or department respects and genuinely listens to rather than those who make the most noise.

To reduce the potential to f*** up in your change or improvement activity watch out for my top 5 and consider some of the possible solutions. 

As a short summary

Listen. Listen and when you’re done listening, listen again.

Learn continually about what is happening now and therefore what needs to change.

Lead the change through engaging those people involved.

Good luck