Executive Summary:
It is not enough to simply reorganize your team or business
and declare some management objectives to truly change business
performance. Our performance stems
from our behaviors. Changing
behaviors takes careful planning.
The Rest of the Story:
History, politics, and warfare have many lessons we can
learn. Without getting carried
away, consider the history of political revolution. Why revolution?
It represents occasions in history where the fundamental performance and
behavior of a large group changed.
Look there for the keys to successful change for our own businesses.
In my research and reading about political revolution, not
once did revolution occur or succeed because a revolutionary leader declared,
“Here is how we will organize ourselves and here is the message we will tell
the population.” Actually, it is
absurd to think that those actions would drive a successful revolution.
Unfortunately, those are the actions business leaders take,
over, and over, and over again to declare and promote and drive change
initiatives. Granted, business
change seems much less drastic than political revolution, but I argue that the
fundamental keys to success are the same.
In examining political revolution, those that successfully
changed the government were driven by a general demand for a change in
behavior. They were culturally
driven, motivated by a desire that things not be done the same way anymore. The organization and “management”
dictums were secondary, or even an afterthought.
Therefore, if we want to successfully change the way our
businesses perform, we must compel that change at a behavioral level. If political history isn’t your bag,
then consider it logically.
The performance of our business stems not from policy, from
who reports to whom, or even really from the directions and priorities we give
our managers. Fundamentally, our
business performance is determined by how our personnel and managers and
leaders make decisions, respond to problems, and how they do their daily
work. If we want to change
performance, we must change how decisions, responses, and work are made or
done.
If you still aren’t convinced that behavior is the right
place to focus, then consider the dictionary definition of the word. Here are three.
- the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, esp. toward others
- the way in which an animal or person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus
- the way in which a natural phenomenon or a machine works or functions
Think about those definitions. Now consider them in the context of your business or your
team.
- How does your team respond to stimulus such as pressure to do things faster?
- How does your business respond to demand greater than it is prepared to meet?
- How do your people conduct themselves when faced with a problem?
- How does your business culture conduct itself on a daily basis?
If you are trying to improve efficiency, or reduce
variation, or eliminate waste, or increase innovation, is not that thing that
you are truly trying to affect the way that your business, your teams, and your
people respond, function, or conduct themselves? Absolutely it is.
Now, If you report to a new boss, will that change your
fundamental behavior or the way you do your work? Not by itself.
Certainly you will adjust how you respond to your leader, but not
necessarily how you conduct yourself otherwise. Not unless your boss demands such a change from you.
Likewise, if you have a new metric, or a new priority, will
that change your daily conduct?
Will it change the way you solve problems, or a decision to do what is
easy rather that what might have better long-term benefits, but is not rewarded
in any way? Metrics, priorities,
and management dictums can enable certain behaviors to be easier or harder, but
they don’t fundamentally change how we do things.
If we want to change our performance in the work place, we
must change behavior. We must
change how we respond, how we function, and how we conduct ourselves. Behavioral change is the key to true
performance change and it doesn’t come from new organization, new metrics, new
vocabulary, or management direction.
Even training is not enough.
One of the biggest mistakes is to expect that because someone
is trained in a new method that they are good at the new method and that they
will use the new method. Answer
this. If I sent you to auto
mechanic school, would you be suddenly expert at fixing your own car? Would you fix your own car or would you
still pay someone else to do it?
I’m sure answers to the last question would vary.
The same happens in the workplace. Answers will vary, and unless the general movement of the
greater whole is toward doing what the training promoted, most will not change. In fact, the general phenomenon is for
people to resist change, not adopt it.
Therefore, training by itself is not effective and driving change. It is necessary, but not a solution.
So, if organization, metrics, vocabulary, direction, and
training are not enough, what does it take? It takes leadership through interpersonal influence. It requires pressure such that it is
easier to change than to remain the same.
It requires relentless communication. It takes planning.
At the end of this post are links to others in which I have
shared thoughts concerning interpersonal influence, pressure to change, and
communication. In the following
posts, Parts 2 and 3, I will endeavor to articulate a framework to plan actions
and elements that will help drive the change in behavior. In particular, there are several
elements of your action plan to consider, and there is a process that must be
enabled.
In case it isn’t obvious, the point of this post, Part 1 is
to harp on the importance of focusing on behavior when planning change. Over and over we have all seen that
organization, management direction, metrics and training are not enough to manifest
the performance improvements our initiatives promise. Instead we move from one disappointing initiative to another
and fuel the disease of passive resistance whereby our personnel play along
politely while waiting for the initiative to die, and deliberately don’t change
how they do things.
Break the trend.
Proceed to Parts 2 and 3 to examine a framework for planning
change. First, however, take the
most important step. Accept and
understand that to truly change performance, we must change behavior. When planning your change initiative,
your plans must focus foremost on behavior.
Stay wise, friends.
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