The Power of WHY – Increase the success of change initiatives with simple WHY messaging
When executives and senior leaders provide clear messages WHY a change is required, it shortens the time employees spend in a negative emotional state, and begin working towards achieving the required change.
This not only increases the chance of achieving successful change on time, on budget and the return on investment being realised; it also helps to provide a safe workplace.
Change is inevitable. Change is becoming more and more rapid. New technology, political and market pressures, the industrial revolution winding down and a strong shift towards a knowledge economy have impacts on us all.
If we don’t respond to threats and opportunities quick enough, then we face the risk of falling out of the marketplace. Look at the likes of Research in Motion (Blackberry), for instance. They changed -eventually, but they’ve slipped from number 1 in the smartphone market to now being almost forgotten.
We know that change can be distressing for many people, but if we can tap in to their hearts and minds and follow a change management process, change doesn’t need to be painful.
We must accept that change is inevitable and increasing rapidly. We must also accept that there are health and safety risks that come with this. But they can be minimised.
The emotional stages of change
For most of us, change triggers mixed emotions. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross; a notable Swiss psychologist and author of the 1969 book “On Death and Dying”, identified that there was consistent pattern of emotions when we are faced with a stressful event such as change. In change management, this pattern is known as the Kübler-Ross Change Curve.
We can see that when subjected to change, peoples’ emotions typically pass through the following stages of change
- Shock – surprise at the event
- Denial – disbelief. Looking for evidence that it isn’t true
- Frustration – recognition that things are different
- Depression – low mood. Lacking in energy
- Experiment – initial engagement with new situation
- Decision – learning how to work in the new situation
- Integration – changes integrated; a renewed individual
The neurology of emotions
Many years ago, as a member of the Organisational Development and Risk Team at Nillumbik Shire Council in Melbourne Australia, I was fortunate enough to be part of a leadership and change management programme that was provided by Dr Andrew Marty from SACS Consulting.
Andrew’s explanation of the neuroscience of influence and events is something that I will remember forever, and has certainly helped me to succeed as a change manager and leader.
Andrew explained that there are two main subsystems in the brain:
- The Old Brain sits at the core and is responsible for those instinctive feelings necessary for survival. It is this part of the brain that is activated when threatened.
- The New Brain which is responsible for our critical thinking, learning and creating. It is this part of the brain that we need to activate in order get out of Old Brain thinking and move in to New Brain thinking if we are to successfully achieve the change.
- Image sourced from SACS Consulting
- Check out Andrew’s presentation on the Psychology of Safety at Work on SlideShare
By understanding the neuroscience that sits behind our emotions when faced with the prospect of change, we can see that it is important to quickly get the minds of the people we’re trying to change in to New Brain mode as quickly as possible.
We can do this by explaining WHY change is necessary, and tapping in to the hearts and minds of our people.
Diffusion of Innovations Theory – Rates of Adoption
We don’t all progress through the Kübler-Ross stages of change at the same rate.
The initiators of change are typically the ‘Innovators’ who make up a mere 2.5% of the population. Some of us are ‘Early Adopters’ and pass through these stages quite rapidly, while others are laggards who may never change. The majority however, sit in the middle as the ‘Early Majority’ and ‘Late Majority’.
By getting in to the hearts and minds of the Early Adopters and Early Majority with strong WHY messages early, excitement builds, and the Late Majority come along much faster. It shifts their brains from Old Brain to New Brain and we can start moving towards successful change much sooner.
What should your WHY message be?
Make your WHY message something that the people in the organisation can connect with; what’s in it for them.
As part of my role at JLT, I’m currently managing a major change project in the Victorian local government sector. The change is to achieve positive cultural change and to implement a consistent approach to managing OHS across a group of 29 councils to the standard set out in the National Audit Tool.
In this project, there are many reasons WHY change is necessary. They include:
- Increased compliance with legislation
- Economic savings from reduced injuries and workers compensation claims
- Reduced chance of prosecution which often results in significant financial loss and reputational damage
- Improved reputation of each organisation as a good corporate citizen
- Improved employee engagement
- Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism
- Increased employee engagement and staff retention
- Transferability of skills across the sector
- Benefit of economies of scale in group purchasing
- Social and economic benefit for all Victorians
These are all fantastic reasons WHY chance is necessary, and they make good moral, legal and commercial sense.
But they don’t tap in to the hearts and minds of the people who we need to change. The majority of employees really couldn’t care less about any of those things. What does it mean for them? Nothing. If we can’t get the individuals in our organisations to come on the change journey with us, then change will be unsuccessful, and potentially harmful to peoples’ health.
But the message is received in a whole different way when we say something like:
“We need to change because we value our staff so highly. We recognise that our staff are our most important asset and we’re willing to invest significant time, effort and resources in to ensuring that our workplace is not only healthy and safe, but also helps to improve our employees’ health and wellbeing….”
“We have identified that our systems and processes around occupational health and safety management have some gaps, and we need to close them…”
“We don’t want to rely on luck anymore. We want all staff in all functions and levels of the organisation to have the appropriate knowledge, skills and authority to make informed decisions about their work and its impacts on health and safety.”
“We have a plan for how we will achieve it, but it needs your input…”
When a message is delivered strongly and passionately by senior management, then backed up with actions and visibility, we’re a big step closer to achieving successful change.
What’s your WHY?
What change projects do you currently have running? What’s the WHY? Is it cold and clinical, or warm and people focussed?
I recommend that you make all your WHY messages people focused. Tap in to the hearts and minds of the people. WHY messages should be delivered by senior leaders. Direct supervisors should be conveying the WHAT and HOW messages as they should have stronger personal relationships with their staff. They can convey exactly how the change impacts on individuals, and what needs to be done.
Mark Perrett