A new world needs new approaches to driving change

Remember the old days?

Long days in big rooms; full of people, brown paper, flip charts, post-its, marker pens and meeting mints. The work in the room – and the work in the bar afterwards! These were our tools for ideation, building our plans, energising and focusing our teams, engaging with our stakeholders and for building the relationships that would sustain us through the twists and turns of the change journey.

This way of working was already under pressure as our businesses became more cost and climate conscious. Post COVID, they are gone – maybe forever.

So, how do we accelerate the processes of informing, aligning, motivating, planning and ultimately committing to change, without the ability to be together in those rooms?

Over the past few months we have all started to explore the world of virtual interaction, at work and socially as we Zoom, Team, Facetime, Skype or House Party for everything from board meetings and weekly progress updates to exercise classes, lectures, family get-togethers, quizzes and Friday night cocktails.

My sense when talking to colleagues and friends is that we took to this new work dynamic through the well-trodden stages of the change curve. Doubt and fumbling suspicion evolved into growing capability and excitement at the novelty of seeing each other on screen (just like the telly!). Quickly followed by the rapid rearrangement of our home environments and bookcases as backdrops to reflect the successful, well read and creative people that we really are.

As we have adapted, it seems that we have in most cases managed to maintain our personal productivity and the pace of work. While we have continued to hit our milestones and deliverables, it is less clear that we have achieved these with the levels of collaborative input (and therefore quality) that would have been the norm when working face to face.

What have we learned from these experiences that we can start to build into our approach to change management?

In many ways the keys to a successful launch, meeting or workshop haven’t changed, just snapped into sharper focus in our new virtual world:

·        Have the right people in the ‘room’ and even more critically in a virtual session, ensure that everyone is is fully present. It’s too easy to be on mute and clearing emails or working on something else while only half-listening to the discussion and not actively contributing. Encouraging everyone to have their videos on and investing in active facilitation to elicit contributions can help to keep the whole meeting on-task and engaged.

·        Be clear on the outcome. As Stephen Covey pointed out over 30 years ago (scary I know!) to be effective, we need to start with the end in mind. Every bit as true today as it was then!

·        Create space for everyone to contribute – some of us need more encouragement than others! Facilitation and moderation of on-line meetings and workshops to draw out everyone’s contribution is more challenging and yet no less important than before.

·        Enable the 1:1 conversations around the edges of the meeting, which are still every bit as valuable as the formal agenda. While in face-face environments these will happen organically; in virtual meetings we need to create the space through short breaks or more formal breakouts as well as give ‘permission’ and encouragement to use it for bilateral discussions/reflection before we bring their thoughts back into the ‘room’.

·        Consciously build and confirm consensus around the outcome. Pause frequently to check understanding and create space for everyone to chip-in. Play back key decisions or outcomes and before closing the session – and if there are disagreements, make sure that they are heard, acknowledged and captured.

We also need to adapt to our new world of virtual interaction:

·        Attention spans are limited and meetings need to be better prepared, shorter and more sharply focussed. The majority of what we communicate is non-verbal. While these cues can be sensed subliminally when we are face to face, picking them up in a virtual meeting is much harder and takes more energy.

·        Taking the temperature of the ‘room’ is more difficult, whether checking understanding, consensus or energy levels. The polling technology that a lot of the virtual working platforms offer is a great way to check-in with the participants without killing the flow of the session.

·        Collaboration is more challenging – especially for those of us who communicate and engage more readily through pictures rather than words. Most virtual platforms offer a white-boarding facility that can be used to gather inputs from everyone on the call or allow an idea to be visualised and developed out of the discussion.

·        While virtual meetings may be shorter, getting to outcomes may take longer as we build in time for preparation, reflection and off-line discussion – we need to take account of this in our planning.

·        The leadership moments that are so often the turning points in change journeys will be harder to engineer. They will rely more heavily on the use of video calls to create the sense of openness and trust that allows others to commit. While many business leaders will take to this naturally, other may benefit from careful coaching or even media style training to land their messages with authenticity or conviction.

One of the key themes that comes out of this train of thinking is the critical role of a facilitator in the success of virtual meetings and workshops. The content will always be owned by the subject matter expert, whose role is to lead the discussion and capture the output of the session. In my view, the role of the virtual facilitator is now just as important in our virtual world, especially for monitoring the process of the meeting, its pace, energy and breadth of contribution. Legitimising this role and investing in the skills that support it are more important than ever.

None of these challenges or adaptions are unique to change management, they are however fundamental to the activities that drive build understanding, acceptance and ultimately the adoption of transformational business change.

If you have been working through a similar process of re-shaping your approach for a new paradigm, please take a few minutes to share your thought, I would love to hear from you.

Nigel