How to shift mental models of a tenured, vested group to accept the need for change.
Peter Drucker famously said, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Review your company issues and strategize it, root-cause it, focus-group it, and analyze how to become more efficient, leaner, smarter or more profitable. Decide on an action or best practice, invest in rollout and communication. But if you never change the mental models of those who don't see the reason for change, the path to take, or the vision to achieve, your initiative begins its death spiral before you even kick it off.
Your employees are not intentionally standing in your way of change and improving processes. Just like you, they think they know the best actions to take. Further, and unfortunately, they may have seen past attempts at change. It is highly unlikely you and your employees share a mental model of the success of previous initiatives. Mental models are powerful, and the resistance is as diverse as the people that hold them. To change behavior and directly influence people's decisions to act, accept, support, and believe, you must understand their mindset and move to the point from which they are starting. Only then, can you effectively lead them to a new position.
This workshop template, "Our Story; Our Timeline" is a great tool for shifting mental models of vested tenured groups with a lot at stake in change initiatives. Here is how to run this discovery (use the spreadsheet format pictured above):
Select the snapshot times for your timeline. Don't get too detailed here. You want to go broadly. If the business is 30 years old, go 5 year ago, 15 years ago, 30 years ago. Add additional analysis points if your business is older. Then add the analysis points of present, +3-5 years, and then future.
Outline key performance indicators (KPI) or metrics that are common for your business. Have the group rate the business performance within those timeframes from the present back in time. This is a qualitative measure, not detailed. Use a simple scale like 0-3, or at most 0-5.
Within those analysis points (leave future points for now, you will fill in predictions in step 6), describe the difference in your services or products. How did your portfolio change? Did it get more complex? How many SKUs? What percentage was each mix?
What product development occurred? When were new products introduced? Talk about the complexity this added.
For each analysis point, describe the business changes, both internal and external, that were significant to the business. You might list events like COVID, lean introduction, robotics line, ERP, etc.
Ask the group to predict the future. Where will these factors be in relation to future performance? What aspects will impact the business?
Don't challenge data and information. Just go with the consensus so the discussion flows. It is hard to predict the future so have patience here! But be amazed as people start to connect the dots as it relates to business practices and performance needed to meet the future demands on the organization.
While building the time-scape, you facilitate sharing and validate feelings of self-importance and legacy. You trace the complexities of the business and the environment through time, and in many instances, participants get their first analysis of business dynamics. Discussions transpire with memory sharing which yields deeper camaraderie and trust. As you move through the past, present, and future of the team (company, department, etc.) participants will begin to understand that change was necessary and came sometimes with a vengeance! Very quickly, the friction to change transforms to fuel, to better navigate the future!
I'd love to hear how this worked with your team!
Lori G. Fisher
PLS Management Consulting
Purpose | Leap | Surge
Comentarios