Chris has a change to implement with her team. It was important and she wanted it to be successful. Before diving into it, she spent some time thinking about the workplace changes she had most readily accepted in her career. Based on that reflection, she decided there were five things she could do as a leader that would help her help her team. Little did she know that she was doing what some would call championing change.
Here are the five things she decided to do.
Talk Less
She decided that too much of the change communication she had experienced in her life was one way. The leaders, while they believed in the change, talked too much, and tried too hard to convince people too soon. Chris decided that she would outline the change at a high level, then stop and give people time to respond.
In the conversations that ensued, she constantly reminded herself not to be preachy or defensive, but to just listen.
Ask More Questions
To overcome her habit of talking too much, she knew she would need to ask more questions. She prepared some questions to use in her conversations, but also resolved to be more curious during those change conversations. When noting comments made about the change, she would then ask a truly curious question to better understand their perspective. Questions that would also help them process their thoughts more fully. Ultimately, Chris found the organic follow-up questions during conversations to be most helpful. Her pre-planned questions often helped jumpstart some of those conversations.
These were some of the questions she found most helpful:
- What are your questions about the change?
- What worries you about it?
- If we implement it, how might it help us?
- What will happen if we don’t make this change?
When she thought about it later, she realized there was nothing magical about any one of these questions. What was common about them was their simplicity and lack of implied judgement. She now thinks that is why they were so helpful.
Surface Their Concerns
By resolving to talk less, she discovered that she more easily understood their real concerns about the change. The more they discussed the change, the more people shared their concerns. And once she was aware of their concerns, she was in a better position to acknowledge and ease them. More importantly, by allowing people to talk about their concerns, the team started seeing ways to overcome them. The conversations became more about problem solving and less about whining about the change or placing blame.
Overcome Misconceptions
To be honest, this wasn’t part of her initial plan, but it happened. Chris realized that when she slowed down and stopped pushing the change, but tried to understand people’s concerns, that some of their concerns were unfounded. They misunderstood some parts of the change. They didn’t fully realize the problems that prompted the change. And they thought the change would lead to outcomes or consequences that were unlikely, or they could help avoid.
One of her big lessons was that clarity and acceptance takes time. Time to let people talk about and process the change helped her as much as it helped the team. Once misconceptions and misunderstandings became apparent, they could be clarified and resolved, leading to a clear and complete vision.
Be Patient
Chris decided that patience was necessary, because so often that wasn’t what she experienced. She realized that when she felt pushed, she sometimes pushed back. For a variety of reasons, she wanted to avoid that experience with her team. While she knew there would eventually be timelines to meet, she wanted to provide the team with as much time as she could to choose the change themselves, rather than feel pushed toward it. Ultimately, she felt that patience would create commitment to the change, while pushing might lead to mere compliance. She decided to be more patient in three ways:
- To give people time to think about the change. Rather than introducing it and immediately asking for their feedback, she would give them time to process it.
- To let the conversation last longer. She felt if she rushed the meeting to discuss the change, some ideas wouldn’t surface. She also allowed people to chat with her privately outside of the group conversation setting.
- To let the group help each other. Her voice as the leader isn’t and didn’t need to be the only voice supporting the change. She resolved to let others on the team speak in favor of the change naturally as they became committed to it.
In Retrospect
Upon reflection of the implementation of the change with her team, she was pleased. She found that these five things became keys to success and led to these great outcomes.
- As she let others talk more rather than trying to defend the change, defensiveness and resistance dropped dramatically.
- The whole process created a greater sense of purpose for the team. Even though some people still had concerns about the change, they understood why the change was important. That shift from the mechanics of the change to its purpose created resolve and team commitment to creating success.
- She became more confident in the benefits of the change itself. And her confidence helped others become more confident too.
These five actions helped Chris help her team accept and move forward with the change. Generally speaking, they didn’t simply acquiesce. Instead, they became engaged and got onboard with the change. Change is rarely easy. But Chris’ steps made it somewhat easier for both her and the team to move forward and change successfully.
Her biggest lesson? Paradoxically, when she put her focus on the team more than the change itself, she championed change more effectively.
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