A CLEAR Model for Change

VO L U M E V I I , I S S U E 1 P E A K D E V E L O P M E N T C O N S U LT I N G , L L C

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

– George Bernard Shaw

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Organizational transformation initiatives provide leaders with the opportunity and privilege to impact their organizations for years to come. To many, however, organizational change is daunting: aligning large bodies of leaders and employees on the case for change, agreeing on both what and how to change, the time and effort needed to manage the details and communicate to stakeholders—much of which is in addition to the demands of everyone’s existing responsibilities, and the high stakes that accompany many change initiatives. It’s no wonder that leaders approach these opportunities with a mixture of hope and trepidation.

However, organizational change needn’t be overly complex to be successful. To be sure, the number of details you must manage grows with the size of the organization and the scope of the change. But whether for large or small-scale changes taking place in your organization, a straightforward approach can drive success and sustainability. One such approach is Peak Development’s CLEAR Model for Change© (see diagram), which focuses on five key elements:

• Communication• Leadership• Education• Activeinvolvement• Reinforcement

All five of the elements are important in leading change. By applying this clear, consistent model throughout your change initiatives and giving careful consideration to each element, you’ll feel greater control over the levers of change, and increase your odds for success.

A CLEAR Model for Changeby Mindy Hall , Ph.D.

Copyright © 2017 Peak Development Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

“The only thing that is constant is change” – Heraclitus

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C O M M U N I C AT I O N

Effecting change in any organization requires a disciplined approach to communication. Having clear, crisp answers to the basic questions of what, when, who, why, and how goes a long way toward cementing a change. However, the ways you choose to communicate that information will determine how quickly you’ll be able to create momentum around your change and how real and lasting its impact will be. Here are the most important considerations when designing communication plans for your change efforts:

• Timing – includes frequency, consistency, and timeliness. Many leaders concentrate their communications around the launch and execution phases of a change effort. While this can create fanfare and excitement, there is danger in it being perceived as an “event”: a one-

T H E P E A K D E V E L O P M E N T

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Event happens

Talk about the culture

Reward and reinforce behavior that supports the culture

Model the culture

Provide the ability to be

successful in the culture

Communication

Reinforcement

Leadership

Education

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© 2015, Mindy Hall, PhD. All rights reserved. leadingwithintentionbook.com

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time push which may or may not be sustained over the long term. By contrast, establishing a regular communication cadence over the entire span of the project keeps an active channel open with your audience, building trust and providing people with the data they need. In times of uncertainty, when information is scarce, people fill in the blanks with their own—often negative—perceptions. Continuous, consistent communication—preventing gaps that could allow people to create their own stories—forms the bedrock upon which successful change efforts are built.

• A tailored approach – Different audiences have different needs. What people need to know may vary by level, by geography, by function, by role, and more. Take the time to identify and segment your audiences. Then customize your messages as needed, so people can discover “what’s in it for me?”

• A multi-channel strategy – The average person needs to hear a message between seven and fourteen times before they act upon it. Given that volume, and the fact that people respond differently to different types of media, the best communication strategies employ a variety of channels.• Face-to-face – While new technology can make it easier to reach

large audiences, nothing beats being face-to-face, whether one-on-one, in a team meeting, or in a “town hall.” When people are able to look their leaders in the eye, see their body language, and have a conversation, they feel more of an emotional connection. That emotional connection—more so than a rational understanding of the facts—is what drives energy and engagement. Whatever other media you add into the mix, make sure that personal, face-to-face methods are a cornerstone of your strategy.

• Video is growing in importance as companies are more geographically dispersed and employ more remote workers. New technology has made it significantly easier to create and share your own videos, whether on a company’s intranet, on YouTube, Vimeo, or Periscope. If you have access to a smartphone and/or a computer, you have everything you need. Interviews, recorded speeches, simple animations, or even slides or images set to music can all help cut through the clutter and engage your audiences.

• Print – While face-to-face and video methods can be more personal, they’re also fleeting. A good print piece is a tactile experience, and is a continuous, physical reminder of your messages. Brochures, posters, booklets, table tents, and even letters are effective in building awareness and communicating information your audience can repeatedly reference.

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• Email – For speed and efficiency, nothing beats email. You can reach a large number of people quickly, and with little-to-no cost. But with inboxes overflowing, there’s no guarantee your message will be absorbed, which is why I caution clients against relying too heavily on this channel of communication.

• Blogs – Especially if you can establish a regular cadence, a blog can be a useful tool in your communications tool kit. Whereas other media focus on pushing information out to your audiences, a blog has the capacity to pull people in, provided it has engaging content. If you choose to enable comments in your blog, it can also be a great way to gather feedback and encourage conversation.

• Social media (such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Yammer and more) is an excellent way to build awareness, encourage connection, and to cut across an organization’s levels. There is a learning curve, and it requires an ongoing, daily commitment, but those who choose to use social media in their leadership will see benefits as their audiences grow.

• Leadership cascades – These are a staple in many large organizations, where information is passed down through successive levels and feedback is passed back up the chain. It can be highly effective, as each manager is experienced as playing an active role in sharing information. It does, however, require coordination of timing, expectations, and support materials, as well as leaders with solid communication skills and good follow-through.

• Two-way communication – Good communication is not a one-way street, but encourages conversation and feedback. While it may not be possible to engage with every individual in your organization, make sure you’re building ways for people to make their voices heard, and to welcome their energy and ideas into the process.

The sweet spot is finding channels that work for your initiative, that you and your leaders enjoy using, and that work culturally for your organization. If you’re a strong writer, a blog may be your best bet. If you’re good in conversation, a video interview or podcast may be more your style. If you’re tech savvy, look to social media. The platforms you enjoy using and that play to your strengths are the ones you’ll use consistently. Finally, to increase your odds of success, include professionals on your change team (be they internal or external) who are skilled at using multiple levers of communications and who also have change leadership capabilities. Organization Development and/or communication professionals who understand the big picture and are accustomed to juggling both organizational dynamics and the deadlines and requirements of different communication vehicles can be an enormous asset.

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As organizations grow, communicating can become more complex and diffuse. However, for organizations of any size, clear, consistent, frequent communication—the first element in our CLEAR model—is foundational for successful change. Being intentional and disciplined in your approach to communication accelerates your ability to make meaningful change happen.

L E A D E R S H I P

Leadership is the powerhouse of the CLEAR Model, because the number-one way an organization’s behavior gets shaped is by what a leader models. An organization’s behavior ripples out from the people leading it, influencing what the company will become, the values it holds, and the results it can achieve. As such, it’s important that leaders build the awareness needed to know exactly what tone they are setting, and have the discipline needed to be intentional in their behavior. It is also important to note that the term “leader” is not reserved for those who hold formal titles in an organization but rather is exemplified by how one behaves. I’ve met many leaders who don’t sit at the top of organization but conduct themselves in ways that inspires those around them.

Recently, I worked with the senior leaders of two interrelated functions. While publicly they would tell their teams how important it was to work with one another and that their results depended on each other’s success, privately they were at war. As discreet as they thought they were being, their dislike manifested itself in their actions and was apparent to those who worked closely with them. Their team members began to internalize the leaders’ behavior and, rather than working together to build a culture of cooperation and shared responsibility, the two teams became increasingly siloed. Only when the CEO stepped in and forced the two leaders to take accountability for their relationship and the impact it was having on the organization could they—and their teams—begin to slowly change their behavior and improve their results.

This example is a cautionary tale, but the same dynamic plays out in organizations every day, both positively and negatively. I’ve written previously about what I call intentional leadership in action, and the extraordinary impression one senior leader made on me. She flew from Europe to hear presentations by a team who’d been tasked with designing the future of the organization. On top of her normally busy schedule, she was in the midst of a particularly pressing business issue at the time, so it would have been understandable if she’d postponed or curtailed her meeting with the team. Not only did she attend, however, she was fully present, making each person attending feel heard and valued. In my position, I’ve seen thousands of leaders engage with their teams, and rarely have I seen anyone make such an

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impact. When leaders take the time to consider their behavior and how they can use their interactions to engage and inspire their teams, the difference is remarkable.

While all leaders must model the cultural behaviors needed in the organization, senior leaders have added responsibilities:

• First,theymustidentifytheculture-relatedleadershipbehaviorsthatwill drive the business strategy. For a sales or product company, these might be customer-centric thinking and a bias toward action and results. For a medical or pharmaceutical organization, they might be safety and a data-oriented approach. Articulating what is needed and expected of leaders in the organization makes it clear what the company values and how it will deliver on its goals. These behaviors form a roadmap that others in the organization can follow.

• Next,theymustbuildbothseniorsponsorshipandacriticalmassofindividuals who believe in and are committed to driving the change. Assess leaders’ ability to drive the desired change; determine if they are capable of playing the role needed in the organization. While these are hard decisions, it does no good to announce capabilities to the organization and then leave people in roles who do not personify those capabilities and will not be able to attain them, as people listen more to what you do than to what you say. Likewise, when people model the desired skills or behaviors, make sure to celebrate them and employ them as peer leaders. By identifying leaders at all levels who do and do not exemplify the desired culture, leaders can leverage success or coach individual leadership performance.

• Finally,seniorleadersmustbehighlyadeptatrecognizingtheirimpact, understanding the context in which they are operating, and intentionally choosing their behavior, day by day, moment by moment. Because of the highly visible role they play in the organization, the impact of senior leaders’ behavior is magnified. What may seem like a minor interaction or a throwaway comment can take on its own momentum when it is repeated and retold throughout an organization. Especially at this level, leaders must recognize that perceptions are reality, and work hard at shaping perceptions that will reinforce the organization’s strategies.

Changing an organization is about changing behavior. By identifying the new behaviors needed, aligning the organization to them, and having leaders who model them intentionally and consistently, the speed at which a change can take hold is accelerated. All three are important; skip any one of them and you’ll never gain the traction needed to move the organization forward. Do all three symbiotically and sustainable change is assured.

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E D U C AT I O N

According to Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of the global media and entertainment company Mashable, “Execution really shapes whether your company takes off or not.” In my experience, organizations often over-invest on the front end of change initiatives, but under-invest on implementation. They devote a great deal of time and energy to designing new models and building support, but underestimate what it will take to live into the new way of operating. That’s why education is such an important component of Peak Development’s CLEAR Model for Change. It is not enough to make a compelling case for why change is necessary or to develop detailed plans. Organizations must consider what skills and behaviors are needed for people to be successful in the new model, and how those skills and behaviors can best be developed.

Educating the organization on how to be successful in a new environment requires a plan that is as streamlined as possible and as individualized as necessary. It doesn’t always require a large-scale “training” effort; what is needed may differ by role, division, level, geography, and more. Some change efforts may depend more on improving the leadership skills of the organization’s senior leaders; some may require new technical skills of functional employees; some may be more about changing the everyday behaviors of people throughout the organization; most likely, it will be a combination of these three. Look for needs shared across all your groups as well as differences that will benefit from a more customized approach, and build your plan accordingly.

For any education effort, you’ll receive your strongest return on investment if you design opportunities that match how adults learn best. Malcolm Knowles, a foundational thinker in the field of adult learning, suggested five teaching strategies for adults. Adults learn best when:

1. They understand why something is important to know or do – Help people understand “what’s in it for me”; how this new information will benefit the company and impact their lives in a positive way.

2. They have the freedom to learn in their own way – There are three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. People learn best when they can experience all three—seeing, hearing, and doing—but most people have a preferred style. Allowing people choice in how they learn and develop can help them feel more ownership in the outcomes.

3. The learning is experiential – Approximately 80% of learning in the workplace happens on the job, through interactions with colleagues. Yet often change leaders default to formal, classroom training when crafting their learning strategies. Both methods have a place, but most

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organizations can do much more to encourage and facilitate on-the-job learning.

4. The time is right for them to learn – Increasingly, people are looking for on-demand learning opportunities, turning to Google, YouTube, or other on-line sources for just-in-time answers. How well is your organization meeting this need?

5. The process is positive and encouraging – This is classic conditioning: you’ll get stronger, more sustainable results by rewarding success. Look for ways to encourage employees and accentuate the positive.

For change to take root, people need to be given the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. Providing education for them to be successful is what makes successful change possible. The form those educational efforts take (coaching, training, on-line, etc.) should be customized to the context of the organization and the scope of the initiative. Think of your efforts as less about teaching employees what to do; when done right, your education efforts teach the organization a new way to be.

A C T I V E I N V O LV E M E N T

“Active involvement” lies at the center of Peak Development’s CLEAR Model of Change. It is what underpins every other element of our model and creates sustainable results in your organizational change initiatives. Quite simply, people will nurture what they help create; to ensure success, discover ways for those affected by a change to play a role in bringing it to life.

For employees, these can include:

• Formal opportunities—design and implementation teams, task forces, and other ways to be directly involved in the work of making change happen.

• Providing input and feedback—through focus groups, surveys, suggestion boxes, or social media, as well as by leaders regularly finding time to interact with employees one-on-one and invite their feedback.

• Being proactive—encourage employees not to wait to be asked, but to actively look for ways to contribute, and to raise their voices when they have ideas.

• Being a positive role model for peers—find ways to highlight behavior that reinforces the changes you are trying to make happen; make it visible. Mention people by name in team meetings, town halls, and other communications, and empower team members to recognize one another. Recently with one client, we launched a monthly podcast featuring brief conversations with employees around the globe who are

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living the culture. It’s a double win: the employees being featured feel recognized for their accomplishments, while also serving as role models for others in the organization.

For those leading organizations, active involvement manifests itself in a variety of ways: commitment, passion, follow-through, marketing, charisma, a sense of urgency, patience, and more. It is the ability to sense and understand what is needed at any given point in time, and to leverage your skills, abilities, and the resources at your disposal toward maintaining momentum.

Leaders who are actively involved commit time and energy to managing stakeholders: thinking about how to engage a critical mass of supporters, what each group needs to be successful, and how their strategies and tactics need to change to reach different audiences. The Agreement-Trust Matrix can be useful in organizing your thinking around your stakeholder groups and engaging with them more intentionally. It is based around the idea that people engage with any change primarily based on two dimensions: their level of agreement with the change, and their level of trust in you personally or in your ability to successfully implement the change. You can get started in just three simple steps:

1. Briefly list people who will be impacted by the change; be as specific as possible. Name the individuals. Depending on the scale of the change, you may need to do more than one Agreement-Trust Matrix (i.e. employees, customers, suppliers, etc.)

2. Plot your stakeholders on the chart according to their level of agreement and their level of trust.

3. Based on this diagram, decide how best to work with the individuals or groups that fall within each quadrant. How can you meet each individual or group where they live?• Alliesareamongyourbestresources.Leveragetheserelationships

to help you raise the agreement and/or trust of those in other quadrants

• Budscanbegreatsoundingboards.Giventheirhightrustinyou, you are more likely to get honest feedback on why they have less agreement with the initiative. Use that data to improve your approach or craft communications that address the questions or concerns they have raised.

• Skeptics’opinionofyouandyourabilitiescouldbebasedon experience or simply a lack of exposure to you. In either case, involve them in shaping the idea or providing input on implementation. Working more closely with you affords them the opportunity to develop a higher level of trust.

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• Sinceadversarieshavelowagreementandtrust,leverageyouralliesor your buds to help move the idea forward. If you believe a skeptic may try to actively derail the initiative, develop good contingency plans for undesirable but possible actions the skeptic might take.

• Ifthemajorityofindividualsfallintheloweragreementandtrustquadrants (especially in the adversaries quadrant), consider the organization’s readiness for this change to be implemented; you may have greater success if you begin at another time.

This diagnostic should be something you revisit regularly, as your stakeholders’ placement—and therefore the ways you must communicate and work with them—may shift. Respondents to our earlier study on Shaping Organizational Culture agreed that communications are important across every stage of a culture change initiative—from inception, design, and launch, to implementation, realization, and sustainment. Yet, as I noted previously, organizations often over-invest on the front end of change initiatives, causing

A G R E E M E N T- T R U S T M AT R I X

The Agreement-Trust Matrix

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© 2015, Mindy Hall, PhD. All rights reserved. leadingwithintentionbook.com

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them to lose steam over time. Paying conscious attention to your stakeholders can help you manage that energy, staying ahead of minor problems before they become major issues. It’s your pull-through as a leader—your active involvement across every stage of the project--that makes success possible.

Think back on the change initiatives you’ve experienced in the past. How could you tell whether your leaders were actively involved? What did they do or say to let you know they were fully engaged? What did their behavior engender in you? Be aware that your organization is giving you that same level of scrutiny, and it is your active involvement that determines how sustainable a change initiative will be.

R E I N F O R C E M E N T

Organizational change requires shifting accustomed ways of working to new ways that may at first seem counterintuitive. For change to take root, you must overcome patterns that pull people back to the familiar and comfortable; one of the best ways to support new patterns is to provide positive reinforcement. That is why Reinforcement plays such a large role in Peak Development’s CLEAR Model of Change. By rewarding the new behaviors necessary for change, you are making it more likely that those behaviors will continue. You are building new habits that, with time and perseverance, become the new norm.

Sometimes, the new behaviors needed to support your strategy are clear and straightforward—like adopting a new technology platform or a new process. Other times they’re harder to recognize or quantify—like building an entrepreneurial spirit or increasing collaboration. Whatever the behavior, you can’t reinforce it if you can’t name it. In the design phase, take the time to achieve clarity and build alignment around the behaviors needed, because they are essential for your change to become sustainable.

While identifying the behaviors you want to reinforce is key, how those behaviors are rewarded is of equal importance: the more effective the reward, the more quickly the new behavior will take root. Leaders should consider which mix of formal and informal rewards best meets their needs.

In many organizations, the most visible rewards systems are the formal ones: the performance management system and the corporate awards program. If your company uses such processes, make sure the behaviors you’re cultivating are being reinforced by your formal performance management system. However, they should by no means be your only avenue for reinforcement, as formal processes tend to focus only periodic attention on the necessary behaviors.

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In my experience, change is more expedient when leaders weight their efforts toward personal, informal methods like leadership recognition, peer rewards, and simple thank yous. In Peak Development’s study on Shaping Organizational Culture, study participants agreed that more personal recognition is most effective; their picks for the most effective methods of recognition, in order from most to least effective were:

1. Recognition at an organization event2. Informal recognition by a manager3. Professional development opportunities4. Formal recognition from a manager5. Visibility with senior leaders6. Monetary rewards7. Celebrations/organization-sponsored social events8. Awards programs9. Recognition in a formal newsletter

People want to feel valued for the unique contribution they are making to the organization. Therefore, you’ll see the strongest return when you recognize your employees face-to-face and tailor rewards to the individual. You know your employees—and what motivates them—best. When you take the time—and it only takes a moment—to show that you value their contribution, the impact is profound and lasting.

Recognition is a continuous endeavor. Studies show that it can take anywhere from 2-8 months to build a new habit. Especially under stress—and change can be a significant source of stress—we quickly go back to old patterns because they provide a measure of comfort. When you consciously recognize the behaviors you want to reward, tailor rewards to the individual, and continue to reinforce behavior over time, you’re setting the stage for sustainable change.

C O N C L U S I O N

Communication, Leadership, Education, Active Involvement, and Reinforcement: five key elements for giving focus to your change initiatives. Not only do they direct your energy toward the actions that have the strongest impact on success and sustainability, but they promote clear thinking around your organizational change efforts. Clarity drives confidence, both for yourself and throughout your organization.

Mindy Hall, Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Peak Development Consulting, LLC. Since founding Peak Development in 1996, she has worked with clients around the world to create sustainable organization and leadership development solutions, helping leaders solve today’s challenges while growing capacity to lead future initiatives.

Her book Leading with Intention: Every Moment Is a Choice won a 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award. It has been featured by Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Investor’s Business Daily, Strategy+Business, Leader to Leader, Leadership Excellence, Life Science Leader, and Entrepreneur. Mindy has over 20 years of experience in organization and leadership development, and holds Master’s Degrees in both Organization Development and Human Resources Management, and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems.

She hosts the Peak Development Radio podcast and writes the Growing Your Organization blog. Her philosophy can be summed up in eight simple words: “I want it to matter that we met.” mindy.hall@peakdevelopment.com

Peak Development Consulting, LLC delivers a full suite of custom organization, leadership, and team development solutions designed to unlock potential and build the long-term capacity of the companies with which we work. Clients include leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, technology, insurance, manufacturing, government, and nonprofit organizations, several of which are among the Fortune 50.

Whether designing business models, shaping cultures, cultivating leaders, developing teams, or transforming HR, our goal is to deliver the best solutions for our clients’ unique business challenges.

Copyright © 2017 Peak Development Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

Peak Development Consulting, LLC

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