Here is Part 2 from my guest blogger Elizabeth Gibson. Elizabeth is a prolific writer, speaker and business psychologist, who uses her behavioral sciences acumen to help individuals and organizations transform for bottom-line business results. She uses the framework she describes below with her business clients and for large scale organizational change, such as the one she describes in “Big Change at Best Buy,” by Elizabeth and her co-author, Andy Billings.
Head: Why should I change?
The challenge of the Head arena is that you must truly understand the reasons for change and its benefits to you. The way you think about the world has a fundamental effect on your readiness for change. At one time, people believed the earth was flat and would not sail too far from land to avoid falling off “the edge of the world.” When Columbus and his astronomers shifted their thinking to the “world is round” they became ready to sail around the globe to new worlds. Ditto for Queen Isabella’s shift in mindset as she decided to fund the expedition. Listed below are some ways of changing how you think about the change:
• Be willing to look at things from a different point-of-view than you have in the past. Talking it over with someone who is well-informed and objective can really help.
• Educate yourself with facts and information, and be willing to shift your mind-set.
• Pinpoint what needs to change and why.
• Think through compelling examples of what the change could mean for you —positives about the future and concerns about failing to change.
• Forget about telling yourself just “to change” —it doesn’t work.
Heart: What’s in it for me? What do I stand to lose? To gain?
The Heart is the motivational and emotional arena. Here live feelings. Nothing changes without emotion being involved. How do you feel about the change that you’ve identified in your Heads? What is your sense of readiness and your confidence in your capability for learning the new behaviors that will be needed? “Where do I fit in? Where am I headed? What do I have to contribute? What’s in it for me? What do I have to give up? Do I want to be part of this?” But above all, ask yourself the following questions and answer them honestly:
- Why is this important?
- What’s in it for me?
- Can I be successful?
Hands: What do I do differently? How do I learn to do it?
The Hands is the behavioral-operational arena and it is about acquiring the specific skills and capabilities to start, stop, do more of, or do less of some action, some behavior. You might think of this as, “Well, … what do I actually do differently on Monday?” What are the new skills and practices that I must apply on the floors of the store? You know that you are in the Hands arena when you ask yourself questions such as, “What do I do differently? How do I do it? How am I doing?” Some of the things you can do to successfully meet the challenges of the Hands are listed below:
• Create detailed “maps” or descriptions of the new behaviors.
• Develop someway of getting yourself intensive feedback; keeping track of/ measuring your changing to show your progress.
• Reward new, emerging behavior patterns in you.
• Align all the consequences you can to systematically reinforce your new behaviors.
• Unlearn/extinguish old incompatible forms of behavior.
And never forget, all change requires energy and time. Without adjustments in the way you think, feel, and act, nothing really changes. Also, remember that changes don’t happen all at once. As you successfully change you will pass through three, consistent stages:
- Make it Clear: Coming to grips with the need or desire to change
- Make it Real: Working it through
- Make it stick: Maintaining momentum
