Connecting with Change

What if we craved change? Would life be better if we openly embraced change and behavioral modifications? Seeking clarity with these questions in the context of business, I attended the recent Association Change Management Professionals annual conference in New Orleans.
Lisa Earle McLeod, author of “Leading with Noble Purpose,” served as a keynote speaker and kicked off the conference. She said that as humans, we long to be part of something bigger than ourselves. In a business context, we crave meaning in our work. Without a sense of purpose in the 9-to-5, employees show up for work, but leave their hearts and spirits at home. And if workers don’t see the value of what they are asked to do each day, it doesn’t matter what steps you take to change your company, its culture, or even its tools and processes. Your employees will still feel trapped and uninspired, and they’ll resist change because it feels like a pointless hassle.
Business leaders must remember these “critical connectors” if they want to effect lasting change in their organizations. Lisa explained that when we feel like we belong and have a sense of purpose beyond than ourselves, we’re more open to modifying our behavior. For example, we can see that this decision to change the company’s customer service process isn’t just a pointless request from upper management. And that makes us more inclined to participate. So managing change begins with embracing the role that human emotion, motivation and social interaction play in our decisions and actions.
But that’s not the whole story. We also need information and knowledge if we are to support and share the “why” behind change. Speakers Chris Bartlett and Drew Mattison referred to this relationship as “knowledge connections.” In their ACMP presentation about the secrets of strategy activation, they explained that change is propelled by sharing information and taking action. Having too much or too little information can paralyze us, and content without context creates disconnects. Change leaders need to help employees translate facts and determine how to act on relevant data. And those responsible for modifying their behavior need to know what’s changing, why it’s changing, what’s staying the same, and what’s expected of them.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Communicating change is difficult. Messages from senior leadership and between peers need to be clearly articulated and focused on the purpose behind the change, beyond the impact on the bottom line. Over the years, we’ve found that visual stories can address both the emotional and informational sides of change like nothing else can. Showing people—not just telling them—how change will affect them removes abstraction, making it relevant. And revealing the “critical connectors” by fostering a sense of belonging and shared purpose encourages employees to modify their behavior to achieve the big picture goal.
I learned at the ACMP conference that the language of business has stripped emotion out of our decision-making—and we need to bring it back. To achieve business transformations, we must challenge ourselves to empathize with those who are wondering, “How does where we’re going fit with the story of who we are?” And then we need to answer them. Humans’ fear of letting go due to emotional attachments to things and habits is a natural barrier to change. According to Dr. Spencer Johnson, author of the popular book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” overcoming this barrier requires us to shift focus from what’s being lost through change to what’s being gained. Telling a compelling visual story of the past, present, and future created by transformation can help quiet our natural anxieties by revealing where we are in the story, what we’re expected to do, and why it’s important.