How did we overcome 5 'human nature' objections to change...??

This is a story with a happy ending??

I once wrote a list of all the objections to change I had whilst leading a particular transformational program. The resistance was strong. Our mission was to overcome it and transform the company's operations to be more flexible and lean.?

We were exhausted from the continuous objections coming from all levels. In addition, there was a severe threat from the board of directors to stop the program if we didn't solve the conflict.

So we listed all the 'but and don't' we had to listen to and came up with a very, very long list. We decided to group the objections into categories and narrow down the scope. Our ultimate goal was to find 'practical' solutions to resistance – like tools and methods – as we did not have the time or resources to invest in group coaching, team building or feedback sessions.?

We came up with 5 root causes for resistance to change. While they were not a breakthrough discovery, and most define them as natural 'human nature' objections to change, knowing them helped us find the solutions we needed.

Present bias

In this change journey, most employees saw the transformational program's future benefit as an insufficient reward for the considerable effort they had to put in the present time. They understood the purpose but thought it was not worth the effort, and they were not interested in doing the work or adapting to new ways of working.?

So, how do you change that? How do you convince sceptical and uncommitting individuals to overcome their present bias, change their ways of operating and potentially assume more workload in the transition process to a better future that they doubt? We chose two strategies: give no option and reward effort.?

No option

Not giving an option translated into implementing Poka-yokes in processes. Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that means "mistake-proofing"; it is any mechanism in place that helps avoid mistakes and defects by preventing human errors. It also forces you to work in a standard and correct way. For example, we substituted emails sent to the customer service department with electronic queue management systems with FIFO orders. We standardised kanban systems for interdepartmental problem solving (especially with the IT teams). After that, we eliminated email boxes altogether. We left no option but to use the new well-structured way.?

Reward effort

We rewarded effort by giving free time and extra hours for holidays. Every time employees participated in a project and achieved a set of goals; they were offered a free time bonus. We planned with the HR and Financial departments to avoid massive absence and decrease in operational capacity.?

Procrastination

We are all familiar and victims of procrastination, aren't we? Who hasn't postponed a project, an exercise, a trip, or a tedious activity? It's only human:-) The thing about procrastination is that it frequently occurs when we are unaware of the time elapsing significance, as was the case in this company. Employees were not fully grasping the importance of 'time to act now'; most thought there was plenty of time left to work in the future.?

So, how do you tackle this? We had an overall deadline for when we should complete the transformation and set up a non-negotiable milestones timeline to tackle procrastination. We went further and created a 'visual office' displaying panels with the milestones and the roadmap all over the social spaces of the company. We even put countdown clocks in some areas where we felt a bit more timeline awareness would bring positive results.?

The visual display worked amazingly well because of the peer pressure. No one wanted to see their delays displayed or be the cause for other teams' delays.

Forgetfulness

In this program, we had compulsory sprints and meetings, and most employees showed up. However, we saw empty meeting rooms and virtual spaces for non-compulsory but essential activities. So we had to turn that absenteeism into an engagement.

Surprisingly we discovered that people were not showing up not because they disliked or boycotted the non-compulsory activities but because they had forgotten about them. That was a piece of good news for us. And the reason behind their forgetfulness was the absence of an alert. So, we (the transformation team) took over the invitation mailing. We installed 3 warnings at timings we thought were memorable:

• 1 day before the event, as the person logged in to the working session
• 1 h before the event
• 5 minutes before the event

However, alerts are not a guarantee people will show up. We needed something else to make these invites successful. We required a sponsor. So, we asked the most committed middle and top management to attend these meetings and made their confirmations visible to everyone. All 3 alarms had cheerful designs and were displaying the confirmed attendance.

The result was exceptional: as the management always confirmed participation and accompanied the meetings, they set a trend that ensured their teams' participation. As a result, attendance to non-compulsory meetings surged twofold.?

Confidence

Confidence is the belief that you can achieve something. When you make changes in business or life, your confidence level depends on your previous experience and your openness to risk—the more fear of loss, the less chance we take.?

In our change journey in transforming the company's culture, employees had to take significant risks by their standards. Most of them had been with the company for 12+ years and had worked with the same processes, procedures and rules forever. So, we faced a crowd lacking the confidence to make changes, fearful of taking the initiative, and apprehensive about any advice.

We chose two minimally invasive strategies to build people's confidence: training and asking for advice instead of giving it.?

Training

Our goal was to train on-the-job as many employees as possible in Lean and Agile principles, thus giving them the necessary knowledge to increase their confidence. We wanted to carry out such activity ourselves, but as we were only 4 and facing a workforce of almost 2000, we 'trained the trainer' instead. We created the 'change agent champion' figure, who became the internal change driver in the organisation.

Asking for advice

However, there were still people reluctant to change their ways or even participate in the teamwork. So, instead of telling them what to do, the change agents asked them what they would recommend given the situation? For example, how would they do a specific job or activity more efficiently, and what advice would they give to their colleagues?

We got some pretty extreme suggestions like shutting down the company, changing the head of HR, or even filing for bankruptcy. But we also got some positive responses. And those were awesome, like improving processes with automation, creating a centralised data repository, changing the appraisal system, and improving the supplier selection process. People felt part of something by being asked their opinion—the sense of belonging and confidence to change surged.?

Conformity

Conformity is about accepting standards, procedures, and rules and not questioning. It is about maintaining the status quo, and we, the change managers, often hear: 'Why change something if it works?'?

Furthermore, we discovered that people from one department were unaware of what another department was doing. They were all immersed in their silos – cross-functional work was unexisting.?

So, we had a hard one to crack: how do you break such conformity with an inefficient status quo??

Change organisational structure

We designed matrix-structured divisions by creating end-to-end processes and operational KPIs. It meant re-designing flows, implementing new procedures and governance models, and measuring KPIs.?

The result was a total and positive pivot of the way of working. KPIs such as CSAT, time to market, reduction in absenteeism, throughput and lead time started increasing slowly but steadily. In addition, people began working in teams and sharing the same goals.

The takeaways

... are two:

1. Resistance to change is natural and expected, and if we want to address it efficiently, we must understand its root causes. Even if it means writing long, tedious lists like we had to do. The 5 Why technique (asking 'why' 5 times to get to the root cause) helps determine the invisible and ultimate 'why' we say NO to a change. Only then we will know how to approach it.
2. Practical and market-proven tools can address and diminish resistance to change. By applying Lean Manufacturing or Agile Product Development know-how and teamwork, we can make the transformation journey more manageable and the results more tangible. The bottom line is to achieve the company's strategic goals promptly and efficiently.?

Have a great week ??,

Boriana