The Language of Change (part 4)

Post 3 of 4 in a series of articles on the subject of leading large-scale change in organisations (part 4).

The first post looked at the power and dangers of metaphors in leading change and suggested replacing the “burning platform” with the idea of a “High Noon moment”.  The second post discussed the dangers of underestimating how long it takes people to change and what you can do about it.  This post – which is appearing in four parts (this is the fourth) – continues examining how leaders can frame their change language to best effect.

In The Language of Change part 1 we looked at the confirmation bias, critiqued the usual approach to change communication and introduced a new three-step process:

Get your audience’s urgent attention
Stimulate desire for a new future
Then and only then… appeal to the intellect

In The Language of Change part 2, I offered practical tips on how to get your change audience’s urgent attention.  In part 3, I offered advice on how to stimulate desire for the new future (the change idea).  In this final part 4, I suggest ways of appealing to the intellect to make sure second thoughts don’t creep in and sabotage the will to change.  Again, this will be in bullet-point form.

Here you engage their intellect to back up and justify their emotion (desire).
You give compelling reasons why the change makes sense, how it can happen (so they know it’s possible) and why you should sustain it. Thus, you use the confirmation bias to your advantage – you help the audience confirm the wisdom of the decision they’ve been edging towards, reinforcing their desire to act.
Be careful with bullet-point reasoning, data, statistics, metrics, Gantt charts or excess detail. It’s better to use stories showing what makes sense and why / how the future will unfold.  Stories appeal to heart and mind, packing more of an emotional punch.

You can tell the story of “what the change looks like” from a user or customer’s angle or how they might experience it in the new future, perhaps using props.

Or you could tell the story of “how to get from here to there”.

Or the story of “how it will work”, e.g. by explaining the new business model.

Or tell the story of “why it’s inevitable that it will work”.

And that’s the essence of it.  Everything else about the language of change – at least what you say verbally – is just detail.  Your presence, your body language?  Now that’s another matter…

 

The author is James Scouller, an executive coach.  His book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published in May 2011.  You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com.  If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews.  If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE.  You can read more about his executive coaching services at The Scouller Partnership’s website.