Square pegs: driving positive change in the organization

Square Peg in a Round Hole

Have you ever picked last for the baseball team? Since you hike so much, Jan, would you be one of the captains on the rafting trip? How about being put in charge of production when you don’t like detailed spreadsheets and schedules? Or work as a cost accountant when you were really not that good in math? How about being put in charge of product development when your training is brand management? This happens frequently in the workplace, which can make management a real challenge. It would be a mistake to think a job needs a precise formula of strengths or characteristics. One of the best cost accountants I ever worked with did poorly on our pre-employment math test. We discussed the test score at length before we went with our intuition. He was good at digging out excessive costs on the production floor and in the materials group, and then pulling all the people together to help drive solutions. Marcus Buckingham has led the discussion in recent years to focus on your strengths and also how good managers design the work to fit people’s strengths or fit people to the right jobs. This is pretty liberating, when you have 6 good workers, but things still aren’t jelling for you as a manager. You know the team can accomplish more.
The rubber hits the road when you want to make change. Dealing with people can get pretty messy. We each have our egos, world views, habits, processing preferences etc. Our intentions can easily be misinterpreted based on those filters. When we make a change, we are playing with their daily habits and practice. At my house, the worst thing you could do would be to interfere with my Saturday morning ritual. Grumpy Gus lives! How do we go about organizational change and achieve the result we are looking for?
First of all, do not be daunted. Managers are paid to drive improvements within the business. The single most powerful tool a manager has to effect change is to reorganize the work or restructure the group. Continuing to get Hank to work on his math skills as an accountant, is worthless. He doesn’t really like the tedium. He likes the big picture, and his foundation of cost accounting will provide him a unique view as he works with others to create solutions to cost challenges. Secondly, there is no perfect solution. The structure we built last year is working now, but will the foundation be adequate next year? Perfect solutions are always temporary as the world changes. Keep preaching that change is constant, and the folks will begin to realize they should never build too roots too deep.
Two elements are critical as change is introduced. Building trust as a leader and instilling a practice of team work, i.e. sharing of problems together to cultivate and understand the strengths within the group. To accomplish these two critical elements, the leader must keep the following focus in front of the group consistently: “Put the business (organization) first in all things work related”. Staying consistent to this mission will help build trust and engagement, and provide an environment that keeps people focused in the right direction rather than their own agendas. It also weeds out those who have their own agenda and refuse to get on board. To foster the teamwork, it is critical to engage the group, especially those who have different strengths than the leader. In order to value those strengths they must be employed in full view and cherished for their results.
I read somewhere years ago that change is fun to create if you are doing it but scary as hell if it is being done to you. Be open and honest and communicate frequently, but drive positive change by taking the risks associated with moving the work or the structure to better fit the team at hand.