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What’s the best job you’ve ever had?  How old were you and what were you doing? And importantly, can you remember why the job was great?

I’ve been interested in what engages people at work for a long time and spent four years undertaking research into the drivers of engagement for my PhD. One of the outcomes from the research was the identification of the key attributes of a great job and the creation of a simple framework I’ve named the CLARA model.

The five elements of the CLARA model include Challenge, Learning Autonomy, Recognition and Achievement. The importance of each is described below.

CHALLENGE

Challenging jobs stretch us and bring out our best

Tough challenges force us to think and work harder. A challenge in your job could take many forms: solving a nutty problem, introducing a new system, or working with stakeholders with competing interests. These challenges typically get your brain sparking as you try to find the solution. To respond to the challenge, you draw on existing knowledge and seek new knowledge from other sources such as other people or web-based sources like Google.

It’s not surprising that when our job stops challenging us, we might look around for a new one.

LEARNING

Learning and mastering a skill is a wonderful and empowering thing

A logical extension of problem solving is learning. It will surprise few readers that when you’re engaged you love to learn. Learning can come when you’re working on your own, thinking deeply about a problem or when we’re discussing the problem with others. These are often the times when we’re most ‘in the zone’.

Here’s an example of learning from one of my interviews.

When I’m really sitting down and looking at a problem and I’m not sure what the solution could be and you might have an idea. And you often go into those trances where you are thinking – will this work? – yeah – where you are just thinking about your problem. It often happens because there are a lot of complicated things that are happening. Wallace

AUTONOMY

Autonomy is a staple of life – Give your team members freedom

This finding will surprise no one. Many researchers before me have reported how important autonomy is, particularly if you have a bit of experience. People love freedom: freedom to decide when and how work will be undertaken. Autonomy and freedom are all about having control, self-expression and the power to drive your work in the direction you think best. It’s also about the freedom to make mistakes.

Below are reflections from a few people who shared their work experience with me:

If I want to do something – I can just do it. There are no show stoppers. You can do it. It’s essentially up to you. John

He (my manager) really understands that and is letting me go off to do what I really need to do … We are super autonomous in what we do. Sally

ACHIEVEMENT

It feels great to achieve things – even little things

Jobs have different activities and objectives. The job could be one big project or many smaller tasks. Being able to put a tick on a To Do list or write the words DONE on a project status document gives a buzz of accomplishment. It feels great to achieve things, even little things. As these moments can often be fleeting it’s important not to miss them in the daily hustle and bustle of a work day..

Examples of times when those I interviewed experienced a sense of accomplishment included:

When you’ve got a good job where you don’t have anything that’s going to hold you up, where you can just be powering through it and everything is just running well, but also you’re feeling busy and that you’re accomplishing something. Ralph

At the end of the day you’re able to help people with tasks that they don’t do every day, that’s not their main task in their role. And they’re able to go away feeling that they’ve accomplished something. I feel like I’ve given them the best customer service I can. Marie

RECOGNITION

We all want to be recognised

Everyone, and I mean everyone, regardless of how much experience they have appreciates a quiet nod or a few words of appreciation in recognition for a job well done. It’s like a super energy bar, adding a spring to your step. However, recognition moments can be easily missed in the busy-busy daily thrust of attending meetings, participating in phone calls and writing reports. A timely moment for a positive shout-out to a staff member can easily pass while everyone is on the daily treadmill of emails and presentations.

It’s hard to overstate how important recognition is. In a large organisation it’s possible to feel lost and invisible. Being recognised is a sign that you are valued. And we all want to be valued. Knowing that the things you do are appreciated makes a big difference to how you feel in showing up for work each day.

How did you go?

If you’d like to know more about what engages people then invite me in to chat with your managers and/or buy my book Engagement Whisperer: A quieter and more collaborative approach to inspiring your team.

Email me here: Tracy AT tjstanley.com

I struggled to create an infographic that reflected the diversity of skills needed to be a great change agent. There are so many.

When I wrote Change Stories: Success and failure in changing organisations it was not surprising that the chapter that looked at the characteristics of the best change managers was one of the longest.  It’s important to understand what these capabilities are, and how to develop them because, in the words of Erin,

In Australia, demand for change management has outstripped supply. It’s probably the same in project management. It’s a big challenge to recruit and develop capable change managers. And I guess that will always be the case. As we get more mature and as the profession grows, we need people who are capable and experienced and who can work across different organisations.

People come to the change management profession and learn their craft by many different paths. They could come from project management, organisational development, training or communication, to name a few of many paths.  Whatever the path a broad skill set is required across the following ten areas.

• Relationship development, empathy, compassion and resilience
• Gravitas – credible, self-aware, professional and confident
• Perspective and insights – sees the big picture, is curious and comfortable with ambiguity
• Attitude – has a learning mindset, is innovative and admits mistakes
• Methodology – broad knowledge of frameworks, tools and processes, and which to apply
• Project management – across resourcing, risks and time management
• Understanding data – requirements, testing, traceability and measurement
• Understanding businesses and disciplines – has broad organisational experience
• Communication, coaching and skills development
• Politically aware.

I’ve shared below a handful of observations about why these competencies are important.

Resilience. Flexibility. Adaptability.

Things change. Scope changes. Patience is needed. The reason why I say patience is that for some organisations, their maturity of change is very low. And we have practitioners with a high level of change maturity who get frustrated going into an organisation with a low level of maturity. I remember one practitioner saying ‘That it is all well and good when you talk about best practice and high performing teams, but in my organisation, they don’t even know how to communicate, before we even think about change management’. So my response was, ‘Why don’t you start there?     Carrie

Credibility with senior managers

They’ve got to be able to talk to leaders at very senior levels. Identify who those people are. They can’t just rely on, ‘The PM will tell you who to talk to’. They have to be able to identify key areas and key problems. They have to engage with that person, to develop a rapport. So when they tell me about the impact assessment, I want them to tell me that out of this analysis should come clarity on what we need to communicate with people. I ask,

What strategies did you put in place?

How did you actually do that?   Lyn

Planning and resourcing

What good change managers do well include communication planning, working closely with the project manager to ensure that the risks around the changes are discussed and understood. Ensuring that the resourcing for the project management activities – in terms of not just the people but also the budget – all that is in place and we have what they need to implement the change plans. Lionel

Change management as risk management

I see change management as a risk management activity. And I talked about those discussions that you might need to have with senior stakeholders to tell them. Oftentimes they have difficult discussions and you have to get messages understood to get support. Framing it in the context of risk as a project manager is usually pretty effective.     Lionel

Good facilitator

Being an engaging workshop facilitator. Not just sending out information, but getting people to practise whatever the thing is they need to do. Elaine

Build resilience

Possess and foster resilience in others. Understanding people’s reactions and how they deal with change.     Neil

Understanding other disciplines

I think having a high-level understanding of what goes on in other disciplines helps us to think differently, and allows us to be the effective advocates for end users.     Helen

Doesn’t use a standard approach

I am firmly of the belief that there is process – but every project and program is different. Don’t have a cookie cutter approach.     Hannah

Understands business

They are very good at understanding our business and culture deeply. Oscar

Politically astute

In large organisations there are political considerations. You need to be politically astute. There are often more enemies within than outside the organisation. People can white ant you. You need to have people watching your back.     Nigel

Use multiple communication channels

Use multiple channels for communication and many times. Similar or same message because not everyone gets it the first time. You need to communicate with the right people at the right time and don’t raise unnecessary expectations. Oscar

Understands complexity

Because change management is complex, it looks different in every organisation, because of what you’re trying to change in the strategy, objectives and culture and leadership style in that organisation. What makes a great change manager is to be quite eclectic in their approach. Fiona

Broad range of experience

Great change managers have a broad range of experience working within different organisations and industries, and across many different types of change. They learn from their experiences, are curious, and continue to invest in their own professional development through on-the-job learning, peer-to-peer networking and keeping informed on best practice insights through their research and other development activities. Leanne

Works well with people across disciplines

I think they need to be able to operate and engage with a broad range of people. I’ve been in organisations where you’re working with tradies and engineers, right through to very technical and non-technical people. You need to be able to build relationships with people from a base grade right up to senior leadership.    Leanne

Knowledge of data testing and interpretation

If you’re working in technology, you need to understand data testing and interpretation. Helen

Are curious

People who have a generally curious mindset can deal with change. They are quite flexible in their mindset and the way they like to work. Samantha

Know when the project is going off the rails

A good change manager knows when the project is going off the rails. You get this sense. Your intuition tells you that this is not going to end well. Your clients could be concerned about what stakeholders are doing. And you’re watching them, and you’re like, ‘You know what? No, just let’s just leave them be for a minute, I think it’s gonna come good’. And it does. It’s that kind of thing. You got to also know when to leave them alone.    Ingrid

Tells it like it is

Don’t be shy to tell the powers-that-be, such as the steering committee, in simple straight language but with evidence. Some people are reticent to state their true opinion. They always try to skirt around some of the issues and paste over the cracks. Don’t make it nice, because if you don’t tell it the way it is, you know, you’re doing a disservice to yourself.     Neville

Appreciates that change is hard work

It’s necessary to use your coaching skills to gather leader views and knowledge where complex changes cross multiple divisions and teams. It’s getting the data in such a way, to position it and say this should be both the plan that we could present moving forward and be able to change as well. I used to work with a PM who said, ‘You just deal with the fluffy stuff’. And I said, ‘This fluffy stuff is hard work and I’m putting together a plan based on all these bits of information, to support people who don’t ultimately understand what the change is, leaders who can’t articulate it, perceptions of gains and losses and I’m trying to piece that all together,

‘Right. I’ll give you fluffy stuff.’     Therese

Interested in learning more?

For more insights on the many competencies required to be a successful change manager, you can buy my book of Change Stories here.

References

(2020) Stanley, T. Change Stories: Success and failure in changing organisations

There’s something in the air tonight.

Heard this expression before? It alludes to something encouraging people to behave in a certain way. It’s not easy to see, although people’s actions give you a clue. And you certainly can feel it.

Well the ‘it’ is the environment – and there are many things that influence the environment at work, which in turn influences people’s openness to being creative. Let me explain.

If we think of creativity as being the act of creating new things, then we would see people being creative when they are:

• Attempting to solve a problem in a different way;
• Looking for new ideas in different places;
• See differences or similarities between two completely random ideas.
• Open to asking naïve and seemingly stupid questions; or simply by
• Taking a risk.

Creating an environment for creativity is a bit like setting up the greenhouse. You create this structure, this environment, so that seedling plants get the sunshine and water that they need as well as protection from harsh environmental conditions. (As illustrated in the image below).

How you feel in any environment will influence how you behave. Let’s have a look at behaviours.

Leadership behaviours

As a leader you want to create an environment where people feel safe to explore different ideas and approaches to solving a problem. In a creative work environment, your team members will be curious, ask lots of questions and seek out new information. They will experiment, with failure being recognised as a learning point from which they capture knowledge and continue with the problem-solving process. Failure should not be seen as fatal. With a need to solve increasingly difficult problems, your team will benefit from an environment where collaboration and continuous learning is the normal way they work.

Team member behaviours

Behaviours that build a great climate for creativity include helping each other, seeking help when you need it and rethinking or reframing a problem so that it can be viewed differently. These behaviours often happen together and are typical of a team working in a collaborative manner. While new ideas can be discovered accidentally most will come out of a process that is intentional and deliberately undertaken.

How challenges stimulate creative thinking

Many things influence the work environment. The nature of work undertaken and the types of challenges faced will reveal areas where creative thinking skills are particularly useful. Facing a problem could be a catalyst for the application of problem-solving skills. Indeed, solving problems is one of the characteristics that often make a job valuable.

Solutions to problems often emerge through discussions with colleagues about the source of the problem and possible ways forward. Challenging problems help your team develop a range of skills, and if they are successful in solving a challenging problem, they receive a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

You’re a role model

As a leader and coach your behaviour is key. Your team will watch you closely and are likely to model your behaviours. If, for example, you track trends, are curious, and spend time exploring different ideas, then your team are likely to copy you. Offering encouragement and resources signals support for new ways of doing things. As a role model, your approach should be to empower rather than to instruct. Always aim to offer support first and advice second.

Autonomy is important for ownership

Giving your team members freedom and autonomy in how they undertake their work is very important for creativity. As a leader, your relationship with your team members and their positive attitudes towards new ways of working is a key influencer on their willingness or openness to exploring new ideas. Resist the urge to meddle or micro-manage in their activities and give praise and feedback to encourage further exploration of an idea. Your goal should be to empower them to make decisions. And listening, of course, is very important too.

Along with autonomy it’s important for you as a leader to remove those things that may limit your team’s capacity to undertake their work. What’s the culture like in your organisation to investing in not-yet-approved ideas? And is there enough time to play with these ideas and for ideas to gestate?

Wrapping it up

If you want to build a work environment where creativity flourishes, think about the conditions essential for new ideas to flourish. These include a safe place where new ideas can be explored without harsh criticism, where there is positive input from others and a cosy, collegial environment. Encourage behaviours such as asking questions, looking for answers in unusual places and taking risks.

If you create the right conditions many new ideas (or plants) will establish stronger roots, before they are exposed to tougher, real world conditions.

References

Wilson, B. & Stanley, T. Creativity Cycling: Help your team solve complex problems with creative tools

Many readers of this blog will have been involved in a change project that failed. If you’ve been around for a while it’s inevitable. Perhaps the project crashed spectacularly, or quietly faded away. The reasons for failure could have been related to a lack of time and resources or a failure to identify the multiple people and processes impacted by the change program, among many others.

From my different conversations when I was writing Change Stories: Success and Failure in changing organisations, I’ve distilled the top ten characteristics of successful change management processes and change leaders’ capability. These include:

• Solid governance framework
• Deep understanding of the organisation’s environment and capacity to absorb the demands of the project
• Good relationship between change manager and client
• Active support of sponsors and opinion leaders
• User involvement in design of new systems and processes
• Detailed stakeholder analyses undertaken
• Tailored communication and engagement activities
• Working closely with other groups including human resources, information technology and process engineering
• Needs-based skills development and
• Coaching of leaders.

A few snippets from the conversations in my book are provided below.

Governance and leadership

If you have a very mature project or program, and you’ve got an engaged management layer or an executive layer, you’ve got to start with governance structures, including a very clearly identified scope, understanding of constraints and risk, and all those various contributing factors that determine the success of a project.  Damien

Leadership involvement and decision making are parts of the governance process. Leaders’ involvement in the change process was frequently mentioned as critical for success.

Having active sponsor helps. I think a lot of problems could have been headed off if we’d engaged the sponsor more. I mean, there’s so much a sponsor can do in a half hour or even 15 minutes. And because of their position, they can open doors. Where change practitioners need to be really clear on is what to ask and knowing that you’ve got 15 minutes once a week. Let the leader know the one thing they could do that would make a profound difference to your ability to do what needs doing next week.     Helen

Understanding culture

Any change manager needs to be able to collect and analyse information that helps them understand the business and culture of that organisation. The larger and more complex the organisation, the more information needs to be collected. When two organisations are merging, you need to double that process when preparing your change management plan.

There are a myriad of cultural considerations involved during a large acquisition.

There were ten countries impacted by the acquisition. So obviously there’s a lot of different cultures and everything because they were an American company. Even though you know there’s going to be cultural differences in each of the locations, both companies understood the corporate culture versus local culture.     Wayne

Engagement is key

Activities designed to win the understanding, and hopefully later, the hearts and minds of those impacted by the change program, constitute an engagement strategy. Change management programs typically start by mapping affected people and groups and identifying how they’re impacted.

People often comment on my stakeholder analysis because I spend time on it. I talk to people such as business analysts and project managers as well as the leaders within the business. I start at the top and at all the meetings I ask every person who else I should talk to. Many change managers don’t talk with all the stakeholders. Within the first few months of being in an organisation I will have spoken to all the key stakeholders in the project.     Lyn

We had a representative sample of impacted groups, who then participated in the specification of the system and we involved employees from the beginning.     Carrie

People are your most imperative part. If you don’t have them on board, you don’t have them aligned, you’re going nowhere. You cannot do it yourself. It’s not possible. I would say that you need to concentrate very heavily on the EQ [Emotional Quotient] on the engagement, making sure people want to do it, they’re excited to do it. That they see the challenge and that they are not daunted by it, but are encouraged.     Nigel

Relationships matter

Trust and a close working relationship between the change manager and their client facilitates ease of access and support for communication and engagement activities. Good relationships with other stakeholders in the organisation are also key.

Being able to build a really strong personal relationship with the people on the assignment, and then your leadership teams, you know that that is key. And I think having a customer, who is ready to also take some risks and experiment. We work a lot with very short feedback loops, so it’s a very design thinking/agile approach. It’s almost an intervention or like an experiment, and that has worked well. And we continuously measure perceptions over the following months.     Kyle

Communication

Communication is so important and is often discussed in the context of leadership and engagement. Change managers can help leaders when conversations are hard.

Conversations are sometimes hard. With an email you get time to think about and answer a difficult question. You don’t always have time to think in a conversation. That’s OK. You won’t always know the answers.  Therese

In summary, the most successful programs operate within an appropriate governance framework so people know how decisions are made and resources accessed. Engagement with key people and groups impacted by the change program will ensure their support. Communication needs to be simple messages, shared frequently through the most credible channels for the intended audience. New ways of working often require new skills, so appropriate programs and coaching sessions need to be included in the change plan. Finally, identify the project metrics that most matter and track these on an ongoing basis.

I’ve recently finished reading Managing Change Step by Step: All you need to build a plan and make it happen by Richard Newton. He made the following observations about successful change plans and managers including:

Appreciating that organisations are complex systems of interdependency.

Predicting, understanding, planning and responding to the ways different people interpret and react to change is the core challenge in managing change.  And that

Selecting a great change manager is pivotal for success. This topic will be explored in greater detail in my next blog.

References

Newton, R. (2007). Managing change step by step: All you need to build a plan and make it happen. Pearson Education.

Stanley, T. (2020). Change Stories: Success and failure in changing organisations. Lightning Source. Melbourne.

When Change Management roles were created

Change management roles emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s from dissatisfaction with top-down driven initiatives and from a recognition of a need for greater focus on the human side of change (Ackerman Anderson 2002). Since then the profession has continued to develop and the change management role become more common. However not all change roles are the same.

Major change in an organisation requires that individuals change. The visible measures that change has happened can be seen in people displaying new behaviours and adhering to new processes and ways of working. Predicting, understanding, planning and responding to the ways different people interpret and react to change is the core challenge (Newton, 2007). The practice of change management leverages the normal mechanisms within an organisation to influence and develop employees through broad activities such as training, communication and sponsorship, and through one-on-one activities such as coaching (Hiatt & Creasey, 2003).

Change management as a full-time or part-time responsibility

Many people in organisations have change management responsibilities as a part of their remit. For others, change management is a full-time role focussed on ensuring the organisation receives the business benefits associated with the future state – whatever that is.

In my book of Change Stories, I wrote a chapter on What a change manager does. It’s important to ask this question as the role varies depending on the scope and challenges of the project and the organisational culture.

Below are a few reflections on the activities of those in full time change management roles.

Keeping a finger on the pulse

As a change manager, my role involves meeting with every single division, some of them every week. There are ongoing conversations and constantly being aware of what’s going on, really unpacking it, really reading people, drawing themes together, and understanding from a program perspective what could be impacting some of those responses or reactions. And then looking at what we can do next.     Fiona

Building the change leadership skills of managers

We’re co-designing and facilitating a change leadership program for 42 managers as one of the ways we’re building enterprise change management capability. We need to support them and build their change leadership. We do self-assessments and coaching sessions to help embed the learning. We’ve set up a change champion network and we get insights from people at the front line. A big thing for us is our data and insights from our people and using these to inform our change approach, or able to elevate them to the right people. We very much position ourselves as coaches and enablers and facilitators, not doers. Being clear on roles and responsibilities is important here.     Leanne

Readiness assessment, communication and training implementation

If organisations want to implement a new application, a new type of software, or change from the current way of working to a new way and using a different system, my role is to make sure that when it’s implemented, the people are ready to work with what’s being implemented without too much disruption. So I’ll communicate with them. I’ll work with the sponsors, I’ll do stakeholder engagement. I’ll look at process changes. I’ll look at organisational changes. I’ll help with the implementation of the training program. I’ll do business benefits management. And I’ll do business readiness, adoption and usage measurement.     Neville

Strategic change, process reengineering and running the PMO

I’ve been involved in change management programs for the last 10 years and usually do strategic change. But my very first job also had IT and business process re-engineering. I’ve met other change managers who basically run project management offices [PMOs].     Ingrid

These comments highlight the diversity of change roles. If you work in change management it would be interesting to know what you spend most of your time doing. 

References

Anderson, D., & Anderson, L. A. (2002). Beyond change management: Advanced strategies for today’s transformational leaders. John Wiley & Sons.

Hiatt, J., & Creasey, T. J. (2003). Change management: The people side of change. Prosci.

Newton, R. (2007). Managing change step by step: All you need to build a plan and make it happen. Pearson Education.

Stanley, T (2020) Change Stores: Success and failure in changing organisations. Lightning Source

I coach people and receive coaching from others. I also have an imaginary coach called Veronica. She looks like this.

Just kidding. Well kind of.

She’s actually the self-talk in my head.

I was inspired by the book Be your own mentor by Shelia Wellington to be my own coach. It reminded me that you don’t need to wait to be helped by someone else, you can help yourself. You can use the power of positive self-talk to help you to sort out how you think and feel about a situation or goal, and to identify what’s holding you back from moving forward.

Self talk: Does it help or hurt us?

Now, there’s a problem with Veronica. She can be invaluable or destructive depending on her mood. I pay attention to what she’s saying to me and pull her up when she has an unhelpful tone to remind her that I need positive support and encouragement.

In this blog I want to chat about how I can train her to help me, and by doing this, to help you. As Jessica Abel says in her book, Growing Gills:  How to find creative focus when you’re drowning in your daily life, you should

speak kindly to yourself in the third person because when you do this you distance yourself from yourself.

Before I describe Veronica’s value, it’s useful to revisit what a coach does.

What does a coach do?

There are different types of coaches. At one end of the spectrum, a coach can say nothing, listening while you speak, perhaps nodding while you describe all the ideas or concerns bouncing around in your head.  It’s like she’s on mute in a zoom call – and there’s no way she’ll interrupt your train of thought. You as the one being coached, get the value from the unloading process.

At the opposite end the coach is more an advisor, issuing specific instructions on next steps you can take once you have described the problem.

In the middle of the range, a coach will ask you questions to help you to :

1. Clarify your objectives for a positive outcome
2. Describe your current situation,
3. Review options for moving forward and
4. Develop a plan of action. 

Veronica can help with quite a few of these activities and will in all likelihood, encourage you to write the responses in a journal. This is a part of her sneaky trick to encourage deeper reflection.

Here are questions Veronica asked me about 2020 and 2021. These questions have been drawn from the questions on Ponderfy cards developed by Lena Ross.

It’s curious that one of the first questions I stumbled across was,

Who is my dream mentor and what would they say to me?

Got me thinking about all the attributes and values I want to imbue on Veronica.

Here are some of the other questions on the cards that gave me context when I was reflecting on my 2020 achievements.

Other questions promoting reflection

• How do I define success and how do I celebrate it?
• What was the moment or moments that I was most proud of?
• Is there something I regret not saying or doing?
• What’s getting in the way of doing something I want to do?

I’d encourage you to write your responses down and revisit them on say a monthly basis.

So Veronica can be helpful – but there’s many things she can’t do.

What can’t an imaginary coach do ?

For example …

Veronica can’t place a comforting arm around your shoulder.

They can’t provide different advice to that which you are capable of identifying yourself.

What other things would you add to the list?

So the wrap…

Helping you to work with your Veronica

• Become more self-aware. If you are engaging in negative self-talk, consciously quiet down the mean voice in your head.
• Swap roles and recognised the value in talking to yourself in the third person
• Spend more time identifying what success looks like for you and what are the conditions for you to be happy.
• Pay more attention to how you feel and think

References

Be your own mentor by Sheila Wellington

Ponderfy cards

Growing Gills: How to find creative focus when you’re drowning in the daily life