”What does this really mean?”- Searching for the individual’s benefit
Solution, added value, excellence, profitable growth, performance oriented organization… Is change communicated with these kinds of words at your workplace too?
When we Prewise experts start a new project with our clients, the motivation is the organization’s need for change. Change can mean a new way of working, a new way to serve customers, or even an introduction of a new working tool. Change has usually been prepared for a long time and it is often already formulated verbally. After these actions, the selected target group needs to understand and internalise the change in a way that will make the change a reality.
There we sit then, a group of experts from the client’s side and us, the Prewise experts, and we look at the phrases on the big screen; the change’s verbal form. Solution, additional value, goal-oriented, customer-oriented, user-friendly, pro-active…
Verbal formulations are only the culmination of lengthy considerations and discussions. We all understand that in order to get an individual motivated, we need to answer to the question: “What’s in it for me?”
Instructional Design Manager Eevi Kuokkanen
from Prewise believes that courage is needed
when digging the concrete thoughts behind the
fancy words.
The road from the upper level vision to the individual’s daily routines is long, and the answer is not easily found. The reality is that the company’s advantage is not always seen as the individual’s advantage. A complicated and abstract promise doesn’t really motivate or inspire.
An upper level vision formulation might be something like: ”We are a customer-oriented organization”. In order to understand what does this mean for the selected target group we ask (at least) five times "What does this mean?"
This method is an adaption of continuous improvement methods. In the same way as asking Five times why, we have our own set of questions to find out the underlying reasons. When we find out these reasons, we can also find out the benefits of change for the individual. We know how to motivate the individual.
Courage and honesty are the keys in change communication
In some point we may find matters that an individual might see as negative. If we don’t find these early on, they may become an obstacle for learning and adoption, and a part of strong resistance. Honesty is a requirement particularly when employees are already on guard and the change is questioned. In our example, we can easily find these negative aspects too, but by persistent questioning we can finally see the change’s positive side:
- We are a customer-oriented organization.
- We work in a matrix organization.
- Everyone has at least two reporting relations.
- Reporting increases.
- When reporting increases, we are able to see how time is spent and what actually profitable activity is.
- You can concentrate to the essential; useless and frustrating activities are left to minimum.
The method is simple but it requires many things. The target group’s real circumstance needs to be known, the answers need to be honest, and first of all: courage is needed when digging the concrete thoughts behind the fancy words.
Abstract culminations are also needed, but they are only the surface of the change. The reality is made in action. Dare to look behind the words and ask: "What does this really mean?"
Text: Eevi Kuokkanen