5 Big Change Mistakes - 4 Bad Communication

Much of the so-called resistance to change is caused by it being communicated badly to those who are impacted by the change.

I heard of one company that decided to close down a large site. A senior manager came over to talk to everyone about the changes and the closure in a big meeting.

One individual asked him: “Do you regret having to close this site?” “No.” Was his reply.

I don’t think I was the only one shocked by that unfeeling and callous response. It certainly didn’t smooth things along.

Decisions about change

When you have to make decisions that will impact others, it’s vital to think about the needs of those individuals. One of those needs is often to know why the changes are taking place and how the decisions are made.

By not explaining the reasons you make it easy for all kinds of rumours to develop.

Worse still is that people perceive the changes to be unfair. If they don’t know the reasons they will speculate. When people are dealing with changes they don’t like, their speculations are likely to be more negative than positive.

Unfairness

Part of your brain, anterior insular, is finely tuned to pick up any hint of unfairness. This is because being treated unfairly is a sign that you might be rejected from your social group. So any hint that this is the case signals danger.

As a result you can feel actual physical pain. So it’s not surprising that people react badly to these situations, especially when the communication is poor.

Recognise people’s feelings

If you are able to think this through and be honest and straightforward in your communications, implementing change will be a lot easier.

Bad communications

Another client told me that he received a phone call one day from his manager saying he needed to be at a particular hotel at 9am for an announcement but she couldn’t tell him anything else.

You can imagine how he felt that evening and what a good night’s sleep he had.

The trouble is that his manager had been told she was not allowed to let people know the contents of the announcement.

It’s this kind of misguided communication strategy that really causes problems.

Good communications

One of the other managers in this same situation broke the rules and told her people about the announcement but also added – “You will still have a job at the end of it". Her people were much happier about it.

Telling people the worst

Often you shy away from giving bad news because you just don’t know how to do it. I was astonished to hear, years ago, that doctors did not get any training in how to tell people their relatives had died. I’m sure that’s changed now (I hope so). But I’m not sure that industry has moved very far forward on this.

When you have to give bad news

People don’t always hear bad news, or understand it correctly. A colleague of mine spent years trying for a baby. Finally she went to see her doctor. He was astonished. She’d had her ovaries removed five years earlier so she was never going to get pregnant.

I can’t believe the doctor who removed her ovaries didn’t explain this was the case, but I can believe that she just didn’t hear what he had to say properly. And perhaps he didn’t explain it very well.

Tips for giving bad news

Use clear, simple language: “You will not be able to have children after this operation.”

Identify what the main concerns of the person on the receiving end will be and tell the person what you are planning to do about them:

“There will be a full compensation package for everyone who is losing their job. The details are on this sheet. Your pension rights will not be affected. For people who want to move, there will be some help. We’ll be giving information about that on Monday.”

Do not, as another senior manager did, start going on about how great your own new job will be as a result of the changes. It’s not the time, place or audience for that.

Have the information on paper as well as telling people. This gives them a chance to look at it when they have got over the shock.

Tell them several times. I know this can seem a waste of time, but people often need to hear the news several times before they understand it completely. It’s no good giving a two-hour presentation packed with complicated information (as one company did) and then complaining, “We’ve already given them all the information they need.”

Give people plenty of time to talk about their feelings and express concerns. Far from making things worse, this can really help people to feel better.

In short – imagine yourself in their position, with their background, skills and circumstances and treat them as you would like to be treated.

For a summary of five big mistakes when implementing change see this article

5 Big mistakes to avoid when making change

5 Big Change Mistakes - 3 No Clear Priorities

When you are making changes, often there are many things that need to be done, and it seems like they all need to be done at once.

People have to carry on with their everyday jobs, but they also have to make the changes.

Make a plan. This may seem like extra work when you are already busy, but it will save you a great deal of time and money in the long term.

Get the objective clear

Once you have clearly identified what needs to be achieved it’s vital to work out a plan. This can take some time and is more difficult when you are panicking.

The first step in working out a plan is to be really clear about what you need to achieve. Spend some time working out your objective and get it really clear.

Then work out your deadline.

I always like to leave a little leeway here, but it’s not always possible.

Make a list of your tasks

Once you have done this, one option is to work backwards from the deadline. This should help you to identify all the tasks that need to be completed in order for you to implement your change.

Don’t make it hard – check with the others who are involved and ask for their input and advice.

Estimate how long each task will take

Once you have a list of all the tasks, it’s useful to estimate how long each will take. Most people tend to be rather optimistic when they do this. So make sure you allow some slack for problems you haven’t anticipated.

If it’s something you haven’t done before ask others who have, how long it really takes and what their suggestions are for completing the task easily and efficiently.

Identify your critical path

You may also want to work out your ‘critical path’. These are the tasks that are linked and have to be done in a certain order and can’t be made shorter. For example, if you are cooking your Christmas dinner, the turkey is often the critical path.

You have to buy it, prepare it (with stuffing and so on), cook it and carve it. You can’t carve it while you’re cooking it, or prepare it while you are buying it. All the tasks have to happen in that sequence. And there is a minimum time for the whole thing that you can’t reduce.

If you buy it on Christmas Eve and prepare it then put it in the oven at midnight (depending on the size) it won’t be ready before midday on Christmas day. If you put it in the oven late or if the oven breaks down (as happened to a friend of mine) then the whole dinner is going to be late and you can’t catch up.

So this is part of your plan that you need to focus on and get right.

Finalise your plan

Put your tasks in order. What needs to be done when and who needs to do it. Be very clear about when tasks must be completed.

Let everyone know

Make sure people know what needs to be done first and why. This will make it much easier for them to prioritise all their other tasks around the changes you are implementing.

Keep people up to date with progress and any modifications to the plan. Give them reasons.

Be clear about other ongoing work and how it fits in and what needs to be done first. Make sure people get some help if their workload is going to be drastically increased.

For a summary of five big mistakes when implementing change see this article

5 Big mistakes to avoid when making change

5 Big change mistakes – 2 Not involving people

So often senior managers start working on change without involving the people who know most about what needs to happen and how to implement it.

Yes, sometimes you can’t tell people what’s going on for all kinds of reasons, but too often this is used as an excuse – or perhaps it’s just a habit.

If you can explain to people what you need to achieve to your team, very often you will be surprised at the ideas they come up with.
The change

In one company where I was working, during a previous and tough recession, we were really struggling. It may seem like a minor thing, but we, (the management team) decided that we just could not spare any money at all to pay for the traditional Christmas lunch normally funded by the company so we made a change and cancelled the event.

I announced this to the employees and apologised. They all knew how bad things were (sales had dropped like a stone, a familiar story).

The delegation

But later that day a small delegation came to see me. I was told that they had decided the Christmas lunch was too important for morale to miss. So they had decided it was going ahead.

They had already planned how they were going to do it with everyone making a small contribution and bringing in food.

The tradition

Part of the tradition was that everyone got a present from the company. So some money was scraped together through donations, enough for £2 per person.

One of the senior supervisors and I went into Nottingham and spent the afternoon getting a present for every single person, from the cleaner to the managing director. Each for £2 or less.

The successful event

The chief test engineer dressed up as Father Christmas and gave out each present after an excellent lunch that had not cost the company a penny.

It is still one of my most treasured memories. It made me realise what could be done if you just shared things with people and gave them a chance to contribute.

Include people

If you implement changes without including people you will almost always discover that things could have been done much more efficiently, better and cheaper if you involved them.

This is particularly annoying for those on the receiving end. In turn this leads to de-motivation and all kinds of other unnecessary problems. So why not save yourself the trouble?

For a summary of five big mistakes when implementing change see this article
5 Big mistakes to avoid when making change

5 Big change mistakes - 1 The wrong objective

5 Big mistakes when implementing change - 1 The wrong objective

One of the big mistakes people make when they are implementing change is not getting the objective right at the beginning.

Make sure you have a SMART objective

Make sure you are clear on what it is you need to achieve through the changes you are planning. The wrong objective (or no objective at all) will lead you down the wrong path.

Time spent on this can seem like a waste when you are keen to get on or there is an emergency – perhaps when the creditors are banging on the door. But it will be worth it.

Ask yourself some questions:

• What do we need to achieve?
• How would we know we had achieved it?
• How would you know you were making progress?
• When do we need to achieve it by?
• What would it look like?
• How do we need it to be in six months?
• How do we need it to be in a year?

Don’t just do this on your own. Ask your team. Run it by others to see if it makes sense.

Don’t worry about how you are going to achieve it at this stage, just what it is you need to achieve.

For example:
Imagine your sales have dropped and the revenue is reduced.
You might start with an objective like:

“Reduce costs.”

This objective is not very specific. What is it you need to achieve?

“Run the company within a new budget”
“Increase revenue”

What budget and what revenue do you need?

“Run the company within a budget of £XX this year”
“Increase the revenue to £YY per year by end 2014”

There are many other objectives that come under these and you need to discuss them with those involved. Don’t start working out how you are going to achieve it at this stage. I know it’s very tempting, but it’s a distraction from getting your objectives clear.

The next posting on big mistakes in implementing change – not involving people early enough – comes out on Thursday 19th May.

For a summary of five big mistakes when implementing change see this article:

5 Big mistakes to avoid when making change

Are you wasting money on events?

Have you ever been to a conference and come away wondering why you went?

I’ve spoken at conferences like that myself and been to quite a few. They are the ones where there seems to be a vast budget, lots of ‘goodies’ that get handed to you, but no clear idea what the purpose of the event is.

They are not so frequent now, but they still happen.

One of our clients told me about a discussion with one of his clients recently. They wanted him to make a film for this event. When he asked them what the objective of the film was, they had no idea – but they were planning to spend thousands on it.

The cost of events

Events cost a fortune to organise and to carry out. But that’s not the only cost. There is also the cost of the people attending the event. For in-company events, this can be huge, but it’s rarely considered.

How to avoid extra costs and make events worthwhile

You need to have clear objectives.

Try asking yourself these questions:

• What do I want to be different at the end of this event?
• What do I want people to do differently?
• What do I want them to say when they leave?
• What do I want them to say about the event when they get back to the office?

And, most importantly:

• Why are we holding this event?
• How would we know that it was successful?

Are we really all responsible for bullying?

President Obama has recently launched a new campaign against bullying. He suggests that we are all responsible for stopping it.

Many years ago I remember the head teacher of my daughter’s school telling a parent that there was no bullying in his school.

I was completely astonished to hear this. I knew there was bullying in the school. So was it that he was simply unaware of the bullying that was going on? Or was it that he was lying?

School Bully

I personally saw him being bullied by the mother of a girl I knew at the school. The girl herself often bullied others at the school. It wasn’t hard to see why the girl behaved as she did.

So perhaps he didn’t really understand what bullying was. The trouble is that his lack of understanding meant he took no action to tackle bullying in the school.

We are all responsible for bullying.

What bullying is

Bullying is simply a behaviour – a way of treating others. But it’s a way that most of us don’t like when we are on the receiving end. Unfortunately many people stand by and do nothing when they see others being bullied.
When you are in a position of responsibility and you see this happening, I believe it is your responsibility to do something about it. Doing nothing is the same as condoning the bullying.

If you are a teacher you have an even greater responsibility because children and young people need to learn how to deal with these situations. If you allow the students in your care to bully each other and don’t set the right standards of behaviour, you are saying that bullying is acceptable.

You need to be demonstrating what is and what is not acceptable behaviour, and you should be showing children how they ought to behave. More than most other roles you are setting the standard.

Parents bullying

My hairdresser is Chinese. She believes in very strict standards for her daughters. But she was horrified that her husband thought that hitting his children was an acceptable form of discipline (she has corrected this misunderstanding now).

If you hit a child because they do something you don’t like, what lesson does that child learn? The child learns that you hit people to get your own way.

Sweden

Many years ago, Sweden made hitting children illegal. I saw a parent interviewed about his views on this. He said that he thought the law was completely wrong and he had to get some help to stop hitting his own children. Then he discovered that he only hit his children when he didn’t know how to talk to them.

Perhaps this is the root of a lot of bullying and to stop it we need to know how to talk to people.

In Sweden, they made it illegal but helped people to meet the new standard.
We all need to know how to help both people like the Swedish father and also those on the receiving end of bullying. And we need to have the courage to step in and help.

This is because anyone can encounter bullying. The only reason it survives as a behaviour and is so common is because we allow it.

For more help dealing with bullying get my downloadable ebook “How to Deal With Bullying”