Change In Progress

Losing Weight with the Help of a Little Change Management Theory!

 

I was sitting in my cube at work, typing away acommunication when the unthinkable happened.

A roll of my fat went over my pants.  Yes, you heard it correctly.  I looked down to see the sad scene below.  I started having an internal freak out and then decided to do the next best thing.  I went to the Google machine.  I quickly found many different types of “diets” I could put myself on.  They all had promises of speeding up my metabolism, re-teaching my body to crave healthy foods, and of course WEIGHT and FAT loss. 

I poured over any literature I could find so I could sign up for the best fad diet plan.  I know this all may seem senseless.  And of course I’m logical enough to know that most of these diets wouldn’t work because for it to work, I really had to CHANGE as a person. My mentality and my lifestyle would need to adjust.  My boyfriend consistently tells me how odd it is that I’m a Change Management consultant yet I hate change.  You know what they say…those who can’t do, teach!

For weeks on end I told my co-worker Erin about my weight dilemma.  She rolled her eyes at me saying I didn’t need to lose weight, but if I was going to try anything, I should try the 17 Day Diet.  She said she went through the program and lost all her pregnancy weight. 

So this is a quick summary of how the program works:

• There are three cycles of 17 days.  The first cycle is the hardest because you are eliminating all carbohydrates and meats.  This will help you kick start your metabolism and get rid of any sugar in your body. But you can have unlimited amounts of fish, turkey, chicken and vegetables.  You cannot eat any beans, nuts or corn.  You are also allowed to have a couple tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. 
• You can and should have two servings of Greek yogurt.
• Drink lots of water and drink green tea after each meal.
• Exercise 30 minutes a day.
• I cannot tell you about cycle 2 and cycle 3, because I only concentrated on cycle 1.  The other cycles let you introduce legumes, nuts and meats to your diet.  

For this diet to work, I knew I had to apply some Change Management methodology to it.  Here is what it looked like in my mind.

Awareness

This is the stage in Change Management we share the vision and the scope of change with our stakeholders and audience.  We talk about the benefits, the impacts and timelines.  Applied to 17 Day Diet, this is what it looked like.

• My vision was to lose 10 pounds and get my stomach back to being flat again.
• I had 17 days to lose the weight.
• The benefit was to have an improved self-image, stop annoying my friends on Gchat regarding how awful I feel, healthier body, better eating habits.
• Potential impacts were that I would not be able to go out to restaurants and eat with my friends.  So less social activity since most of my friends considering dinning out our favorite pass time.  And oh yea, no booze also made Saturday nights at the bar very FUN!


Understanding

This is the second stage of change.  This is where in the corporate world we explain the new job role changes and the benefits of the change. We also tell our audience scenarios of what their job/role would look like once we push out the change.  Applied to the 17 Day Diet, this is what this is what the understanding stage looked like to me:

• I already understood the benefits of the change
• My friend Erin was my real life day in the life of scenario. Since we lunched every day, I saw what she ate. And she also liked telling me about her dinners, which were usually the same: Salad with chicken.  She’s not a cook, so I vowed to myself that I would spice up this diet somehow.


Acceptance

This is the third stage of change where we tell the audience what they have to start doing and what they need to stop doing.  Of course, there are some habits that are allowed to continue from the old way of doing it to the new way.  Applied to the 17 Day Diet, this is what the acceptance stage looked like for me:

• I have to STOP drinking alcohol
• I have to STOP eating charbs…my favorite food group….so long pasta, it was great tasting you
• I have to STOP eating red meat….sniff, sniff…but seriously, red meat is terrible for you anyway
• I have to START eating breakfast….a meal I tend to skip Monday-Friday and make up for it by brunching with my girlfriends on the weekends. Oh, geez….no more weekend brunches!
• I have to START exercising.  Luckily, my boyfriend signed up for a gym membership with me and committed to whipping my ass into shape.  Somehow working out wasn’t so boring when I had his arms to stare at! Haha.
• I have to START eating a lot of vegetables, lean chicken and turkey
• I have to CONTINUE being a mildly sane person and not freak out


Adoption

Some call this stage adoption, commitment, sustainment.  Pretty much this is the last stage of change where the new behavior becomes of your routine and you can’t imagine how you lived with the old way.  This is the hardest stage. If you can get to this stage, then the change will stick. This is the stage where we share and celebrate milestones and wins, share tips and tricks, etc.  Apply it to the 17 Day Diet, this is what it looked like:

• I was fortunate enough to have two female co-workers go through the 17 Day Diet with me.  We shared number of pounds we lost, the meals we cooked, our frustrations, our cravings…everything.  I felt so supported by these women that I didn’t want to cheat, because I would be cheating them.  We also had lunch every day, and it just kept me motivated through the whole process.  I even made the three of us a crazy pot of chili with the restrictions of the diet….it was DAMN good!

So for any diet to work, you gotta get in your head.  You have to find people who will support you and people who are going through the change with you.  I’m not sure if I could have done the 17 Day Diet without my co-workers. 

Results!

I did lose 10 pounds in 17 days, my abs went back to flat, and the insecure body image thoughts left my mind.  Also, I bonded and strengthened my friendship with my co-workers.  Today, I incorporate the elements of the 17 Day Diet but do not follow it as religiously. I tell anyone and everyone I know who is trying to lose weight about this diet.  Give it a whirl!

Change Management and SharePoint Implementations

There is currently a hot, sexy tool in technology all companies seem to want to implement. And that is…drum roll please…SharePoint!

SharePoint is a Microsoft tool which can build both intranet (internal employee sites) and internet (public) sites for companies. Honestly, I don’t know how we did our jobs before SharePoint was born.  Yes I do...inefficiently.  As you can tell, I’m a HUGE fan of SharePoint.

In my Change Management career, I have helped several companies implement SharePoint. Although SharePoint is a great technology, the implementation is simply going to fail unless the employees understand what it is, how it’s going to better their work lives, and support the change.  Change Management is crucial to a successful SharePoint implementation. Why, you wonder? It’s because with SharePoint, you are asking employees to do their job differently, to change their behavior. And any time you are asking employees to do things different, you need to incorporate Change Management activities help guide them through the change so that it can become a part of their every day process.

From the SharePoint projects I have been involved in, here are some Change activities I think are crucial.

Change management strategy and roadmap: This can be created for a SharePoint implementation to identify the communications and change activities needed to ensure stakeholder readiness and support.  The strategy also identifies governance, adoption plans, communications and training plans, and leadership and organizational alignment, and an understanding of the client’s culture. Change resources can also ensure that the project is aligned closely with the overall business strategy/goals of the organization.

Create a sense of urgency:  In order for SharePoint to succeed, the whole company really needs to want it. No, not just the IT department, the WHOLE company!  If there is a company-wide urgency, it will be easier to move the project along.  A lot of the activities involved in creating urgency are having candid conversations….especially coming from leadership. The more people talk about it; the better. And this needs to start happening in the very beginning of the project. A key activity I usually conduct when the project kicks off is a stakeholder analysis. This is when I help identify which influential individual/or group either support and do not support the project.  I then build a communications plan keeping this information in mind. It is crucial to understand who the non-supporters are and help move them to being supporters. However, these non-supporters are never going to become your die hard enthusiastic fans. But with the right communications and change activities, you can help them become supporters.  Also, keep in mind it’s just as important to have solid communications and change activities to ensure the supporters stay supporters throughout your project.  If you neglect your supporters, they can soon become non-supporters.   

Gaining Support for the Project: This is hard to do unless you have strong, visible leadership championing the change.  I usually form a Change Network with the identified leaders to work together to champion and communicate about the change. By the way, it’s usually good to put a couple of naysayers into the Change Network.  Usually, the naysayers will end up becoming supporters when they are involved in the process. One thing to keep in mind though, your Change Network should have a good mix of people from leadership, to directors, to managers, to front line workers.  When choosing members for your Change Network, make sure you pick influential people who are able and willing to communicate about the SharePoint project.

Tie it back to the overall business goals: For the SharePoint implementation to really stick, you must tie it back to the company’s overall business goals. If the SharePoint implementation somehow doesn’t line up to that, it’s going to be difficult to find support for the project. In order to do this well, SharePoint projects need to have a solid vision which needs to be communicated well.

Communicate, communicate, communicate: Most of my clients always want to wait until it’s too late to communicate….usually they start communicating right when deployment begins, but this is too late.  Awareness messaging needs to be sent out months and months before deployment occurs.  And usually, employees avoid reading all communications, so you really need to communicate the same message ten different ways. Whether it’s by including it in e-mail communications, in a newsletter, a Town Hall, Leadership presentations, etc. We should be talking about SharePoint every chance we get.

A lot of people also have trouble describing what SharePoint is.  I like using this short video to easily show end-users what SharePoint can do for them. 

Walk the talk: Leadership support is key, and they usually do a great job communicating about SharePoint. But, they need to go a step further and SHOW the employees by actually using SharePoint as a vehicle in their communications.

Customized training:  When implementing SharePoint, most companies use the out of box training provided by Microsoft or other vendors. In my opinion, this training is great for end-users, but I rarely see it work for Site Administrators and Site Owners.  I think for the later group, developing a customized training is key.  One of my previous clients  initially wanted to use out of box training, however, it just didn’t work with their Site Owners…they were too confused.  So I ended up creating a 7 week training program called Jump Start that all Site Owners and Site Administrators were required to go through in order to publish their site. The program taught them literally how to build their site from scratch. It went over publishing features and customizations we had made to the client’s SharePoint environment. In addition, I also had weekly Office Hours where Site Owners could come and ask questions or simply sit in the room and work on their site.  This program worked really well. It energized the Site Owners and they soon became champions for the project.  

Engage Change resources early: Most clients automatically assume Change Management is just communications and training, but it’s so much more than that. Engaging the Change resources from the planning stage is key. Having Change resources on the project can bridge the gap between the functional and the technical team and ensure that a system that meets the needs of all audiences are built. This leads to better requirements gathering and a better end-product for the client. Change resources can also help implement, integrate and institutionalize the SharePoint initiative by minimizing business disruption.

 

How Organizations Sustain Culture

Ever wonder how an organization retains its culture even though key employees come and go over the years? Even though there is constant change to the organization?  Glenn Carroll and J. Richard Harrison, authors of Culture and Demography in Organizations have come up with a mathematical model to illustrate how culture is transmitted in a social aggregate.  They believe that organization culture is really static. Their model is based on three components: hiring, socialization and turnover.

In the ever changing business world it is hard for an organization to have a specific culture.  Afterall an organization is made up of employees who have different backgrounds, languages, cultures, norms, beliefs and mindsets.  All of these differences have to somehow mend together to make up the culture of a specific organization- a tough task.

The authors do not recommend establishing a clearly defined culture within a company.  What is key however is to have an alignment between cultural content and set management preferences.  They suggest incorporating cultural selectivity into the recruitment efforts and increasing social efforts. They also suggest letting go of employees who do not conform to the corporate culture- a theory which sounds pretty harsh.  But the goal is to have a homogeneous and aligned culture which has employees who can self manage themselves. It is their belief that once employees have internalized the practices management wants they can work with minimal supervision.

How does organizations get the benefits of this model?  They need to develop methods to measure the job candidates cultural compatibility. Based on their research it seems that organizations who have strong corporate cultures are very selective in their recruitment efforts.  Candidates are usually interviewed by five or more executives.

The most interesting part of the research is when Carroll and Harrison apply their model to defeating terror organizations.  American Department of Defense officials called the researchers for their expertise. A terrorist group survives by having a solid culture.  Understanding how these groups sustain their culture led the researchers to come up with a model to erode the groups. The common belief is that if you kill the leader of a terrorist group-,the group will also die.  According to the researchers that theory is flawed.  Killing the leader has no impact on the strength of the group.  What works is increasingly neutralizing terrorist cell members over a long period of time.  This weakens the group.  Also, the researchers state delaying the admission of a new member is a good way of destabilizing the organization.

Corporate America's Ladder Can Be Climbed In Heels

 

“You are a strong girl – the world needs to hear your roar!”

 

This statement was said to me time and time again throughout my high school years.  I went to an all girl college preparatory high school.  Feminism motto and theory ran through our halls and was instilled in each and every one of the students. The experience of the all girl high school really moved me and shaped me into a strong young woman.  I truly believed that women could really have it all.  I believed that women were at least as smart as men- if not smarter.

In high school I learned to be smart, tough and opinionated. I learned to fight for what I wanted and what I believed.  I learned that if you worked hard you should ask for what is appropriate.  I had strong male and female teachers who encouraged me and constantly pushed me.  I had many mentors and advisors I could access each and every single day. But above all, I was in an environment with 500 girls who had the same beliefs and the desire to achieve.

 Today I work as a consultant- a field which is mostly dominated by men.  A field where there are very few female Vice Presidents or Practice Area Leaders. There are days I just feel that I don’t have a mentor- a strong high powered woman encouraging me to follow up the ranks as she had and showing me the ropes. 

 So what happened to that strong 18 year old young woman who graduated knowing she would conquer the world?  What changes for most girls from the time they leave academics and move on to the working world? I believe the change is similar for most women.  In the academia women excel and perform far better than our male counterparts. We are overly involved from newspaper, to student government to volunteer activities.  We do all this and maintain a high GPA.  We try to be well rounded so we could be attractive candidates for Corporate America

So how do you explain why graduating females make 80% of the salaries that their male counterparts make at their first job? Check out this study by the American Association of University Women: Click Here

So what does the driven young woman need to do to win the Corporate America game? Honestly, I think you just have to keep going. We can’t be disheartened by what is surrounding us.  The odds can sometimes feel to be stacked up against us- but in order for there to be real change in Corporate America and the role of women, we need to get women to those top positions.  Lucky for us there is some good news:  Barron's estimates that one in seven powerful posts will be held by women by 2010, based on evidence that the trend is getting only stronger. By 2020, it could be one in five.

Click here to read the full press release.

These powerful women need to start reaching out to young women in their organizations and start mentoring them.  Young girls need vital advice on how to ask for a raise to a asking for a promotion and so forth.  And I don’t necessarily believe that as young women we should only seek out female mentors.  Strong men can be great mentors.  I think there is a lot to be learned by picking the brain of a powerful man and learning how to better position yourself in Corporate America.  Just pick a male mentor who believes that women can conquer the world!

I do believe that women can conquer the world- just as any man could.  But that woman needs to passionately want to.  Because becoming a CEO or a VP of an organization requires a lot of time and compromises.  It usually means not much time for family, friends,  romantic interests, or yourself.  It can feel pretty lonely up there. I personally don't think that women can get up to that high level until we change our work cultures. Because at this point the working world is not designed to let us have it all. Somethings got to give.  However, this compromise is not just made by women, it's made by men as well. I look at the VPs I work with, the hours and the dedication they put in to stay on top of their game. And unfortunately they have to compromise as well.

 In terms of seeking mentors keep in mind mentors and support groups are all around you. Someone at your own level or a couple levels above you can serve to be a great mentor. I know that whenever I meet a young girl who is just starting her career I go out of my way to give her advice. I might not be the high powered business woman I will become one day- but with five years of working experience I'm filled with do's and dont's that I would be happy to share! There is also a new career guide book for young women  written by Hannah Seligson called "New Girl on the Job: Advice from the Trenches". I suggest this as a good starting point of advice. Also, check out her blog by clicking here.

And ladies, I know times can really get tough sometimes, but lets let the world hear our roar and break that glass ceiling.

I'd like to end with a quote from Hannah's new book:

"Young women need to keep renegotiating the rules of the workplace, or we'll be stuck playing the old ones. But the rules won't change on their own--they never do. Change is spawned by a movement, the type of movement that gave women the right to vote, entrance to the workplace, and access to birth control."

Most Persuasive Words In Communications

In 1998, Dr. Levinson of Yale University came out with research which revealed the most persuasive words in the English language.  He found the most poweful one is a persons fist name.  Using a persons first name is the most influential you can do in a conversation.  Below are the list of words he found to be the most persuasive.  Lets try to use as many of them in our communications and change management efforts.

The List

• Easy
• Results
• Save
• Discover
• Guarantee
• Safety
• Health
• Love
• Money
• Need
• Proven
• You

Why All Organizations Should Embrace Kaizen

How many times has an employee sat in his or her cube going through the motions of performing a task and wondered, "Why the heck do we have to do it like this? It makes no sense!"  They question their organization process and get jaded on the daily tasks they need to perform. 

How can managers motivate employees to contribute to the greater good of the company on a daily basis?  Employees need to see that what they are doing contributes to the greater goal of the company.  But they need to be challenged and feel like they are part of something greater besides the mundane activities they have to do day in and day out.

It's safe to say most employees are bored at their jobs.  The job becomes routine.  The tasks become mind numbing.  And then you have employees sitting in their cubes senselessly surfing the internet and taking away from the productivity of the work day. So what's an organization to do in order to improve productivity and ENGAGE their employees.

One powerful word: KAIZEN  Click here to learn what Kaizen is.

Kaizen is all about constant improvement. I think it's one of the best change management tool out there. It is about challenging and questioning convictions and finding better, faster and more efficient way of doing things.  If organizations implement a Kaizen philosophy and challenge their employees to search for better way of doing things, not only will the employees be engaged and challenged, but the company will be more efficient.  The employer also needs to reward individuals whose findings get implemented into the organization.

Toyota is one organization who has truly embraced and seen the positive results of Kaizen.

So why haven't all organizations embraced Kaizen?  In a nutshell there is risk associated with it.  It requires managers to work with their employees and challenge proven methods and rules with unproven ones. These new methods also have to be tested and testing takes time and resources. There is always the risk of failure.  But that risk is outweighed by the positives of the Kaizen system.  If an employee has an idea that fails he/she will know the current method is the most efficient way of do ing things. If their idea actually gets implemented they will feel a sense of ownership in the organization. They will work more efficiently because they will have conviction that their ideas actually help the greater good of the organization.

Ignore Change? Me? No, Never!

In Change Management there are 6 major steps of change. In order to implement a successful change initiative, an organization must be able to guide their group through the following steps- in order.

What step are you on? In terms of personal change, I usually get stuck on preparation for change. An example is that for two years now I have been saying that I want to get fit. I bought a gym membership (which I only used 5 times), I bought a $400 bike (which I only rode about 3 times), I bought exercise video tapes (and sat on the couch and watched the instructors work out), I bought and read countless of fitness magazines (which I read curled up in my bed with my comfy clothes). So why is it that I can't move from prepration to action? Why am I stuck? Obviously something is holding me back, and I can't do it alone.

Each stage of change also comes with tools of change to help individuals move from one stage to the next. The tool I believe I need is supporting relationships. A friend to be my work out buddy. Someone to motivate me and encourage me. My best friend Lee has offered up his services. We'll see if I can move towards action and take him up on it.

Take a look at the stages of change. Which stage do you fit on? If you are stuck, why do you think you are stuck? What tools of change do you need to help you move forward?

Stages of Change

1. Ignore change
2. Consider change
3. Prepare for change
4. Action
5. Habit- Maintain new behaviors that create a new habit
6. Stop old behavior/approaches

Tools of Change

1. Supporting relationship (coaches, mentors)
2. Active awareness- corporate environment and consequences of actions
3. Actively change environment
4. Rewards- self, team, corporate
5. New behavior replaces old
6. New corporate processes-boundaries
7. Clear corporate decisions
8. Self assesment and awareness
9. Commitment (private, public)

21 Year Old Girl vs. 25 Year Old Woman

Something profound happened when I turned 25 last year.  I started to feel like an adult. Even though I had never been the care free young adult, and always had responsibility, there was a sense of innocence and youth about me that I couldn't shake off. As my uncle said it once, I saw the world through a fairytale bubble.

Up until the age of 25, my years during college and post- college were filled with confusion and searching. I didn't know what I wanted in life. Not in my professional life, and definitely not in my personal life. I was desperately searching for something to hold on to- something to give meaning to my life. Someone to hold me high enough and not let me drown in the confusion my early 20s brought forth.

The most confusing aspect about my early 20s was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Since the age of 12 I wanted to be a reporter. After graduating from college that dream was shattered for me. I realized that I had to move to a small city, make no money, and try to climb the newspaper ladder and hopefully one day end back in Chicago. That was just not the route nor the risk I was willing to take. So I felt lost. Everything I thought I wanted went down the drain, and I had to start from square zero.    

One night I emailed an old college Professor of mine. Iris Krasnow. She was probably one of my favorite instructors. I emailed her about my confusion and what I was going through. She wrote back a short email, but the content was so riveting. She said, "Elvin you are not meant to figure out what you are meant to do and what to make of your life in your 20s. That clarity you are searching for will come in your 30s"

I never forgot her advice. It's a long process- I'm sure it will take me up until my 30s to really feel content.    

I think about the girl I was at 21. I was the idealist and the endless romantic in life. At 21 I was okay with making $50 per freelance article I published. I was okay with eating fast food for lunch and dinner every night because I didn't have much money. At 21 most of my decisions were made with my heart.

Then the unthinkable happened. My heart didn't lead me anywhere. I didn't find a job I loved. I didn't find the relationship which satisfied me.  I got my heart torn out time and time again by the cruelty of people and the world.    

A couple years later, I said, "Enough with the heart". I started to logically make decisions with my head. But that didn't work out either. I just went through the motions of getting through the day, and getting through life. It just completely exhausted me. I felt like I didn't have anything to get excited about or to look forward to. I didn't have big career dreams anymore.  What happened to the girl who thought she was going to conquer the world and make a difference?

Then I turned 25. And slowly everything started to change. It's like the dust was finally settling in from the storm.  I just let the chatter quiet down, and just listened to my self. To my heart AND to my head. And to be happy, I realized that I needed to be guided by both. To be happy and content I needed both. To succeed I needed both.    

And once you can find the balance of the heart and the mind, that's when I believe you will find true contentment and happiness. When you can be at peace with your decisions is really when things start to happen for you.

Currently, I couldn't be happier about my professional life. I work at great company with great people, and I love what I do, and the opportunities I have. In terms of my personal life I have a great family and great group of friends. Also, did I mention that I have the most adorable 1 year old dog, Riley? Trust me, he has witnessed and experienced change management with me trying to train him. I'll share more on that during another post!