Engaging in Change

« the only asset that is unique to a company – an asset that can’t be replicated by rivals – is the quality of their workforce: their ability to innovate, their willingness to go the extra mile, their creativity and the ‘relational capital’ that they build » - robert b. reich

The extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organization

How hard they work and long they stay as a result of that commitment

Think of a time when you felt really engaged What drove that engagement? What impact did it have on your performance?

Source: Corporate Leadership Council.

Change Management: Engagement

Engagement is:

Recruiting, training, measuring and rewarding - all must be aligned to 

drive new behaviors in support of the company’s vision. 

Change Management: Engagement

Why it matters?

Improves employee performance

Increased employee retention

Increased  client satisfaction

Change Management: Engagement

ongoing transformations (1)

business: ‘glocalisation’, complexity, reactivity, flexibility, stakeholders influence

control ?

ongoing transformations (2)

management: how to reduce uncertainty, manage complexity? 

legitimacy ?

ongoing transformations (3)

society: social regulations are questioned

contract ?

ongoing transformations (4)

people: better educated, trained, empowered, new behaviors, ‘unfaithful without guilt’

loyalty ?

in this new environment firms are highly dependant on their employees’ willingness to meet their objectives and to change…therefore,

 the engagement topic becomes crucial

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involvement

Satisfaction

Fulfillment

Extra mile

13

alignment

ConfidenceUnderstand strategySupport change

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14

loyalty

Feel part of the organizationAdvocacyDesire to stay

© 2009 Ipsos Loyalty. All rights reserved. Contains Ipsos' Confidential and Proprietary information and may not be disclosed or reproduced without the prior written consent of Ipsos.

new approaches

network

companies must be seen as a ‘neighborhood’, a network of communities to be promoted & developed

new approaches

flowhuman capital must 

be considered as a flow of skills rather 

than a stock

new approaches

influencein an era of networking & organizational complexity,  

influence rather than decision is the ultimate managerial 

competency

new approaches

transaction

the relationship of the individual to their company is of a transactional 

nature: it implies choice, advice, co-operation, re-negotiation, and can be 

difficult to understand and predict

leveraging people engagement requires an in depth understanding of them as individuals and their experience at work in order to build a mutually profitable relationship

Clarity

Connect Know your employees, what’s important to them and their careers Engage with them on a meaningful level

Simplify our message Link your teams’ jobs with your team/company success Empower teams to simplify work, to do what’s right for clients and

for the company

What You Can Do as a Leader:•Take action to close the gaps identified in discussions with your employees / employee assessment

What You Can Do at a Leader:• Answer your employees’ questions to the best of your ability / knowledge

• Set up team meetings to discuss business strategy, the role of the team, role of each individual, and your priorities for the year

Change Management: Engagement

Celebrate

Coach

Collaborate Leaders have to inspire trust and cooperation among team members Create an environment of trust and collaboration within and among other teams

Coach and provide feedback Provide on-going guidance to individuals and teams

Recognize big and little things Capture and sustain momentum Celebrate the demonstration of company values

What You Can Do as a Leader:• Work on improving your active listening skills• Look and listen for cues on where your employees are on the change curve

What You Can Do as a Leader:• Schedule regular feedback sessions with your team• Identify criteria to differentiate performance and communicate it

What You Can Do as a Leader:• Look for small wins and say ‘thank you’• Have a plan for recognition tools

Change Management: Engagement

The Transition Curve: How Attitudes & Feelings ChangeC

onfid

ence

Time

“I’m not sure I know what’s going on”

“I feel overwhelmed”

“I can handle this”

“We can’t do this. It won’t work. We’re not allowed”

“Actually, things might get better”

“This could be a better way of doing it”

“This way is more effective”

“S/he really made the effort to help us implement this change”

Making Sense of the Journey

The information they receive

Their work and how they do it

The context in which they do their work

The needs of the organisation

To change behaviour, employees need to see the link between:

Choosing the Right : Communications Tools & ChannelsLe

vel o

f cha

nge

Level of involvement

Tell Sell Consult Join

Awareness

Understanding(and Action)

Acceptance/Alignment

Ownership/Engagement

Newsletters, emails, memos, letters, notices

Booklets, plenary sessions, presentations,

videos, intranets

Focus groups, working parties, suggestions

schemes, consultative presentations

Working sessions, 1-to-1 conversations, workshops,

coaching

Ten Strategies for Employee Involvement

1. Meet regularly with employees and openly discuss the organisational changes and why they occurred

2. Recognise that employees understand that you may not have the answers to everything, but it’s important for them to feel the communications are open and honest

3. Constantly communicate clear goals and vision of the new situation

4. Encourage people to discuss fears and concerns in teams

5. Open ‘suggestion boxes’ for employees to raise questions in anonymity

6. Set up weekly lunches or other informal meetings to discuss the progress of the restructuring process

7. Whenever possible, assign roles and responsibilities in line with peoples interests

8. Develop rituals and marker events that allow people to connect

9. Involve employees affected by the changes in making decisions about what’s best for them

10. Discuss realistic career options with employees and ensure training is available for any new skills that are needed

Coaching Others in Building Employee Commitment

1. Identify individuals or groups whose commitment is necessary to the success of the change effort

2. Create and follow a departmental plan to increase commitment of all players

3. Continually encourage and enable employee involvement

4. Continually communicate the goals of the change process

5. Turn covert resistance to overt resistance and then to commitment

6. WALK THE TALK!

What People Pay Attention To:

1. Leader attention, measurement, rewards and controls

2. Leader reaction to critical incidents

3. Leader role modelling, coaching

4. Criteria for recruitment, promotion, retirement and excommunication

5. Formal and informal socialisation

6. Recurring systems and procedures

7. Organisation design and structure

8. Design of physical space

9. Stories and myths about key people and events

10. Formal statements, charters, creeds, codes of ethics etc

Between 80-90% of behavior is determined by the first three points

Employee surveys: A tool for change

survey your people to empower your managers

Employee surveys: A tool for change

• Many people feel that employee surveys are a waste of time and money, and they are often justified. Consider these common scenarios:

• A consulting firm provides a good questionnaire, and beautiful reports, which are given to leaders with recommendations

The reports are placed on a shelf and life moves on.Actions based on the findings take more than three months to

become clear, by which time most have forgotten about the survey

• Leaders take action on a survey…

…but fail to tell employees that their actions are based on the survey findings, and the employees don’t see what happened to their input

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

Employee surveys: A tool for change

• A survey is done internally, but many refuse to take it, or do not answer honestly, because they fear retaliation

After a survey, some managers take revenge on employees for saying “bad” things

• The survey guides change at only one level or department, and the actions taken by people at this level are not clear to others

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

Employee surveys: A tool for change

• One of the worst outcomes of a survey is having the results ignored, or discussed but never used, and not communicated back to employees

• This frustrates employees and gives them the impression their input is not really wanted.

• Telling people what happened to that sheet of paper they filled out shows respect for their time, cooperation, and feelings; this respect will be repaid with carefully completed surveys the next time around

• Summarizing the results is better, but still not what people want• Most employees want to know what real changes have been

made as a result of their time and effort• More than that, they want a chance to use the findings to improve

the organization

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

Employee surveys: A tool for change

• Summarizing the data and providing recommendations is the standard method, but it often lead to little action. Recommendations are too easily forgotten in the day to day rush.

• A few methods for dissemination are often used:• Small group sessions where results are presented and discussed• The session should be genuinely open, and people should be able to

participate without fear of retribution or attack. • Don’t make any promises you can’t keep!• The manager must create a feeling that people can freely ask

questions, discuss issues, propose ideas, and take on new responsibilities.

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

Employee surveys: A tool for change

• A few methods for dissemination are often used (cont.):

• Water falling (or cascading) the results from senior leaders to their direct reports. This can be done in an “all hands on deck” webinar, division meetings or by teams

• Done well, this process can ensure the information makes its way throughout the organization, ensure it is understood and the survey information can be acted upon

• The key is to follow these meetings with discussions on what actions can be taken to address issues identified in the survey

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

Employee surveys: A tool for change

• Seek participants help in addressing the identified issues. • Acknowledge that other people may be closer to the situation, or may

have more experience with different parts of it. • People are also much more likely to accept and to actively support

solutions which they had a part in creating.• If people at the meeting do not have the power to make decisions and

implement plans, be honest about these limitations and tell them that you will be using their input to make these plans yourself, or to bring them up to a higher level.

• However, if you (or the people at the higher level) are not really serious about implementing the proposals, skip the action planning session.

• It is better to have an open, honest feedback session without action planning, than a session that raises expectations and then dashes them.

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

Employee surveys: A tool for change

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

• In thinking about action planning and affecting change, don’t let comments like, “We can’t change anything” or “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work” be a demotivating factor and stop the change process before it evens starts.

• Prompt people to engage with open ended questions like asking “Well, what can we do? What’s stopping us from doing that right now?” How do you feel about doing this? Can you work together on it? What would you suggest is the first step?”

• Often, people can find a way around problems and barriers if they really believe in something and have a reason to invest their time and energy in it.

• A great suggestion is to get a quick win under your belt. • Seemingly trivial issues can be important, partly because of their

symbolic value, partly because they are a daily nuisance. If the survey spotlights small problems that can easily be fixed, immediately fix them, no matter how small. When you visibly and immediately use a survey, you show respect for your employees, and increase energy and enthusiasm.

Employee surveys: A tool for change

Source: Adapted from David Zatz, Ph.D. (Toolpack Consulting)

• A great suggestion is to get a quick win under your belt. • Seemingly trivial issues can be important, partly because of their

symbolic value, partly because they are a daily nuisance: the drip in the faucet, the sign-off for acquiring new and low-cost technology, etc.

• If the survey spotlights small problems that can easily be fixed, immediately fix them, no matter how small. (Delegation helps.)

• When you visibly and immediately use a survey, you show respect for your employees, and increase energy and enthusiasm.

• After a number of possible solutions have been created, they should be prioritized and discussed.

• To maintain momentum, it is essential to follow through and keep people updated on progress

• Actions already put into effect.• Actions scheduled to be put into effect and timing• Actions for which it needs approval• Actions that need to be taken by other groups• Actions deferred

Keeping the whole team engaged:

Change Management: Engagement

Leading Change Effectively

Communicating Effectively

Onboarding & Assimilating New Employees

Celebrating / Recognizing Small & Big Wins

Primary Motivators

Change Management: Engagement

Information + Involvement to Build Commitment & Change

Increasing Commitment

Awarenessof desired change

Understandingof change direction

Translationto the work setting

Commitmentto personal change

Internalisationof new behaviour

“Yeah, I saw the memo”

“I understand where we need to go”

“I know how we need to do our jobs differently”

“OK, I’m ready to do it the new way”

“This is the way we do things here”

Stages of Individual Behaviour Change

Information with some involvement sufficient here

Significant involvement needed