Leading Change and Truly Listening
Posted by Todd VanNest on Tue, Dec 21, 2010
An executive with whom I’ve worked had a firm belief in the change he was driving through his division to create a “do what it takes” culture to achieve breakthrough service outcomes. At one moment in the change journey, I was debriefing with him re: recent efforts and he was struggling to see why momentum and support had slowed significantly. During his retelling of recent events, he got to the third occurrence of team members expressing uncertainty about what it would mean to take on the next step. From his point of view, restating the change purpose and business case was sufficiently addressing these concerns. When I asked him to role-play the expression of concerns by his team members, he mimicked responses that included flailing limbs, expressions of many emotions, and even some very raw impressions of people in every imaginable state of panic, doubt, and dismay.
I offered the observation that these were certainly “loaded” reactions. He chuckled and rolled his eyes, immediately realizing that he was so focused on being objective and pressing forward with the “right change,” that he was missing just how loaded the reactions were…and the meaning behind those responses as a result. Next he sheepishly said, help me—I’m missing something here.
To cut to the chase (lessons learned), what came out of our discussion was a new approach, a real discipline that included asking the following when encountering these reactions in the future:
__Ask yourself “If I am hearing the same concern a third time, there is something of meaning there…what’s keeping me from listening in a way that would make me more responsive?”
__Ask yourself “What can I learn from the way those concerns are expressed (without dismissing them automatically as ignorance, a fight for control, or whining)?”
__Ask others, “What things need to be in place in order to achieve the competence and/or confidence that your team requires to move forward?”
__Ask others, “How can we respond to these (and similar…and future) concerns that will help address these concerns as they arise in order to restore clarity and trust that we are here to make sure that you are successful through this change process?”
Challenge yourself now by asking, “How can you listen more completely and sustain greater trust as a leader of change?”
In addition to your own ideas, you can learn more about listening and leading through change in my forthcoming book, The LAST Word on Change. Click on the link below to preview this book and access a no-obligation discount, should you decide to purchase the book when published in Spring, 2011.
http://www.lastwordonchange.com/our-new-book-on-change-management
