Achieving Change

In many cases, organizations tend to address problems only at the surface level, opting for quick solutions without fully exploring the underlying causes. However, having a deep understanding of the root causes of problems can lead to more effective strategies. As talent development professionals, our knowledge of learning, human behavior, team dynamics, and performance improvement practices can help our organizations overcome resistance to change.

Social scientists have done extensive research over decades to understand our judgment, decision making, and development as humans. Some of the findings indicate why people resist change include:

• Humans want to belong to a group or community, so we may adopt what those around us believe. This can also apply to teams and peers in the workplace who may be influenced by those around them and follow suit to avoid being seen as outliers.

• We might falsely be confident that we are competent in certain skills or areas (the Dunning-Kruger Effect), which can affect our decision making. In the workplace, some, especially managers, may dismiss ideas and strategies they believe they already know.

• At times, we simply cease being curious and get used to our comfort zone. Some employees that are used to their comfort zone might fear change. Change creates some level of discomfort that they resist.

• Confirmation bias (our tendency to expect people’s behavior, ideas, or findings we aligned with what we hold true) can affect our decisions. Confirmation bias in the workplace during change management can lead to flawed decision making, resistance to new ideas, or the perspectives of others.

• Our decisions and ideas can also be influenced by social proof—that is, following what other people think is correct or what large numbers show us. While social proof in the workplace can often drive positive behaviors such as collaboration and motivation, its unchecked influence can lead to groupthink, stifled innovation, reinforcement of toxic behavior, and emulating poor leadership styles that leaders exhibit in the workplace.

• Our decision making can also be influenced by manipulations of authorities (experts or research, media, or marketers). Research and authority figures are not always infallible. Our awareness of this and encouraging critical thinking can help avoid being conditioned to trust authorities or research and consider alternative viewpoints.

So, when faced with individuals or teams who resist change, seek to understand where their discomfort or resistance stems from without being judgmental. Listen and then work together to drive change.

Think Like a Scientist

In Think Again, Adam Grant posits that being a scientist is a frame of mind. Testing hypotheses has a place in our lives, which informs our daily decisions. But, similar to a scientist, we must pivot our discoveries and consider being wrong a sign for new learning.

The Implementation Science Framework—commonly used in healthcare—can help TD leaders understand how change takes place by gathering evidence and answering questions that emerge from practice on the job. The framework has three key stages: Acceptability, Adoption, and Fidelity.

In Acceptability, the L&D team and their managers must inform all stakeholders involved, including the frontline workers and anyone affected by the change, and make sure they agree to test a new idea or change. In other words, this is the stage in which you may face resistance for which using Step 1 can help you navigate that more strategically. Following that, in the Adoption stage, you will adopt the change and test its sustainability. The goal of the Fidelity stage is to make sure the new practice or change is being used as it is supposed to be. While the framework can guide you through adopting a change in practice or culture, in reality, similar to any change, its stages involve some challenges that the L&D team must tackle thoughtfully and systematically.

For any change to take place, for example, when building a learning organization that entails major cultural and practice changes, resistance is the key challenge. How can learning professionals and leaders navigate it? A combination of Steps 1 (Acceptability) and 2 (Adoption) is the point to begin, by first understanding the underlying reasons for resistance and then modeling the right traits, which is not limited to leadership but also L&D teams.

Employ an Iterative Process and Measure

Most people would resist a big change but may be willing to see how incremental changes work to see the impact.

When adopting a new change (in the Adoption stage), you drive the change and collect data through routine practice. This may look like observation and documentation, interviews with stakeholders, or surveys. The key point is closely observing how the change is taking place and reporting it at different intervals.

The iterative cycle, similar to a formative evaluation, informs you whether things are working as expected and what the improvement areas and next steps are. The report needs to be discussed with all stakeholders involved for transparency. Questions that can be asked to track changes through observation, surveys, or interviews can include:

• How much learning is being shared, gained, and applied?

• How effectively are teams working together toward a common goal?

• How are teams perceiving iterations to assigned tasks or processes?

• To what extent do team members feel their individual contributions are valued within the team?

• How well do teams work together to solve problems or overcome challenges?

• Do teams feel heard and supported? How inclusive is the decision-making process in our team?

• Are there enough resources to ensure everyone’s success?

• To what extent do team members offer help to one another when facing challenges?

• How comfortable are team members in asking for help or information?

• How comfortable do team members feel expressing their opinions and ideas during meetings?

• Do team members and leaders feel anxious about sharing their mistakes? To what extent do they feel it’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them?

• How open are team leaders and their members to feedback on improving team dynamics or performance?

• How transparent is communication regarding project goals, timelines, and updates?

• Are teams stressed or burnt out? If so, why?

• How often do team members actively seek opportunities to develop new skills or improve existing ones?

• How effectively do team members adapt to changes or new information?

Lastly, in the Fidelity stage, once the change has been fully adopted, you ensure the degree to which the change or intervention takes place exactly as intended. Because change is a process, continue to collect data. You can use the questions listed above to measure the degree of change occurring.

This is also when you should consider factors that may affect the sustainability of the change. One of the key challenges in Adoption and Fidelity is resource management, such as time, expertise, budget, and so forth. With some careful planning at the beginning of the change effort and input from all stakeholders, TD leaders can tackle challenges head-on.

Avoid Relationship Conflicts. Encourage Task Conflicts.

Emotional clashes can affect both individual employees and the organization as a whole. Relationship conflicts can result in reduced productivity, avoiding collaboration, increased turnover, a toxic work environment, and increased stress or burnout. Rather, encourage task conflicts, which are clashes about ideas and opinions. In fact, task conflict can help teams develop more creativity and openness to new ideas. That is how you can gradually learn to develop confident humility and resilience to lose a disagreement without losing your composure. Another way of navigating this is to avoid entering a defend-attack mode to prove your ideas, but ask more questions to get them to think, for giving more reasons will most likely backfire.

Further, we should demonstrate openness by acknowledging what we learn from our critics and agreeing with them on certain points so that we establish trust. Most importantly, listen rather than talk more. Seek feedback to reflect on your own approach or ideas for making the change.

Putting It All Together

Talent development leaders are not only responsible for employees’ learning and professional development. They must often provide support and expertise for organizational change efforts.

Here are some steps you should consider:

Model valued traits by showing confident humility, seeking feedback, demonstrating curiosity, and a willingness to learn. In her research-backed book, Cultures of Growth, Mary Murphy writes that one of the most powerful influences on an employee’s experiences, motivation, and performance is their perception of their supervisor’s mindset which, in turn, shapes their behavior.

Foster flexibility and resilience when faced with challenges or failures. Make iteration, failure, and learning part of work.

Allow diverse perspectives as learning occurs when people become aware of opposing ideas. Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead finds cultivating a culture of belonging, inclusivity, and diverse perspectives one of the characteristics of daring leadership.

Cultivate commitment and shared purpose. According to Brené Brown, explaining the “why” behind strategies and how tasks link to ongoing priorities adds meaning to work and makes it a collective effort towards the organization’s goals.

Set realistic timelines to avoid burnout, which is a barrier to creativity and productivity.

Practice regular retros or reflections by allowing time for a pause in action and looking back at completed projects or the organization’s process to learn what worked, what were the pains, and what needs to be improved and how. According to David Garvin—a Harvard business professor—when people are too stressed by deadlines, their ability to think analytically and creatively is compromised.

Bottom line: Transforming your workplace is a team effort that starts with TD leaders modeling these behaviors so they can trickle down to every department, function, and team. Leaders and managers must show openness to learn, be accountable when we err, and have a willingness to develop confident humility. This sort of curiosity, collaboration, and reflection are pivotal to creating lasting change in the work environment.