This series provides a simple overview to a subject. They focus on the actions and areas I think are most important in order to deliver an effective solution.

In Ten Steps to Changing Your Organisation I provide an overview of what your organisation needs to consider before you embark on any change. This preparation and understanding is key to ensuring your change succeeds and is embedded into your organisation.

Look out for more Ten Steps to… guides over the coming weeks.

Some regard it as producing content for PowerPoint, emails, briefings, intranet and newsletters.

Others see it as an integral part of the change process, helping to identify new behaviours and embed those within organisations.

As an integral part of the change process the role then focuses on getting under  the skin of the organisation’s culture  and understanding people’s needs (stakeholder management) to ensure change is communicated in a way that they can hear, feel and experience for themselves.

It is relatively easy to put content on an intranet, read from a presentation or cascade an email, however the point of communicating is to get people to hear your message, understand it and act upon it. In order for people to understand the message they need to see how it affects them and have it delivered to them by someone who supports the message, understands the impact and who can deliver it in a way that each one of their audience will understand. For complex messages this will rarely be achieved through email or reading from slides.

 Communication now becomes far more about the effectiveness of your line manager, how much they have bought into the aims of the message or the change and their capability to deliver messages effectively to all members of their team

This leads us to look at line manager capability, we have to look at how the the organisation encourages, incentivises or rewards behaviours like good communication with their team. For most organisations this will mean finding metrics, by which managers communications skills can be assessed. However, the choice of metric could also drive other new unintended behaviours.

For instance, if the measure for communication is around response rates to staff surveys, this could drive managers to put pressure on their teams to complete the survey. Staff may then feel antagonistic and complete surveys in such a way to distort the ‘real’ picture.

This leads us to look at what learning and development is available for managers to help them communicate. Do managers understand their own communication style? Can they recognise other people’s styles and preferences when it comes to learning and absorbing new information?

Suddenly communication could be about influencing or changing the learning & development strategy for the organisation in order to develop new skills or capabilities. In a short time we have moved from communication being about sending emails to how line managers are developed and rewarded.

The cry is often heard from within the organisation, we don’t have time or budget to provide managers with this sort of support. In other organisations I have even heard people say that managers will automatically acquire these skills.

If the message forms part of a critical change for the business, then doesn’t it become critical for the organisation to ensure the change is understood by everyone affected?

For me the key is around not only ensuring open and honest communication but also that communication starts as early as possible. As Matt points out engaging the leadership team and ensuring they are aligned is paramount in getting buy-in.

Change programmes by their very nature will evolve and even alter their focus, so flexibility on the part of the change team is necessary to ensure the successful embedding of the change.

The full article can be found at http://www.hrzone.co.uk/topic/managing-people/seven-secrets-effectively-managing-change/118086

This comprehensive report also shows that only 55% of managers believed their organisation was good at consolidating the benefits of change, whilst 52% believed their organisation was good at reviewing and learning from change programmes

Full details of Roffey Park’s Management Agenda 2012 can be found at http://bit.ly/zjL2ow

The FIRO model links to this by suggesting that teams will be experiencing

• Higher ‘Inclusion’ needs during the ‘Forming’ to ‘Storming’ stages
• Higher ‘Control’ needs during the ‘Storming’to ‘Norming’ stages
• Higher ‘Affection’ needs during the ‘Norming’ to ‘Performing’ stages

An important area to also acknowledge is the ‘Adjourning’ stage and the sense of loss that people may feel when the team  or project ends. This is key in project work where it helps people to transition and integrate to their new project if the previous one is ended well, celebrating the team and mourning the end of the team by acknowledging people’s emotions.

If you would like more information on how I can help your teams better understand their behaviour, and that of others to increase their personal and team effectiveness please get in touch.

In the video below Sir Ken Robinson talks about models for learning and how we should be encouraging divergent thinking.

The people at Cognitive Media have done another fantastic job of bringing to life Ken Robinson’s talk for the RSA. (I’m looking for an opportunity to work with them on the next conference or away day I organise.)

The book ‘Breakpoint and Beyond’ that Ken refers is available on Amazon

If you would like to find out your learning style,  you can complete an online inventory at the Hay Group website here utilising Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (LSI).

What is your experience of how the different ways we learn are used in teams or organisations?

I have to say a big thank you to all the people at Creative Origin for all their hard work and creativity especially Duncan, Helen, Adam and Phillippa, I’m really pleased with the results.

I’d also like to thank the lovely people at Moo for their fantastic business cards and a great, speedy service.

Best wishes

Adam