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Archive for the ‘getting change to "stick"’ Category

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Cerebyte at the ISPI Conference in San Francisco this Spring: Improving Performance

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

By William Seidman

We’ll be presenting two papers at the International Society for Performance Improvement’s 2010 Annual Conference in San Francisco April 19-22, 2010.

ISPI is a good forum for people interested in learning how organizations can improve themselves, and its conferences bring in a wide ranging group of organizational development, training, and other professionals, both from inside organizations and as outside consultants.

The topics we’ll be discussing:

Persuasive Technology: A New Paradigm for Maximizing Organizational Performance — on the incorporation of the neuroscience of learning into technology and how this can lead to faster and more far-reaching organizational change on a larger scale than previously thought possible. Mike McCauley and I will present this paper.

The Importance of Courage in Leading Change: Creating Courageous Organizations — on the times and ways that leaders need to be courageous when leading a change effort, and how you can test for courageous leadership before you begin a change. Rick Grbavac and I will present this paper.

We hope many of you will be able to come to our sessions at the ISPI Conference in April.

Posted in best practices, getting change to "stick", leadership, organizational assessments, organizational change, organizational culture, persuasive technology | No Comments »

Headquarters versus The Field: Replace “versus” with “Working With” for Great Results

Monday, December 21st, 2009

By William Seidman

I’m working with a company that has both a very strong corporate headquarters culture and a very strong sales and field operations culture.  But these two vitally important parts – headquarters and sales — are often disconnected from one another and, even worse, at odds with what should be shared goals.

Headquarters designs programs that are forward-looking and innovative but, according to the people on the ground, are difficult to deploy.  The result is that the people in sales - in the field - are so focused on daily survival that they tend to produce great short-term financial results, but have neither the time nor the energy to learn new things.

Conflicts between headquarters and sales and operations result in good ideas from headquarters being derided as “fads of the week.” Often the innovative concept is discarded or, if the new idea is tried, immediate revenues may decline.

But when headquarters and the field align around a new idea, the synergy can be powerful.

How to get them to align?  Headquarters needs to be more aware of what’s really going on in the field and adjust programs to fit these conditions.  Headquarters must reduce its constant pressure for immediate numbers. The field has to be given support for learning something new. This takes time and often results in lagging numbers.

Both changes in behavior are difficult for executives to manage because they require everyone to take some risks.

Cooperating for a change can be nerve-wracking for companies since it simultaneously puts immediate revenue and the future at risk. But our experience has shown us that this cooperation ultimately produces great results.

Posted in best practices, business, company culture, getting change to "stick", management consulting, optimization, organizational change | No Comments »

Using Technology to Initiate and Support Behavior Change

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

By Michael McCauley 

We at Cerebyte talk a lot about changing behavior to support process improvement and high performance. But  how is that change accomplished?  Can the same approach be used in every situation — or at least the vast majority of situations?

 Dr. B.J. Fogg of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab qualifies and categorizes behavior change in his “Behavior Grid.” This grid provides a framework that we can use to think about and plan for change. It distinguishes between the types of behavior changes desired — from starting a completely new behavior to stopping an ongoing behavior —  and the schedule upon which the behavior change will be implemented, for example from a one-time change to sustained, long-term change. 

Organizing and thinking about change behaviors in this way enables us to create specific persuasive technologies that address each type. This is particularly important when creating high performance organizations because large numbers of people will be impacted —  for better or worse. In order to create lasting change as quickly as possible, it is important to match the persuasive technology with the behavior change desired.

At Cerebyte we have primarily focused our persuasive technology on creating what Fogg calls “Row 7 Behaviors,” behaviors that are always performed.  These are behaviors that create sustained change and maximum organizational impact. But can organizational benefits be derived from the other types of behavior change identified in Fogg’s grid? I think they can. What do you think?

Posted in best practices, captology, digital coaching technology, getting change to "stick", organizational change, persuasive technology | No Comments »

Experiential Learning and Conventional Learning: What Neuroscience Can Teach Us

Friday, December 11th, 2009

By William Seidman

I’m working with a company that is asking traditional instructional designers to develop experiential learning activities - which are different in conception, design, and actual practice from what these designers are used to doing. There’s an inherent struggle: it’s difficult to be learner-focused if you are sticking to traditional design.

In experiential learning, everything begins with the learner experience.

New ideas and new stimulation are useful only if they connect with the learners’ current abilities and ways of doing things - with who they are, right now.  A student isn’t a vessel into which the instructor pours knowledge.  In addition, the learning must have enough of the right types of repetition to be internalized.

Traditional instructional design is much more about telling people what they should know — and telling them very specifically what they will do — to learn something.

In my view, there’s an unspoken inherent mistrust of the learner in the process, and in any “teaching” in which the course designer and instructor are in charge.

The neuroscience of learning proves over and over again that experiential learning, in contrast, is all about providing learners with activities,  and trusting that they will learn the “right” lessons, and also trusting that they will continue to learn the right lessons often enough to produce long-term change.

The difference in perspective between a trusting and a not-trusting teaching method is where I’ve found great opportunities for learning, creativity, and growth.

Posted in best practices, getting change to "stick", neuroscience, organizational change, personal change, training | 1 Comment »

Transformative Change’s “Ah-ha!” Moment

Monday, September 28th, 2009

By William Seidman

In setting a goal of transformative organizational change, management typically goes out and presents sweeping images of the future, which people tend to regard as meaningful but distant. We continue to work toward these changes until, finally, there’s a moment when it isn’t so distant: the transformation is  palpable or, even, visible.

Then there’s that moment when each person knows the change is real — and it really hits them.

This has happened to me twice in the last few weeks. A service person was going along fine until she hit an “avoid” section of her old program that told her that a key aspect of her program was being obsoleted.

She just froze. She couldn’t believe it.

The other was a senior manager who was reviewing the summary portion of our persuasive technology. When he got to the portion that would be summarized to him, he realized that this was for real. He was going to be holding others accountable for a significant change, but he was going to be accountable, too.

For both of them, there was a moment of terror.

Ultimately, this was good because the terror happened in safe environment and could be worked out.

But the moment of the realization was very clear and specific and not always completely comfortable. It’s an important part of the process and something we prepare for and support.

Posted in business, company culture, getting change to "stick", management consulting, organizational change, training | No Comments »

From Transactional to Transformational: Teaching People to Think Big

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

By William Seidman

I’ve been working  on trying to make a transformation inside two organizations that are focused on the transactional.  In fact, they’ve been completely transactional: driven by tactical, daily transactions - daily orders, daily service requests. They quite literally have been pedaling as fast as they can.

One is a sales organization, the other is a service organization. Each would like to change its culture to one that emphasizes sustained client relationships.  

Organizational psychologist Ron Riggio’s distinction between the transactional and the transformational applies to organizations, too.

The direct customer contact people like the idea of becoming transformational because transformational jobs are much more interesting than transactional jobs.. The managers are having a hard time; most became managers because they were better at transactions than their peers.

Now they are being asked to lead a transformation - and they don’t know what to do; they keep trying to convert things back to transactions, which block the change to a transformational environment.

Our challenge is to help transactional people to become transformational people, because only then can lasting change occur.

Posted in best practices, company culture, getting change to "stick", management consulting, organizational change, personal change | No Comments »

Why Cowardly Lions Make Poor Leaders: Teaching Courage

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

By William Seidman

I’ve been asked to help develop a “change leadership” program. This seemed strange; so much is written about leadership and there are so many training and coaching programs. Why create a new one?

A new program may be essential because (1) most leadership programs are not specifically about leading through change and (2) most leadership programs don’t have enough impact.

I asked my network of friends, including many who teach leadership and are executive coaches, How could so much have been spent on leadership development and coaching and yet most organizations still have dismal leadership?

It’s not so puzzling when you know that most training and coaching programs aren’t about real world situations and so don’t apply.

What then is missing?

The answer is:  a focus on being courageous. Leaders must have a confidence and willingness to take risks despite considerable uncertainty and resistance.

How do you teach someone to be courageous?

Posted in best practices, getting change to "stick", leadership, management consulting, organizational change, positive leadership | No Comments »

More on Organizational Change: Attitude Really IS Everything

Monday, August 17th, 2009

By Rick Grbavac

Bringing about - and sustaining - change to any organization requires a series of shifts in thinking and behavior. It also requires people who have great attitudes. There’s little point in wasting time and money - and the goodwill of the people who are on board - trying to convince, cajole, or convert people with attitude problems.

David Fox, Chairman & Chief Executive at PP Business Improvement, part of Power Panels Electrical Systems Ltd, puts it like this:

  • If a business wants to continuously improve its performance and productivity, it needs to start by recruiting the right people with the right attitude.
  • Traditional training is not the answer.
  • Training should not be considered a cost but an investment.
  • The attitudes and values need to be embraced by the entire enterprise, not just isolated pockets of individuals.
  • You can’t simply throw lots of money at improving business performance without first dealing with the people issues.

There’s really no better way to express it. Attitude IS everything!

Posted in best practices, business, company culture, getting change to "stick", leadership, management consulting, organizational change, organizational culture, training | No Comments »

Sustaining Organizational Change and Change Initiatives

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

By William Seidman

Sustaining the organizational change that your company or group has spent a lot of time and money to implement can be really tough. Many years ago at HP, a first-level manager talked to me about how hard it was to keep the business running while learning a new business process. He was echoing the complaints from his group.

His manager, who was also my manager,  sat him down and asked him a question: “Are you a manager?”

My colleague answered, “Yes.”

Our manager then had a very simple response: “Then manage it!”

The first thing the organization needs to do, from the top executive down, is to actually expect people to find a way to manage the situation. The second thing is to give people some training in how to lead an organization through a change.

This training usually has two parts:

Authentic Commitment,  a belief in the usefulness and validity of the change 

Continuous Demonstration of Tangible Support, in which the manager is taught how to walk the talk of the change

Additionally, managers need to be held explicitly accountable, with both rewards for effectively managing and penalties for focusing merely on keeping the business running.

Obviously, if the executive team is less than actively supportive of the change and of the ways and means to sustain it,  the organization cannot improve.

Posted in Middle management, best practices, business, getting change to "stick", organizational change | No Comments »

Sustaining Change When Your Managers and Supervisors are Pedaling as Fast as They Can

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

 By William Seidman

Sustaining a change to a large organization can be difficult.

At Cerebyte we’ve made great progress in getting the end-user (the sales person, service person, etc.) to buy into and want the change. The problems arise with immediate and second-level supervisors. Without their active support, changes can’t “stick.” So what’s their problem? I see two factors:

1.  Managers are so focused on keeping the business running that looking ahead at the several weeks — or, more often,  the several months — often required for a substantive change is not something they do.  Nearly all of their resources, and most of the resources they supervise,  are just about daily survival.

2. They’re usually untrained in balancing the demands of running the business each day with developing their organization for the future.

Change initiatives only rarely survive these persistent obstacles.

Posted in Middle management, company culture, getting change to "stick", management consulting, organizational change | No Comments »

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