Innovation and change are like oxygen. If they are not diffused into an organisations bloodstream then it will die.
Although it’s perhaps a bit of an extreme analogy in a world filled with such rapid rates of change, it’s never been truer.
The most successful organisations recognise this and it’s why they invest such high levels in change and transformation programmes. They understand that to compete they need to be in a state of constant change.
There is however a big BUT – 70% of change and transformation programmes fail!
The reality is that change is hard, and humans are biologically programmes to resist it. This biological programming leads people to act emotionally rather than logically, conjuring up an array of distorted views. It’s because what we’ve done in the past wasn’t good enough, it’s about cutting costs, they are going to close the service I work on?
Soon there is a population of people with distorted views feeding and reinforcing one another, adding to the distortion and making people think that the worst-case scenario is the reality. Hardly the conditions for effective change!
So why is this the case? Why do people and organisations struggle to deliver something that’s so vital to their wellbeing and survival?
The answer is often down to poor engagement and a lack of leadership. If people aren’t effectively engaged and communicated to, then it’s unlikely that they will be able to rationalise ‘why’ change is happening leading to an emotional rather than logical response.
Contributors to the manifestation of such distorted thoughts and emotions include:
Leaders assuming that people know more than they do. The people at the core of transformation assume that people know more about the change, and the reasons for it than they actually do. This leads to insufficient levels of communication and engagement.
A failure to connect people with WHY. Often the articulation of the reasons behind change are unclear. People therefore find it difficult to understand what the change is trying to achieve and the benefits it will deliver. If people are asking ‘why’ then they are unlikely to get behind the plan.
Mistaking information giving for engagement. Leaders often think that pulling people into a room and delivering a presentation is engagement – put simply it’s not! People can only be truly engaged when they feel a sense of involvement, where they are contributing, having their voice heard and having some form of impact and influence.
Not recognising the need to equip people for change. It’s widely accepted that people don’t like change, yet we launch change and transformation programmes without equipping them with the tools, skills and the mindset needed to deliver change.
Take creativity as an example, your vision may be to develop a more creative and dynamic culture. It’s likely that you will have two broad types of people across your workforce, those who believe that they are creative and those who believe that they are not creative.
We all have the potential to be creative
The reality is that everyone has the potential to be creative! The job therefore is to develop a workforce where everyone expresses and believes in their creativity.
We can do this by utilising our Power of 3 Framework:
Step 1 - Toolset:
Provide people with the toolset needed to help people spot problems and opportunities and to identify ways to fix them and make them better.
Step 2 - Skillset:
The repeated use of the toolset will overtime reinforce to people that they ‘are’ creative and allow them to deliver impact. Creativity will become embedded in their behaviours and conscious competence.
Step 3 - Mindset: Once embedded in their skillset and behaviours, creativity becomes a cultural norm. People become unconsciously competent – it’s just the way they are and the way that they do things!
An Army of Change Agents Applying this framework to enough people creates an army of change agents who engage and infect people with their creativity bug, generating energised, supercharged and highly innovative organisations.
Our power of 3 framework is underpinned by 20 years of studying what drives successful change, transformation, and innovation. Through a powerful suite of training and workshops, we support individuals and organisations by equipping them with the Toolset, Skillset and Mindset needed to deliver successful change and transformation.
To learn how you can take advantage and embed our Power of 3 Framework for yourself, your organisation or to help others, find out more about our training courses, workshops and qualifications here
Or alternatively to discuss how we could help you, your business or to help others innovate - our innovation team would love to chat!