Many years ago, I learned a phrase that I often share with clients when we’re working together on organisational change, which relates to the behaviour change we want to create. It’s about asking ourselves what we want people to Know, Feel and Do as a result of what we’re communicating.
From my experience, the ‘Know’ and ‘Do’ often give the impression that they’re pretty easy to answer – it’s what plans and corporate announcements are often full of. But when I ask about the ‘Feel’, that seems take a little more thinking. But that’s the most important thing to focus on if we want people to change their behaviour - having more knowledge doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to DO something different but if we FEEL something, it’s more likely we will.
Image: Tengyart, unsplash
As humans, we’re driven by our emotions which can be pretty messy to navigate and I suspect this ‘messiness’ and ‘unpredictability’ is why some leaders and managers can feel uncomfortable about and shy away from (or delegate…) anything related to emotions or feelings. So they avoid thinking about the Feel of Know, Feel, Do.
As a result, I’ve been on the receiving end of organisation announcements where team members have burst into tears, gone into huddles, switched off or gotten angry as a result of triggering a past issue that’s never been addressed. The ‘Feel’ hadn’t been considered but the detail of what people needed to ‘Know’ and ‘Do’ was very clear.
So, how can leaders get more comfortable with the ‘Feel’ side of change?
Be open about your own feelings
How comfortable do you feel about being open about your own responses in times of change? You could begin by asking yourself how fear makes you feel or react. I was once in an audience with a presentation from a leader who was really (and very authentically) open about how they felt about having to announce lay-offs. It didn’t make people less upset, but it made the whole situation feel much more human.
When you can identify and name feelings – especially fear – put context around it and acknowledge how it shows up, it’s more likely you’ll be able to manage or at least moderate your feelings. So, as a leader, if you can share that it's absolutely normal and OK to feel like this, it will help everyone.
Remember, emotions are information
As Susan David, author of ‘Emotional Agility’ explains, “recognising your emotions as data, not directives’, means they can give us valuable insights. If we can take the time to pause and look behind our emotional responses to what they’re telling us (and encourage others to do the same), we’re more likely to be able to respond to our emotions in a more measured way, than react to them. And try not to judge your emotions - they’re not good or bad, they just are.
Consider things from another perspective
Getting outside our own heads and supporting others to do the same, can help us see the same situation but through a different lens. You’ll never be able to incorporate everyone’s perspectives into your change approaches but if you can stay curious, keep talking to people and try to maintain some flexibility as you progress, it will go a long way.
Try introducing a jolt and flip the script
In their book, ‘The Power of Moments’, Chip and Dan Heath share a great example of how two leaders in the VF Corporation scrapped a plan for their leadership meeting to be all about a 120 slide PowerPoint (the ‘Know’) in favour of getting the group to ‘go outside for new ideas’. After walking into a conference room filled with sofas rather than tables and chairs, the group then visited businesses in completely different sectors to their own, to get some fresh perspectives.
As one of these leaders explained about their approach, “Most organisations have people think about a PowerPoint pitch with the hope that they will feel something and then do something different…we decided to flip this on its head. Let’s have people do something active and immersive. That’s going to generate more of an emotional response so they will feel something… then they can think about what they’ve learned.”
Some of the ideas the team got from visiting businesses very different to theirs created a shift that eventually led to innovative – and successful products.
You can’t negotiate everything
Some things just have to be done in organisation change – it’s a fact. As the example of the leader I mentioned earlier shows, if you can deliver ‘have to be done’ messages with compassion and honesty and again, try to see things from other people’s perspectives, the responses are likely to be less emotionally charged, helping people feel less anxious. And make sure you clearly explain the ‘why’ behind decisions.
If you’d like to explore how to think differently about your change approach and focus more on the emotional side, I’d love to chat. And, if you’d like to access my latest research on the topics of wellbeing and organisational change, you can register and download it here.