Six ways to jump-start your newly formed organization

Your organization’s merger or acquisition (M&A) is a done deal. Congratulations!

It’s a big win, with big benefits and big challenges. When your organization structure and logistics are sorted, policies and procedures are final, data and systems integration challenges are met, you’re ready for the change that is coming.

Are you, though?

Too many organizations overlook a strategic ally for an M&A transition: the Learning and Development organization.

Onboarding is training brand new employees experience (or endure, depending on your perspective). But it’s also right for M&A. After all, on Day One after a merger or acquisition, every employee will be coming to work at a new organization.

Whether the organization takes on an existing identity or creates a completely new one, it’s a new environment.

Everyone is experiencing some level of uncertainty, everyone has questions, and everyone can benefit from a level-set that your L&D team can deliver.

Here are six things you can accomplish with onboarding for a newly merged organization:

1. Establish the culture, mission, values, and vision of the new organization. Your culture, mission, and vision might come from one of the existing companies, from both of them, or it might be completely new. Addressing a new culture, vision, etc. is obviously a necessity, but even a review of existing ideas is beneficial. The training environment can also be a safe place for employees to discuss what the culture, mission, values, and vision of the new organization look like for them, and how to bring them to life.
2. Send the right message. Having everyone participate in an onboarding class tells employees that everyone is starting anew! There are no “incumbents,” “winners,” or “losers” – just one team that is moving forward together.
3. Engage SMEs across the new organization. Intentionally and thoughtfully pulling in SMEs from across both constituent organizations is a great way to build multiple perspectives into your onboarding. You’ll get the terms and references right for all groups, and get insights to the mindets of your onboarding participants. Bonus: it might be the start of some rewarding new connections. Speaking of which…
4. Encourage new working relationships. Think about previous onboarding classes that you have been a part of. Chances are good that you can remember one or two people who were in your class; they might have been the first colleagues you reached out to when you had a question or needed a sounding board. There is something about being in a room full of people who are a little uncertain and starting on a new path that bonds people together.
5. Set new expectations for employee development. In many organizations, employee development is partially intentional and partially left to chance. Thoughtful employee development approaches are the exception. In fairness, “development” has evolved a lot in the last four decades; ideas like career paths, peer mentoring programs, and performance improvement have become commonplace. Now is your chance to start with a clean slate of resources and offerings that invest in the new organizatoin’s most important asset. Instead of fostering feelings of risk and uncertainty among your team, this M&A event can accelerate their professional development.
6. Refresh your learning solutions. Whether because of our love for the status quo or the tyranny of the urgent, L&D organizations rarely do a complete audit and refresh of their offerings. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” right? But a merger or acquisition is a great opportunity to get a new perspective on learning solutions, including new-hire onboarding. You have a new “customer” base, new SMEs, and new priorities. Take advantage of them!

Our Director of Change Management, Rory McKenna, wrote an excellent post on The People Side of M&A. I won’t spoil it for you, but he references our change methodology that includes making the change feel familiar, controlled, and successful. It’s a great read for anyone facing M&A.

Where change managers need to focus in M&A

Companies thrive on growth. Mergers and acquisition provide fast inorganic growth. So they’re not going away; the challenge is to make M&A better.

The people issues with M&A are many. For example, the term “merger” sounds like an integration of equals, but that’s rarely the case. Most often, there is a perceived “winner” and “loser.” So an uneven merger, or an acquisition, severely impacts those on the “losing” team.

That’s one reason mergers and acquisitions feel threatening. They generate fear, anxiety, and outright resistance in much of the workforce. Yet organizations often overlook the people implications. Employees are left to “figure it out,” which further damages engagement and productivity.

Organizations in the throes of M&A need the power of their people, so there is a lot riding on change management. Change managers have to address M&A at three levels.

1. Strategy

Change managers rarely build the business case for a merger or acquisition. But they must use use that strategy, and the rationale behind the deal, to help the workforce transition at the both organizational and individual levels.

The business case typically includes access to a new market, addition of a new product or offering, increased market share, and/or operational efficiencies. Additionally, senior leadership often uses the M&A as an opportunity to refresh the corporate strategy.

Change managers have to translate that complex content into messages that speak to employees.

They want and need to be in the know.

At a minimum, employees must be clear on the “why” — the organization-level purpose, vision, values, and strategy. Employees also need to understand the individual impacts: how their daily activities support those things.

2. Culture

M&A always has cultural implications. People deal with any change differently depending on the cultural context.

Employees from the “losing” organization often feel like they’ve been dropped into the world of the dominant organization’s culture; they struggle to survive and succeed.

Culture is especially important when blending companies from different locations across the world. In that case, employees of an acquired company are navigating two culture shifts: the dominant organization’s culture and the dominant geographic culture.

Change managers should start by assessing the dimensions of the companies coming together, and the geographies (if applicable). One good tool is the the Trompenaars Model. Knowing the cultural dimensions can help change managers design the right interventions and engage people effectively.

Here is a good video on Trompenaars Culture Dimensions.

Read more about it in Riding the Waves of Culture by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner

Once the team understands the cultures coming together, they can create change management interventions that resonate with each employee group. They can also help acquired employees migrate to the new culture.

3. Organization, Process, and Technology

Most change managers have had the phrase “People, Process, and Technology” drilled into their minds. In M&A, all three are equally critical.

Employees often experience changes to the organization structure, the processes they engage in, and the technology they use. They need to work in different ways, with different people and tools. No wonder they are often fearful and anxious about the change. It’s a big challenge for a change team.

Most change managers have a favorite methodology to navigate this type of situation. Emerson is no different and, you guessed it, we have our own methodology. A key principle behind our methods taps into psychology to make the change feel familiar, controlled, and successful. They are the “levers” we pull – each activates a different brain mechanism to propel the change.

Familiar

What are the stakeholders comparing this change to? Can we point to a time when they successfully navigated something similar? If so, let’s talk about how this is similar.

Are employees comparing it to something negative from the past? If so, let’s talk about how this situation is different. Additionally, we might make the change look good by comparison (e.g., what would happen if we didn’t change).

Controlled

Most people don’t like surprises. How can we make the event predictable?

Showing people what is coming, and when, is a must.

The messages may not always be rosy from an individual employee’s perspective, but it’s better to be transparent. In the absence of sound information, people will make up their own stories – and act accordingly.

Address the perception of chaos. Show structure in the approach and future state. People need to see roadmaps and org charts.

Try to find ways to give employees some degree of choice. People love to have choices on big things like position in the new organization or on a project, but even small choices help individuals navigate change. For example, the organization might offer flexible working hours, choice of technology, or options for work location.

Successful

Engineer small wins. A merger can feel overwhelming. Break the change into small, attainable, milestones.

Celebrate!

Feeling successful and celebrating with others makes us feel good and want more. Simple things like successfully navigating a single new process or completing an initial transaction in a different system should be cause for celebration.

Conclusion

M&A is not going away. In fact, many believe that there will be an uptick of M&A activity throughout the rest of 2023. M&A is a classic trigger event for change management. However, the complexities and nuance of M&A situations often call for anything but change management as usual. The stakes are high!

Consider these pitfalls before you redesign or streamline.

When you hear your organization wants to simplify, focus on efficiency, or increase speed, the first thing that undoubtedly comes to mind is process…process…process.

But it’s not always that simple.

Here are three myths to consider before you dive into the deep end of the process pool.

Myth #1: Process negatively impacts culture.

Employees often think that adding processes will dampen their unique culture — especially in small businesses, nonprofits, or creative environments. People think a focus on efficiency will stifle creativity and turn them “corporate cogs” – the exact thing they likely ran from.

But, if done correctly, the opposite is true. When processes exist, employees can spend less time hunting for breadcrumbs of past processes or recreating processes. Efficient processes actually free up time to spend on employees’ areas of expertise and time to innovate and create.

Truth: Processes set you free so the culture can thrive.

Myth #2: Processes are locked in.

Sometimes, we get stuck on a hamster wheel and forget to pause, reflect, and fine-tune our processes. This happens for several reasons:

1. This is how it’s always been done.
2. There is great comfort in the familiar.
3. We have too much on our plates and little time, especially time to spend on updating processes.

But in an era where innovation is king, organizations must constantly stretch, innovate, and grow. This means processes need to adapt and change to reflect the current and future states of the organization.

The amount of time spent on updating processes will easily be less than time spent fumbling through outdated processes.

The idea is to get to the finish line faster, cleaner, and more efficiently.

Set recurring dates to review and update processes. You’ll make molehills out of mountains, fostering an environment that celebrates agility and innovation.

Truth: Processes are never set in stone. Focus constantly on doing better.

Myth #3: A new process always wins.

Here’s the scenario: Work is a slog. There are too many activities all over the place and a general lack of clarity. A well-meaning group of employees attempts to fix it ALL with one 52-step process full of clicks and ticks, dips and dives, and giant U-turns.

While their intentions are admirable, the new process is exhausting and confusing; employees are now spending more time on administrative tasks and less on what matters.

So, what happened? There are a few possibilities:

1. Key people were not at the table. Every team that owns part of the process, and everyone downstream of the process, should be involved. It’s also important to have people who think differently review the process before rolling it out. They might catch something; maybe the process doesn’t reflect the organization’s “customer first” value because it adds unnecessary tasks to the customer experience. Or, they might realize that the “52” in the 52-step process is a red flag – it will crush your people’s souls.
2. The new process starts downstream, not at the source of the problem. If I need to drive my car to the store but the car is out of gas, painting the car red and filling the tires won’t get me to the store. You can try your best to shine your part of a broken system, but it will still be broken if you don’t start where the breakdown begins. If the problem is a lack of clarity and consistency from the top, start there.
3. A formal process wasn’t the right solution. Could it instead be solved with a simple document that provides employees with “if this, then that” steps to guide them through their work? Or is this not really a process issue? Is it a training or engagement problem?

Truth: It’s best to look at the problem from all angles. Take a breath and ensure you’re addressing the right thing, at the right time, with the right people.

Which model is best for your business?

As the field of organizational change management evolves, so do the organizations themselves. More than ever before, our clients are waking up to the current pace of change and the stakes they face. They know they need strong change skills to survive.

In recent years, we’ve been helping organizations build their own internal change management functions. We partner with them to build the skills, methods, and tools they need to drive change from within.

Here’s how we help clients stand up their own change management team.

We encourage our clients to clearly define their Change Management Community of Excellence (CoE) strategy. In other words, how do they plan to operate their change management business? We recommend they select one of these four models.

• Self-service – Business owners become the change management practitioners and use self-service change management tools to execute the work.
• Limited service – Business owners become the change management practitioners with minimal guidance up front. In this approach, the CoE will act as advisors up front and then the business owners will use self-service change management tools to execute the work.
• Co-service – Business owners are in an equal partnership with the CoE to drive changes. In this approach, the CoE is a key member of the project team and will lead and/or support the change effort.
• Full service – The CoE leads the change effort while the business leaders act as sponsors of the work.

Their approach for delivering change management services may evolve over time but we encourage them to think about this early, so they have a starting point.

Based on the model they choose, the organization identifies individuals who will be their new change practitioners. Then we ask our client to select a current project to use as an immersive learning example for the new team.

Next, we conduct training on the basics of change management.

These sessions prepare the new change resources to articulate the need for change management, use fundamental change principles, and employ change methods and tools.

Skill-building happens during various change management working sessions specific to the chosen project. We use the real work of the project to coach the new change practitioners as they use change approaches and tools. The sessions get the team ready to tackle future change projects as they arise. In other words, everything they learn is transferable to their future change initiatives.

Some of the sessions include understanding what methods they already have.

Where we find gaps, we help the team develop methods, tools and templates to add to their toolkit. Other sessions help them to determine who the project’s stakeholders are and how they are impacted. We use other sessions to develop the overarching message for the project. Key Behaviors sessions identify the employee behaviors they need to modify or reinforce to drive the change.

Then, using all the information we gathered from those working sessions, we work with the team to develop stakeholder-specific plans they will execute. These interventions create positive momentum to engage with the change and, hopefully, achieve the project goals. As the team executes the plans, we coach them and get them comfortable in their new roles as change management practitioners.

Finally, we help them use metrics and track the success of their efforts. Seeing new practitioners realize their impact on the organization is rewarding. It’s been a lot of fun helping organizations grow in an area I love.

The recent wave of layoffs is dizzying. One company after another; thousands at time.

What if YOU are one of the thousands? When the dust settles, is there a way to make the most of your transition?

We think so. At Emerson Human Capital, we use brain science to help employees and organizations change. We’ve learned that moments matter. That means people process experiences differently based on whether they are at the beginning, middle, or end of an event. You can use these moments to your advantage.

Ends

If you’re leaving a job, you should know that endings leave a lasting feeling that retroactively colors the entire experience. So be intentional about how you end things.

Ends are a great opportunity to establish meaning.

If you’ve been laid off, you might feel the meaning has been decided for you: you’re unemployed and your efforts weren’t valued. But we urge you to take that power back.

Decide how you want to define this ending for you and your co-workers. What impact do you want to leave? What feelings do you want to have when you look back on this time?

Do the things that will make that happen. Maybe you want to create a transition package for your team, so they’re in good shape after you go. Maybe you decide to write goodbye emails or have lunch with colleagues. Maybe you take a printer out into a field and destroy it with a baseball bat. Note that we are NOT advocating violence against office equipment; the point is that it’s up to you.

Beginnings

First impressions are the bomb. They are like a bomb going off in your brain—it’s receiving a ton of new information and evaluating all of it as fast as it can. Is this situation good or bad? Safe or dangerous? Do I like it or not? First impressions set the tone for a person’s entire relationship with another person, event, or entity.

That goes for you (the new person joining an organization) and your new colleagues and leaders. The start of a new job is a chance to grab people’s brains and turn them into a fans or foes.

First, give yourself a great start.

Begin a new job well-rested and well-dressed. Maybe even treat yourself on your first day—it might sound silly, but these things actually change what happens in our brains. Second, assume good will. Many organizations are just not great at onboarding. If your new work home is one of them, recognize that onboarding is a finite process and doesn’t represent your day-to-day life on the new job. But if your organization is giving you a warm and thoughtful welcome, congrats! Your good first impression of your new company will carry you forward.

Next, give your new co-workers and leaders a great start. They’re unconsciously forming first impressions of you. Everything they notice will have an out-sized effect on their idea of you, at least until they get to know you. Don’t freak out, just be intentional about it. Speak, act, and present your best self.

So, if you’re caught in the craziness of a layoff—after you smash the printer—stop, think, and make it better.

P.S. If you are an expert in behavior change and you were recently laid off, are interested in a new career or know someone who is, take a look at Emerson Human Capital’s careers webpage. We’re hiring!

Great onboarding, like a great party, gets one critical element right.

Remember the last boring, uncomfortable party you attended? Maybe you were invited to a party at which you didn’t really know anyone. You may have left thinking “No one seemed interested in learning about me. I spent the whole evening listening to people I don’t know talk to each other about themselves. And the host didn’t bother to introduce me to anyone.”

In many ways, onboarding is like being invited to a party where you don’t know anyone. Why does this matter? Because first impressions have an outsized impact on a person’s feelings and judgments. Humans are hard-wired to make quick judgments for evolutionary survival reasons and have a very difficult time moving off of those initial assessments, despite plenty of future evidence to the contrary. So if you blow the onboarding, it’s an uphill climb from there.

Arguably the most important outcome of a great onboarding experience is a sense of belonging.

The innate motivation to belong is deeply ingrained in our human biology. As noted by The Mayo Clinic, the sense of belonging is fundamental to the way humankind organizes itself.

At work, the impact of a sense of belonging for employees is significant. According to the Harvard Business Review, high belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days.

So, now that we know how important onboarding and belonging are to business, let’s get back to the party.

If you don’t know anyone at the party, you’re left to navigate on your own, and no one seems particularly interested in you, you might wonder whether you should have showed up at all. Conversely, if someone introduces you to people, you share something about yourself, discover commonalities with those people, you might feel accepted.

Acceptance is essential to belonging. The difference between feeling connected to others and feeling a sense of belonging with others is acceptance. To feel accepted, you have to share your authentic self. Sharing means opening up, and that kind of vulnerability can be a bit tricky to foster in a work environment.

But there’s a solution: build it into the process. Most onboarding is focused on the organization’s “authentic self.” There’s a one-way flow of information to the new employee about company’s identity, including history, values, and norms. But what if we made onboarding a two-way street? Including the individual’s identity creates an exchange of information — an opportunity for acceptance and a growing sense of belonging.

Here are 3 ways to make your onboarding better by promoting a sense of belonging:

1. Proactively introduce the new employee to fellow employees across the organization. The sooner you can eliminate the “stranger” awkwardness – because they don’t know people’s names and roles — the sooner they will feel that sense of belonging. Find creative ways to help new employees to remember names and faces. Of course, there’s an app for that! Check out Pingboard’s Who’s Who game.
2. Self-expression. Design the onboarding to encourage the new employee to express their authentic selves. Ask them questions, inviting them to share. For example, are you presenting company history, core values, and vision? Ask them about their history, core values, and vision for their future. Invite the new employee to share their strengths and how they see themselves succeeding in their new role. And check in with them regularly to ask how they are feeling. Joining a new company can be an emotional rollercoaster; having someone acknowledge this and want to know how you are doing sends a very strong signal of acceptance.
3. Find a way to explore the new employee’s personal background, hobbies, and passions. Then connect them to fellow employees who share similar interests. Create a “buddy” system that pairs a new employee with a veteran that has a few things in common. And make sure your buddy system has real impact: build frequent interactions between the buddies into the process over the first 90 days.

Effective onboarding, like the best parties, creates a sense of belonging. Happy hosting!

For more thoughts on onboarding, check out 4 Secret Thoughts of New Hires – Emerson Human Capital (emersonhc.com)

Use In-House Experts to Expand Your Team’s Reach

Every change effort is difficult. Additional resources can make all the difference in the world. But who are these “additional” resources?

They go by many names: Business Readiness Reps, Business Transition Reps, Early Adopters, or Change Champions. Most often, they are called Change Agents.

Change Agent /CHānj/ājənt/

noun

1. hand-picked individuals from all areas of the business who act as liaisons between the business and the change effort
2. resources who are coached to support employees in their part of the business through the change
3. teammates who help communicate the business’ vision for the change
4. people who highlight benefits and impacts of the change
5. seekers of feedback from their colleagues and active listeners when in conversations about the change
6. ambassadors who answer some questions and concerns from their areas of the business, given content and coaching
7. liaisons who circle back to the project team to share those questions and concerns, get answers and share with their teams
8. role models for the change

Obviously, Change Agents can’t do it all on their own. So, how does the project team create a strong Change Agent Network?

• Identify early adopters. Everyone reacts to change differently. At Emerson, we often begin with a working session to place people and teams on a continuum based on their natural tendencies around change. This allows us to identify “Innovators” and “Early Adopters.” If we can enlist those folks to our effort, they will help make the change feel safe to others, which accelerates adoption across the board.
• Recruit those Innovators/Early Adopters and other employees willing to embrace the business’ vision for the change and show a commitment to the goals of the change.
  • They should have credibility with their peer community.

It’s important for change agents to have (or develop) excellent communication and listening skills. Coaching and facilitation skills are helpful as well.

• Facilitate a kick-off and training event (or events) to prepare the Change Agents for their role. During that initial meeting, provide project schedules, communications (briefs, bullets, key messages, etc.), coaching (on delivering communications and responding to questions), and support (their key contacts and answers to their immediate questions
• Deploy Change Agents with a schedule, plans, tools, content, and one-on-one support. Track the milestones your Change Agents are responsible for. Someone on the project team should maintain oversight of the Change Agent Network, to make sure it’s working.
• Stay in touch. Conduct regular check-ins to collect feedback, share new assets, and offer additional coaching and support. Keep in mind, this is NOT a full-time commitment. Typically Change Agents devote 1-2 hours per week to fulfil their role. So make sure your Change Agents are comfortable with their level of effort.
• Make sure it benefits them. The best Change Agent Networks are a win-win-win situation. The project team gets critical information and help, the organization gets better outcomes, and the Change Agents get development, opportunity, and rewards. So don’t forget about that third part. The agents should gain skills, influence, access to leadership, and a few kudos along the way. Make sure to recognize their critical contributions in both tangible and intangible ways. Hint: public recognition and treats are a dynamite combination.

An Emerson Case Study on Change Agents

One of the auto industry’s biggest tech providers was facing a huge change. After it spun off from its parent company, major functions like Finance needed to operate independently. At the same time, they took aim at some impressive profitability targets. And that was just the start.

There were many more waves of change scheduled to hit the same group of employees. To accomplish its vision, leadership realized they needed a consistent approach to change. They asked Emerson for help.

We quickly performed triage on their change portfolio of 230+ projects and then organized key stakeholders to develop an approach and a model for their new Change Center of Excellence (CoE). We guided the team to identify high-priority behaviors and build robust messaging. Key leaders, armed with a consistent story, deployed the new CoE. We then built a change toolkit for their new change agents.

The first test of the model: the change team applied its new approach and tools to their Oracle CPQ implementation.

If you were to ask a friend or family member how they’re feeling right now, their answer might be, “stressed,” “burnt out,” or “overwhelmed”. That’s what vacation is for, right? Well, two to four weeks of PTO is not enough to relieve the burnout employees are facing.

Just look at the numbers. Employees who say they very often or always experience burnout at work are:

• 63% more likely to take a sick day.
• 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.
• 6 times more likely to be actively seeking a different job.⁴

Clearly, that stress is outpacing PTO’s ability to deal with it. Leaders often recognize this, but don’t know what to do about it.

Burnout Is a Business Problem

According to Webster’s dictionary, burnout is, “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress.”¹ The primary driver is occupational stress, but it’s not that simple. Other factors often contribute to burnout, including unrealistic work expectations, health issues, family caregiving responsibilities, and the uncertainty of environmental and societal change.

Over time, our “energy bank” that started with a healthy balance becomes overdrawn. We might experience physical and emotional effects like fatigue, attention problems, irritability, anxiety, and depression.

In this state, we can’t show up for work as our best selves.

We become pessimistic, defensive, apathetic, disengaged, and isolated. In fact, the norms of many workplaces keep us from being nipping burnout in the bud by speaking up and seeking help. Stressed employees are simply not strong enough to deliver on organizational goals.

What Leaders Can Do

1. Lead. Take an active role in preventing and addressing burnout. Feeling seen and supported by leadership goes a long way. ​
2. Streamline. Help employees work smarter, not harder. Promote reasonable workload management, through teaming, delegation, and flexible goals and metrics.
3. Empower. Set clear goals and expectations in collaboration with individual employees. Make sure work expectations consider the risk of burnout. Use an ongoing development process that acknowledges the need to avoid burnout.
4. Nurture. Prioritize holistic well-being​. Recognize that employees with full, healthy lives perform better. Promoting health and happiness is a great investment in your workforce.

The play is proactive reduction of stress. The goal is a culture of balance that supports sustainably strong performance.

References:

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burnout
2. https://positivepsychology.com/burnout/
3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/burnout
4. Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures (gallup.com)

What your road trip can teach you about project success.

I recently returned from vacation. My family and I joined many of our fellow Texans in the annual summer escape from the heat and ventured to the mountains of Colorado. Sure, we could have flown, but we decided to take to the road and enjoy the freedom that comes from being in control of the journey. As we drove, the experience started to remind me of a project.

Road Trip

Day 1

The trip started out early on a Sunday morning. We were full of energy. The SUV was packed, YETIs were filled with coffee, snacks were at the ready, and teenage sons had their phones fully charged. Things were great, until they weren’t. After five hours of driving, with five more to go, my back started to hurt. My teenagers were bickering like eight-year-olds, and everyone was starving. I even heard a few “how much longer?” comments. I started having doubts…was driving the right decision? Images of the Griswold family flashed through my head.

Family photo op at the halfway point (Texas panhandle).

Fast-forward another five hours: after stops for lunch, fuel, and restroom breaks we approached our day-one Texas Panhandle destination. We made it! As we approached the highway hotel and the end of the day’s journey, I felt new energy. Sure, we weren’t in Colorado yet, our stopping point was far from glamorous, and there was more driving the next day, but we all felt a sense of accomplishment.

Day 2

We hit the road after a quick, mediocre, breakfast buffet at the hotel. The good news: the day 2 trek was only six hours; the bad news: the day 2 trek was six hours. Coming off a below-average night’s sleep in a crowded double queen room filled with road noise, I felt less than spectacular. Why did we do this again?

Fast forward…Traci (my wife) offered to do much of the driving, and I dozed off while listening to music. We made it to our high-elevation destination by mid-afternoon. The mountains were spectacular, the condo was spacious with a great view, and we were walking distance from everything we needed. After a nice walk, a couple drinks, and a casual dinner with the family, all was well. It was worth it! We did it! We were ready to enjoy a week in the mountains. We even felt confident about the drive home at the end of the week.

Projects

The incredible Rocky Mountain views.

What the heck does a road trip have to do with a project? Surprisingly, they elicit similar thoughts and reactions. Think about it. How do you feel at the beginning of a project? What about the middle? How does it feel when you hit a milestone or — even better — complete the project?

Project Beginnings

Most people are highly motivated at the beginning of a project. Sure, there is some nervous energy, but there is energy…natural energy! Leaders and team members are eager to get started and ready to take on whatever comes their way. Project leaders may even organize a kickoff event, complete with team dinner or celebration, to mark the occasion.

Change management practitioners should capitalize on the project beginning and design interventions that create even more “buzz.”

It’s a great time to seek out and engage the Innovators and Early Adopters in the organization. These people will be on board with the change and will build support from within the organization.

Project Middles

The middle is a slog. Middles are the time when people think, “Why did I sign up for this?” Project Managers and Change Managers must engineer wins to keep the team going. Maybe the project is organized in sprints. Sprints create natural milestones that team members rally around. Even better, they are often followed by “sprint retrospective” meetings to discuss what went well and what could be done better in the next sprint. Retrospectives give team members an opportunity to be heard and play a role in what happens next. This is essential to engagement, because people crave a sense of control.

Change Managers work with project managers to identify and create interim goals. We want team members to think “I was successful, and I can be successful again.” Interim goals feel more attainable than project completion. Team members are motivated when milestones or goals are met. They feel a boost.

Organizations should reward people when goals and milestones are met.

For example,  “down days” (no meetings allowed), offsite events where the team completes a non-work activity together (e.g., a community service project), or spotlight awards – nominees are acknowledged and thanked by leadership and nominators are entered into a raffle for a prize.

Project Ends

Just as sprinters run a little faster at the end of the race, team members are motivated to push a little harder at the end. Natural energy abounds. Team members begin to evaluate the experience as a whole. Ends create a great opportunity to motivate through connection and impact. Are there photos of teamwork, quotes from stakeholders, events for sharing stories, or music that sums up the experience? Use them. Change and Project Managers must capitalize on desire to finish strong.

Conclusion

The element of time is powerful. Daniel Pink writes about this in his book, When. There are times when energy and motivation come naturally and times when they don’t. Change practitioners must intentionally capitalize on times of high performance and shore up points of lower performance. And travelers should plan their road trips accordingly.

Culture Impacts Change Adoption

Change is hard for all of us, no matter where we sit in the world. However, when a change project spans geographies and their cultures, we must adapt our approach. Too often, global organizations disregard cross cultural nuances and fail to understand that the perception of change, organizational or otherwise, is not consistent across the world. They gloss over cultural norms and value systems and the initiative suffers.

Here are a few cultural factors that might impact your change projects and some recommendations on adjusting your approach.

Sharing Authority

Cultures share power differently. Some place all authority and decision-making at the top of the organization, while others distribute the power more evenly.

For example, I was working with an executive of a state-owned enterprise in China. They were launching a new ERP system to almost a million employees.  We were discussing the best project management and governance approach. The executive said, “I don’t need any of that. I just tell people what to do and they do it.”

Cultures share power differently.

As it turns out, that wasn’t just the view of the executive, it was the view of the entire organization. Nothing got done unless and until he said it got done. This didn’t mean that workers had no point of view or that they didn’t want to be consulted. It only meant that no action would be taken unless it came from the top.

Think about how this might impact the way we engage employees during a change project. In this instance, top-down is everything, so we might consider videos or other communications featuring executives. Regional alignment is still needed, but it’s less important than in cultures where authority is distributed more evenly.

Aversion to Risk

We all are risk-averse. After all, who likes uncertainty? It’s really the trade-off between risk and reward that matters.

Some cultures are more entrepreneurial by nature and are more willing to take risks if they believe the benefits will follow. That same spirit permeates the workplace; employees are more willing to change if they buy into the benefits. Messaging benefits is always important, but more so within risk-tolerant cultures.

In cultures where employees are less willing to give up certainty for future benefits, you might take a different tack. Here it’s important to create a new certainty – to make the point that the current state is not sustainable and that future stability relies on the change.

Some cultures are more entrepreneurial by nature and are more willing to take risks if they believe the benefits will follow.

Additionally, these cultures want to see more structure around the change. It must be highly engineered and deliver proof of a new order.

Collective Mindset

A few years back I was working on a project in the Philippines with a local businesswoman. She had a very successful consulting company and wanted help with her sales processes. After digging in, I was surprised to find out how many of her engagements were collaborations with her direct competitors. Not partnerships, but true collaborations where resources were traded back and forth and co-managed for the benefit of the client. Neither firm took advantage of the other, nor did they undermine the other’s position in the engagement. It was amazing to watch.

Cultures with a collective mindset value the contributions of the group over the individual. The opposite is true of individualistic cultures; in these cultures, a team-based recognition and reward structure might actually be demotivating and create conflict and distrust. It is critical to understand the collective vs. individualist mindset during the change process, particularly when we think about alignment and messaging.

Cultures with a collective mindset value the contributions of the group over the individual.

In the United States, we have a more individualist approach and build our change interactions accordingly. We don’t tend to spend a lot of time and effort positioning the change’s value to the firm and to society in general. It’s about the WIIFM, and making sure individuals view the change as a positive step for themselves and their careers. In Sweden, however, this approach might feel unsettling or even shallow.

It’s important to understand what motivates people to change and those motivations might be completely different in a multi-culture change initiative.

Our culture impacts the way we view change and consequently how we should approach change management in multi-cultural implementations. In the end, change management is about changing behaviors. If we believe that behavior follows thought, then we first need to understand how cultural norms and values influence the way the organization thinks. In multi-cultural change initiatives, our interactions should motivate and support each culture according to its own set of values.