Leading change is a three-step thing

At a retailer's staff forum on innovation recently, the team was encouraged to 

• envisage
• think big and
• imagine

These are all such visual, thinking and 'possibility' words. It was all about what they could 'see'.

To survive and thrive in the challenging retail environment, this team had to change how they were working, how they were responding and how they were evolving the business. 

That's a lot of change. 

Add to that the usual change processes of new technology, systems, and other ways of working that go on across the business. 

For this team, change had to be a three-step thing. But it wasn't the boring three-step of: 

1 .analyse

2. think

3. change. 

Dan and Chip Heath in their book on change 'Switch' report on research from Kotter and Cohen where this approach is mighty popular, yet super ineffective at creating, driving and embedding change. 

Folks... the dance steps have to 'change'. 

The three-step thing that will work is:

1. see

2. feel

3. change.

Am I getting all emotional on you here? Well, analytical stuff works best when things are known and the future is clear. 

But in the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environment we all operate in, often the future is... out of focus, blurry. 

See, Feel, Change is about seeing evidence that gives you a feeling and from there you can change. You can help guide people through their responses to that feeling about what they've seen. Show people what's going on. Let them see how things could be. How do they feel about that? That's when change will come. That's when people get on board, buy in, sign up and advocate for the change. 

Otherwise you're just dancing in the dark!

Read more in Dan & Chip Heath's book 'Switch' here

How NOT to start your presentation on change

Senior leader... standing at the front of a room, about to announce some key information on a change and transformation piece of work. 

The room is hushed. Everyone is waiting to hear why the change is happening and how it will affect them. You know the old 'WIIFM' 'What's in it for me'. You've got to hook them in first, before you even begin to blab on about how it will roll out and when it will happen. 

So the leader begins... and the first words out of their mouth were: 

'I have seven slides to present'.

Yep, that was it. The number of slides. The number of times they were going to 'click' the clicker to advance the PowerPoint deck of pre-prepared numbness. Seven times. 

THAT was the most important thing?

That's what you wanted to lead with?

That was going to frame the change, the message, the impact?

The nervousness, uncertainty or anxiety was leaking out of this leader and their subconscious or unconscious was speaking: 'just get through these seven slides'. 

The team thinking - 'oh great, seven slides.'

After some wise counsel on how this leader could design, communicate and facilitate change through the rest of this national rollout, the start of the subsequent presentations changed.

This leader started with a story, or a statistic, or a statement. It was inspiring, engaging and it captured attention.

They didn't start with the number of slides. Not any more. 

Know your message.

Know your team and their 'what's in it for me'.

Lead with that. Reinforce that.

Share that and be passionate about that.

Not how many slides you have. (zzzz)

Do it with the lights on and the blinds open

Yep, put it on show and make it visible.

Stand out, loud and clear so people can see and hear you!

Doing what and where ... you wonder?

Last week I was working with a team on their leadership day. They put so much effort into making the conference room dark enough for the PowerPoint presentation and slides. I figured this was gonna be one heck of a deck. 

But, well, it wasn't. It was a bunch of dot points on the company template. zzzzzzz, yawn and dull boring, #fail.

This was a leadership team and a big event focused on communicating change, inspiring the team, getting everyone on the same page.

A darkened room and a deck of uninspiring, forgettable bullet points. Yep, that's really going to have staying power... no.

Leaders need to get real when it comes to communicating change. Turn the lights on. Let them see you. Keep the blinds open. Let natural light in. Be authentic - there's so much 'authentic leadership' talk going on, yet when leaders have the perfect opportunity to influence, persuade and deliver messages as a real human being, they sanitise themselves and hide in the dark, clicking and 'blah-blahing' through lists of linear nothingness.

Stop spending so much time on your bullet points and slide deck and spend some more time crafting, rehearsing, speaking, engaging, sharing and humanising your leadership communication.

Lights on. Blinds open. Now. 

It's time to clean up our language

Listening to people talking is something we do every day; listening in workshops, in planning sessions, in meetings, conversations and learning environments.

I don't know about you, but I hear lots of 'dirty' language! Ok, not swearing, but rather let's call it 'unclean language'. 

This is language where people interrupt, make assumptions, give directions, tell people what to do and dish out prescriptions. Yes... how much do you enjoy being told what to do? Often we may not intend to be so ... dirty... with our language, so it's something to be aware of. 

We really do need to clean up our language!

Clean language has the capacity to break down silos, build trusting environments, boost our capabilities to think, evolve our ideas and deepen engagement. It's an approach identified and developed by New Zealander David Grove. More leaders, coaches, managers and drivers of change might like the idea of achieving those things.

You can read more about the technicalities of clean language here and here but a session presented at a conference I was at recently reminded me of the power of this clean listening and communication tool.

In short, here's how you keep it clean:

• listen using the person's words
• use 'and...' to kick off your sentence or question
• ask 3 key clean questions (where x is a word they've mentioned/used)
  • And what kind of x is that x?
  • And is there anything else about x?
  • And that's x like what ?
• stick to these three questions
• slow down.

You can get the essence of the session from my visual notes.

So... how 'clean' are you? How clean are the others on your team? 

Boost engagement, build trust and break down silos in these challenging times by cleaning things up.

Careful of those unconscious 'commands'

"I know you're tired after a long day today..."

"We'll do this activity so it might feel like you're a kid back at school doing a test..."

"I'm sorry if it feels like all of the speakers are droning on about this..."

"You probably don't want to hear what I'm going to say next but ..."

These are four real-life statements, made by team leaders, speakers, executives over the past few weeks ... people who should "know better".

But often we don't know! We're blissfully (or dangerously) unaware of the words that leak out from our mouths from our minds and the power those words have on a team, an environment, a presentation, a project.

I noted these four statements when I heard them and they all have a dangerous power to have the audience agreeing with you, under their breath, in their mind, or muttering to someone else.

Let's run them again:

"I know you're tired after a long day today..."

<Yeah, so get off the stage and let me go and have a beer!>

"We'll do this activity so it might feel like you're a kid back at school doing a test..."

<So stop it! I don't need to do kids stuff. Let's do things that will actually create an outcome for this project!>

"I'm sorry if it feels like all of the speakers are droning on about this..."

<OK, so you're going to waffle too? Yes you've all been droning ALL day!>

"You probably don't want to hear what I'm going to say next but ..."

<You're right mate. I'm not gonna listen. Instead I'll think about ....>

Be super careful about your 'banter' before you deliver important messages. This 'leakage' of uncertainty, apology or low levels of confidence can be turned around. 

Instead, positively frame up what you're saying. 

There's no need to use any of these waffle statements. Just deliver your content, your point, your story, your case study. And move on. 

Set up the environment, the context and the team for a positive interaction, a creative environment with a strong 'why we're doing this', or 'why I'm here presenting this' or 'why this change is happening'. 

They're the 'commands' you want people to buy in to and adopt. 

That's a smoother path to change.