It’s no secret that the pace of change is climbing at a rapid rate. During disruptive and uncertain times the need for rapid, successful delivery is placing unprecedented demands on organisations, their leaders and the people that make it happen.
As we begin to prepare for 2023, we thought it timely to look at some immediate actions leaders can take to prime a business area or organisation for what lies ahead. Taking these simple steps now can remove time-consuming barriers and roadblocks, and have positive, long-lasting effects.
Why does change feel different now? Why does it feel so rapid, pervasive, notable?
It’s because we live in an accelerated world, and changes affecting organisations are coming fast and furious. Preparing for and creating an environment into which changes can drop successfully, rather than overlap and collide, is called change readiness.
We wanted to bust some myths around what change readiness is, and consider how we manage and optimise performance in a time when the very essence of how, when and where people work and the value they place on work is shifting.
We invited our friends at Calm Agency to translate some of their behavioural science insights into simple shifts leaders can deploy to prepare for change and create an environment that drives an ongoing commitment and belief in people that the future is better than the now.
People are human and change is all around
Have you heard the phrase ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’? It means that no matter how well designed your strategy is, it will fall flat unless your team shares an appropriate culture.
People deliver plans, so here is the insight, people matter, particularly if you want to gear-up for increased productivity in the New Year.
In the midst of the constant ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working challenge, cost of living pressures and the unprecedented pace of change, it’s hard to imagine that anyone is thriving.
Yet there are teams of people finding important ways to care for themselves and each other.
And the organisations these people work within can comfortably prepare to gear-up productivity in the New Year, knowing their people will have the capacity, the resilience, to respond.
How do you build this culture in delivery teams?
Put simply, engage your people, egg on their spirit, and leave old-fashioned management improvement thinking back in the ‘80s.
Here’s a checklist for transforming your culture, which will work fast if you adopt key shifts amongst your board, executive and managers to live, breathe and consciously ‘be’ the embodiment of the change you need.
1. Start with ‘me’. Call your leadership team together and commit to transforming your workplace from the old hierarchy, business tells (control and command) high development and ongoing coaching conversations. Bring your organisational values and behaviours to life by walking and talking, behaving in a way that promotes the value so that it exists. Values drive capabilities, and when capabilities flourish, engagement increases, and productivity rises.
2. Take a boots and all approach. Culture creates the space in which capability can play, so do not be half hearted about this – commit. Organisations who start on the culture and leadership journey and become tentative or have a fear of failure revert to what they were doing – which, was not working! So be brave and be ready to own and love your mistakes, because they will make you relatable, engaged, and authentic – and you will be demonstrating bravery, a key quality when you are trying to encourage accountability, a key driver of productivity increase.
3. Empower through a coaching culture, rather than the old approach to increasing employee satisfaction through rewards and benefits. One organisation we worked with took this approach – they first asked people what they were interested in learning about that would help them day to day. They put together the list and asked who among the group had the skills, certifications, or templates to teach the others – not only did this drive the team’s capability, but it also strengthened relationships and increased engagement and trust.
4. Let your people find their purpose at work, and it is not pay day 😊. People’s attitudes to what a job should and should not offer them has evolved. Most people have clearly defined expectations about their role, their company and how that company will act. They want their work to have purpose, to have meaning. They want their workplace to not just acknowledge their belief system, they want their company to reflect their values and beliefs. They want to use their strengths and talents to do what they do best every day. They want to learn and develop; they want their job to fit their life. They expect their organisation to meet them where they are, with new, interactive technologies, supportive ways of working and an aligned mission which fosters connection. More and more, people are pushing their orgs to simplify, reduce the red tape and burden of hierarchy and structure in favour of flexibility, opportunity, innovation and inspiration.
5. The key is, and always has been, people. If you have 10,000 people, you have 10,000 potential leaders. Try and transform them all.
By the way, we’ve already leapt the trench
The change in basic assumptions that occurred during COVID-19 means organisations do not have anywhere to hide. They must adapt to the needs of their people, or they will find it hard to attract and keep them, much less tune them for high productivity. Regardless of change, it is people who are the core to an organisation’s success or failure.
Decision-makers must think about their technology, policies, products, and services, but only because they are factors that influence engagement with and the success of their people.
Longer term, you could also consider building tools so that you are having the right conversations – how to coach, build strengths-based workplans, consider developing a capability framework and take quick pulse polls.
These simple, quick tactics will transform your delivery teams, setting them up to accelerate productivity into the New Year and, change your organisation.
Many thanks to The Calm Agency for their contribution to this month’s Bulletin. As specialists in change and culture, the Calm Agency team supports organisations to build a better workplace, translating the latest behaviour change research into actionable, affordable, measurable strategies, programs and tools. Find out more about the team at www.calmagency.com.
If you’re interested in talking to us about how change and the PMO can drive your delivery agenda in 2023, please please contact us here.