more on getting more from your people
DESCRIPTION
In 7 Ideas to get more out of your people, we offered suggestions to help you improve productivity and results. This time we look at a practical, pictorial checklist to help you to plan changes and see how well you are doing.TRANSCRIPT
More on Getting More from Your People
1
Our last presentation on this subject offered 7 suggestions to get more from your people.!
This time, we are going to look at a practical, pictorial checklist to plan and track your progress.
!Recently, a large engineering company installed a new IT system. The director in charge at the company’s largest site wanted to avoid the pain and business disruption caused when the new system went into the company’s other sites. !!
Most of those problems had occurred because people didn’t know how to use the system properly and didn’t understand or care about the serious bottom line consequences of this.
!So, the director ran a series of workshops for his leadership team to prepare for the new system. !!He got his team to understand how important the system was, how risky any problems with its implementation would be - and they were potentially critical - and to plan properly for the switchover.!!
The team found this picture to be one of the most useful parts of the workshop process.!!!!It helped them to:!• Understand the mindsets of
their people!• Plan ways to bring their
mindsets into line with the change!
• Track progress !
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Role models
Understanding and belief
Systems and procedures
In the book Leadership and the One Manager, by Blanchard, Zigarmi and Zigarmi, the authors show how a person’s performance is made up of two components: competence and commitment. !!Competence is made up of knowledge and skill, and commitment comprises confidence and motivation. So, all of these elements need to be in place for a person to perform well, in the case of our engineering company to acclimatise to using the new IT system quickly and correctly.!!!!Training and communicating can take care of the competence side of things, but building the necessary confidence and motivation usually needs something more.!
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Work done by Peter Turgoose, a chartered occupational psychologist, while he was working for a large service company, showed that motivation depends on three critical factors:!!!!• Role models!• Understanding and belief!• Systems and procedures!
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Role models
Understanding and belief
Systems and procedures
With role models, what’s important is to understand who the role models are and what people are learning from them. !!Peter Turgoose and his colleagues were alarmed to learn that many of the role models in their company were union representatives rather than managers. !!The company had a history of labour relations difficulties and this insight was instrumental in changing the way leaders and managers in the business engaged with their people.!
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Role models
Understanding and belief
Systems and procedures
Understanding and belief is about people knowing exactly what is required of them and being convinced that this is consistent with their own beliefs and values.!
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Role models
Understanding and belief
Systems and procedures
For systems and procedures, it’s important that they line up with what your organisation is trying to achieve - its strategy or the change it’s undergoing. !!They also need to be consistent with what managers ask people to do and what people believe in.!
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Role models
Understanding and belief
Systems and procedures
Performance
Knowledgeable Skilled Confident Motivated
Competent Committed
Role models
Understanding and belief
Systems and procedures
Role models: • Who are people influenced by? • What are they learning from them? !
Understanding and belief: • What do they understand is required of them? • How well does this align with their beliefs and values? !
Systems and procedures: • Are systems and procedures consistent with the change? • Are they consistent with what managers ask people to do and what they
believe in?
In effect, what we have on this diagram is a pictorial checklist of points to look for in getting the best out of people.
!The engineering company leadership team realised that a successful change to the new system would depend on much more than just telling people about it. !!They used the checklist to build their plans, which were considerably more comprehensive than they had originally expected. They included extensive briefings, training, reference guides, close support and active engagement in the change.!!In the end, the change to the new system went very smoothly, on time, and with no problems.!!
We hope you find this pictorial checklist useful. We’ve been using it extensively and we’d love to hear about your experiences. !!Contact us:[email protected]!