Managers may come with changes in strategies, products and processes to infinity. It will, however, have no sense until employees actually change what they are doing. So, how to get employees to a real change? This question was the tipoc of a recent research by Morten T. Hansen, professor of management at the American University of California at Berkeley and the French business school INSEAD. In an article on the Harvard Business Review website, he summarized ten basic assumptions.
-
Always focus only at one change at a time. Having twenty priorities is the same as having no priority.
-
Goals of your changes must be specific and measurable.
-
Paint a vivid picture of the situation you are expeciencing now and the situation you could experince in the future. Use stories, metaphors, pictures, various objects etc.
-
Bet on peer pressure. People who work together on a daily basis may establish mutual expectations, serve as examples to each other and draw attention to their mistakes.
-
Mobilize the crowd with the help of several key people the others will trust and follow.
-
Do not order employees what to do. Change their attitudes by successive steps.
-
Do not make behavioral changes only by adding new things but also by removing the old ones.
-
Feel free to use a carrot and stick approach to non-creative behaviour changes.
-
Be good teachers and coaches to show employees who are motivated to change how to put it into practice.
-
Change the composition of yourr teams depending on who is and who is not willing to change his behavior. Integrate the strengths of your staff (including their behavior) with what their jobs require.
-kk-