by Nina Sunday
Here’s the scenario. Your organisation announces at a meeting an impending change and asks, ‘Are there any questions?’ Then dead silence.What's on everyone’s minds might be, ‘Why are we making this change?' But fear of being branded a troublemaker keeps their lips sealed.
Management is often threatened by tough questions such as, 'Why should we change. Is this the only solution?'
Managing change is not so much about overcoming resistance. It’s more about your team accepting something different is necessary, and asking them how to initiate the change. You are not asking your people to ‘buy-in’ to a solution, you are empowering them to use their brainpower to come up with one.
Do not go to people with answers. Go to them with questions.
Why don’t managers do more of this? It takes time. Management can often provide a solution more quickly than it takes to discuss the problem and possible solutions.
It has been said, ‘Nothing is more dangerous than a good idea, when it is the only idea we have.’* Always look for the second right answer. Your first response might have been knee-jerk.
By going to your team with the challenge, you access innovation and creativity that emerges from exploring root causes of the problem and possible elegant solutions. As well, your people feel as if they are being developed; that their opinion has value.
Start with the problem. Tell them your whole thought process. It takes more time, but it works.
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*Work Cited:
Henri Alban-Fournier
Copyright Nina Sunday 2011. All rights reserved. Published in Sydney, Australia.
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For Change Management training for your group of 10-16 staff in your organisation's training room, visit our Change Management training web page
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