News
01 June 2009
Your Organisation Needs You (... to adapt to change)
Business Issue:
The credit crunch means that organisations are working harder and tighter than ever before. Employees are handling increased complexity in their jobs, facing cutbacks and even pay freezes.
It is even more important for organisations to retain rather than re-train! The need for consistent, regular and “Type-Friendly” communication is high to give reassurance to nervous employees.
In leading change, this calls for attention to detail, (listening to the needs of individuals), learning from previous experience, (making sure the culture adapts to new markets), together with delivery of a vision that is believable and inspirational to reach a variety of employees who, by the way, all need something they haven’t heard before! (No pressure there then!)
This is a familiar challenge for many leaders of organisations. In leading a number of change initiatives in organisations, Chameleon Works has worked with a number of tools and models (including MBTI) to support clients through change. Deborah states “The language of MBTI gives change consultants a framework to ensure all areas are covered when trying to communicate and influence important change messages”. “Leaders can tend to give (unconscious) emphasis to their own preference needs, particularly under the current pressures, and may neglect the needs of the wider preferences when communicating change”.
Solution and Tips:
“I was recently sent an 18 slide PowerPoint presentation to validate for a CEO who was about to relocate a whole department 180 miles due to growth. The slides were very helpful, showing the rationale for the cost savings, how the organisation would be able to compete better in the future and, most controversially, what he needed the employees to do. All messages were in line with his own "NT" preference.'
However, the CEO and his senior team had known about these changes for four months and needed to consider the following areas:
- the audience were receiving the news for the first time and the senior team were in a different place in the change cycle.
- different MBTI preferences require change at different paces. Try to manage the impatience that some preferences have to “get on with it” with the opportunity to engage in a reflective period.
- consistency is vital to create “safety” to enable people to engage with change. Keep the messages simple and get all members of the senior team consistently supporting them
- messages need to be tailored to give the right amount of detail and the big picture.
The CEO was coached to understand that in putting the department into organisational “shock” individuals tend to focus more on the “here and now” and often need time to reflect not necessarily have tasks issued to them. The presentation and subsequent dialogue was overhauled in time to balance the logical case for change (Thinking) with the careful consideration to the needs of the individuals (Feeling).
Feedback channels were established quickly and timescales were broadened to allow extra time for individuals to absorb the information. The use of MBTI in this way allowed the CEO opportunity to gauge the reaction of the organisation and to gather further feedback on which to plan the next stage of change. Employees gained the opportunity to feel that they carried influence which allowed ideas to flow up to the senior team.
Why MBTI® helped the Change Agents:
In discussing this with the CEO, we carefully amended and cut down the slides to more appropriately balance the MBTI preference needs during change. Many of audience for the change knew nothing about MBTI however, the role of the Change Agent is to influence communication.
