The Emotional Side to Facilitating Change
(1) CommentTo the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” —Arnold Bennett
A great deal of emotional investment is necessary to achieve the desired outcome of strategic initiatives, yet most change endeavors lean heavily toward the intellectual components (data reviews, critical activities and milestones, logical presentations, rational decision-making, etc.). Several factors contribute to this, one being that intellectual commitment typically precedes emotional commitment and thus, in some ways, is easier to come by. That is, people may quickly grasp the implications of a change at a rational level but then find that they need more time and effort to make the necessary emotional adjustments.
When emotional accommodation is too far behind the logical acceptance of change, dual—often contradictory—signals are sent by the person facing the transition. This kind of split-level commitment can produce confusion, mixed signals, and ambiguous communication for all involved. People may think that they have accepted a recent approach or policy shift only to find more
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©2012 Conner Partners, Inc.
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Harness the Momentum of Synergy to Realize Change Goals
This is the last post in my series on developing synergistic work teams. I have been describing a four-phase model that includes Interacting, Appreciative Understanding, Integrating, and Implementing.
Phase IV: Implementing
Finally, all the hard work of communicating, and appreciating and merging divergent views begins to pay off. The synergy process I’ve been describing has many benefits: more
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©2012 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Four Ways Communication Can Build Synergy in Work Teams
In this series, I’m discussing what I’ve learned about fostering synergy during major transformational initiatives.
If people have the willingness to forge their diverse perspectives into a synergistic alliance, the following sequence can be used to describe how they can work together to realize change. The four phases outlined are Interacting, Appreciative Understanding, Integrating, and Implementing.
Phase I: Interacting
A basic condition for synergy is that the key players must effectively interact with each other. If iron and nickel are never brought into contact with each other, the process of making steel is impossible. The same is true for people. For sponsors, agents, and targets; or practitioners and their clients to work synergistically, they must be able to communicate effectively.
People who attempt to work together, but who have little or no opportunity to interact, often generate a cyclically degenerating climate more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
A Process for Building Organizational Synergy
This series is about the impact synergistic working relationships have on the outcomes of organizational change.
Before people can create and maintain synergistic relationships, two things must occur:
- They must be willing to engage this way with others
- They must demonstrate the abilities associated with a four-phase model: Interacting, Appreciative Understanding, Integrating, and Implementing[1]
more
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The Importance of Synergy During Transformational Change
(3) CommentsNo one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it. —H.E. Luccock
A synergistic working relationship is a powerful phenomenon to witness in action—people working together to consume the fewest resources possible to get the job done, while achieving a higher quantity and quality output than if they worked independently. Sponsors, agents, and targets who achieve a high level of synergy stand a much greater chance of realizing their goals during major organizational change. Synergy between change practitioners and clients also accelerates the odds of reaching full realization.
The trouble is, many professional change facilitators lack an in-depth understanding of the underlying dynamics of how synergy works. They hope synergy exists within their client populations, and leverage it when it does, but more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Use Ethical Ploys to Change the World
In this series, I’ve been discussing the use of ethical ploys by practitioners to add value where it is needed, but not solicited. I define an ethical ploy as a “noble ruse” that guides someone toward seeing a point of view he or she might not have otherwise been open to.
In this post, I’d like to present two examples of ethical ploys that highlight the concept of enticing people, in an honorable way, to see more than they asked for or expected from a situation. As you will see, the results of either can have benefits far beyond the realization of the change goals. more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
When Change Agents Go Undercover
(2) Comments“While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.” —Sissela Bok
Have you ever known people who covertly try to manipulate others to achieve their own selfish desires? Of course you have. We all know that self-serving deception is bad under any circumstances. As professional change facilitators, we are acutely aware of the negative impact this kind of deceit has on the implementation process. Therefore, any kind of surreptitious activity to influence others is unacceptable, right?
Not necessarily. more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Tough Conversations—Know When to Push, and When to Stop
In this series, I’m discussing the importance of having tough conversations with clients when warranted, and describing a few of the dynamics in play when this happens. Because it’s unusual to intentionally take clients to the higher end of the Discomfort Continuum that I described in my last two posts, it is likely to be difficult and stressful for us as well. As change practitioners, when we fail to address important but difficult-to-discuss issues with clients, it’s almost always because we weren’t prepared to deal with our own emotions. more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
You Can Measure the “Toughness” of a Conversation
In my last post, I said that it’s sometimes necessary to have uncomfortable conversations with clients in order to keep the change initiative on track toward realization. But how much uneasiness is enough? How much is too much? more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
How to Have a Tough Conversation
(3) CommentsYou cannot take responsibility for how well another accepts your truth; you can only ensure how well it is communicated. ~Neal Donald Walsch
As change practitioners, we spend a great deal of time learning skills that help us facilitate discussions, guide conversations, and manage relationships with our clients. We hope things go smoothly and that both we and the client have relatively comfortable interactions as the change process unfolds. For the most part, we prefer to avoid any tough, unsettling discussions.
There are times however, when we find ourselves in situations where keeping everything smooth won’t yield the results we need. Sometimes we have to go into a zone that is uncomfortable for the other person. There is no other way, if we want to serve our client and create the value we agreed to provide.
When this happens, it’s important to have a game plan, more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
