Dear
friends, allow me these 20 minutes. Sabine asked me to introduce a dimension of
change management that is critical, but we haven’t paid enough attention to it
in these European meetings: The emotional element of Change Management.
I am aware
that most of you practice it in your daily job, informally, without
reporting time or results. Let’s take the opportunity today to share best
practices and concerns.
There is
technical side of Change Management, where we produce Excel sheets and report
progress. And there is also a people side of Change Management, where we
change glasses and see human beings.
Human beings suffer during change. Yes, they suffer, they feel unfocused, have
something in their stomachs and some become psychosomatically
sick. They look superficially normal if you don’t scratch enough, but anxious, with anger (ira), sometimes even rage (rabia), sadness (tristeza), sometimes
melancholia, once you actively listen and connect.
I have
played the role of coach, assistant, accompaniment, have conversations
and simply listen to them. Sometimes not judging, not providing answers, is wiser than having a very astute response. Not judging and not providing
practical solutions is the key to generate the needed trust, that will
allow you to get the time and dedication.
In
concrete, I notice several emotions. The most common is uncertainty.
They feel unconsciously uncertain. Although they have a plan for their lives,
that may include early retirement, career or simply outplacement activities,
they still sense that their ground is moving. And uncertainty kills. It
blocks their minds in a way that makes it difficult to make decisions.
I also
notice fear. Fear can mean fear to something, like for example, fear to boredom,
to be bored after the change, or fear to be overwhelmed, fear to failure,
fear to not being worth… Probably, they are reviewing their past and
examining again and again the several situations when they experienced
something similar. Although analyzing is not bad, and
something can be learned out of it, if it becomes thinking in cycles without
reaching conclusions, means suffering and blocking their senses, not being able
to make decisions and move ahead. It is common that such thoughts come and
return oppressively, and sometimes allow little space for living the
present.
Fear can
also mean fear to nothing in particular. They feel as if a tiger was
about to jump on them and devour them. It seems anxiety, but I
understand it as too much future. They may become obsessed with thoughts about
how their future will look like.
Note that
sometimes fear drives them to try to negotiate a better financial
package. It is easy to make a mistake and confuse fear with fear to have
economic problems in the future. Not to
say that they should not worry for their economics, but sometimes it is such a
substitution to try to feel better.
Change
Management theories remind us that change is often resisted by humans.
There are several reasons for this, mostly that humans are engineered to
consume as little energy as possible, and change is often demanding in
energy levels. For that reason, human beings belief, argument and make
decisions against change, trying to make maintenance of the old habits the most
rational decision possible.
Our
objective is the adoption of the change, and that can be achieved by
many different means, including the financial pressure, authority or power. But
radically the best option ever is reputation. As a reference, McDonnalds popularized the
employee of the month.
Of course,
some people are more resilient than others, some are more risk averse
and others have more propensity to risk. Since it depends on
personality, team training is not always the right answer and accompaniment is
necessary.
Who is the right
person to take this role? Firstly, if the person is another employee, his or
her manager, or somebody from the HHRR department, the risk is that the person
will not generate as much trust as desired, and will be perceived as
“with an interest”. They will not speak free, and it will be difficult not to
judge.
Note that
we don’t see employees, we see human beings. Our interest is not them
professionally performing at high level, but they growing from a
personal perspective. They first need to be healthy, then they will be able to
perform.
The overall
objective of managing emotions is taking care of our people, so that
they do not become a bottleneck to our change project. It is not that the need to
do their jobs till the last minute, but also that they need to be creative and
think outside of the box, especially in a moment in which we are redesigning
the organization, the way of work and the culture.
There are
two quick wins for a Change Management Officer:
-
Gratitude:
o
Thank
people for their efforts.
o
Help
them appreciate their positive situation.
-
Letting
go. Help them heal the past by leaving in the present. Help them see things as
they are now.
Gestión del Cambio en NTT:
Get fit – Lead: Estrategia NTT Ltd 2018-23
Comunicación: Mantener informados de forma transparente a
todos los involucrados en el proyecto
Liderazgo y compromiso: Oportunidad para desarrollar el
orgullo de pertenencia a NTT, empoderar a los middle managers y conseguir un
liderazgo compartido
Capacitación y training: Que todo el mundo sepa qué y cómo
hacer las actividades
Visión y propósito: Tener claro el viaje, por qué y para
qué. Diseñar la narrativa. Envío de emails periódicos por parte de alta
dirección.
Transición y modelo de interacción: Diseñar cómo y quién ejecuta
cada actividad, y con quién interaccionar en cada situación.
Capacitación y Job Aids. Generar documentos guía que
resuelvan dudas sobre con quién y cómo interactuar, y cómo resolver
incidencias.
KPIs y reporting. Medir las variables relevantes para tomar
las decisiones adecuadas.
Oportunidades de mejora. Detectar elementos para los que el
shift and lift no funciona, y que necesitan ser repensados.
