change

Clarity: How to Begin Leading Change – Clarify (Part 6 of 6)

November 11, 2019 by Rona Puntawe Leave a Comment

FIFTH, CLARIFY by, well, asking clarifying questions and eliminating assumptions as much as possible.

You ask questions to further elaborate on the desired outcome: WHAT KIND OF…. THAT’S LIKE WHAT…?

So when you love for people to be more collaborative, what kind of ‘collaborative’ is that collaborative? (CLARIFY).

I tell you what, for one person, collaborative means simply turning up, being present, and agreeing to whatever leaders decide.

For another, being collaborative means saying their piece, having a voice, and contributing to decisions.

Two very different types of collaboration. Neither right nor wrong.

The point is, given nuanced contexts, the meaning of what we desire is different for everybody.

Let’s get back to the change you want to create.

I guarantee, if you say, you want everyone to be collaborative, every single person would have their own idea of what it means to collaborate. Respond to e-mails? Say yes to whatever decision the boss makes? Proactively debate issues? Contribute to a solution?

But this is not about getting to understand every single interpretation of what it is you want to have happen.

This is simply to point out that if you want people to join you on the journey to the change you want to create, it starts with everyone facing the right direction.

Do you have a shared meaning of the change you want to create?

Can others articulate what you want to have happen with the same outcomes you stated?

Do people know what that change looks like, sounds like and feels like?

BE CLEAR AND YOU BECOME CREDIBLE.

BE CLEAR AND THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO CREATE BECOMES COMPELLING.

While this is just the beginning, it is a strong foundation to leading the change you want to create.

Clarity: How to Begin Leading Change – Ask (Part 5 of 6)

November 11, 2019 by Rona Puntawe Leave a Comment

FOURTH, ASK desire questions in order to elicit an OUTCOME.

Keep asking, listening and acknowledging until you get to an OUTCOME statement.

Statement: I am tired of these silos that get in the way of us implementing this new process.

Ask: And when you’re tired of these silos (ACKNOWLEDGE) , what would you like to have happen instead? (Here, you’re reframing the problem to an OUTCOME)

Statement: I don’t want people being territorial. (THIS IS A PROBLEM STATEMENT)

Ask: And when you’re tired of silos and people being territorial (ACKNOWLEDGE), what would you like to have happen?

Statement: I would love for people to be more collaborative. (OUTCOME STATEMENT)

GREAT.

Now we’ve shifted the ATTENTION from problem to outcome.

But that’s not enough.

Is there anything else about the outcome?

Is there anything else that you want to have happen?

You may find cycling through the process of asking, listening, acknowledging and asking again until you are satisfied there is nothing else.

It doesn’t stop there. You still need to further clarify the outcome. Make sure it is well-defined or well-formed. That will set you up for success. Which leads us to the fifth and final step in clarifying change and begin leading it.

Clarity: How to Begin Leading Change – PRO Attention (Part 3 of 6)

November 11, 2019 by Rona Puntawe Leave a Comment

SECOND, PAY ATTENTION and identify when someone is expressing a PROBLEM (P), a desired REMEDY (R) to a problem, or a desired OUTCOME (O).

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve asked people what they want, and they tell me what don’t want instead.

Now let’s look at a common desire, yet expressed differently as a Problem, a Remedy and an Outcome.

PROBLEM: I am tired of feeling heavy and being self-conscious about my weight (or fat). I don’t want to be oversized anymore.

REMEDY: I want to lose weight. I want to reduce my food intake.

OUTCOME: I want to feel light. I want to feel agile. I want to eat healthy and intuitively. I want to feel and look good.

Now let’s look at what happens in organisational change.

Here are some PROBLEM statements that you may have heard before:

Everybody has no idea what’s going on!

They keep doing things the old way and are so resistant to change!

I am tired of people not reading their e-mails, not turning up in briefings, not attending training sessions, and being late in meetings.

Executives want change but they’re not being supportive.

In contrast to problems, you may have also heard REMEDIES like these:

We needed to reduce the amount of work on everybody’s plate.

Employees are getting frustrated with the new process, so we’ve hired more trainers to deliver more training sessions.

We documented in detail processes for people to follow.

Work is piling up so we’re hiring more contractors.

Then, every now and then, there are those who go beyond problems and remedies to articulate OUTCOMES, for instance:

We have to be more productive.

We needed to be more efficient with our limited resources.

We streamlined steps in our processes and simplified the work.

We used available technology to automate manual work.

We just needed to be more systematic and organised.

As a next step, train yourself to pay attention and make the distinction when you or others are speaking in terms of a Problem, a Remedy or an Outcome.

Once you detect a Problem or Remedy statement, be prepared to reframe it into an Outcome statement. This brings you closer to a much clearer and more compelling call for change.

Note: This PRO Model was developed by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins who are thought leaders in the field of Clean Language. They created Symbolic Modelling as a result of modelling the work of David Grove.