Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Video Clip: Click to Watch

Some organizations go from project to project doing exactly the same things they did the time before – and the time before that. That would be OK if every change exceeded expectations and came in on time and under budget. But, the truth is, most organizational changes fail.

Rick Maurer, author of Beyond the Wall of Resistance (Bard Press 2010), says, "Here's the rub. I've asked leaders, managers, and staff why some major project suffered big setbacks, went off the trails, or just outright failed. Quite often, they knew the answer. And when I asked, 'What could you have done?' they knew exactly what they should have done."

If leaders know what they should have done, why aren't they using that knowledge?

Maurer says, "They are afraid to talk about what went wrong. Fear is killing them."

He lists a number of reasons:

+ fear of losing face

+ fear losing their jobs

+ fear they will hurt somebody else's feelings,

+ fear of retribution for telling the truth.

Maurer knows that it is hard to overcome fear, "so don't try! But go ahead in ways that make it safe for everyone – including you – to speak candidly."

How Can We Find Out What Went Wrong?

He suggests three big things:

+ Make sure everyone knows that the sole purpose of this evaluation is to help your organization lead change more effectively in the future.

+ Make it absolutely clear that this will not a performance review.

+ Create a structure that will make it easy for people to speak and for you, the leader, to hear them.

Rick Maurer says, "I prefer face-to-face meetings combined with simple informal surveys. I ask four questions in the survey and in the meeting:

1. What worked?

2. What didn't?

3. What would you do differently next time?

4. Anything else that you would add?

See links to access video, article and assessment tool on this topic.