Cheesy fictional private eyes are always asking “What did he know and when did he know it?” It’s a good question. Perhaps modified for our purposes it would be “What does he know and what does he need to know more of?”
We are tasked with helping people through change. I like to take it one step farther. We are tasked with helping people understand change, both generally and specifically. I think we owe that to them. The difference lies between me guiding you through the maze and me teaching you how to navigate the maze.
I grant that this is easy to say and much harder to do. So how do we go about that?
Let’s presume you are tasked with helping a manager through a change. I think there are three pillars needed to make this work.
Pillar #1: Understanding the nature of the change being introduced: your understanding and your manager’s understanding. What’s going to have to be different?
- What are the characteristics of the specific change?
- Is it process? Is it organizational? Is it cultural? Is it system? Is it rigid?
- What new skills are required?
- What new attitudes are required?
- Is it large or small?
- What is the context of the change?
- What is the impetus of the change?
- Is it productivity or quality related?
- Is it compliance? Is it a new product?
- Is it internal or external?
Pillar #2: Understanding how much your manager understands. The trick here is you need to understand the gap between what your manager has experience and what the change will require so you can help them but not turn it into a witch hunt for their weaknesses.
Understand their previous experience
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- Look for skills, projects, experience that intersect with the change needs
- Leverage existing skills and guide them to the next level
- Introduce a restrained number of new skills
- Don’t overwhelm them
- Better to learn a key new skill well than a bunch poorly
Pillar #3: Build context. Look at how the current organization is always adapting to change at a systemic level. Sometimes well and sometimes not so well, but that understanding upstream and downstream and across the stream can help mitigate the not so well.
Tie the change to the bigger picture
- Illustrate the ongoing nature of change
- Tie it to other current projects
- Tie it to past changes
Once More Unto the Change 