December 20th: He'll Come Around When Chimes Ring Out ??
Christmas was only a few days away, so everybody was very busy. Some did what they had always done, because they loved it and were good at it. Others did things they had never done before, before they thought they would enjoy it and be good at it. There were even a few, two pixie girls and one elf to be specific, who were doing something that had never been done before at all. They were busy finding external suppliers where they could buy presents they were not able to produce at the workshop. This had actually been an important discussion point. Some felt that it was the wrong move, but finally everyone decided that it would bring them closer to their goal of pleasing the parents if they made sure that the children got what they wanted, within reason, of course. And since the decades old ‘Christmas Foundation’ had sufficient funds, it seemed to be a very good investment.
Dr. Abacus McKinley had told Santa Claus that an important key to making change happen is effective communication. He actually felt so strongly about it that he offered Santa a piece of advice he had taken advantage of himself as a consultant: “The key to effective communication is sincerity, even if you have to fake it.” Santa didn’t have to fake it. He was sincere when he informed the staff about the changes and the results they created, based on the measurement points they used to measure whether they had actually improved Christmas spirit.
Obviously, one of those measurement points was the number of letters they received, not only by traditional mail, but also by email and via the brand new Facebook profile they had created. The number of complaints about the freelance Santas was another measurement point, but that too was not really new. However, there were two entirely new measurement points. The first was a count of the use of I/me versus we/us in all correspondence from the children. The second was the result of a survey about Christmas they were carrying out among children and their parents. It would still be a few days before they had the results of this survey, but they could easily measure the other three points on a daily basis.
The results were quite mixed. On this day they received almost 30% more letters than on the same day the year before, and there was no doubt that their new Facebook profile had done the trick. Unfortunately, the children still used the words I and me much more than we and us, and that hadn’t changed significantly. What was even worse was that the number of complaints about the freelance Santas actually increased compared not only to the previous year, but also to the previous days. Something had to be done. And as the leader, Santa himself needed to do something, but what?
The complaints were very specific about rude behavior and a lack of genuine interest from the freelance Santas, but Santa needed to find out what had caused this. He had learned a lot when he spoke with some of them a week earlier, but there was one thing he really needed to know from each and every one of them: Whether they truly loved to be freelance Santas or whether it was just a job for them in order to bring food to the table.
Therefore, using his new email account, he sent them all an email asking a few questions that Dr. McKinley had drafted. While waiting for their answers, Santa sat down with Dr. McKinley and Mrs. Claus to think about whether the freelance Santas’ training was good enough. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that it was not. Immediately they started to work on a solution.
Santa and Mrs. Claus had decided that in this time of change they would do a lot of ‘management by walking around’. They had always spent time with the staff, but now they had a concrete purpose: To actively listen to the staff’s thoughts about the changes and help them implement them successfully. Most of the employees were very enthusiastic, but Santa and Mrs. Claus also encountered a great deal of worrying. Most of it was about all the new things that some of the employees had to do and were afraid not to be able to do successfully. According to Dr. McKinley, this was quite normal and the best remedies were training—which they didn’t have time to do—and reassurance.
Reassurance was an area where both Santa and Mrs. Claus really excelled. “Don’t worry too much,” they would say, “because worrying is like paying a debt that may never come due.” Or, with a smile, ”It’s actually great that you worry so much, because 90% of the things we worry about never actually happen. So go ahead and worry some more!” But their main message to all the employees was actually very simple: “If you only do what you know you can do, you never do much.” Not that their staff were lazy, far from it, but especially in this time of change, it was important to help them understand their true potential and realize that each and every one of them had something valuable to bring to the solution. Or, as Mrs. Claus told them: “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
Main take-aways:
?? In times of change, it’s almost impossible to over-communicate, but always be honest
?? Training is often a fundamental prerequisite in a change process
?? It’s important to reassure the employees that they can cope with the changes
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