I only had one hour to wait for my appointment but straight away I started to feel vulnerable as my vision was extremely blurred. I couldn't really see where I was going or what was going on around me and I couldn't see who was approaching me; I felt lost and confused.

As I made my way across the city to my appointment all I could do was focus on the ground ahead of me and follow the route displayed on my phone's google map. I had never been to this optometrist before so I wasn't familiar with the route or the shop itself and therefore had to rely heavily on my map.

I slowly reached the red pin, my google map destination, and suddenly realised that the address was for a rather large shopping complex with a number of levels. I entered the building and found myself walking in to a very busy food court but annoyingly there was no optometrist in sight.

With a bit of squinting, I could just make out a medical centre on the upper level, which I figured was the closest to an optometrist that I could find in my panicked state and they might just know where I needed to get to. With that thinking, I made my way to the upper level and into the medical centre and was able to catch the attention of a doctor walking by. I explained my situation and asked if she could direct me to the optometrists for my appointment.

Thankfully, the doctor knew exactly where I needed to go and was able to provide me with clear directions to the lower ground level and even walked me over to the lifts to help me on my way. I felt so relieved and so happy to have someone there to offer some guidance. It was amazing how it made me feel; like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I now knew exactly how to get to where I needed to go and I would make it on time to my appointment. All ended well and I managed to get a new prescription and fresh set of contact lenses for the rest of the day. What a great result.

As I got back to my desk to carry on with the rest of my day, I started to reflect on my morning. I started to realise that this was a perfect analogy for how people in large organisations (like the one I work in) often felt. More often than not, people know exactly where they need to go and what they need to do when they get there. The tricky part is knowing how to actually get from A to B; having clear direction in what steps to take, what corners to turn and what level to be on to reach your destination.

The doctor was the change manager in my story; she was the friendly face and the person with the knowledge of the local area to guide me to my destination. She helped turn my difficult situation around, removing the complexity and anxiety by providing a clear path. That's what change managers do; we help guide people to their destination through clear communication and support. It is an important role and creates the vision people need to see where they are going.

A pin in a map doesn't give us the clear direction needed to reach our destination. There are often many routes available and it can be unclear which path to take. It is the change managers who can help facilitate these journeys, and provide the clear path where vision can be blurred. Without the doctor, I would have continued to walk around the shopping complex in my panicked state and probably wouldn't have even noticed that there was a lower ground level.

Observing the large organisation that I work in, I can see how it has many similarities to the chaotic shopping complex that I found myself in that morning. Teams spread out across many floors and multiple buildings all performing different roles and purposes. I can even make out the panic and concern on people's faces as they run around and move from meeting to meeting trying to achieve their goal and reach their destination. It can be an incredibly stressful environment; blurred vision is extremely stressful. Change management is important where this complexity exists; it brings the calm, it removes the panic and ensures clarity in direction so people can see where they are going. It keeps the weight lifted off people's shoulders and ensures that nobody is alone on their journey.

This experience has inspired me to work harder on ensuring clarity in the directions I give day to day, to remove the stress and keep the smiles on people's faces.

Victoria Marriott is a Senior Change Manager with 10 years experience predominantly in the financial services sector. She has worked on global transformation programs around the world. Currently based in Sydney, she can be contacted at v.l.marriott@gmail.com.

 

Have you had similar moments of recognition of the importance of change management? Tell us in the comments section below!

In this article, I am unraveling the authentic nature of the thing we call ‘resistance’. It turns out that our ability to discern four types of resistance is a key success factor for organizational change practitioners. Each type requires a different response, so a tool as simple and straightforward as a resistance 'pregnancy test' would be quite handy.

 

 

First things first… how did I come to this crazy idea? I used to think that resistance in projects was a behavior that is recognizable from miles ahead: angry people being explicitly opposed against an initiative. Textbooks on change management make us believe that resistance is easily observable and that we can almost tick the check-boxes like a scientist observing an animal in the zoo. You can imagine my frustration when I got my fingernails dirty on projects. But if textbooks weren't going to help me, I had to figure it out for myself. Bear with me as I show you with the precision of an ultrasound display that it is worthwhile to perform a 'change resistance pregnancy test'.

As with the pregnancy tests you can buy at a pharmacy, you will be surprised by the accuracy of just looking at two simple things:

• Intent: what people want, and
• Behavior: what people do.

Let’s take a closer look. In the ultrasound display below, the vertical axis displays intent and the horizontal axis shows behavior. As a result there are four quadrants:

 

 

The Four Quadrants of the 'Ultrasound'

1) Commitment

What happens when our intention is willing and our behavior follows our intentions. Let’s say this is an authentic ‘yes’.

2) Resistance

What happens when our intention is unwilling and when it is in resonance with our behavior. Think about the common types of resistance that can be ticked in a check-box. Typical examples include: Need more detail, Giving a lot of detail, Not enough time, Impracticality, Confusion, Silence, Moralizing and Press for solutions (taken from: Peter Block – Flawless Consulting). The point is that these behaviors demonstrate a ‘no’, but it is an authentic ‘no’.

Both of the above behaviors are signs of pregnancy because they are authentic. Authenticity means that what people do is in sync with what people say. Resistance, like commitment, is a rare behavior. It requires people to be open about what they care about, and at the same time it goes against what is generally accepted. It takes maturity and courage behave in sync with your intent when the social pressure to conform is high.

So far the stuff I could find in textbooks. My gut-feeling says that it covers about 10% of the behavior I come across in an organizational context.

But it gets more realistic when there is a dissonance between what people say and what they do.

3) The Stockholm Syndrome

The Stockholm Syndrome – also known as ‘capture-bonding’ - describes the behavior of hostages who become sympathetic to their hostage-takers. The name is derived from a 1973 hostage incident in Stockholm, when several victims began to identify with their hostage-takers as a coping strategy. It is the same kind of fear of repercussions that we can find in some organizations. People lose their sense of self as if they were in a hostage situation and start to act against their unwilling intent. From the outside they gladly execute and commit to the commandments that were made, so their behavior is a false ‘yes’.

4) The Otis Redding Syndrome

I borrow this one from Bob Sutton, who recalls the line from Otis Redding’s old song: Sitting By the Dock of the Bay, “Can’t do what ten people tell me to do, so I guess I’ll remain the same”. Clearly, this describes people with a good intention who are somehow hindered to follow their will because they are paralyzed by opinions and politics. This is a false ‘no’. Otis Redding’s solution was to “remain the same” because he couldn't please 10 different people. According to Robert Sutton, that is a rational response to a bad system.

In both of quadrants 3 and 4, the behavior and the intent are not in sync; hence I label them as ‘not-pregnant’. Sadly, the inauthentic behavior of these quadrants represents about 90% of resistance we encounter in an organizational context.

 

 

How to Diagnose

So now that you know what to look for we can get down to practice. Intent and Behavior can be in sync or out of sync. It’s all a matter of authenticity – something you can easily diagnose by the level of energy that people display.

• When they are in sync (i.e.: ‘I want what I am doing’; or ‘I don’t do what I dislike’), the behavior is authentic and this generates energy. Hence the diagnosis of pregnancy.
• When they are out of sync (i.e.: ‘I want it, but I am not doing it’; or: ‘I don’t want it and still I am doing it’) the behavior is a coping behavior and it sucks up the energy. Hence the diagnosis of non-pregnancy.

The level of energy that people display is something we can pick in the interaction and our interventions. It helps to be humble in our interventions in order not to distort the resistance we are measuring (is it against us or against the initiative?).

How to respond

By now you will have figured out that I will advise a different approach when the diagnosis is pregnant versus not-pregnant.

Pregnant: A Nurturing Challenge

Authentic behavior is a source of energy. Most of the times, people are being authentic because it feels safe enough for them to turn their emotions into energy. That is why, from a fertility point of view Resistance and Commitment mean the same:

• People care about the stuff;
• People feel safe enough to tell you they (dis)agree;
• People have a backbone, a beating heart and guts;

In both cases the challenge ahead of us is a nurturing challenge. We need to find a way to channel the energy and provide a context of involvement and sense-making.

Resistance, like commitment, is a good thing, although it can lead to a troubled pregnancy if our response is negative. Think about it: fighting resistance is a form of contraception. You are giving up on the life and you have decided not to create a context for this life to unfold. For sure you will be right when the pregnancy does not come to fruition. But who’s to blame?

Not Pregnant: A Fertility Problem

In management, like in medicine, syndromes are mostly conditions that require an outside intervention in order to heal. Something needs to happen before you can think of nurturing. The problem with inauthentic behavior is that there is no context to make sense of the emotions, and thus no fuel. What we see as a result is an alien life-form, as in: alienated and outside of the womb. No nurturing is possible when fertility is the problem.

Solving this fertility problem is the real challenge that organizational change practitioners should focus on. For the biggest part this is uncharted territory because 99% of the practitioners I know make a living out of ending difficult pregnancies (and claiming they did the right thing).

Real change management is the true work of preparing a womb where behavior can be authentic in the first place. Create a context where a ‘problem’ can be a ‘problem’ so we can deal with it without being swept under the carpet.

Have another look at the quadrants of the ultrasound above. Our challenge is to create a context of fertility in the first place. Often, this means provoking people into an authentic position of resistance. Always remember that resistance means that people care. When you have heartbeat on the monitor, that’s when you can start the nurturing.

Whose Baby is it Anyway?

When I look around me I see to much practitioners aborting a pregnant situation and even more practitioners nurturing inauthentic syndromes. That needs to stop.

In any project the transfer of ownership of the end state is an awkward thing. In the business world we have gotten used to pregnancies outside of our womb and forced parenthood of someone else’s baby. That is why we need instruments to test authenticity in the first place: to separate nurturing challenges from fertility problems.

Anyhow, the earlier you can get a hold of that pregnancy test or ultrasound image, the better it is. So get out there, be humble in your interventions and let the diagnosing begin!

Luc Galoppin is a Belgium based organizational change practitioner. He is the founder & community Manager of 'Organizational Change Practitioners', the world's largest change management forum. He can be contacted at luc.galoppin@reply-mc.com.

 

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This drawing illustrates the stark contrast between individuals' desire for systemic changes with their desire to undergo changes themselves. It can be useful as a trigger for conversation with leaders, supervisors and advocates of change.

 

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Why do 70% of change initiatives fail? For the most part, the business world has ignored science. According to Dan Pink, there is a disconnect between what business does and science tells us. Businesses continue to use outdated processes developed during the industrial age that science has proven don’t work and are not suited to the intelligence age we now operate in.

In order for any change effort to succeed, we not only need to rewire the brains of the individuals’ involved in the change but also the collective brain of the organization. So what are the key insights from neuroscience that might help us with change?

Change = Threat

Many change efforts fail because the need for certainty is not addressed quickly at the onset of the change AND throughout the change process.

The brain is organized to minimize threat and maximize reward and this in turn guides our behavior. Our brains haven’t evolved to keep pace with the rapid change. The oldest part of the brain our ‘limbic brain’ was designed to keep us safe to get our body ready to react fast to save us from being eaten by predators or other dangers in the environment. Threats to certainty or autonomy or status are treated by the brain as real threats and can generate a threat response in the brain similar to the one generated when you feel your life is threatened by a predator.

Going Limbic

Going limbic is not great for change! Resources are diverted away from our executive or thinking brain (our pre-frontal cortex) to preparation for fight, flight or freeze. When this happens we are less likely to take risks, try new things, be innovative or make good assessments about the benefits of a change. No wonder only 30% of change efforts succeed!

This means that the collective brain of the organization must deal with the individual brains who are moment by moment assessing whether the potential rewards of the change are greater than the potential threat caused by the uncertainty of change or the energy required to change.
People are more willing to engage in change when they perceive the reward of change is greater than the perceived threat of the change.

Engaging people in an organization to shift their mindset really means creating a whole lot of new neural wiring and the uncertainty this can create can send the collective brain of the organization into a threat state. Overcoming this threat state is key for change initiatives to succeed.

Change Hurts

Brains hate change. Change takes effort, focus and energy and the brain like to conserve energy. The brain likes to work in familiar ways and follow predictable patterns. This can be a challenge to creating the sense of urgency when the default state of the brain is complacency. The word change can make some break out in a cold sweat as certainty and control over familiar contexts is threatened.

The good news is we can change… it just takes effort and focus to make change stick. Norman Doidge in his book ‘The Brain that Changes Itself’ showed just how neuroplastic the brain is. Change leaders can support neuroplasticity and change in the individual and the collective brain of the organization by ensuring that an attention plan for maintaining momentum for a change process is developed.

Emotions are contagious

Emotions matter and at an unconscious level we can sense through very clever specialized neurons called mirror neurons which allow us to decode (receive and interpret) facial expressions so we know when people are faking it or not being authentic. If you are charged with leading a change initiative lead with excitement and enthusiasm. When you are excited about the possibilities of the change the emotion contagion effect can make rather than break a change effort.

To summarize:

• Change requires a rewiring of the individual and collective brain of the organization
• Change creates a threat response in the brain and this needs to be addressed for change efforts to be a success
• The brain doesn’t like change and the rewards of the change need to be clearly understood and referred to often to keep the collective brain of the organization in a toward/reward response to the change
• Emotions are contagious – find supporters of the change that can spread their positive emotions

Linda Ray is an Australia based pioneer of the field of 'neuroleadership', applying the lessons from neuroscience to leadership development. She can be contacted linda@neuresourcegroup.com.au.

 

How do you accommodate brains during change?
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As a change practitioner, over the years I have worked on projects big and small, from technology to culture, digital to behavioral. My skills set has served me well and I've honed my 'resistance radar' and developed creative influencing strategies and delivery techniques.

Why then did my leap into the torrents of Organizational Transformation feel like such a shock? Why did the waters seem so murky? After six months of struggles, deep conversations and help from wiser souls, I have learned nine key lessons that I’m happy to share.

1. Organizational Transformation is different to Change Management

Before we jump in I thought I would share this metaphor to describe the difference between change’ and Transformation; ‘a butterfly is a transformation, not a better caterpillar’, or in simple English change fixes the past, while Transformation creates the future (this may already be raising some alarm bells to the good solid Change practitioners reading this article).

Transformational change is often experienced as a cycle of continuous improvements, rather than a ‘release’. There is nothing linear and planned about cycles!

2. Change methodologies aren’t enough

Sadly our traditional methodologies, models and approaches to delivering successful change do not work in times of Transformation. Quite simply; deep thinking, ongoing dialogue, conversations with no agendas, honesty and lots of creativity should be the guide.

3. Transformation involves an uncertain end state

Transformation is by its nature evolutionary and characterized by an uncertain end state. Often the change journey begins before the end state is understood, and complex layers need to unravel before clarity can be gained. This process requires a strategy that engages, enables and sets the organization free to assess and address the ongoing change needs. This can only be done in the organization, and by the organization, maximizing the ownership and adoption of the changes as they emerge. This is like renovating a very old home – until you pull down some walls and lift a few carpets you can’t anticipate what the completed home may look like. A strong purpose, strategic guidelines and design principles will guide the process of Transformation, but not determine the future from the outset.

4. Do Just Enough to Succeed

Doing too much during Transformation distracts people from the main game and dilutes the focus and effort required to deliver a change that is based on conscious awareness and insights. So rather than plan for a multi-pronged and ‘comprehensive’ approach that adds information and noise to an already confusing environment, we should focus on the levers that will deliver the greatest shifts – simplifying the change rather than contributing to its complexity.

To do this, leaders should be conscious of what’s on the slate – rather stop activities that are only marginally completed or are of no real value than try do it all. Combine and package activities, or run changes in parallel. Where possible, minimize the volume of activity by leveraging what is already happening rather than creating new initiatives.

5. Identify and amplify symbols of the desired state

Even evolutionary change can benefit from anchors that reflect the future and demonstrate the desired state. Throughout the program of change we should seek to identify opportunities that will anchor the change, and leverage elements that will symbolically and significantly align to and reflect the new world. This should include identifying and removing resistors and obstacles to the creation of the new, so the change can create its own momentum.

6. Transformation leadership is a tough job

Leaders of transformation must have a broad set of qualities. They are required to own the process as much as the outcome. They need to empower and release decision-making, sit with uncertainty’ and be able to answer questions with ‘I don’t know’. These leaders need to be change agents who facilitate the emerging end state by providing direction, coaching and supporting others all whilst collaboratively designing the process that will make this happen. They need to be change agents that facilitate the emerging (and uncertain) end state and collaboratively design the process to make this happen. Only leaders that are skilled, confident and committed will deliver success.

7. Get people aside from Leaders involved for better results

No matter how skilled an organization’s Transformation leaders are, they can’t do it alone. The process of discovery and co-creation cannot be done in isolation from the people in the organization. So leaders need to role model the future and create a partnership approach, allowing people to participate in meaningful activities where engagement is authentic and honest. This inclusive approach will create more connection, ownership and thereby commitment to the success of the new.

Social network analysis also offers us great opportunities to identify and tap into the informal network of Connectors, Brokers, Influencers and Pulse-Takers. Access to how people make sense of their work and environment, and connect beyond lines and boxes, opens up a new way of driving ownership and commitment to the new vision.

8. Make sure you have enough people keeping things running

In organizations, people are already under pressure to maintain the internal balance of keeping systems working and servicing customers. Transformational change adds additional factors of shifting structures, culture, ways of working, systems and technology. Thus it is important to consider whether the organization has enough subject matter experts, business leaders and owners to support Transformation change and keep the business running.

Without understanding and considering the time and effort Transformation requires of our subject matter experts, people leaders and critical resources, we run the risk of burning out the key people integral to success. Sadly, retention of talent during Transformation is a challenge that must be actively supported and planned for.

9. Keep an eye on what’s happening with your people

Monitor the change and look out for warning signals by keeping on top of how your people are ‘feeling’. Whether it be surveys, focus groups or monitoring information shared in social network channels, signs of fatigue, disengagement or general confusion need to be looked out for.

Feedback loops are essential. Often the people in the organization have valuable insights that need to be communicated to decision makers and influencers. Creating channels and opportunities to do this is a worthwhile investment that recognizes the value of contributors at all levels.

Heatmaps or a single view of the Transformation should be collated, reported and shared at both executive and business levels. Understanding ‘what Transformation is doing to the people’ often leads to valuable trade-off conversations and exploration of opportunities to bundle, cancel or promote changes. This critical information should also be used to inform the roadmap for delivery.

My Conclusions:

As a Change Manager who has worked in Organizational Transformation for six months, my advice is to trust your gut and let go of your models and frameworks. Transformation is anything but linear! Models have a place, but only to encourage thinking and awareness of all the dynamics and relationships between organizational elements and systems. Sensing when to plan, trust, direct and facilitate is the art of Transformational change.

Janine Ellison is Sydney-based senior change management practitioner. She can be contacted at jellison@live.com.au.

 

What are your experiences with organizational transformation?
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Each January, Buddy Guy is in residence at his blues bar, Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago. At 10:30 pm, he takes the stage and breaks into guitar riffs, songs and stories that rival men a quarter of his age. A few weeks ago I was listening to this amazing seventy-eight year old man perform and I reflected on his legacy.

Have you heard of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, John Mayer or Stevie Ray Vaughan? These are just a few of the musicians who credit Buddy Guy for inspiring them. Vaughan stated that, "Without Buddy Guy, there would be no Stevie Ray Vaughan." Eric Clapton said "Buddy Guy was to me what Elvis was for others." When you leave a legacy you pass something enduring along to another person. Clearly Buddy guy passed something along to his fellow musicians.

Just like Buddy Guy, has left a legacy in the music world, you are leaving a legacy in your change work. Change practitioners, change agents, managers and leaders all leave something behind. At the macro level is the change itself. Was the change successful? Did it deliver value and make a difference in some way? In Buddy Guy’s case, his musical career represents a macro level of legacy. His lifetime body of work has such a legacy that he just received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award.

The micro level of legacy is made up of the individual interactions that take place throughout a change. This is the coaching conversation you have with a manager that helps them see their role in a new light and changes how they communicate with their team in the future. Buddy Guy’s micro legacy is the impact he left on his fellow musicians who credit him with inspiration that transformed their careers. It’s also the impact it had on me as I watched him practice his craft and dazzle the audience.

Behind the success of any change is the person to person interactions. Through your interactions with the people around you, you are leaving a legacy. I had the opportunity to work with a CEO who had ambitious change plans. He recognized that his plans exceeded the capacity and capability of his people. I worked closely to help him temper the pace of change and to address leadership challenges with his team. As a result of our conversations he had to think deeply about how he showed up as a leader. He became more intentional about creating a culture that encouraged risk taking and creativity by learning from failure rather than punishing it. This is micro legacy impact from sponsor coaching.

In the midst of a change it’s easy to get focused on the actions like coaching a sponsor or identifying and analyzing stakeholders, rather than the meaningful impact you are making by performing those actions. You always leave something behind when you practice change management. Every task you perform, every interaction you have gives you a chance to leave a legacy and make a difference in a person’s life. This is the privilege of our profession.

As you consider your legacy, here are some thoughts on how you can make the most of it:

• • Be the best you that you can be. Every person is unique. You have talents and strengths that no one else does. Find them, mine them and build on them. When you are at your best, you bring out the best in others. You are also operating at your peak which means that as you perform your daily work you excel, this builds your confidence, your capability and your legacy. At the age of seven, Buddy Guy taught himself to play a makeshift guitar he built for himself. What he found within was a unique style of play that wasn’t popular and in fact early record labels refused to record. However, Buddy Guy continued his inimitable, unpredictable and creative style. Building on strength he stayed true to himself and impacted countless people.
  • Contribute to something greater than yourself. You can contribute through your day to day work or through volunteering. You build legacy by what you give away. You can give away your time by helping a cause you believe in. You can give away your insights and experience by mentoring someone. However you decide to contribute, you will leave a legacy because you’ve taken the time to give. There is an interview with Buddy Guy where he describes the legacy of a variety of artists including Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Slim and B.B. King. He was impacted by them and he passed that on to other musicians like Eric Clapton Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck. Buddy Guy’s legacy of blues carries on.

Whether your legacy comes from change or music, you will leave one. It’s up to you to be intentional about the impact you have on the people and changes around you. Bring your best, build on strength and find ways to contribute in order to leave a legacy.

One of the goals of ACMP is to leave a legacy of more successful change. We believe that by coming together as a profession, we can influence change around the world for the better. As a community of practitioners we have the privilege of impacting teams, end users, organizations and the world around us. Let’s make the legacy of the change management profession, lasting success and meaningful change.

Donna Brighton is a past president of the Association of Change Management Professionals.

 

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In 1998 Sam Mogannam revitalized a small family-run Bi-Rite market in the now-trendy Mission neighborhood in San Francisco. Although the area was rife with drug dealing and other crimes, Sam took a risk and removed the bars from the windows. He revamped the product offerings, and renovated the little grocery store into a welcoming hub for the local community.

He grew this community by cultivating life-giving relationships with local producers, and provided education opportunities for his employees and customers, taking them on field trips to local farms to gain knowledge, develop relationships, and build ownership. Today Sam’s Bi-Rite market is a resounding success. A profitable business with an energizing purpose.

Profits + Purpose = Thriving

For decades, many of us have viewed corporations and non-profits as fundamentally distinct types of organizations. We looked at corporations as existing primarily to make profits, and saw non-profits as existing primarily to fulfill a people-directed purpose.

However this distinction is shrinking, driven by the redefined expectations of the next generation of the workforce. Young professionals are transforming the definition of success to include “living a good life” and “doing something greater than oneself.”

With the landscape of business traveling at warp speed and new technology reshaping how we connect, create and share, we have a great opportunity to transform the way we experience work -- re-creating the workplace to include both profit and purpose.

How to Get There

Here is an outline for moving your organization toward a culture of thriving and resilience with tools to help you get started:

• Develop Self-Awareness – Use tools such as journey mapping, change readiness assessment, impact analysis, and culture analysis.
• Align the People/Organization – Have a clearly articulated vision enabling all employees to connect their job to a purpose at work
• Prioritize and Implement Culture Change – The M5 Model is illustrated in the fun poster below and provides an easy roadmap to understand and plan for organizational well-being. Its elements include:
  1. Mindfulness – Apply methods of intentional focus to improve productivity and decision making abilities. This requires slowing down, observing patterns, and stepping in with intent. Mindfulness is more than meditation.
  2. Mentoring – Focus on high-quality connections generating life-giving relationships that incorporate respect, encouragement, professional growth opportunities, trust, and fun.
  3. Movement – Clearly identify career moves/paths and nurture well-being with energizing twist and stretch breaks; encourage moving meetings.
  4. Motivation – Positive enterprises design their policies to enrich jobs, listen to employees regularly, recognize achievement consistently, and become adept at the use of stretch goals to fuel inspiration.
  5. Meaning - Foster an organizational culture of people who feel valued and whose jobs have meaning; practice job crafting and approach jobs as “callings.” Re-frame products or services and identify their positive purpose in customers’ lives.

 

 

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Karen Noble is the principal of Noble Concepts Inc. which provides consulting, executive coaching, and facilitation services spanning a wide range of both corporate and non-profit businesses. She can be reached at karen@nobleconceptsinc.com or through her website, www.nobleconceptsinc.com.

 

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In the discipline of change management we often discuss how jobs must be redesigned due to the impact of change management strategies and subsequent interventions upon the organization. The typical analysis of job redesign suggests the following three options as the basic foundation of strategies to address the need to restructure tasks:

1. Job Enrichment
2. Job Enlargement
3. Job Rotation