Our Blog: "The LAST Word on Change"

A Simpler Road Map to Engagement, Change, and Ownership!

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You may have read and/or applied an approach pioneered decades ago in psychology called “sociometrics.”  In a world chock full of organizational change models and methods, we certainly don’t need another complex tool—particularly one with such a high-falutin’ name.  However, advanced methods can often be applied in very pragmatic ways that help yield breakthrough results.  Today, I’m highlighting sociometrics because the amount of energy and complexity being driven into change communication plans and employee engagement systems seems never-ending.

Again, our own research has demonstrated that very often, simplicity will trump complexity--particularly when the simplicity increases efficiency and trust, and complexity slows progress and makes management look less sincere and engaging—more concerned about process than people and progress.

You may have encountered sociometrics in a discussion aimed at distinguishing “formal” and “informal” influence within organizations (e.g., the hotel’s front desk staff may report to a Guest Services Manager, but when you “map” their interactions, they tend to rely more frequently on a more tenured Receptionist or Concierge—though s/he has no formal supervisory or training responsibility).

The same mapping process can be simply applied to determine the most engaging ways for the Change Leader to communicate throughout the process of change.  Interviewing staff, conducting focus groups, and even surveying staff anonymously can be effective at identifying the nature of communication that THEY will find most meaningful.

In a common approach, a change team will “engage” its audiences by asking or surveying them re: their ideas and concerns.  This practice is necessary, but not sufficient—often translating into a shallow query for pulling “intell” from the audience and anticipating obstacles…rarely is it used to reshape how and where communicating actually takes place (as the team tends to rely upon familiar systems or consultant tool-kits.

Here are five simple questions that you can use to identify those communications that will have the most meaning for your change constituents:

__Who do you look to when you try to anticipate how work process changes will impact you?

__When you learn information about changes that is most helpful to you in understanding changes to our strategy or work process, what does it look and feel like?

__Which “voices” in our organization seem to speak most clearly and credibly to why we are making changes?

__Who is it within your own teams who is recognized as a trusted source of “intell” about what comes next for this organization?

__Where do you look for information about whether the changes we try to make to improve our work processes or services are progressing effectively or having the desired impact?

So What?…The answers to these questions can dramatically reshape the way your team might plan and execute change communications.  Many plans, and related accountabilities, originate as part of a Communications Matrix.  Responses to this simple social mapping exercise will influence the message, timing, medium/format, and the source of change communications and result in a more clear path to high understanding, engagement, and ownership.

How do you know your messaging (and listening!) is on target?...That change is ready to advance to next stage?  Learn more about the "leading indicators of change management success by following the link below.

http://www.changemanagementmetrics.com/Change_Management_Help.html