Conference Call Levity

During this challenging time, we are doing a lot of conference calls due to COVID-19 and its impacts. The conversations are not light, so this may add some appreciated levity to meetings:

Meaningful Conversations

Let me digress from Change Management to another key element of being a leader - having meaningful conversations with staff.

This TedTalk, Have a Better Conversation by Celeste Headlee, hit home for me.  It speaks to having better conversations, and it is directly applicable to having meaningful conversation with your team and individuals. 


Have a Better Conversation by Celeste Headlee

1. Don’t multitask. More than just setting your device aside – be present. Be in that moment. Don’t be thinking about another part of your day; if you don’t want to have a conversation, don’t! Don’t be half in, half out.
2. Don’t pontificate. “If you want to state your opinion without any opportunity for response or argument or pushback or growth, write a blog.” Enter each conversation assuming that you can learn something new. As Bill Nye says, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don’t.”
3. Use open-ended questions. Try on the shoes of a journalist, don’t go for easy yes/no responses. Have them describe what they are feeling, thinking, or expressing. Don’t do it for them. Liven up the conversation with open-ended questions and you’re guaranteed a more interesting response (see my previous post on Difficult Conversations and the Power of Open Ended Questions)
4. Go with the flow. Let thoughts come and go. Follow the conversation, not what you thought the conversation would be like. Don’t hold on to questions just because they’re really good questions. Listen, react, and keep moving with the conversation.
5. If you don’t know, say that you don’t know. Don’t make your talk cheap, err on the side of caution and always speak like you’re on record.
6. Don’t equate your experience with theirs. Your experiences are never the same, no matter what the situation. Everyone is unique in their situations and how they feel and most importantly it’s not about you.
7. Try not to repeat yourself. Repeating yourself sounds condescending and creates boring conversations. And we do it, a lot. When you want to make a point it becomes a habit. Stop it.
8. Stay out of the weeds. People don’t care about the little details – the years, names, dates, etc. Leave them out. Focus on you, what you like and what you have in common with the person you are speaking to.
9. Listen. This is the most important one. So many important, successful people have said it over and over again:

• Buddha, “If your mouth is open, you’re not learning.”
• Steven Covey, “Most of us don’t listen with the intent to understand. We listen with the intent to reply.”
• So, listen. Yes, we all would rather talk. It gives us control, it gives us the center of attention, it gives us the ability to bolster our own identity. We also get distracted very easily when we can listen at about 500 words per minute and the average person speaks at 225. 
• Listening takes effort and energy and is completely crucial for a great conversation. If you can’t then you’re simply just two people shouting out barely related sentences in the same place.

10. Be brief. As my sister has said, “A good conversation is like a miniskirt; short enough to retain interest, but long enough to cover the subject.”

All in all: Be interested in other people and prepare to be amazed.
https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversation

The Leader's role in change

Many of us have experienced initiatives when a  leader's involvement is at the time of the Kick off and the Cake.  Never let yourself be that leader.

Your sponsor, aka your Director, Chief Librarian, Commissioner depending on your organization, has a key and vital role in change.

In recent training, three roles are required from the leader for successful change or initiative:

1. Participate visibly throughout the project

The leader needs to be visible and active throughout a project - this is a critical activity. What does that look like?

• Support the team
• Proactively remove obstacles for the change management team
• Provide resources and control of the budget
• Understand the change process, its impact and the desired future state
• Champion the change
• Actively support the change management work, methodology and practices
• Participate in change activities and messages
• Own the change
• build excitement and enthusiasm for the project
• be the first adopter

2. Communications support and promote the change to impacted groups

• Communicate the end vision
• Create awareness about the specifics and the needs for change
• Advocate the change to impacted groups that might be resistant
• Vocally support the change
• Clearly and succinctly explain the "what's in it for me" (WIIFM) of the change to impacted groups

3. Build a coalition of sponsorship

• Engage across the organization
• Create work and maintain a network of change agents
• Encourage senior leaders to participate and support the change
• Cultivate management support of the project
• Clarify roles and establish expectations with mid-level and frontline managers
• Solicit and listen to management feedback

Biggest mistakes

1. Failing to remain active and visible throughout the life of the project
• aka as Launch and Leave leader
2. Underestimating or misunderstood the people side of the change
3. Failing to communicate messages about the need for change
4. Delegating the leadership role and responsibilities 
5. Failing to demonstrate support for the project in words and action

Top Strategies to manage change resistance

According to recent training, here are the top steps you can make to better support change - a summary sent out by the training facilitator:

•        Team meetings

•        Request ‘higher-up’s’ to attend meeting

•        Communicate your understanding of their issues to them to demonstrate you know how they feel

•        Be empathetic to their concerns

•        Utilize a variety of methods to facilitate an understanding of concerns/comments/suggestions

•        Go for a coffee offsite

•        Hold one-on one or group meeting to discuss objections

•        Show compassion when understanding the basis for resistance

•        Outline available alternatives/solutions to address concerns/objections

•        Ask open ended questions

•        If you cannot answer a question, find out the answer and get back to employees

•        Use immediate supervisor to connect with staff

•        Send out a survey

•        Send targeted emails

•        Unearth the silent resistance

•        Take time to listen to the silent person in a safe environment

•        Follow up a formal meeting with an informal conversation

•        Address objections when they come up

•        Use a private space for conversations

•        Empathize with employee

•        Talk about it at Shop Talk Meetings

•        Address rumors right away

•        The Directors/Commissioners should communicate the business change, immediately followed by smaller, individual group sessions to reduce time for rumors and misinformation to spread

•        Come with an open mind – don’t think that what you are doing or the way you are doing is always right

•        Respect people’s ideas, contributions and ideas

•        Communicate the outlet for your staff to raise concerns – give them a productive place to go

•        Provide anonymous way for staff to provide input, raise concerns (i.e. survey or Q&A box)

•        Promote an open door policy and stick to it

•        Conduct a town hall

•        Conduct a “word on the street” meeting for staff to share what’s going on, with a representative from leadership to address or escalate issues discussed at meeting

•        Conduct a focus group or forum for front-line staff

•        Work with the Two-Way committee to support communication about the change

•        Walk the floor and engage with staff

•        Ask for feedback with a timeline attached to receive  response and actually respond

•        Include what the feedback you heard was in your response

•        Build time in for questions when communicating about a change face to face

•        Have a Q&A word file that is updated frequently and your team has access to

•        Start with pre-engagement when you know a change is coming, and you can start to communicate little things you know

Avoiding manager/ supervisor resistance

Direct managers/ supervisors are your best advocates to support change. They work closest to front line staff and are key to build support or at the very least, identify roadblocks, miscommunication and pain points.

According to recent training by Prosci, these steps are the most effective to avoid resistance from managers/ supervisors:

• Communicate (refer back to the communication packet)
• Communicate openly, honestly, and timely - the best way to avoid resistance
• Communications need to be tailored to the audience and to set up feedback mechanisms for managers and supervisors to share thoughts and feelings about the change
• Involve impacted groups
• Early in the process, engage impacted groups. This helps to create a sense of ownership in the project and thus reduce resistance
• Address ADKAR barriers
• Awareness  

• Desire 

• Knowledge

• Ability 

• Reinforce 

• This includes coaching, having a highly credible sponsor and setting up reinforcement methods throughout the project
• Share the need for change (refer back to the communication packet)
• the leader such as a director, Chief Librarian or project sponsor needs to show support.  Sharing a vision for the organization's future state and informing people of business drivers
• Engage senior leaders/ sponsors
• Again, senior leaders as advocates early in the process, as key. They may even be asked to speak one-on-one with managers who are resisting.  

Showing the benefits of change from the onset help in avoiding resistance. Having an active and visible sponsor that employees trust to lead the change is a critical success factor.

Leaders or project sponsors are so importance that I'll speak to that next.

Change: Managing Resistance

Participants in the 2015 study identified five primary reasons employees resist change:

1. Lack of awareness
   This lack of awareness was caused by failure to communicate details of a change to employees.  Employees resist more when they do not know the answer to the question, "what's in it for me," (WIIFM).  Employees who lacked awareness reported that it was due to getting mixed message or the manager was uninformed.
   
2. Change specific resistance
   If there is an increase in workload if the change involves added process steps, changes to job roles and deployment of technology. Other notable sources include lack of involvement by employees, lack of incentives and increases to accountability.  Other time, resistance increased simply because staff did not like the change or did not agree with the solution that was deployed.
   
3. Resistance due to change saturation
   If there are an overwhelming number of current changes, along with previous failures during project implementation, the likelihood of change resistance among frontline employee increases.
   
4. Fear
   The fear can range widely, but employees may fear job loss, fear of the future and lf losing power, status, influence or compensation.
   
5. Lack of support from management or leadership
   Managers and direct supervisors impact resistance. If leadership does not provide a good role model, or direct supervisors are resisting the change, then resistance grows.  Lack of trust in the executive leadership by employees create resistance to change, citing "flavour of the month" projects as being disconnected with the needs of employees and the organization. 

It is also noted that some changes cause resistance simply because something is changing. Comfort with the status quo is frequently cited as a contributing factor to resistance. 

Next: the primary reasons Managers resist change. 

Managers and Supervisors critical roles in change

Based on a recent in-house training regarding change management, it was emphasized that Managers and Supervisors have a critical role during change.

1. Communicate with Direct Reports about the change
   Communicating the need for change, the vision and the impact are the most critical activity identified for managers and supervisors to perform during change.
   Employees require a consistent message from the leadership team and direct managers. They want to know why the change is occurring, what's in it for them (WIIFM), and what the expected benefits for the organization are.  Listening and allowing discussion are two-way communication are critical success factors concerning employees' ability to receive and internalize messages from managers
2. Advocate and champion change
   Direct managers need to support change and play a visible role during the transition by attending training and project events and leading by example.  This requires a managers to be proactive in obtaining timely information and complete details about the change.  Most importantly, managers need to speak positively about the change and be engaged.
3. Coach employees through change
   Managers need to be available for coaching throughout the change, to listen to concerns, to answer questions and to be respectful of the impact changes have on employees.  They also identified helping employees understand the required behaviours, articulating how their contributions support the initiative, removing barriers as needed and identifying corrective actions.
4. Engage and liaison with project team
   Providing input to the project team and engaging in the design and engagement phases are critical roles for managers. Employees need to be incorporated into the feedback and be incorporated into the solution. Having a close working relationship with a project team enables managers to have difficult conversations with employees to help increase the desire to participate in change.
5. Identify and manage resistance (more on this later)
   Managers are reported as being in the best position to identify resistance and fulfil the role of mitigating resistance throughout the life of the project.  Managers are able to report resistance.  Manager/ supervisors' role include understanding the root cause of resistance, removing barriers and having difficult conversations with employees to help increase the desire to participate in change.
6. Continuing managerial responsibilities
   No one said it was easy. You need to continue to their normal roles in daily team operations and in operationalizing new ways of working. This includes maintaining reporting function and team engagement tactics such as huddles and meetings, and providing structure and accountability for the new way of working.  This includes adjusting schedules and responsibilities as needed to attend training events and engaging in preparation and reinforcement activities.

Most common mistakes for managers and supervisors
Some of the biggest mistakes made when managing change are below.  Make sure you avoid these.

1. Role abdication
   Perhaps due to lack of understanding, managers have abdicated their roles during change or did not take the responsibility for change:
• Not accepting responsibility is the largest factor. If managers do not understand their role as change champions, they are seen as abdicating. Others say change management duties as extra work and not a normal function of their role.
• Ignoring change: others felt if they could ignore or hide from change and focus on business as usual. The adopted the mindset that the changes would either go away or happen on its own regardless of their efforts.
• Not seeking better understanding: one of the most common mistakes occurs when managers do not seek to understand the change and its impact - operational ignorance.  They struggle to ask for support during change management and did not acknowledge their personal journeys through change
  
  
2. Communication mistakes
   Some managers feel that a single communication should be sufficient - they communicated to rather than with employees. Rather than admitting their own knowledge gaps, managers would communicate what they knew at the time.  Supervisors often did not understand how to filter messages appropriately, or what messages to filter, often oversharing or adding personal bias.
3. Failing to support staff
   Many managers feel that employees would change if told to do so and did not need additional support. This led to unrealistic expectations because supervisors did not acknowledge that individuals accept change at different paces. Supervisors also struggle to manage resistance appropriately due to fear, empathy or a general misunderstanding of the root cause of resistance. Supervisors got caught up in their own journeys and how the change impacted them, keeping them from addressing their teams' needs
4. Ill prepared
   Managers can underestimate the impact change can have on their teams or overestimate their teams' ability to handle change. Either due to false assumptions about change or not knowing how to prioritize change among daily operations, supervisors can be ill prepare when it is time for change
5. Resisting the change
   Some managers are more receptive to change than others and this can cause problems. Some supervisors would talk the talk but not walk the walk. Managers would take sides, usually with their direct reports causing a us-versus-them mentalities. If you are personally resisting a change "seek first to understand."

Remember, you are the preferred senders of communications messages for both personal messages and organization-level messages.  Executives and senior levels are the preferred senders of the business messages, overwhelmingly, an employee's direct supervisor is the preferred sender of personal messages. So while the leader may communicate the change, direct supervisors can support it especially with the WIIFM conversations. 

*based on Prosci Change Management