Good ideas are not accepted easily
Have you tried getting superb ideas accepted in your company just to see matters dying on you? People nodded their heads, agreed and did very little or nothing afterwards.
ABPLAN urges you to closely heed the principles of managing change aimed at gaining the support of your team members and minimizing anxiety.
The role of emotions
Did you know that emotions play the dominant role, and not logic, in accepting change? Much has been published on the topic of managing change by Harvard University academics and others. We find John Kotter's approach and that of his co-author Dan Cohen, particularly useful. We urge our clients to heed and use the eight-step approach in launching our combined projects. In fact, use it when launching any major project.
People only accept change readily if new ideas appeal to their emotions. The authors use the formula (and we quote liberally):
See-feel-change
1. Help people see
Create compelling, eye-catching, dramatic situations to help others visualize problems, solutions or progress in solving complacency, strategy, empowerment, or other key problems.
2. Seeing something hits the emotions
Visualization provides useful ideas that hit people at a deeper level than surface thinking. Visualization evokes a visceral response that reduces emotions that block change and enhances those emotions that support it.
3. Emotionally-charged ideas change behaviour or reinforce changed behaviour
Have you not experienced this yourself? When you are exited about new possibilities are you not eager to get going?
Analysis-think-change
Rarely does change come about through a sequences of events starting with analysis.
The usual less-effective pattern is:
1. Give people analysis
Information is gathered and analysed, reports are written, and presentations are made about problems, solutions, or progress in solving urgent problems, teamwork, communication, or slippage in momentum.
As a result:
2. Data and analysis influence how we think
The information and analysis change people's thinking. Ideas inconsistent with the needed change are dropped or modified.
3. New thoughts change behaviour or reinforce changed behaviour
While analysis and thinking is important, by itself it will not achieve much. If an issue is important, think deeply about presenting your ideas in a dramatic way that touches emotions.
Kotter and Cohen observe that a "good analysis rarely motivates people in a big way. It changes thought, but how often does it send people running out of the door to act in significantly new ways? And motivation is not a thinking word; it's a feeling word."
The first three steps
In introducing change, first create a sense of urgency; create a change coalition and then a clear vision of what has to be achieved. There are five more steps. ABPLAN has taken some of its clients through the eight-step managing change process.
This approach is relevant whenever a major change is contemplated as would be the case when changing a company's culture is contemplated.
I suggest you next go to what we offer for an overview of the services that we offer.
Please go to for details about "The Heart of Change" by John P Kotter and Dan S Cohen, and "The Heart of Change Field Guide" by Dan S. Cohen, a consultant with Deloitte Consulting. Both publications really are required reading.
Last modified: 09-03-2010
Client Quote
“Our business went through a crucial time.
ABPLAN has unfailingly provided crucial insights into our way forward. Their strategic guidance in the choices we have had to make to ensure our survival in a very competitive industry have been truly well-considered and well-informed. This guidance has helped to position us accurately and to make the right decisions at the right moments. Consequently we have become very viable, cost-effective and competitive.
Albert van Niekerk has always been ready to come to my assistance, even at short notice.”
André Walters, COO - Enviroworld