Recently I've gotten very passionate about communicating all the good that can result from applying organization development.  I am particularly enthusiastic about leaders, managers, and employees building their own org development competencies to apply to their everyday work with one another. 

  

In my efforts to inspire the use of organization development, I am sending a short, quarterly article to share ideas about how you can benefit from using organization development.  Check out my article on engaging those impacted by change.  

  

Marisa 

  

  

One of the best things you can do as a leader promoting change is to involve the people who ultimately will be impacted by the change. Why?

• Those who will be impacted know the most about their jobs and can help you to develop a change solution that best solves the problem at hand.

• When people are part of the solution, they are much more likely to adopt the solution and encourage others to adopt it.

So why don't you involve those who will be impacted? Some of you think you've got a darn good solution and can't justify taking the time and effort to involve others to get a slightly better solution. Some of you may fear that the change you envision will be diminished by listening to those who aren't going to like the change.   Some of you recognize that there is a lot of change in the organization and involving people all the time can be overwhelming, confusing, and unproductive. All of these may be right!

 

While you might have implemented a change and had the organization adopt it without much notice, that's pretty rare. Given that the great majority of change efforts fail, we know that, in part, taking the time up front to invite lots of participation in the change effort reaps rewards in the end.

 

I worked with a client whose constituents used the motto "Nothing about us without us." Sure, it took more time up front to make a change, yes the change was not 100% of what the leaders envisioned. But paying attention to this motto facilitated change adoption, increased the likelihood that the change was actually going to make a difference in terms of real results, and continuously reinforced a culture of collaboration and trust.

So what do you do?

• Identify individuals and groups who will be impacted by the change

• Plan how you might engage these individuals and groups in clarifying the problem and developing a solution.

• Take the time to understand their perspectives on the change: are they supporters? resisters? why? what insights are they sharing with you that you could benefit from understanding and incorporating into your change proposal?

Remember that while a few people might resist a change because they don't understand it, repeating the logic behind your own thinking is probably not going to be a game-changer. They have already heard you. People impacted by change need to feel heard themselves. They need to know they and their input are valued. They need others to acknowledge the loss that will be experienced as a result of change.   Take the time up front to involve those impacted by change, and your change is much more likely to succeed.  

 

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." (an old African proverb)

 

Organization development is a broad field that draws from a number of disciplines and can be applied to any organized (or disorganized!) group of people. Based in human behavior theories and values, the goal is to build and sustain effective organizations by leveraging the knowledge and experience within the organization. This newsletter serves as a vehicle to inspire you to use organization
development in your own work.