Changeworksblog.com

Whilst managers are important in the communication of change and in modelling behavioural change, they also play a criticial role in opening up dialogue within the organisation.  Managers do not always have the coaching skills to open up coaching conversations, even less so to encourage those crucial conversations (instead of shying away from them). If managers can be coached to open up such organisational conversations, dialogue, involvement and engagement will follow soon enough.

Coupled with this, viral change is an innovative and highly effective new approach to managing behavioural change in organisations.  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 changes and spread and internal ‘infection’ of success.

The approach, masterminded by Leandro Herro, relies on the organisation behind the org chart.  75% of work conversations occur in the social networks and collaborative space that are active behind the scenes.  And relies for its ‘infection’ on the small number of people who have LOTS of connections (we all know one of those).

Coupled with use of metaphor, storytelling, logical levels of change and other tools, this is truly a powerful way of changing culture in a positive (and almost fun) way within a few months (honestly).

You can find out more at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations internal comms conference.  Go to our facebook event:
http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=37381415459

Or the CIPR’s event page: www.cipr.co.uk/internalcomms

Watch and listen to Leandro Herrero on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pNsgyFJNYU

Or visit Leandro’s blog: http://www.viralchange.net/

And let’s open up debate, argument, dialogue, share you approaches, thoughts to open up conversation about this topic.  Email me on sue@changeworksblog.com or simply post a comment.

When companies communicate their vision it can be somewhat one sided. The vision is pushed down the communication hierarchy in the traditional ‘command and control’ style. And often generalisations and nominalisations abound. For example: ‘To be the global partner of choice for the automotive components industry’, ‘to achieve customer service excellence’.

If they are lucky, and remember to communicate this message at least five times, organisations will at least have a chance of employees recalling the statement. But quite often this becomes a mantra, present in the headspace but empty of meaning or action.

The vision, if properly bought in to, will drive behaviour. And changing individual behaviour is the only way we change organisations. Ultimately we need vision statements to be absorbed into the ‘muscle memory’; it needs to be the fuel that drives the engine. Through a somatic connection to the intellectual understanding of the vision statement, a powerful vision statement will drive the right behaviours. It will run like the printing through seaside rock, running right through the individual; part of their core.

By getting employees to hear the message, picture the vision through their own filters and interpretations and feel the connection to its meaning we will tap into a higher level of purpose and this will help to organise beliefs, values and guide behaviours.

Communicating the vision in this way will make the vision come to life in employees across the whole organisation. Then people will live and breathe and behave the vision.

In communicating the vision leaders need to bypass their own filters and get out of their individual ‘maps’ of the world, and second position the employees. Also, by allowing a certain looseness in interpretation of the vision, letting go of control to some extent, employees will synthesise a vision of their own.

Essentially the communication of vision, and the ultimate purpose which is to change behaviour, is purposeless unless that communication has been allowed to be loose enough to pass through the filters of each individual for interpretation and absorption into the somatic/muscle memory.

There are some fun and highly effective ways to do this too. Contact sue@changeworksblog.com to engage in conversation!

or visit our web: www.changeworkscom.co.uk

“We must become the change we want to see in the world.”
Mohandas Gandhi

 Sir Alan Steer, headteacher of a school in Ilford in the UK, dared to raise his head above the parapet on Friday to say that adults are bad role models for young people. In his government-commissioned report on behaviour, Sir Alan states that adults set a bad example with behaviour that is greedy and aggressive.  He highlights the responsibility of adults in creating the culture of good and bad behaviour. 

Whether or not we agree with Alan Steer, it is true that as adults and as leaders we need to model the behaviour that we want others to follow. I believe that this is the quickest and surest way to organisational and cultural change.  Yes of course clarify your vision and write your mission statements.  Have your organisational values.  But, a word of warning, this will mean nothing if you fail to give your people a clear indication of the behaviours that you expect. 

Start with a small set of clearly defined behaviours.  This is easier said than done and often a good facilitation session with the MD and/or senior management group will be required to help you get there! Tools to help this include:

• Imagine If Frame
• Write the story/script of success/failure
• Translate into behaviours

Then all you need is people to model the behaviour.  This is where the ‘activists’ or change champions come in.  A number of people (from all levels, backgrounds etc) who already exhibit the behaviours that you are looking for.  Champion them and then let them loose.  Human beings are natural modellers.  It is how we develop from infancy.  I think it is a gift of evolution because we leave the womb way to vulnerable.  So we model adults and others behaviour as soon as we start breathing. 

If you have enough of these change champions (you need around 10% of your workforce) this will ‘seed’ behaviour and start to create catching behaviour.  They will need briefing and supporting and the programme will need managing, but the results are amazing: rapid, contagious change that brings you quick rewards.

As a quick exercise to discover behaviours, it might be useful for you to consider these points:
1. Describe in a few words the characteristics of your current culture.
2. Describe the changes that you would like to see being established.
3. Try to identify 3 behaviours that, if present in your company, represent exactly the culture that you want. And define what these behaviours look like.   

You can read about what Sir Alan said at the BBC Website.  

And here is a great book: Viral Change – The Alternative to Slow, Painful and Unsuccessful Management of Change in Organizations, by Herrero Leandro

Finally, Herrero will be talking about Viral Change at the CIPR Inside annual internal communication conference:

            WHAT Inside Story (CIPR/CIPR Inside)

            WHEN Monday, September 29, 2008
            WHERE  London, TBC

Please contact me for more info about this event:  sue@changeworksblog.com

Using metaphor in communication, whether this be face to face or broadcast, is a powerful way to ensure rapid and effective delivery of your messages.  It is rather like navigating a journey in a ship using the latest radar and satellite navigation and high horsepower engines compared to setting sail in an old schooner. 

Metaphor is essentially where one thing is expressed in terms of another, whereby this bringing together throws new light on the character of what is being described. Metaphor implies comparison. Rather like the comparison that I have just used in the previous paragraph.

The meaning of the story or metaphor is often not in the specific events that make up its content but rather in the underlying patterns or principles it conveys.  Thus the content of metaphors are frequently symbolic rather than literal.  Because of this stories and storytelling is often a more effective tool for stimulating and supporting change.

Telling a story through metaphor is a way of distracting the conscious mind whilst activating the unconscious mind to search for meaning, relationships, patterns, similarities (with self and ongoing experiences) and resources.  Therefore communicating with metaphor is an excellent way of offering new concepts, ideas and behaviours, freeing hidden resources and facilitating change.

Metaphors are an indirect form of communication implying comparison, it allows a ‘carrying over’ of meaning from the story that the teller is presenting to into the reality of the listener.  So the tale takes on a personal meaning.  Metaphors can often bypass conscious resistance and set up a deeper level of communication.

To create useful metaphors in a business context (perhaps to help facilitate change or resolve conflict) to achieve a specific outcome and move toward resolving a problem, the relationships between the elements in the story need to reflect the relationship between the elements found in the problem. A good metaphor, like a good story or film plot, must create expectation and satisfy it in some way consistent with the style of the composition.

The present state and the desired state or outcome are understood and set clearly. And then a context is chosen for the metaphor that will interest the audience but replace all the elements of the problem with different elements, whilst holding the relationships the same.  Then you will plot a story that has the same overall ‘form’ of the present state in the beginning but leads through to a connecting strategy to the desired outcome.

Of course metaphors can be rich in all the representational systems to satisfy different thinking patterns.  They are auditory, as they are told and propagated throughout the organisation. Use of the right emotive language can make them connect to feelings and of course they can be made highly visual through the use of art, drawing with coloured pens and even photography or video.

Have a go at this short exercise designed to help you explore the metaphors you live by:

1. Recall a story, fairy tale or even a dream from your early childhood that was meaningful for you at the time.  Write a short summary (6-8 sentences).
2. Recall a story, fairy tale or even a dream from your recent adolescence that was meaningful for you at the time.  Write a short summary (6-8 sentences).
3. Ask yourself:
4. Who did you identify with in the story? Has it changed?
5. What does it reflect about your beliefs, values or model of the world?
6. What does it indicate about how you’ve changed? and about how you are the same?

If you liked this article why not let me know: sue@changeworkscom.co.uk

Here’s a couple of good books:

The Magic of Metaphor: 77 Stories for Teachers, Trainers and Thinkers, by Nick Owen

Metaphors we Live By, by G Lakoff

The Power of Metaphor: Storytelling and Guided Journeys for Teachers, Trainers and Therapists, Michael Berman and David Brown

Or visit our website to find out more about how we help organisations to communicate better: www.changeworkscom.co.uk

Successful communication by definition is where information is taken in and understood by the recipient. So in order to get your message across in a way that is readily understood, it is useful to have an understanding of thinking patterns.

The connections that a person makes when they receive information, and the way they represent ideas, memories and information is unique to each individual.  It is important to remember this in our communication.  We take in information through all our senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell and this is represented in our minds as a combination of sensory systems.  These thinking patterns are how we ‘code’ our experiences.

The three predominant thinking patterns are:

• Visual – these people think in pictures. They represent ideas and information as mental images.
• Auditory – these people think in sounds.  They hear sounds, voices or noises.
• Feelings – these people represent thoughts and ideas as feelings, either internal emotions or the thought of touch.

We generally have a preference for some systems over others, both in the way we think and in the way we communicate.  In order to engage all of the thinking systems of our diverse audiences, to become powerful communicators we need to use tools that engage all of the senses. This not only ensures that your message gets heard loud and clear but your audience will be keen to hear more from you.

So how do we do this? Here are some of the things that we do at Changeworks Communications to engage and excite our audiences:

• Print – use language that is purposefully rich in all of the senses.  Capture and hold the audience’s attention by using language that taps into visual, auditory and feeling representational systems.
• Press releases - use html so that editors can read your sensory rich language in their web browser and then you can link to other integrated channels to help bring the story to life for them.  We use podcasts and videocasts as well as photography in tandem with the written word.  This ensures that all thinking systems are engaged and the editors love it because they can bring the story to life in their own thinking system.
• Internal communications – the use of web 2.0 tools and social media is fantastic to engage all senses.  The feeling based thinking styles love to interact and click and collaborate – blogs, networking sites, twitter based short messaging services, video and podcasting channels are fantastic tools, and very cost effective.  Get your people to engage with them directly and you have a powerful collaboration platform that brings everyone along with it.
• Telling stories – this is something that we love to use because it engages the auditory (sharing and passing on stories), the visual (good stories paint pictures in people’s minds), and the feeling mind (metaphor and emotion are interlinked – stories engage the heart as well as the mind).  Build storytelling into your communication and you cannot fail to engage.

We hope you enjoyed reading just some of the many ways to engage the full representational systems of the senses in your communication.  This is a powerful way to increase the effectiveness of your communications.  Contact Sue Tupling at Changeworks Communications to discuss more ideas for your organisation: sue@changeworkscom.co.uk.