Hot desks

‘Without transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture.’ (William Bridges)

Lean forward and look into the room. Listen in carefully to the conversation. An organisation has decided to move to smaller and cheaper office premises in order to reduce its overheads. It will mean agile working: a shift to hybrid working, hot-desking and staff lockers. It appoints a change team to oversee the move, and the team notices a range of responses from staff, from passive apathy to active dissent. It faces a growing concern about what it perceives as resistance to change.

It tries hard with corporate communications to let staff know what will happen when and yet is increasingly bemused and anxious about the apparent lack of buy-in. The team invites me in as an external?organisation development (OD)?consultant to have a conversation with staff, an open exploration of issues and how to move things forward. Here’s a glimpse and summary, following initial rapport-building and relational-contracting to ensure a felt-sense of safety and trust in the room:

• Consultant: ‘Which aspect of the move do you feel most concerned about?’
• Staff: ‘It will mean losing a sense of ‘home’ in the office. That matters to us.’
• Consultant: ‘What gives you a sense of home in the current office?’
• Staff: ‘Mostly, having our personal things like photos and plants on our desks.’
• Consultant: ‘So what would you need in the new office, to feel at home?’
• Staff: ‘A way to carry our personal things to-from our desks while working there.’
• Consultant: ‘What would you need, practically, to solve that challenge?’
• Staff: ‘How about baskets so we can carry our things without dropping them?’
• Consultant: ‘So?–?if each?person were to have a personal locker with a basket?’
• Staff: ‘Yes, that would make a big difference. That would be great!’

The change team had focused on practical changes (physical-transactional: what happens?around?us) and inadvertently failed to pay attention to corresponding human?transitions?(psychological-emotional: what happens?within?us). Notice the flow of the consultant conversation: from feeling, to meaning, to need, to solution. The style is invitational, enhancing the felt-sense of choice, influence and agency. Baskets are provided. Staff re-engage. The move goes ahead smoothly.

[See also:?Change leadership principles;?Organisations don't exist]