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The crunch has come. A hurricane of market winds blow around us and perhaps no-one knows when they will die down and what devastation they will leave.  Whilst positive social change may come of this in that capitalism becomes less ‘selfish’, it certainly seems that Oliver James is right and our materialistic society is making us ill, physically and mentally (and perhaps giving the economy IBS – my interpretation!).

Listen to Oliver James, author of ‘Affluenza’ and ‘The Selfish Capitalist’, who talks about how our social fabric might change on Radio 4′s Today Programme today.

For communicators we need to understand the concerns of employees, because what people think about, affects their attitudes and behaviours; and many people are feeling worried, poor and scared at the moment.  A recent IPSOS-MORI poll, on a base of 2,000 people, showed that nearly half the public believe that the economy is the most important issue facing Britain today. Employees are worried. They may feel that they are in the firing line, or that they are suddenly forced into more of a parent-child relationship with their employer, or simply feel suddenly poor (loss of bonuses, no pay rises). All of these feelings will leave people feeling unmotivated, despondent and they will start to look for escape routes and lifeboats.

This will have a direct impact on performance, so it becomes even more important to communicate with employees. I recently interviewed Stephen Welch is head of media and communications consulting at Hay Group , Hay Group’s research highlights the appalling state of strategic communications in most organisations and Stephen gives some advice on how to keep people motivated particularly in tough times.

Hay Group research also showed that half of leaders in organisations today destroy value through their leadership style. Whilst part of this is about communicating, it is largely down to the coercive or pace setting approach to leadership which predominates our Western approach to leadership yet is not effective in managing capacity in the long term. 

Leaders need to be able to communicate, or rather to facilitate dialogue and communication that energises employees towards a shared, even co-created, vision. Managers who adopt more of a coaching style and get employees’ input into the direction of organisational strategy, are leaders who can add value to their organisations.

Viral Change is an innovative and highly effective approach to managing change in organisations. At Changeworks we are currently using it alongside internal communication programmes, and viral communications especially, to help organisations more quickly realise a vision of success. Whilst ‘big splash’ internal communications can serve to act as a frame for change, often this approach alone won’t effect sustainable cultural change.  A viral change based process can work as a stealth weapon, working effectively in the background with no big company wide launch, to change behaviour and hence culture.

Essentially, a small set of non negotiable behaviours are defined and a process to encourage and spread these behaviours is adopted. These behaviours are imitated, endorsed by a small network of people, and this spreads new ways of doing things, quickly and effectively. Its strength lies in peer to peer networks, supported by dialogue and conversation, to create sustainable cultural changes and spread an internal infection of success. Viral Change is closer to infection of ideas or behaviours than to the traditional rational appeal and cascaded down initiatives of change.

The concept of Viral Change was pioneered by author and speaker, Dr. Leandro Herrero, an organisational consultant who specialises in organisational change. I recently met Leandro at the Chartered Instute of Public Relations Internal Communication conference, and interviewed him about some of the key things to consider when implementing Viral Change programmes.

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Changeworks Blog

You can read more about Viral Change on Wikipedia or visit Leandro Herrero’s Viral Change Blog.

Changeworks Blog will be focusing on the processes and ‘management’ (ah ah!) of Viral Change and related considerations over the course of the next month.

If you’re striving to be the kind of leader people willingly follow, you’ll soon discover a purely intellectual approach to leadership won’t get you the results you desire.

In my experience successful leaders know how to influence the emotional experience of their counterparts in a generative manner, and there’s no better way to do this than by communicating with your whole self. Having your body and your intellect, communicating the same message, so that what you say matches what you do.

Becoming an embodied leader can be developed and trained for, in the same way a pianist runs through scales in preparation for a concert and a ballplayer spends time in the batting cage before a game. Through practice you’ll discover wisdom is manifested through your body and movement, as well as through your verbal communication.
 
My colleague Charlie Badenhop* recently shared his concept of embodied leadership with me, and I believe you’ll find value is what he has to say-

You exude ‘embodied leadership’ when–

1. You are in touch with your body and your emotions, and gently but freely express what you feel and believe to be so.
2. You do your best to stay in touch with the emotional experience of your counterparts.
3. You realize your model of the world is not “the truth” and your opinions are not to be impulsively acted upon.
4. You regularly solicit the opinions of others and ask them to correct you whenever they think it would be helpful.
5. You are comfortable being at the center, more so than being at the top.
6. You are comfortable accessing your intuition, as an alternative source of wisdom, and invite others to do the same.
7. You desire to collaborate rather than being in command.
8. What you think and feel matches your actions.
9. You bring your “whole self” with you to work every day, and recognize that emotional expression is crucial for everyone’s health and well-being.
10. You recognize the onset of seeming conflict, as a positive signal, alerting you to the need for a shift in relationship.
11. You’re able to transcend logic and verbal language, to get to the heart of the matter.
12. You understand that in a healthy system, emotion and logic tend to balance each other.

 ”Here is the very heart and soul of the matter of leadership:
If you seek to lead, invest 50% of your time (attention) leading yourself- your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct.
Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers – Use the remainder to induce those you “work for” to understand and practice the theory – If you don’t understand that you should be working for your mislabeled “subordinates,” then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny -  Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same.
All else is trivial.”
Dee Hock, founder and CEO Emeritus Visa International

* Charlie Badenhop is an Aikido sensei, composer, consultant and coach. He’s an American who has lived and worked in Japan for more than 20 years. To find out more about his work, I urge you to look at http://www.seishindo.org