Change Leadership, What's My Visual - Part 1

Submitted by mauzenne on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 19:12.

This cast describes how to begin any effort to change an organization.

At some point, each of us as managers are either going to initiate a change, or have to manage our part of a larger change process. It's usually hard work, and if it's someone else's change process, we get the "squeeze": our directs expect us to know stuff which no one is telling us.

There's a better way. Manager Tools does work with corporate clients, and when we help with a change effort, we run a change playbook. The first step in any change effort is to create an EMOTIONAL appeal to those who will be involved in the change. And that is NEVER achieved with financially solid spreadsheets which show a clear cost-benefit win for the change.

Visual, emotional persuasion is the single biggest idea we have ever come across when it comes to change efforts. If you do this well, other stuff is much easier. If you don't, everything else is MUCH harder.

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Submitted by michaelclaw on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 15:18.

Change Management

The first few stages of any change plan are so important if you're ever going to overcome inertia and get the necessary stakeholder buy-in needed. I'm looking forward to hearing the second part of the podcast to hear examples of emotional and persuasive visuals.

Submitted by Buncha on Wed, 06/10/2009 - 10:40.

Asking people to draw

Hi Mike & Mark ,

Back in the 80s in Australia I worked with a leading change management specialist who worked with "C" level Executives on change projects. Your emphasis on the visual is spot on.

One of his typical tactics was to go to the Executive Board meeting with boxes of crayons, pencils, and felt pens and big sheets of papers. He would spread them out around the room and each had to draw a picture of how they truly felt about the change. Always people were nervous and hesitant at the start but found it very valuable. He mentioned for example one CEO saying "But this is like the drawing my children do at pre-school." to which he cleverly replied "Great ! You will have something to show back to them." They would draw images like charging out of the pack, or a little knight trying to kick down the castle door, or trying to row the boat back before you go over the waterfall. He would then post them around the room and ask each person to describe the meaning of each and this exercise really got to how people are truly feeling. And for those with doom / scary images he would use it to say "If that is how you at the top feel how will your middle managers feel ?" and then discuss how to manage that transition of emotions.

Then the really, really good CEOs showed a selection of these drawing in the briefings they did to their organization and discussed the emotions and feelings these images conveyed. It gave a great openness and connection with the audience.

The theory behind it is that the logical / rational / spreadsheet is Left-Brain thinking whereas drawing is Right-Brain activity and you can't lie to yourself in the Right-Brain because it is a truer emotion. Not sure if that passes Biology 101 but I agree with the truth in drawing.

I have used it for some normal projects and it really is an effective approach.

Looking forward to Part 2 and keep up the good work.

Simon

Submitted by barvelou on Tue, 10/16/2012 - 16:53.

Changing an organization

Changing an organization will take them off their comfort zones. It will be very difficult and everybody needs to adjust. - Missed Fortune

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