Change Management.

It’s been three weeks since the presidential election. Regardless of how you voted or what you’ve experienced in the past, it’s normal to feel uneasy long after the results have been tallied. For many of us it is simply the stress of the unknown, while others are grieving a loss.

According to Daniel Kahneman, Nobel prize-winner and psychologist notable for his work in behavioral economics, we feel the pain of loss more acutely than the pleasure of a win. And for more than half of voters this year, the election was a monumental loss.

We weathered a contentious campaign, often focused on exposing our deepest and darkest fears. 24-hour access to social media also blurred the line between truth and fiction, encouraging candidates to continually defend their actions instead of focusing on the issues. Researchers agree that it is common – particularly when we feel passionate about something – to make decisions based on our emotions and then search for facts to support our choice. Unfortunately, these emotional decisions can lead to sleepless nights and painful interactions with family and friends who don’t feel the same way.

I’d like to think that it is not a coincidence that Thanksgiving falls soon after the election. When experiencing big change, it is so important to recognize what we are thankful for, take time to decompress, and surround ourselves with whatever is familiar, controlled, and allows us to be successful. During the holiday season, that means connecting with family and friends, eating comfort food, celebrating, and taking part in traditional activities. It is all about surrounding yourself with what you know and what empowers you.

For those of us still anxious after the holiday, here are four tips to reduce stress and move forward.

Break obsessive thinking. When we are in a state of fear or anxiety, we obsess. Obsessive negative thoughts can disrupt our health – even alter our eating and sleeping patterns. We tend to imagine the worst. Why? Loss aversion. We are hard-wired to anticipate the worst in service of our own survival. To successfully refocus, we must divert attention from the obsessive behavior.

Game designer and author Jane McGonigal advocates the use of technology to create a positive state of mind. She suggests playing a strategic game like Candy Crush or Terraria to fully occupy your brain. Go for a run, read a book, complete the New York Times crossword puzzle or knit a scarf. When you are able to clear your head, it is easier to break the cycle of obsessive thinking.

Gather your “power-ups”. According to Dr. McGonigal, real-life “power-ups” are people, activities or events that give you energy and encouragement. Try joining a morning exercise class or take a run to your favorite neighborhood coffee shop. Not as active first thing in the morning? Listen to music while getting ready for the day or play with your children. I try to start and end my day using the Five Minute Journal. It helps me focus my attention on what is right in the world.

The key is to do something that makes you smile first thing in the morning.

Design your future. Mahatma Ghandi said it best, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” But that is a tall order. How about starting with a plan or written strategy for overcoming your fears. Make sure your plan includes small steps with milestones so you can see your progress. When we see progress – success — we are more likely to continue.

Comedian John Oliver has been a great resource for those who want to make an impact and suggests donating or volunteering for causes you care about. Even five dollars toward something you believe in can give you a sense of control. It is also important to stay informed and vote in the next election. There will be another opportunity for your voice to be heard!

Be kind. The rhetoric in this election was painful and we all know that words can and did incite aggression on the campaign trail, and protests afterward.

Actively engage in kindness. It’s a small but powerful step in the right direction. Start in the car. Slow down. Check your anger. Don’t honk your horn. Safely let someone in. Imagine the slow car in front of you has your own sweet parent or grandparent driving and treat them as you want your loved one treated. Our nation could use a little kindness right now. Kindness is a muscle that needs exercise. Find a way to practice it daily.

I remember the recruiting calls I made from our first company headquarters – Trish’s basement. It was comfy down there. I conducted phone interviews surrounded by the livestock – Trish’s cat, her large poodle and the overly friendly neighborhood animals who made their way in through the open window.

“Can you tell me a bit about what made you contact us?” I asked a candidate. “Well, actually,” she answered enthusiastically, “my dad said great things about your company. He used to work for Emerson!”

That’s nice but, actually, no he didn’t. At that time, we were just a few months old.

In those early days, the average person thought “Emerson” was a window company or the electric company, depending on their geography. Candidates often said they knew our work, but that was rare.

Today, candidates seem to be as informed about our company as we are. They have worked alongside our employees at client sites, attended our workshops, read our books, and have visited us at our conference booths. They know who we are and they know they want to work with us.

That makes my job harder. The candidates I talk to love Emerson. They love what we stand for, what we do, how we do it and who we are. I love them right back. I sometimes wish I could hire all of them, but I can’t.

Recruiters have to make tough decisions. Want to land a job with Emerson – or any company? Here’s what I recommend:

Impress us with your resume.

If you represent Emerson, you will help clients create business outcomes. There are a lot of documents and deliverables that support those outcomes, and they have to be exemplary. The first deliverable we see is your resume. If we wouldn’t present it to a client, we can’t hire you. Is your resume well written, succinct, good-looking and honest? Great! We’re already interested.

Be yourself.

If you are smart, polished, funny or professional, I will love talking to you. But if you are consciously trying to seem smart, polished, funny or professional…you won’t. You will just sound you like you aren’t being yourself. Or, worse yet, you might come off sounding pompous or defensive. We want to get to know the real you. That’s the only person we want to meet.

Do your work.

I talk to some people who misunderstand what we do. If you don’t really understand what we do, your examples will just make things worse – they will prove you don’t know the job you’re applying for.

I talk to other people who DO understand what we do, but they’ve never done it. They’ve been around it, next to it, have a friend who does it, but they’ve never done it. Writing an article about a house fire is not the same thing as being a firefighter. Just be clear and distinct about your experience. Not having every skill we need is better than “stretching” your experience to seem like you do.

Answer the question.

The bulk of an interview is made up of questions and answers. Our conversation will go smoothly if you answer the question that was asked. Sometimes it’s simply too much of a good thing – enthusiasm can make you lose track or talk in generalitiies. Or, maybe you don’t know the answer. That’s ok! It’s always better to be honest. When you are honest, we can have a real and productive conversation and get to the right answer for both of us.

Remember the “I” in team

For the purposes of our interviews, there is an “I” in team. If you’re a great person to work with, you’re probably used to acknowledging other people’s contributions and seeing every victory as a team effort. And we love that – that fits our culture beautifully. But, just for this conversation, I need to know what you did. We’re not hiring your whole team. What was your role? What did you deliver? What difference did you, personally, make to your company or client?

Mind your manners

We are grateful for your interest in our company. We appreciate the time you take in getting to know us. We feel lucky you sought us out as a potential employer. We like it when we can tell you feel grateful, appreciative and lucky too.

We hire experts in behavior change. They are smart, capable, kind, collaborative, down-to-earth people with a great sense of humor. If this describes you, and you take my few bits of advice, we’d love to hire you. Who wouldn’t?

Two years ago, a friend began a company turnaround. His first task: tell his executive team they would not receive bonuses due to missed goals, despite growing revenue and EBITDA.

The team had never met face-to-face. Some had been through three management changes; others were new hires. My friend had a daunting challenge and asked for help building his team.

In preparation, we agreed upon the following principle: high impact teams result from meaningful work, not team-building exercises.

We met twice a year over two years. During that time, this team increased sales 50% and EBITDA 300%.

The Model We Used to Build the Executive Team.

Meeting 1 Outcomes – Strategy and Working Agreements.

The CEO had an overall vision for the turnaround. The team, shell-shocked from bad news, needed to hear it. Because they needed to jell quickly, we wanted them to overtly agree on how they would work together.

At the first meeting, we:

• Defined the culture they wanted.
• Described the strategy using four key words and personal stories.
• Determined specific actions for the next 180 days.
• Agreed upon how to work together.

Meeting 2 Outcomes — Momentum, Working Styles and “Yes!”

In the first 180 days, the team agreed on a new budget, met five new distributors, introduced three products, and hit their targets.

In this second meeting, we:

• Celebrated a successful quarter.
• Identified their preferred working styles and examined ways to adapt to their colleagues’ styles.
• Explored how to work with existing assets to increase profitability.

Meeting 3 Outcomes: A Visual Vision.

People crave meaning. The most successful companies are clear on what they stand for and why. Now that the team had worked together for a year, they were ready to clearly articulate their purpose.

Here, we summarized their:

• Core Values – what they stand for.
• Core Purpose – what they exist to do.
• Aspirations – what they want to be.
• Visual Vision – what the future looks like, in hindsight.

Meeting 4 Outcomes: Focus, Goals and Connection.

The team was winning, clearly focused on a differentiator, and had resolved factory capacity to increase profits. The CEO wanted them to sustain progress into the new year, create long term impact, and strengthen their connections as a high-functioning team.

So we:

• Examined how they accomplished what they did and how to sustain it.
• Created steps to achieve their personal goals with the differentiator.
• Applied strategies to stay focused.

The CEO had inherited this team. Using a thoughtful structure, we created an experience that helped the team jell.

Want to know how to change employee behavior? Take a look at My Blood Is Black and Red, genius work by Leo Burnett that elegantly illustrates three basic elements of behavior change.

1. Be clear on the behavior you want, and focus attention on it.

In 2012, the famous Brazilian soccer team, E.C. Victoria, decided to address a national problem – blood banks were depleted. Victoria thought they could address this need by getting their fans to donate blood.

They focused attention on the desired behavior in a powerful way – by taking their team’s symbol, the striped jersey, and replacing the red stripes with white. It surprised people, and caused them to talk about the problem they were trying to address. Even the black market picked up the cause, replicating the black, white, and red jerseys.

2. Identify a trigger.

A trigger is the signal that prompts a person to engage in an action. When do people typically donate blood? When someone they know and like needs it! Victoria decided to redefine the trigger: Donate blood when you see our team play!

3. Reinforce the behavior.

Reinforcement means quick feedback – an immediate, observable consequence of the action. As blood donations increased, Victoria added a red stripe to the jersey. Over the course of five games, the team added red stripes. In two months, fans increased blood donations by 46%.

As Dr. Edgar Schein observed, when a group of people engage in a behavior successfully, they repeat it. The continued repetition of that behavior becomes habit, which in turn becomes culture.

Check out the video here.

Recently forget your friend’s name? Your phone number? Your home address? Well, fantastic news from Dr. Michael Ramscar of Tübingen University. Turns out, as we age, we forget not because we’re increasingly addled, but because we’re remarkably knowledgeable! The richer our experience, the more we forget. Because our library of experience is stuffed, it takes our librarian longer to remember what we need than if our space were sparely stocked.

This reminded me of a startling workshop by Scott Bornstein. Scott illustrated that readily retrieving information had nothing to do with the age or health of our brain. It had everything to do with stories, association and repetition. And the assumption that remembering is easy and fun.

When we first encounter information, we evaluate it by associating it with what we already know. Here’s how I first evaluated Scott’s credibility, during his workshop:

First, Scott says I can remember anything. That morning, I had left my cup of coffee on top of the car. Then I drove away. I conclude that he’s smoking something.

Then, Scott says a story or association matters. I suddenly remember My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). There’s no actual pizza, but score one for Neil deGrasse Tyson.

At that point, I began to trust Scott and let him teach me something useful. Within an hour, Scott had a room of executives accurately recalling more than 50 stranger’s names, 30 grocery items, multi-digit numbers, lists of arbitrary objects…in sequence. And then in reverse order. Then randomly. Cool party trick, eh?

We evaluate by comparing and associating. Those comparisons become hooks for retrieving information later.

Our time-starved, oversubscribed colleagues often want to do what we ask. Unfortunately, they forget the process, procedure, and protocol. Their “librarians” are taxed, and they might not have encoded our message in a way that works for us.

Consider what they are comparing against. Give them associations – metaphors, stories, mnemonics, images — that reinforce the behavior you want. Then repeat it.

Let’s say an executive wants his people to document what they learn from projects. He might discuss how a project closeout saved the day, share a mnemonic for the steps (“Collect, Reward, Evaluate, Archive, Tell, Empower” = CREATE) and then put that in his weekly team emails. (“Have you CREATEd anything lately?”)

Harvard economist Henry Rosovsky once said, “Never underestimate the difficulty of changing false beliefs by facts.” So don’t forget: facts don’t create memory or movement. Powerful associations do.

More about Scott Bornstein

Someone broke into my house, repainted the walls and rearranged the furniture. That’s how a friend described his response to the new iPhone OS. As a number of my friends compared notes, we decided we didn’t like moving from our familiar OS to a new one. But we don’t discard our phones. We deal with it, and even learn to appreciate new features. And then we complain about the next iteration.

A common refrain: once you get used to it, it’s fine.

People are remarkably adaptive. We adapt to altitude within four days and extreme altitude within 46 days. It takes four weeks to adjust to an artificial knee. It can take six months to adjust to a new job, four months to a year for a new culture – and of course, there’s adapting to returning home, which experts claim can take just as long.
Yet, despite our remarkable ability to adapt, we tend to resist. We have not evolved to embrace the very adaptation that promotes our survival.

Implications? Don’t mind the whine. Focus instead on getting the change to work. If you’ve done your work and your solution is a benefit to the organization, people will come around.

I met with the founder and president of a multi-billion company who had installed an ERP system, with disastrous results. As a conglomerate, the company had up to seven sales people calling upon a single customer; they hoped the new system would allow one salesperson to meet a customer’s needs. But due to a rough implementation, they can’t fulfill orders. The founder asked whether they should yank out the system and start over. My advice was this: you’ve already got employees hating you, so don’t cross that bridge twice. They don’t like what’s happening, and that’s valid. But you’re still in charge of finding the right solution. Don’t start over — focus now on fixing the system as a quickly as possible.

President Obama is facing this very issue with the healthcare exchanges. What’s interesting is that this is presumably something millions of people want. People voted for the legislators who passed it, they re-elected the President who authored it, and they are trying to get into the system. Here again, the best course is focus – focus on fixing, and focus on the right voices. The loudest voices are currently not those of users – they are the voices of those who derive power from the drama.

Don’t let the noise distract you. It’s not the initial chatter but the results that matter.

Taking time off this season? Plan on having fun while on vacation? At last! A blog that simultaneously improves your personal and professional lives!

In “The Best Vacation Ever,” Drake Bennett takes research from psychology, economics, and behavioral economics to explain how people derive pleasure from their vacations. The following factors matter:

• Anticipation: We enjoy looking forward to an experience more than actually experiencing it.
• Intensity: We remember intense highs, intense lows, and novelty – how our experiences “Peak” and “End.”
• Adaptation: We quickly acclimate to our current experience. If our positive experience is interrupted by reality, we have heightened enjoyment when we return.
• Deadlines: We tend to procrastinate on activities, even fun ones, with extended timeframes.

“….how long we take off probably counts for less than we think, and in the aggregate, taking more short trips leaves us happier than taking a few long ones. We’re often happier planning a trip than actually taking it. And interrupting a vacation – far from being a nuisance – can make us enjoy it more. How a trip ends matters more than how it begins, who you’re with matters as much as where you go, and if you want to remember a vacation vividly, do something during it that you’ve never done before. And though it may feel unnecessary, it’s important to force yourself to actually take the time off in the first place – people, it turns out, are as prone to procrastinate when it comes to pleasurable things like vacations as unpleasant ones like paperwork and visits to the dentist.”

— Drake Bennett

This is all about focused attention, the primary tool for changing behavior. What if, as we design a change program, we incorporate Mr. Bennett’s principles?

• How have we heightened anticipation for this program?
• Is the program broken into short pieces?
• Does each breaking point end with a unique or positive experience?
• Do we incorporate tight timelines for action?

I love studies like these, that challenge me to look at behavior change in a new way. There are plenty of opportunities to be creative while being serious about our work. Have you seen or developed programs that use these principles? I’d love to hear examples!

For more about Drake Bennett’s article “The Best Vacation Ever,” take a look at this chapter from The Learning & Development Book: Make Your Training a Day

To paraphrase the law of inertia, an organization at rest tends to stay at rest. And an organization in motion tends to stay in motion. If you need to move a large number of people in the direction of an important change, you need that momentum.

But how do you get it rolling? With two levers: getting immediate action that drives our desired outcome and creating visible success to reinforce it.

Action. Pick easy behaviors that are important to the change. Support people, so they know exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to know when they get the behavior right.

Success. Reward those who complete the behavior – the reward depends on the situation. It might be a system response, a tangible reward, feedback from a supervisor, or public recognition. Spread stories of team and individual success. Focus the organization’s attention on these “wins.”

Our goal is habit – behavior that is self-perpetuating. Once the right behaviors are a habit, and you layer a number of those across the organization, you have momentum.

Example Momentum Plan for Change

1. Send an email, reminding my team of the reason for the change, and telling them that we’re starting in small steps. Lay out my “action-success” plan for them.
2. Every Monday, email my team with a behavior I want to see that week. Give examples and ways to tell they’ve done it right.
3. Throughout the week, informally recognize that behavior when I see it.
4. Thursday, send an email asking for stories about how this behavior worked, during the week
5. Feed the stories back to the team. Call out great performers. Be enthusiastic! Create some buzz!
6. Every day: Remember the key to focusing attention: Keep it simple!

Weekly Action Plan (sample)

Sample emails
Monday

Subject: This week, open all meetings with your intended outcome.

Team,

We’ve spent eight hours discussing effective meetings. Now it’s time to put it into action. We’ll take this in small steps that add up to our vision.
This week, please open every meeting by defining your intended outcome.

On Thursday, I will ask you for examples of how it went – good, bad, indifferent. I’m looking forward to your stories!

Regards,
Tony

Thursday

Subject: How did your meetings go?

Team,

This week I asked you to open every meeting by defining your intended outcome. How did it go? I’m interested in specific examples, good and bad, of your experience.

Thanks,
Tony

Friday

Subject: FW: Pam did a good job starting her meeting.

Team,

Here’s John’s experience from Pam’s meeting (see below). Good learning here for all. Pam, I love your idea of the flipchart page and circling back at regular intervals. John, thanks for sharing! I appreciate the leadership from both of you.

Thanks,
Tony

“You have one opportunity to create a first impression.” This truism is particularly relevant for major change initiatives.

It’s human nature to wait – to reserve support until you see whether a program will be successful. If it reeks, the team takes the blame. If it’s got legs, there are 10,000 owners.

Establish that sense of success in the first three months – immediately after the initiative has been blessed and announced. That’s the window of opportunity to create adoption and momentum for the change.

Here’s what must happen:

First, create reference points. Describe what this change will be like, and what it will not be like. We compare every new experience to what we already know. Comparing is a hard-wired survival skill: Will this experience bring food or death? It’s absolutely critical to create the right comparison, or our stakeholders will create it for us.

Which projects had that sheen of victory? Describe how this new change is like those. Which left a bad taste behind? Describe the critical differences between your initiative and the duds. Be specific. Tell stories. As soon as it begins, plant your project on the right side of your organization’s history.

Years ago, a major retailer hired me to help implement PeopleSoft. For the third time. And guess what? Virtually every stakeholder I encountered asked the same question: “How is this different from the other implementations?” In the absence of the right comparisons, people had decided this project was like those that had failed. I was in a defensive position and damage had already been done. Since then, I’ve learned it’s more powerful to find positive examples and metaphors that resonate with my stakeholder groups. I jump into that space they’re trying to fill, and provide the right comparisons. It changes the conversation.

Second, capture those who are already “all in.” Every organization has a small percentage of people who are weirdly and enthusiastically drawn to anything new. They are the daredevils — the first penguins to plunge into the icy Arctic; if the daredevils aren’t devoured, the early adopters enthusiastically follow. Identify those who might be most positively predisposed to your project, and give them a feel-good interaction with the change. It’ll tip organizational momentum in your favor.

Third, use “operant conditioning.” Define the trigger, the behavior, and the immediate reward. A trigger is the context that causes a person to respond in a particular way. The behavior is what we want people to do in response. The reward is anything good – positive feedback, a happy interaction, or a treat. According to Dr. Edgar Schein, if a group engages in a new behavior, and has an immediate positive experience, they will repeat it. If they repeat it often enough, their behavior creates culture. Driving behavior through conditioning directly impacts culture and enables the ongoing success we’re looking for.

We can actually design adoption and momentum for our change. Defining reference points, getting the early adopters, and rewarding the right behaviors – regardless of the change – creates that early glow of success.

“A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.”
Mark Twain

“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
Oscar Wilde