Sadie

When undesirable changes occur in your organization, do managers you know (or perhaps you) blame it on the corporate hierarchy? If so, why do managers blame their organization for the change instead of supporting the change?

The reasons given to a similar question in an article at Workforce Management included problems with the corporate culture, problems with management decision making, and problems with group dynamics. While these problems may deserve greater investigation, perhaps one of the reasons managers do not support organizational changes is simply because managers do not possess a repertoire of ways to explain undesirable changes. Consider the following explanations:

1. This change is necessary to help us fulfill our mission related to...

2. This change is necessary to help us provide better customer service in the area of...

3. This change will allow us to meet the new regulations that require us to...

4. This change will permit us to improve how we handle problems such as...

5. This change will help us increase sales of...

6. This change will help us reduce errors in...

7. This change will help us retain more customers in our...

8. This change will help us streamline the processes we use to handle...

9. This change will allow us to work less overtime during...

10. This change will help us reduce our backlogs of...

Of course, explanations such as these require that managers know what is happening. Managers must also know how the changes impact what is happening. It is all about linking the change to something other than the corporate hierarchy!

Think about it. Which reason for change do you think employees are more likely to support? The reason that management is making us do this or the reason that we are doing this to make improvements in some area?

So the next time you have to talk about change (desirable or undesirable), substitute they are making us do this for we need to do this because...

Barbara Brown, PhD shows managers how to improve employee performance by linking performance to results. She publishes handbooks that contain phrases for discussing performance. Handbook topics include Linking Time Management To Results, Linking Customer Service To Results, and others. Dr. Brown also offers E-Courses and E-Consulting as well as onsite training and consulting.

Website: http://www.LinkToResults.net

Email: Barbara@LinkToResults.net