Managing The Business - The Honeymoon

In keeping with our discussion on how to restructure a toxic workplace, we now turn our attention to the various phases of change that will take place in your company, starting with The Honeymoon Phase.

The Honeymoon Phase is the time when a company first rolls out the announcement for changes. Generally, if these changes are presented as being healthy, upbeat and positive for both the company and the employees, it will generate excitement among plenty of your team. However, the Honeymoon Phase is an area where you will need to demonstrate extreme caution and the utmost discretion in how you communicate the changes, or else there will be unrest. By following these action steps, you can get the most out of the Honeymoon Phase and set up future phases for success.

Build the Emotional Bank Account

Relationships are like a bank account when you think about it. Every time you do something positive, you are depositing a coin. But when you do something negative, you are taking two coins out. Any good manager or company owner is going to do their best to build up the emotional bank account with their employees, so that when negative sounding changes are unrolled, they trust that you are still acting in their best efforts.

The more goodwill you can build up with your people, the better time everyone will have in weathering the storms of uncertainty and fear that come with changes. Really, this should be your primary focus even before you announce the upcoming changes. Building up the emotional bank accounts with members of the team simply requires a bit of effort on your part.

One excellent way to build rapport and connection with your people is to make a concentrated effort to get out of your office and meet the people in your building. Talk to them, make an effort to get to know them and most of all, genuinely show that you care for them. This doesn’t mean sucking up or acting fake, but rather making a case to genuinely connect with your people. By showing an interest in them, by caring about their problems, not only will you get a better relationship, but you will also gain insight into what they are looking for in the restructuring.

Convince Your Team They Can Make a Difference

Change is hard. Most people reject change because our nature is to maintain the same patterns as a way of staying safe. When a person gets into a routine, they tend to stick with it as long as the routine provides them with a sense of safety, progress and belonging. Getting people to change can be very difficult if they don’t have a buy-in. If they don’t feel like they are personally a part of the mission, they may end up feeling isolated and alienated. Worse yet, they won’t have any impetus to change along with the program.

This can be avoided quite simply by getting all of your team members on-board by helping them feel that they can make a difference in the changes themselves. By giving them a sense of responsibility, that the restructuring won’t be successful without everyone working together, you are empowering them to be a part of making your organization successful. Making individual appeals to each member of the team, asking them to support the restructuring will help them feel included.

Another way to get people to buy-in to the changes is to share your passions and enthusiasm for what the future is going to be for your company. The more you are able to convey your vision to everyone, the more apt your team members will be to feel that they can make an individual difference with what they do.

Vision is really the key motivating factor when it comes to change in a group. Without vision, an organization will not be able to succeed very well. Why is this? Because vision gives people a glimpse of the whole picture. Vision is the answer to the question of Why? Why bother doing anything? Why bother working hard? If you don’t have vision to bring to your people, they won’t have the same level of motivation that you personally have. After all, it’s important to remember that most workers are in your company because of a paycheck. This might seem harsh, but it is a reality. However, when you create a strong vision and get people to buy into the idea, their motivations will change. It’s better to have a bunch of people working to achieve a dream rather than just work because of the money involved.

Draw a Line in the Sand

While many team members will be excited about what the future has in store, there will be those who are nay-sayers. Generally speaking, the naysayers can be organized into two groups.  It’s important to distinguish the two different types. The first type of nay-sayer will be those who are simply uncertain about the future and afraid of change. These types of people can be converted into believers by presenting them a clear picture of what is to come and focusing on assuaging their fears.

The other type of nay-sayer is the one who is naturally toxic and is simply trying to sew discord because it’s either something to do or they are malicious in general. Worse yet, they may fear the changes will affect their ability to slack off and they will no longer be able to get away with not doing their job properly.

The best way to deal with these types of nay-sayers is to draw a line in the sand, calmly explain to everyone that these changes will happen no matter what. After you have given them ample time to absorb these changes, then you should also make it clear that those who are not willing to work with the rest of the team on this aren’t to be tolerated in your organization.

Organize Systems of Work

Another thing that can create anxiety in people is unclear instructions about what the future holds. Without a clearly designed roadmap of the future, each change may look as if they were randomly selected in nature. Worse yet, the team might not know what is expected of them and find frustration with an increased workload that seems to have no connection to the organizational changes.

You will need to first spend some time determining where the work is going to be coming from. Who are the key personnel that you are putting in charge of these changes? What are the major problems that need to be altered and restructured so that you can improve efficiency? By creating a detailed roadmap that looks at where the work is coming from and who will be doing the work, you are giving everyone a very clear picture of what to expect. Remember, anxiety comes from unclear expectations and anxiousness can quickly disrupt the workplace.

Identifying the stakeholders within the company is also important when organizing the systems of work. Finding the people within the company who have a vested interest in making this reorganization go smoothly is key. These might be managers or ambitious employees who not only understand your vision but want to implement it. These are the types of folks that you will want to rely on to carry out the changes that you deem necessary for the workplace.

In addition to all of these areas to identify, you will also want to focus on identifying silos of work. A silo situation is where individuals or teams are isolated from each other, preventing them from working together easily. The more silos you have in an organization, the worse off your company is going to be. This is primarily because silos lack the ability to communicate with each other readily or worse, they end up stuck in an Us vs. Them mentality because they are competing for resources or attention from management. If you can readily identify these silos, you can focus on organizing the restructuring to create natural bridges between these groups.

Remember, the goal of the Honeymoon Phase is to roll out the idea of changes in a way that is both safe, informative and motivational to your people. This is really the only way that you will be able to create a culture of excellence. You and you alone are the one who is responsible for the culture of your company. Culture is like a waterfall, it pours down from the leadership onto the members of the organization. If you find that your company culture is not one of excellence, it is important for you to take a hard look at yourself and ask if you are personally promoting this culture by living it. Remember, a leader can only lead by example. Asking other people to do things that you aren’t willing to do yourself is not how you gain respect from people. Rather, those actions would breed contempt and frustration amongst your followers.

To create the culture that you want, you must be willing to step up, talk honestly and openly and work just as hard as the rest of the team. Be humble, be frank and keep everyone in the loop. These are the things that will set you up for the next phase, which we will be covering in the next article.