CHANGE INSIGHTS
IN the course of undertaking consulting work in organisations and having trained over 500,000 leaders and executives over the last 30 years, I have developed some insights on change. In this short article, I would like to share a brief summary of these insights.
1: YOU CANNOT CHANGE OTHERS
The reality is that leaders cannot change others but themselves. The best way is to influence others to change. This can be done through the change the leaders exhibit themselves. The positive results that the leaders achieve will inspire others to want to change too. You cannot teach a person how to be courteous. To get others to be courteous we ourselves must exhibit such behaviour consistently. Gandhi, said, “You must be the change, you want to see in the world”.
CHANGE INSIGHT 2: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO STRUGGLE WITH CHANGE
The common belief is that there has to be a struggle in change. If one expects a struggle one is bound to find it. It is a selffulfilling prophecy. This reminds me of a recent case where the training manager was planning to organise an in-house seminar for 150 staff on a Saturday. He was expecting people would react negatively to the programme being held on Saturday. He was planning to explain the rationale and shower them with door gifts to get them to come. I suggested that he did none of that. Instead, he should boldly send out an email proclaiming: “Great News! You are invited to an exclusive and most interesting seminar by an international change expert who will show you how you can achieve extraordinary performance and transform your lives for the better”. 165 participants showed up for that Saturday and the programme was a tremendous success. I know, because I conducted that programme. There was no struggle; just the flow of change!
CHANGE INSIGHT
3: CHANGE EQUALS OPPORTUNITIES
Change brings varied opportunities for those who view them as so. For example in this current economic slowdown many sales people are affected psychologically and they begin to make less calls and field trips arguing that the economy is affected and customers are not buying.
However, those who seize this moment and persist will outdo the others. A sales professional who is creative and persistent will still get the sales especially when others are making fewer calls. And this is despite the economic slowdown. Persistence beats resistance.
CHANGE INSIGHT 4: EFFECTIVE CHANGE COMES FROM WITHIN
Effective change is not about initiating some superficial change by presenting a façade to look good externally. Effective change comes from fundamental transformation from within. For example, I am aware of a bank which received many complaints regarding its poor customer service. Instead of addressing the customer problems, the management decided on a rebranding exercise, resulting in the bank having a new corporate a logo but with little improvements in its service. Whatever initial benefits that come with the external change will not be sustainable unless it is backed by sound internal improvements. In this case, to ensure effective change, the bank should actually address what contributes to the poor service. Is it the outdated system or the lack of staff competency or other matters. Effective change will only bring sustainable benefits if the actual problems are nipped in the bud and an internal improvement process is implemented to prevent its recurrence.
CHANGE INSIGHT 5: CHANGE DEVELOPS
THE SURVIVAL SKILL IN PEOPLE
Young graduates today seem to lack survival skills. Many have come from a cushy home environment much pampered by their parents from harsh conditions. Now this is not to be confused with the lack of survival instinct, which every human being is born with. The challenge is to elicit the survival instinct in these young graduates. This is the time to assign challenging tasks to these people to improve company performance and hold them accountable for results. I suggest such change initiatives: Sales Improvement, Communication Improvement, Customer Service Improvement, Productivity Improvement and Team Improvement. Set high measurable targets with tight deadlines and limited resources to bring the survival instinct out of them.
CHANGE INSIGHT 6: THERE IS AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO CHANGE
There is an effective way to change. It is not resisting, blaming or doing nothing. It is about being aware what the change is, accepting it and then engaging people to be involved to bring positive and productive results. We have to sell change like we sell a product or service. Just like we cannot force a customer to buy a product, we cannot force change on people. We need to sell the benefits of change and create an exciting vision of what the change will bring in the near future. At the same time we need to address their fears and concerns of others. To get people to change, you need to win both their hearts and their minds.
Dr Victor S.L. Tan is the chief executive officer of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group. He undertakes change management consulting and training. He is also the author of 10 management books.
His latest book is on Lessons Of Success Of Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow of Public Bank. For feedback for this article email him at victorsltan@klscc.com or contact him at 012 3903168.