Think back to a time you were in a crowded elevator or room of people.
Can you remember what was surrounding you? Can you identify who was near you?
Our vision informs our mindset consciously and subconsciously and change is driven by what we see first.
Our brain has an entire lobe dedicated to our vision. It’s called the Occipital Lobe and helps us processes what we see. It is the only part of the brain dedicated to one of our five senses which is why it is so critical.
It is also a seminal part of the challenge we encounter when we attempt to implement change.
Change management fails when we don’t do a great job at helping people see the changes we are hoping to create.
Aside from data which typically drives our logic for change, as leaders we fail when we don’t draw out the vision of the improvement we are seeking. These are not done with math equations, but rather images of what the new experience will look and feel like.
Explicitly showing the indicators that mark the improvements is critical to the success of any change experience.
Think about it like this. If I asked you to close your eyes and envision a lemon, your brain would work to filter images of lemons. Shortly after that if you hold the image long enough your salvatory glands will engage and your mouth may begin to taste the tartness of a lemon. The images stimulated your response.
The same is true when we decide we need to make changes at work. Strong leaders are able to move their teams forward with exercises that help them to fill in the images, leading to a positive change experience.
Identifying an image that illustrates the impact it will have on your teams helps create momentum.
Here is a current scenario many executives are navigating.
We are working in a hybrid environment and noticing that our productivity has gone down. At the same time, no one wants to return to work in the office. Here are a few potential solutions we have seen companies implement.
- Option A: Restrict offline time to X and connect KPI’’s so the employee will feel the impact when their production goes down. In other words, deploy the stick. This outcome may feel more like a police state which is not addressing the root causes of the problems. This is typically not a sustainable approach and often creates a more negative impact on the value of your team.
- Option B: Start with the end in mind. Take a moment to envision what the ideal remote work environment would look like. Engage your teams to participate in the challenge and name the “why”. Collectively establish possible solutions for new rules which meet the challenges your teams are facing. Answering the hard questions together will flesh out common issues and enable you to design a different approach. Take the 5 “why” model to flesh out causes and provide analysis opportunities. For example, why do you think we are seeing a decline in productivity with at-home work? When they answer, ask why again after each response until you have identified the critical issues. It’s a tried and true model that enables teams to connect and discuss openly new opportunities.
Working with your teams to identify the root causes will help align the vision and add value to the equation.
You may find that they will share a host of items that could be managed differently.
What if you defined a world which considered that? How would you and the employee envision a different solution together?
Creating the picture of the world you are trying to create collectively will not only turn on the creative power of your teams, but it will also engage their participation in the changes you are trying to build. #changemanagement