By Puneet Sachdev
Context
“Think how hard physics would be if particles could think” - Murray Gell Mann (Nobel prize winning physicist). This captures the complexity of dealing with the human side of change. How do we take our people on this journey of transformation?”
I bought my first ever Lululemon running t-shirt recently. I loved the phrase it has inside on its lower hem “live in practice”. It not only truly resonated with my value system but also as a mantra for our ever evolving VUCA world today that has only been exacerbated by the Darwinian impact of the pandemic.
Today’s dynamic environment of greater complexity and marketplace transformations is forcing organizations to shapeshift in unprecedented ways. Mastering the art of changing effectively is now mission critical for competitive advantage.
Adequate research proves that the majority of change initiatives continue to fail - up to 70% in fact don’t deliver the intended business outcomes. Which means if you are an organization that has budgeted $1mm (include payroll costs) for three transformation initiatives, two of those three initiatives will not provide the ROI intended; fully $700,000 of your investment will deliver sub-par results.
Common Barriers to Organisational Change – factors contributing to failure
39 percent – employee resistance to change
33 percent – management behaviours does not support change
14 percent – inadequate resources to budget
14 percent – other obstacles
Why do you need an agreed upon change Influence Model?
To take our people on this journey of transformation
You could be the Senior Leadership of a 3000 person energy company reinventing your business model, a Change Leader responsible to embed the adoption of an ERP solution for a 900 people organization or a People and Culture leader in a 400 person SaaS business on a journey to transition the company to agile ways or even implementing a talent marketplace. The crux remains the same - “how do we take our people on this journey of transformation?”. You need an Influence Model to shape mindsets and behavior sets. Here’s why -
The focus tends to be on the hard performance dimensions such as roll-out planning, budgets and timescales etc. And, data shows us that 72 percent of the burden of failure is due to an inattention to the “people” dimension of an organizational change.
Multiple practices are required to effectively enable the people-side of change. This resource focuses on the change Influence Model as a critical framework germane to the influence process in the direction of the desired mindsets and behaviors.
And, since change will always be on, my persuasion is that your organization takes the time to define the change Influence Model you will utilize as standard practice, across multiple use cases, not just something applicable for an enterprise wide change initiative or “high impact” change initiatives. It’s necessary and works just as well in small, mid, large scale changes.
Regardless of the size of change, the elements of the Influence Model remain the same, what changes is the number of people impacted, those responsible to deliver the change and the extent of the activities that pertain to each of the elements of the Influence Model.
RISE Influence Model for Change Enablement
What are the core elements of an effective Influence Model?
All change outcomes hinge on employee mindsets and behaviors which are considerably shaped by the work environment. Here are the high leverage elements to alter the thinking and actions of employees:
Let's look at each of the elements a little more in depth.
#1 - Role Modelling - “leaders and colleagues are modelling new ways of working”
Employees need to see the leaders, those they admire and take their cues for behaving, in the expected ways. “When leaders speak or act, they are speaking into an extraordinary amplification system. The slightest gesture you make is picked-up on by everybody in that system and, by and large, acted upon” - Nial FitzGerald, former CEO - Unilever. When senior leaders work in tandem and are strongly role modelling behaviors, the chances of success are 2.6 times greater.
People leaders are not the only leverage points. Each organization has “hidden influencers” too, who can wield greater influence than designated leaders. This could be Jenny working in Finance and the organizer of the women's netball club. You will do well to identify and indulge them too (use social network analysis to identify key influencers). Role modelling provides social proof which is a powerful shortcut people use to judge what is correct by determining that others think is right.
Key Takeaways:
Role modelling is not restricted to the senior leaders and people leaders; identify key influencers and enrol them to be part of the organizational change story
Social proof (modelling) provides a powerful shortcut to create trust in what is being asked
#2 - Inspirational Storytelling - “what is being asked of me makes sense”
An oft mistaken assumption is that what is clear to me is bound to be clear with the border organization and as a result the effort to communicate clearly and rigorously is not undertaken. And what motivates you may not necessarily motivate others. Anyone leading a change initiative must take the time to think through its "storyline"—what makes it worth undertaking—and to explain that story to all of the people involved in making change happen, so that their contributions make sense to them as individuals. What is required for that? A change narrative that hits several key notes -
Where are we today?
Where are we going?
Why is the change needed?
What will need to change?
How will we know when we are there?
How do I fit in?
Key Takeaways
Don’t assume that everyone “gets-it” because you do
Craft a change narrative that addresses the six key notes listed above
#3 - Systems and Processes - “I see the systems, processes (and technology) being changed to support me do what is expected”
The folly of continuing to have systems and rewards for A while hoping for B to happen is all too common. Behavioural scientists have argued that human behavior is largely a reaction to stimuli. When the stimuli changes, so does the behavior. Systems and processes need to be amended or new ones introduced to influence desired mindsets and behaviors.
Consider how you may want to alter rewards, formal structures, business processes and enabling tools and technologies. You are building a culture of entrepreneurship and team leaders require three signatures to get approval for a team lunch, you want people to work in an agile manner and there is still the top down hierarchy and no hands on governance. These are some examples of continuing to have systems and rewards for A while hoping for B.
Key Takeaways
To trigger new/different mindsets and behaviors, the stimuli in the environment requires to be altered
Consider how you will need to alter rewards, formal structures, business processes, enabling tools and technology
#4 - Expertize Uplift - “I have the skills and the expertize to behave in the new ways”
Skills and the confidence to think and act in the new ways go hand in hand. The more competent employees feel in a task, the more likely they are to execute it. If I’ve been taught how to run a stand-up meeting, I am more likely to run them. If I’ve been trained on “unconscious bias”, the more aware I am about avoiding biases when interviewing.
Learning by doing is proven to be most effective. You can use the research validated 70:20:10 framework to enable learning - 70 percent learning on the job, 20 percent learning by interactions and collaborations (think mentoring) and 10 percent through formal learning in classrooms or on-demand learning. Change efforts that invest in upskilling employees are 2.4 times more likely to succeed.
Key Takeaways
Increasing the competence in desired mindsets and behaviors increase the likelihood employees will think and behave in new ways.
Learning on the job is the most effective way to enable employee skills development
You can use the RISE Model in a host of scenarios. You may be leading a change team, you may be a team leader, you may be the CEO or the senior leadership team or you can be an individual contributor with a desire to make a difference.
Research shows that there is not a particularly effective order of the implementation of the RISE elements, just that all four must be present for maximum effect. Together they add up in a way that most influences mindsets and behaviors.
How do you design to embed the 4 key elements - The RISE Placemat
Create a table where the targeted mindset and behavior shifts are the columns and the four elements of RISE are the rows. And the cells of the resulting matrix are the discrete actions that will need to be taken to ensure all elements of RISE are at play to influence behavior shifts and as a result the desired business outcomes.
Some Use Cases
Based on the science of behavior change, it works to influence the thinking and actions in various scenarios. You can use the RISE Model in a host of scenarios -
You are a 6-person senior leadership team of an 800-person organization and want to deeply embed core organizational values
You are a team leader of 5 and want to improve collaboration within the team
You are a change team of 8 implementing an ERP solution in a 3000 person organization
You are an individual contributor who wants teams to run meetings more effectively
You are a people and culture leader and are ready to jettison the traditional performance management process for something more agile in your 1200 person SaaS company
Teach it in the manager development workshops, after all leading is about change and change is about influence
And it will even work with your kids!
There is an entire body of knowledge on the art of enabling change. The RISE Influence Model is one of the many models and frameworks that you will utilize in the “design” phase of a change enablement journey that covers 5 building blocks -
aspiration: create the compelling vision
discovery: understand the performance landscape and diagnostics
designing: creating the plans
implementing: implement the plan
sustaining: processes to embed new behaviors
Research data sources: McKinsey, Gartner, SHRM
