Successful implementation of any change requires a clear vision, careful planning, cogent communications, visible sponsorship, and effective engagement to attend to the individual psychological re-orientation that is so critical to success.

Internal consultants who are experinced facilitators understand the value of engagement at every stage in a change process.  But one of the most critical stages for individual transitions is at the beginning of a change effort.  Leaders need to be prepared to talk about the change in terms that people can relate to–identification of what will change and be lost.  If individuals are to adapt their behavior and change their skill set, the transition must begin with an ending, a recognition of the old way, behavior and skills.

Not engaging others to discuss the reality of the changing situation creates sub-communications underneath the change effort where people voice their concerns, resistance and suggestions for improvement in confidential discussions.  Managers can improve their chances for success by using tools like the GLAD/SAD/MAD tool

glad-sad-mad  This tools offers consultants, managers and leaders a step-by-step guide to planning and facilitating an engaging discussion with team members to clarify and align understanding about:

1. What individuals are Glad about with the upcoming change
2. What aspects of the change make an individual SAD
3. What aspects of the change make the individual MAD

There are lots of tools for talking when the stakes are high, this one helps structure a conversation to allow individuals to share their perspectives and understand the importance of the ending of the old way before we ask them to transition to the new and unknown.  

Today Gallup has collected plenty of data to clarify that there is a direct corelation between high levels of employee engagement and positive business results.  According to the latest Gallup Q12 Engagement data, businesses with low engagement have 51% more inventory shrinkage, 31% - 51% more employee turnover and 62% more accidents than businesses with high employee engagement scores. 

Building Engagement in this Economic Crisis by Jennifer Robison    

Leaders everywhere are taking notice that employee engagement isn’t just a fad–it is a fact of life for successful, sustainable change and positive business results.  So what stands between you and a fully engaged organization?

Howick Associates advocates for engagement, involvement and collaboration with key stakeholders in all of our efforts with clients.  We developed the Pyramid of Engagement with our partners at SC Johnson more than ten years ago to help leaders understand the levels of engagement, and give them tools to convene individuals and teams in critical conversations that drive change and improvement efforts.

2009-engagement-pyramid-with-lines2

Our partners and clients use this model differently–They are all in unique situations.  It is a helpful input in communication planning.  It is useful for identifying different activites aimed at influencing others, and it can be invaluable engaging employees in problem-solving. 

We are co-hosting an event on June 24, 2009 at Briggs and Stratton headquarters in Milwaukee where our partners at Briggs will tell their powerful story about the importance of engaging and involving employees in efforts to solve problems and achieve bottom-line results.  Join us and learn more.

3-2-1 Engage–A Roadmap for Unleashing the Power Within 

We’ve used influence maps to chart a course for success on large-scale projects and smaller, individual coaching efforts.  Proactively discussing and planning for positive influence can take time up front.  But the rewards of those efforts pay off when you have influential leaders on board who are champions of change.

Every expert acknowledges that executive support is the linchpin to success in organizational effort so why not take time to identify key influence strategies at the beginning of your project? 

influence-map-tool2

The Influence Map outlines a structured process that helps individuals and/or teams:

• Identify key audience groups
• Determine the nature of resistance
• Plan influence strategies to positively impact stakeholders

Using this process early on in a change effort will clarify communication and influence plans, minimize ambiguities, and support the development of broad-based understanding and buy-in.  This tool includes a worksheet to help individuals and/or groups identify influence strategies on three levels–personal motivation, social/group motivation and structural motivation.  This approach helps leaders influence more efficiently and effectively by addressing the specific needs of their key stakeholder groups.

As consultants we have to be mindful of the changing environment, and be prepared to share our expertise to help others through the uncertainty that is associated with every economic recession.  Here is a list of  six high-gain questions for consultants to consider as they review their work plans and other project plans with their customers.

1. Do I have the right approach to help this business thrive in current circumstances?
2. What assumptions are no longer valid for our decision-making efforts?
3. How have our roles and responsibilities changed?
4. How has the current volatility affected our data?
5. Are we communicating a coherent future direction?
6. How are we evaluating and adapting change strategies?

Anxiety and uncertainty drive decision-making in difficult situations like these.  Decisions about how to achieve goals of reduced total costs, increased productivity/quality, and enhanced efficiency have to be tempered with thoughtful consideration of how to develop necessary flexibility, foster innovation and creativity, and continue to improve communications.  Planning for the long-term requires a careful analysis of the implications of current conditions on plans and activities.  Use these questions to begin that dialogue, and then let us know if you develop any additional valuable High Gain Questions for current conditions.

When we work as consultants, we have to be effective and efficient at developing and using communication plans to clarify and align efforts, recognize and reward achievement, build a sense of urgency, and empower others to maximize engagement.  Since communication is the basis of all human understanding, consulting and collaboration require thoughtful attention to the audience, content, objectives, and mode of critical messages.  We use a simple matrix, The Communications Planning Tool to organize our communication efforts and minimize confusion and ambiguity.

communication-planning-tool

There are many different versions of this tool.  We use this simple format to clarify the critical audiences for information along with specific details about the objective of our messaging, the content of the message, what media is appropriate, and who will deliver the message.  This kind of proactive planning takes time up front in any project, but in the end you save time by maximizing influence and minimizing confusion.  Let us know how you use this tool or similar tools on your project work.

At Howick Associates we harness the power of leaders influence in the initiation phase of our work with the Influence Map tool.   We use the influence mapping activity as an engagement opportunity and work with others to identify all those impacted by a specific change and brainstorm strategies to influence the groups, communicate more effectively and address resistance to minimize obstacles.

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By identifying our stakholder’s commitment to change and clarifying who can influence them proactively, we are more successful in planning for barriers and minimizing obstacles to successful change.  Use this tool engage others and to help leaders engage others to strategize and leverage influence to help your change succeed.

When we meet and work ”virtually” we lose 60% of the communication signals that we receive if we meet and work face-to-face.  We lose facial expressions, eye contact, body language, and some level of verbal intonation and emphasis.  In other words, a lot of information gets lost, and that makes collaboration and cooperation more difficult. 

Getting clarity  and agreement on specific objectives, team roles and responsibilities and progress can help.  We have inserted a couple of links here to tools that assist internal consultants capture in clarifying next steps and accountabilities quickly, efficiently and effectively. 

• RACI is a Responsibility Matrix that captures ownership and accountabilities for key project tasks  raci
• Team Goals/Roles Tool helps teams assess and track progress on role clarity, team cooperation and movement toward goals teams-goals-roles

These tools can easily be adapted to reflect the specific needs and roles of your project.  They can also easily be uploaded to share on any virtual meeting platform to enable discussion and consensus-building.  Our goal is to provide structured templates to assist internal consultants in capturing, documenting and sharing virtual team responsibilities.  Using these simple tools on any size virtual effort can create greater understanding, accountability and ownership for success.  

This is a big challenge for many internal consultants.  When we serve multiple customers, we have to focus our efforts and follow a consistent process in order to manage all the tasks/activities and to minimize risks on multiple projects.  In our practice we just keep moving .  But consistent, careful follow-up and evaluation can lead to improvements, rewards, recognition and success.

Follow-up and evaluation are the keys to continuous improvement.  Sometimes a tool is helpful to add structure to these kinds of critical conversations.  One we will definitely be using more often is the Lessons Learned Analysis tool.  lessons-learned-analysis-tool

This is a simple project management technique that helps teams articulate, document and share specific Lessons Learned in order to build organizational knowledge and capability and improve results.  We have reformatted this tool to make it simple and offered a step-by-step guide on using this with teams.  We hope you find this tool valuable and would love to hear stories about how you use it.

In between gut instinct and “analysis paralysis” is a logical and practical approach that helps individuals and groups weigh options and evaluate the impact of different alternatives.  Decision-making tools facilitate this approach because they take the guess work out of the process and build alignment amongst many perspectives and agendas through dialogue.

I have added a link to one tool below.  The Decision Matrix that is easy-to-use and adaptable to many different circumstances.  This tool (like all of the Howick Tools for Engagement) includes a step-by-step facilitation guide and a sample matrix to use as a guide if you have never used these kinds of tools before.

Decision Matrix Tool

Getting a group of individuals to collaborate, understand one another’s perspective’s and make choices that ensure positive outcomes outweigh any potential negative implications can be challenging without the benfit of structure.  By assisting their partners in making structured decisions, and proactively identify the implications of their choices with a tool like the Decision Matrix, internal consultants help their partners have more control over alternatives, direction and results because quality decisions have a direct link to business results.

Share different decision-making tools with others by adding your comments to this post.

Internal consultants need to have a systematic approach–We need to deliver consistent service,  and excellent results, using tools and methods that build collaboration, buy-in and support.  But to create trusting, working relationships with our customers, we need to deliver our products and services with a personal touch too.  That’s where leveraging your strengths comes in. 

In every consulting situation Howick Associates relies on our natural curiosity and willingness to ask questions to help us define the scope of work.  But we use those skills to get to know our clients, and create relationships with them.  By demonstrating our real interest with questions and dialogue, we can differentiate ourselves from others, and provide more personal service. 

I’ve added a video link here to YouTube.  This is a short, inspirational video on how one individual leveraged his strengths to create a more personal service, even though he was “just a bagger.”       

 The Simple Truth of Service

Consider your natural talents, and identify one or two strengths you can use to make a difference in your professional relationships.  Share your ideas with others through comments on this site!