Ask an expert: Improving Success with Change
I have found that intentional, facilitated conversations and the one-on-one approach makes a difference in improving success with change. Do you have thoughts about the balance between the two?
Developing change capacity is benefitted from intentional, facilitated group conversations as well as one-on-one conversations. For example, senior leaders can spearhead meetings which may have question and answer segments. That can be supported by middle managers hosting more informal conversations with their teams and followed-up by checkpoints in one-on-one chats as needed.
Intentional, facilitated group conversations allow individuals to hear from their colleagues and learn their perspectives and improves stakeholder engagement. Exposure to different perspectives can be healthy when facilitated because it teaches people to recognize how people hear and react to things differently. The danger is when you have an overly negative individual who dominates the conversation and sways others. The intentional part of the group conversation means the facilitator needs to be prepared and equipped to mitigate negativity or a conversation-dominating individual. If that happens, it is the perfect opportunity for a series of one-on-one conversations to hear how each individual is feeling.
Our recommendation is always a balanced and multi-tiered change management approach. According to Prosci® research, it takes, on average, five to seven times of hearing a message for it to resonate. Bottom line, more communication, and in multiple forums, is always better.
Carrie King is a director of Avaap’s change management practice and a Prosci® Certified Advanced Instructor. She is detail-oriented and has more than 20+ years of experience in change management, project management, communications, and learning and development. Connect with Carrie to learn how change management is key to success.
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