Pull the Plug on Change : Bullet Points are Bullshit

"Pull the plug! Go on I dare you! Step out from behind the PowerPoint slide deck you've created."

I said this to a leader of change in a health insurance business and he said ....'No. I can't do that!!!'

But if you're 'rolling out' your communications and key messages for that change and transformation project you're working on - just as this leader was - you don't need a slide deck, a pack or a bunch of pages with boxes, arrows, chevrons and bullet points in it!

In fact those bullet points you've got there? They're bullish*t.

There. It's in print. I think bullet points are bullish*t. 

They boring, linear, impossible to memorise after about five - unless you're a memory champ - and they do little to inspire or inform, particularly during times of change. 

Most of all, bullet points often show up as a default option in PowerPoint. But you need to buck the default if you want to get engagement and understanding with your message. 

With all of the information flying around your organisation and team, you want your change messages to get a little more cut-through than the notice in the kitchen that cleanliness is everyone's responsibility!

Just because you have some key points to make about change, doesn't mean they need to be communicated as points.

Unpack your entire message across different dimensions: a story, some data, a quote, the rollout plan, where things were, what they'll be like in the future, some engaging questions, some customer insights, the trends in the industry. 

So this leader who I challenged to 'pull the plug'? We took his PowerPoint pack of bullet points and crafted some flip charts, posters, key messages, a couple of stories and some questions to have dialogue with the team. 

That's what he rolled out across the country. No PowerPoint in sight. 

He did pull the plug; and his people were so pleased he did. He stepped out from behind the pack of pages. Now he's talking, engaging, interacting and co-creating the change process with his team. That's leadership!

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

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. 

The best selling exhibition in town

In a busy workplace it can be tough to get people to listen and tune in to your change message, your key message or any of your messages!

How do you get people to listen to and understand what your team is working on? How do you get them to sign up, buy in and want to be a part of it?

Watch my short sketch video this week and you'll see how a clever project team got people to come along to their best selling 'exhibition'.

What important thing are you working on?

What will you do to make the people you work with want to tune in to it?

Download the video here

Can you really change the culture of an organisation?

School Principal Jihad Dib spoke at TEDxSydney recently - and shared his story of how a school can go from barbed wire … to belonging. 

Imagine a school community where people had given up.

But this education and community leader said 'where there's a heartbeat, there's life'. He believes the trajectory and culture of any organisation can be changed. 

You can see Jihad Dib's TEDxSydney 2014 talkhere...

and my visual notes below: