Six Hattitudes Transform Concerns to Commitment

Every now and then I am reminded of why change is so difficult. Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard is my new favorite resource because it is a great read that blends together many dynamics and how-to's for leading change from an organizational perspective. (We'll talk about the relationship between hattitudes and motivating the elephant at a later time!)

Today I want to share with you a micro-aspect of change leadership. About how we can champion change relationally; in our daily interactions with others who are impacted by the change or needed to make the change happen. In working with many leaders seeking to create meaningful change in their organizations, I have found that most are pretty frustrated with people who question or seem to push back on the initiative at hand. It is important that leaders not get caught in a defensive posture, but remain open and flexible. For those of you matching that description (or who are working with leaders who do) it is helpful to recognize that concerns raised are simply unanswered questions. Nothing more, nothing less.

1. Information Concerns. What is it that you know, that if I knew I'd agree with the need for change and/or the direction and details of the change? I have noticed a tendency to "sell" the change which is different than having a conversation with stakeholders about why, why now, why this. Several examples from Switch highlight how to do this on a large scale (e.g., creating a tower of the different gloves being used to demonstrate the waste involved by not having one supplier), but that doesn't negate the reality of having to be on the look out for people who are raising concerns because they simply don't know what you know. The detective hat reminds us of those clues and our own path of discovery to reach our conclusions and can help us acknowledge and be patient with those who are needing to discover answers for themselves.

2. Personal Concerns. I don't know about you, but the popular radio station--WIIFM (What's In It For Me?)--doesn't seem quite so popular these days, especially in non-profit or faith-based organizations. Instead I am finding that personal concerns really have more to do with seeking the answer to different questions: Can I still succeed in this new reality? How is this going to impact me personally? The astronaut helmut helps us answer this for individuals by helping us identify those necessary conditions that will be maintained in the new reality (e.g., oxygen) and how we are going to support them in exploring in this new land with no gravity (e.g., suits and tethers). If we can't help valued stakeholders see how they can be successful in the new reality, we find ourselves in overt or covert battles for power.

3. Implementation Concerns. Once people have been given satisfactory answers to their informational and personal concerns the next questions involve the actual implementation of the change. Specifically, folks want to know: How is this really going to work? Where do I get help? Just like the blueprints created by artitects and funders are given to construction professionals, often our strategic plans are given to a wide-range of implementors. As the rate of environmental change increases, those blueprints can become out of sync with reality pretty quickly. Instead of wasting precious time perfecting the blueprint, I believe we need to empower implementators to figure out what modifications are needed in real time AND provide clear processes/procedures for where and when to get help.

 4. Impact Concerns. If you have answered the first three concern areas in a manner that creates POSITIVE energy, implementation concerns aren't emotionally loaded. If you haven't answered the first three concern areas well, you will see active opposition start to form. The questions are simple: Does this change make any real difference? Will it be worth it? The surgeon's perspective is useful to us at this stage as we seek to answer these questions. As we seek to describe the quality of life for the "patient" after the procedure we also describe the risk factors including the risk of not doing the procedure. It is important that as we are answering these questions we are reassuring, but not overly emotional. We don't want a salesman providing an explantion about the impact of using a fancy new drug or procedure, we want a cool professional assessment.

5. Collaboration Concerns. For wide-sweeping change initiatives, How do we get everyone involved? is an important question that must be addressed throughout the organization. And usually this is important to be answered in context. The coaches hat reminds us to play to our strengths, rally people around a common objective while helping them succeed in their particular role in order that they can be a positive contributor. This is different than buy-in, this is game time. It is about deciding where we need people to be functioning as coaches, where they are to be functioning as players, which players are assigned to which coaches and how coaches are to relate to one another. There is a lot of role confusion with many change initiatives. Clarifying the game plan and leaders of it is essential for tranforming this concern into commitment.

 6. Refinement Concerns. What happens if we need to make changes? Who gets to decide what changes are allowed? These questions are a cousin to the implementation concerns raised above, but are usually asked once the change is underway. Like an artist who has captured the idea on canvas, we need to be sure that folks are encouraged to from the same color palette (values and mission) to make needed changes and adjustments. Too often organizations stop short of filling the entire canvas or the necessary details because they haven't armed enough people with paint brushes, compatible pallets and berets! Much has been written about the need for adaptive change and the distinction between that and incremental change. Innovation is bigger than that and each change initiative needs to be raising up new innovative and creative leaders that will push us beyond the current change initiative and into the next one.

Transforming concerns to commitment with these six hats not only helps organizations build relationships but build innovative capacity.

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