AME Author, Director Champions of HR for Excellence
For the launch of AME’s Champions of HR for Excellence program in May, Tony Chamblin, Ron Oslin and Larry Anderson from One System One Voice presented insights to HR leaders on implementing change. We met a few years back and their work was so exciting that I flew to Virginia to see it in action.
The workshop involved two models: the five stages of change and motivational interviewing, which have been used to help people create change in the mental health field. They’ve had great success applying these methods to lean transformations.
This method makes so much sense that I wonder how we hadn’t learned about it earlier.
Following are the three key ideas from their workshop:
1. Telling people what’s “in it for them” actually may do more harm than good.
If you could imagine telling somebody that they need to change their eating habits so they can live a happier life and live longer, do you think that would impact how they eat?
Actually, research shows that it makes them less likely to make a change.
People often don’t welcome these comments and it typically makes them back away. In other words, you can’t sell somebody on making a change.
2. Support people in making changes at their own pace.
Strong communication focuses on developing rapport by creating the types of conversation that would be most supportive of the person at the stage of change they’re in at the time.
The workshop encouraged participants to be non-judgmental about how people perceive lean transformations and instructed them on how to create appropriate dialogues that foster an openness for change.
3. Compliance does not equal real change.
Many lean transformations end up using compliance as a form of improvement. The thought is that when people are mandated to work in new ways, it will become natural to them.
This model shows how change needs to be fully internalized for individuals. Otherwise, change is somewhat artificial and likely short-lived.
The skills imparted in One System One Voice’s workshop steer away from strategies that simply seek compliance and move toward inspiring real change. Material is available on their website which you can review and use as desired.
Participants found the workshop extremely rewarding and helpful. Following are a few testimonials from the event:
“It was a great event. This really builds alliances and support mechanisms going forward…as we know in many HR opportunities it's all about confidentiality. I know I shared a few personal and professional thoughts and it felt great to work though them while hearing others have the same or similar.”
-Rod Smith, Duha Group
“I’ve been through a great deal of change management training that has dealt in the area of the fundamental process of change management. What I enjoyed about this training was the focus on the different personalities you deal with during change management. I thought the course was great at drawing out concerns and how to combat those concerns. The course will serve me well.”
Jason Brandt, Tempur-Sealy
“In the change management session I was reminded once again to make it all about the people, not about me. I’m also trying to ask questions that require their thinking, not mine. I have also stopped taking notes during discussions with my staff and truly listening better. What I didn’t realize that by me always taking the notes and recording action items, I was owning their problem! I truly enjoyed the session and I feel more empowered to help my team and organization to continue to transform.”
Melissa Smith, McKee Foods
“By asking a series of questions and looking at those who have difficulty with change from a new lens, it challenged even the most seasoned HR practitioners. Comments around the room, self included, went from “Wow, this is neat!” to “Wow, this is hard!” As we all know, when we challenge our thinking of how we “always used to do something,” it can be difficult. You can actually find out more about this at the Lean People Development Summit in September, where Ron Oslin and team will share some of their insights.”
Susan Kamacho, Gemline
This session represented the kickoff of Champions of HR for Excellence, a group that will work together to learn, network, and benchmark other companies.
To learn more about why this program is so exciting, click here.
