Organisations are busy and under pressure.
The more pressure we feel, the greater our need to find a valve to release it.
To blow off off steam.
But the way we do this is very tricky. You can blow off steam with three intentions, and each intention has a pitfall.
The question ‘why is this necessary?’ is high up in the top 10 of most frequently asked questions about change.
The word ‘necessary’ says it all. The person asking it is asking about the need. He wants to know what the urgency of the change is.
I have been thinking about the word ‘value’ for a while now. It’s quite a big thing in management at the moment.
I have noticed that the word is used in two ways: as ‘added value’ and as ‘core value’.
The word quality has a prominent place in many organisations as a change objective:
“We want to improve the quality of care”
“We invest in the quality of education”
“This change is a quality impulse”
I am sure that no word of this is a lie. But it says nothing.
The terms ‘address’ and ‘give feedback’ are regularly heard in discussions about behavioural change. It strikes me that many change-makers use them as if they are interchangeable. While, in my opinion, they are two very different interventions.
Why is that?
I painted the walls of my living room light blue-green. The room has changed. But my behaviour has not. I don’t sit in my corner of the sofa more often or differently. It just feels nicer.
There are eleven new solar panels on my roof. The energy bill is lower and it feels good to be more self-sufficient. That has changed. But my behaviour hasn’t. The panels do their work without me having to do anything.
My kitchen table is full of 1,000 puzzle pieces. On the box is a picture of Notre Dame.
I know exactly how I am going to crack this puzzle: first the corners, then the edges and then fill in each area. The sky is the least fun part. I’ll save that for last.
Even with this step-by-step plan, I know that I am entering a search process that is anything but efficient.
We are in turbulent waters: there are immense issues at stake, with painful choices, conflicting interests, polarising relationships and unpredictable twists and turns. The end is not in sight.
If you take on a leadership role in such a situation, you know one thing for sure: you will be put to the test.
There is nothing wrong with a good discussion from time to time.
Yet we tend to discuss too much rather than too little. For example, in situations where the exchange of arguments is a foregone conclusion.
I will mention seven of these.
Sometimes two words are like a soppy couple. You always see them together and you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
Like with the words attitude and behaviour.
This closeness is a problem. Because attitude and behaviour are two different things that should not be confused.
There is quite a debate about why women earn less than men. And part of the explanation is sought in a difference in negotiating skills.
I have my own opinion about that.
Of course not.
Duh.
But sometimes it seems that we go to the other extreme. That we are not allowed to share our fears, because they might spread.
That can never be the intention.