When rolling out
a change initiative, you can spend a huge amount of
time, effort and expense on costly collateral, intranet
content and roadshow presentations. But what it really
comes down to is that behaviour sends out the most powerful
of messages. Kevin Mangan explains how one team made
it happen:
I was recently working with a team of middle managers
who were developing a roll-out plan for change aimed
at gaining maximum buy-in among their co-workers.
The challenge
Typically, the vision and initial presentation had come
from the senior team and was heavily punctuated by numbers
stretching all the way down to the bottom line. The
challenge, they agreed, was how to humanise this and
to illustrate the values that would make change more
likely. The first stop was to demonstrate that their
board director had so embraced change that his commitment
would be visible! A tough one, as this guy was not a
great socialiser, not a natural 'people person'. In
fact, when in the building, he spent most of his time
in a glass office apparently on conference calls.
The solution
After some debate they came up with the challenge, 'what
single behaviour would most signify that he had made
the change?' After plenty of head-scratching they came
up with a solution which they believed would solve the
problem: 'Get him to walk down the corridor. At least
this way, he meets people, makes eye contact and increases
his visibility.' The recommendation they finally proposed
requested him to always have his meetings in other people's
offices: a simple device for giving him a reason to
get out and about. That single change in behaviour had
people talking.
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