Do you want to change something in your organization? Then it is extremely important that employees feel heard and are involved in finding solutions. Because only then will there be movement. In practice, we see that plans are often devised by a select group and then presented to the team to implement. The result: resistance, uncertainty and (even more) complexity. How do you avoid falling into this classic trap? We give you four recommendations.

‍

#1 Start a dialogue

How often do you make a decision without pre-testing how your team thinks about this? Probably more often than you think. An organization is a group of people who have to move in a certain direction. But: people will only move if you really listen to them and feel that they are being heard. You only achieve commitment when employees see what they have contributed or have heard with a compelling reason why their solution or idea was not chosen. Only then is there room for change.

So seek dialogue, be curious about what's going on in the team. Otherwise, a plan is a beautiful slogan on a piece of paper but changes little. So creating support actually starts before you know Wherefore creates support. Because while creating support, you come up with the solution together.

‍

#2 Be aware of the situation

It depends on the context how you create support and how you communicate. Roughly speaking, we see two situations that require change: the positive change and the necessary change.

“Our organization is doing great, we are growing and it is only getting better.”

”Things are not going so well. We need to look for alternative solutions to the problem and a new way of organizing our organization.”

Good news, such as the expansion of a team, a new office building, a growth strategy or simply a team outing, is easier to communicate than a reorganization. In the second situation, (impactful) decisions must be made. That hurts sometimes. Especially then, it is important to communicate clearly. Don't beat around the bush. People need clarity, especially when it comes to uncertainty. We sometimes see that choices are not communicated well enough, that explanations are missing and everything remains a bit vague.

‍

#3 Use the right communication tool

You can inform your team in various ways. Depending on the context, it is therefore good to consider in advance which means of communication you use to create support. No idea is too crazy for our advisors: one-on-one conversations, meetings, newsletters, sometimes even a video or an animation.

One-to-one communication, where you sit together, take your time and look into each other's eyes, works best. Then you create space and attention to get to know and understand each other. Sometimes, from a practical point of view, this is not feasible. We prefer to interview all employees, but with large numbers of employees, this will be a challenge. We often solve this by organizing walk-in sessions. When it comes to decision-making, it helps to know who has what role and which employees are in the decision maker's seat.

‍

#4 Repeat

Just because you and your team are very concerned with the reason for the change and what needs to change, that doesn't mean that the employees are too. Therefore, take the time to repeat. That may feel crazy, but it pays off twice. Tell the story a few times. This gives employees time to think about it again and then ask questions they hadn't thought of before. Have patience and understanding.

And one more thing: also be open to the employees making useful suggestions. After all, they do the work. And yes, this takes time, but it saves enormous time in implementation.

‍

Can we help you?

We create movement, make something complex understandable, something big manageable, a (vague) idea concrete and make something difficult succeed. Can you use help with this? Take contact with us.

‍