Change… It’s a people thing!

There are so many cliches that exist about change, and so much discussion about it, that after a while it almost becomes “background” noise… a constant that we’re all aware off, experience most of the time… and just try to get through.? And as you’d expect, the pace of change isn’t going to… well change anytime soon.

Articles around generative AI, social change, environmental change are a plenty, and if there’s one thing that ties groups together, it tends to be the ones who can foster the power of change and succeed.

The failure rates of change are the same as they were years ago, which suggests that as a collective, we’ve not improved in our ability to deal with change.

Why?? Why is change so hard to achieve? Well…because it’s natural to resist change!? As human beings we’re programmed to avoid risk, to keep ourselves safe and in modern times, change can be perceived as a significant risk.? Someone once described to me how our brains are the ultimate masters of paranoia… constantly scanning our environment for potential risks, things that could threaten our safety and security.? And what’s even more of a challenge, is most of the time this “scanning for risk” is an unconscious act… we don’t even know it’s happening!

So how do we deal with something that we know is happening, even when we don’t think it is?

Well, if you want to beat the change stats, yes of course we need to make sure that change projects are scoped and clear, with roles and responsibilities mapped out and resources allocated correctly… and blah blah blah…? The reality is, where you’ll succeed at change is by taking a very human approach to it!

In 3 recent projects taking a human approach to change has helped enormously. ?Change was given a higher chance of success by spotting “people issues”… or should we say opportunities early, way before anything went wrong and way before the change programmes actually started!

Scenario 1 – Merger and acquisition

The request was to help train a team of people to sell an amazing new range of products that were now available to them post being acquired.? In the minds of the powers that be, quite rightly, they saw opportunity.? The opportunity to give their teams more ammunition to beat the competition, exciting new things to talk to customers about and a giant of a new parent company to back things up.? Our investigations showed that 90% were showing barriers to this change.? It made no sense to train people if fundamentally there were barriers to what the business wanted them to do.? What’s more, as realized by one of the leaders, some of those resistors were in fact in the all-important Management Team, the very group expected by the board to support the change and make it happen.

Scenario 2 – Proposition transformation

A company we’ve worked with for many years, and genuinely we have a deep-rooted affinity to, have and continue to be on a never-ending journey of change… all for the right reasons and good intent, and all in line with the strategy.? So why in the past has change been so difficult and its impact compromised?? The analysis showed again that it’s the people side of things that were holding change back.? Not only were there significant numbers of people showing some level of resistance to change but once again, that all important middle management being the biggest barriers and hence opportunity to unlock things!? Almost 100% of this critical group of people showed some level of resistance including change fatigue, a lack of confidence, and even the mentality of … “don’t worry, it will be something different next week!”.? All these factors meant barriers existed but weren’t visible!

Scenario 3 – Changing of Roles

For one group, what a change that seemed like a no brainer businesswise, involved making a team of inbound customer service people into a team who could also cross and upsell.? Simple right?? And makes sense, right?? These were committed people, who knew customers on a first name basis, and knew the product range better than most other people in the business.? Yet all but 1 of the team showed resistance to becoming a 2-way commercial team rather than a 1-way customer service team!? Luckily for this organisation, by taking the time to look at the human side of things first, they managed to avoid a catastrophe, and based on the analysis, reevaluated their thinking and found a better solution!

So, what are the key messages around change!? Well, my advice would be the following four points!

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1.?????? Be Paranoid and assume change will fail! Don’t be negative, just be realistic, and before making the ongoing mistake of assuming that because you are up for it… everyone else must be too… assume that they’re not.? And assume that you will have to work really hard to move them from being resistors of change to advocates and champions of change!

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2.?????? Check In before you start! There is no point trying to convince people of change when they’re already in it!? That’s like trying to convince someone who’s scared of heights that all will be fine to do a parachute jump when you’ve already pushed them out of the plane!? The deployment of change starts before you begin to deliver change and if you can get people into a better place before you ask them to do things, you’ll be more likely to succeed!

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3.?????? Over index support with your Middle Managers!? These people play an almost impossible role in change… they’re expected to be the “deliverers of change” for the top leadership, getting the masses to go forth with commitment and valor, yet what is nearly always missed is the fact that this very group who are expected to enable the masses are just as human as everyone one else!? They have all the same feelings, emotions and therefore reactions toward change as anyone else.? Yet, they are expected to deliver change as if they are impervious to millions of years of human evolution and the implications that brings!? They are people too… they need to be brought on the journey too, not just expected to “go do!”

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4.?????? HUBA! Deploy change in a HUMAN way! From a neuroscience and psychological perspective, plan how to take your people on a journey.? Firstly, making sure they “Hear” the messages they need to hear to get them aligned to the right message you wish to land.? Secondly take the time with teams and individuals to ensure people truly “Understand” what the change means… specifically for them as an individual! Thirdly, think and plan carefully how to move them to a place that they have “Belief” in the change.? It’s so so hard to do anything if you don’t truly believe in it, and the same goes for change!? Finally, once you have built belief, make sure you have everything in place to enable people to “Act” on that belief, enabling the change to happen, and enabling people to build confidence and comfort in the change through making it happen!