by Rick Baker
On Jan 28, 2010
Five Unusual Ideas About Change…Change For The Better
This is the 4th blog in a 10-blog series about Habits, doing New Things, and Change.
Last month, the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce hosted a presentation by Dr. John Oesch of the Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto. The presentation was titled:
Five Unusual Ideas About Change
Here is a summary of the notes I took during the Five Unusual Ideas About Change session:
- Rather than emphasizing the benefits of the proposed change, highlight the potential losses that will happen if the change does not happen. John described 'prospect theory'.
- Be explicit about 'what's in it for me'. When you ask your people to change their behaviour, differentiate (1) how it is good for you, (2) how it is good for them, and (3) how it is good for the company. Be candid.
- Recognize there will be resistance to change. Put a label on it - Status Quo Bias. Don't just talk about the change, talk about the end point and how this change helps us get to that end point.
- A 'pull' can be as, or even more, powerful than a 'push'. For example, demands from clients can pull change through your organization.
- The Data Dilemma: when our people ask us for change we say, 'Show me the business case'. When we ask for and lead change, we cannot ask them to take a leap of faith and expect success. Share data.
Now those are ideas we can test in our workplaces.
Perhaps, we already have tried them?
If so - and if they worked, helping us create Change - then we may have repeated them enough so they are Good Habits.
If we have not tried these 5 ideas then we could consider one or more of them as potential New Things we could try. Our goal is to generate Change, both in ourselves and in those we lead. Perhaps, for you, these 5 ideas contain seeds for creating new Good Habits.
In the next blog, I will describe some of Maxwell Maltz's ideas about self-image… Psycho-Cybernetics and Changing For The Better.