People and Change

John McNeil, GP Deltapoint
 

Three of this month's articles directly address the human aspects of change. Lucey et al. list ways in which we can anticipate that our initiatives may fail. Unfortunately, I'm sure that we all recognize many of these patterns in programs we have been involved in recently. The conclusion we draw is that we must act consciously to develop clear executive visions, an effective communication strategy, a sense of urgency etc. Of course. But how? Fleming et al. show us that service organizations live or die at the local customer-employee interface and that loyal customers and productive employees are created when both are engaged in their work and in their interactions. The conclusion we draw is that we must engage employees deeply. Of course. But how? Roberto and Levesque point out that we should work before we begin an initiative to define how people will work with one another during our effort, how we will experiment and learn, how we will tell stories about our initiative, and how we will restructure to accommodate the new reality. They also point out that we must work after we think the work is over, to structure, monitor and reward in new ways, to establish legitimacy and allay fears. The conclusion we draw is that this finally confronts us with the magnitude of work involved. It also directs us to the how.

Another way that GP Deltapoint has found useful for driving people change is Thomas Gilbert's Behavior Engineering Model. His six-part model provides us with a way to systematically and systemically identify barriers to individual and organizational performance and then remove them. Much as Roberto and Levesque propose, the environmental must support information, resources and incentives for behavior change. This must be done before the initiative is launched, and in that order. Balancing this must be the individual's motives, capacity and knowledge. These will be developed over the course of the change and then refined as the initiative is standardized and sustained.

Gilbert's model is not trivial or easy to implement, but it gives us pointers on how to avoid poorly sustained initiatives, how to engage employees and how to make change stick.

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