The tour guide of Managing Change
Do you get defensive when someone questions your carefully thought through plans?
Let’s imagine you have been asked to act as tour guide for a group who are going on a long overseas trip (Oh I wish!). The group has a mix of experienced travellers and people who have never been abroad before. You feel pretty enthusiastic and chuffed to have been asked to lead the group.
You do loads of planning and feel confident that you’ve covered all the angles. Off you go on the trip. Lots of good things happen along the way but you also have a few challenges.
After a few days there is a bit of a rebellion and some of the group decide they don’t want to go as far as you do each day.
You react a bit defensively because you’ve put so much time and effort into the plan and you feel that the group really doesn’t understand how difficult it would be to alter the itinerary.
But with the benefit of hindsight, what could you have done differently?
One of my golden rules of change management is to make sure everyone impacted by a change is involved early in the planning and that as a change or project lead, you listen carefully and act on the feedback. Here are 3 ways you could have minimised the problem and saved yourself some emotional angst along the way.
Shared your outline plans with the group as early as possible and asked for their feedback and ideas.
Benefits:
The group understands why you’ve worked up the itinerary the way you have
You show that you are interested in their views
You have created trust
2. Set expectations that some days might be a bit more tiring than others and why - you could maybe even offer an opt out on the tough days.
Benefit:
You are showing that you are aware of different needs in the group
You are letting the group know that you are flexible and considerate
You are showing empathy
3. Explain some of the constraints you have had to factor into the itinerary (without troubling them with too much detail).
Benefit:
You create a sense of ‘we’re in this together’
The group will be more supportive if things go wrong
They may well have good ideas about how to overcome specific issues - after all there are some experienced travellers in the group.
It’s not always easy to be the leader of a change - or in this example a travel group. But tapping into the people impacted by the change, listening to what they have to say and showing that you value their input will pay dividends.
Please do get in touch If you want help with your change agenda: [email protected]
