Lauren Dixon, BridgeTower Media Newswires
In my first draft of this column, the first sentence started with “During fast-changing times like these ...” But I rewrote it because, really, when are times not fast-changing? While a presidential election and global pandemic add uncertainty to our daily lives, any transition or shift can impact workplace culture.
And because uncertainty triggers anxiety and concern, we need to make our people and our culture our priority during times of transition—and always, really. So let’s look at some best practices for maintaining—and even strengthening—a culture of innovation during times of transition, with the base understanding that change is often difficult and perhaps more so for those who have been with you the longest.
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Take and give time
Mengel Metzger Barr Managing Partner Mark J. Kovaleski, CPA, says to allow at least five to seven years to get your business ready for a transition to new leadership, whether through an exit strategy, succession plan, merger or acquisition.
And take it slow during the first years of the new environment. Think evolution versus revolution. An extended, phased rollout gives you pauses and time to measure how things are working, evaluate how people are feeling, involve your team members in the process, and revisit and revise as you go along.
Look, life happens, and sometimes you don’t have the luxury of time. But in cases of exit planning, mergers and acquisitions, you should extend the timeline as long as possible. Mike and I started our succession planning 15 years ago!
Maybe that was overkill, but by the time we shared the strategy with our full team three years ago — yes, we told them well ahead of time — we had spent years working with our managing partners and outside experts on a strategic plan for the transition with measurable goals, milestones and clear direction for the future, which strengthened our credibility and instilled confidence, trust and enthusiasm.
So if at all possible, announce an upcoming change internally long before it will happen to give everyone a chance to process and adjust to the idea, work through emotions and concerns, ask questions and get answers, make necessary preparations and, most important, be involved in shaping the future state.
That said, you might want to wait to announce the news externally — to your clients or customers, partners, vendors, the community and the media — until your team has had time to contribute to and refine your strategic plan. We were thinking between six and 12 months, and ended up announcing our plan a year ahead of time.
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Communicate and crowd source
During times of change, the leader’s role is to calm, reassure, inform, involve and empower people through frequent, consistent communication and engagement. Keeping employees informed every step of the way builds enthusiasm and stops the rumor mill.
The messages need to be clear, transparent explanations of what is changing, when and why, the expected impact of the changes on each individual and how everyone will be involved in shaping the actual evolution.
Ideally, there will be a realistic, tangible “what’s in it for you” or, better, “what’s in it for us” component to the messages. Not just to get buy-in, but to stoke passion. If the “what’s in it” ladders up to your mission and core values, and shows how the upcoming transformation will put you in a better position to serve, you’ll not only get people on board more easily, you’ll strengthen your culture and community.
Equally important as communication directly from your leaders to your team members: formal and informal opportunities for employees at all levels to speak directly to leaders. While managers and supervisors have key roles in reinforcing the themes, your leaders need to be visible and accessible presences throughout.
So after the initial announcement, keep a two-way conversation going through scheduled large and small group meetings, company-wide emails and videos, one-on-ones and individual impromptu discussions: Have your leaders wander the hallways, stop by offices, eat lunch in the break room, and share their direct phone numbers and video chat information.
It’s super important to prioritize these meetings, especially by allowing plenty of time. You do not want to rush or watch the clock, or you defeat the purpose. The point is to soothe and reassure, taking it slow and easy, helping people feel comfortable.
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Formalize the feedback loops
To successfully engage everyone in the company, you need to value and validate their questions and concerns, insights and ideas, and include them in the decisions and plans. So formalize mechanisms and processes for gathering feedback and gauging progress before, during and after a change, and continue to solicit input at a regular cadence.
That might mean weekly Q&As, internal focus groups or anonymous surveys and suggestion boxes, because not everyone is comfortable asking questions and offering suggestions publicly or personally. Whatever you decide, commit to it long-term.
Right now at Dixon Schwabl, in the year prior to our upcoming leadership change and for the next four years at least, we’ve committed to quarterly employee surveys, as well as progress reports and weekly department and agency-wide meetings to get a current pulse of how people are feeling and how things are working.
This allows us to identify issues early and take action to prevent them from escalating, confirm what we’re doing right, alert us to what needs adjusting and inform our decisions going forward.
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Embrace the ups and downs
Even in a perfect world with “best-laid plans,” there will be hiccups and bumps in the road. And that’s OK—and to be expected. Perfection is overrated anyway, if you ask me, because its counterpart, fear of failure, can inhibit curiosity, innovation and progress.
On a recent “Eat Sleep Work Repeat” podcast, Alain de Botton, author of “The Pleasures and Sorrow of Work,” “How to Get on With Your Colleagues” and “How to Think More Effectively,” uses the example of people starting sentences with “This might sound stupid, but …” to illustrate how shame and fear of embarrassment stifle ideation and growth.
De Botton suggests companies incorporate something like “Idiot Fridays” to create “safe” times for sharing our “dumb ideas” because, sure, many might not go anywhere, but some could be game-changing. Similarly, when brainstorming and problem solving, he suggests starting with “If money were no object and we had all the time in the world” — and I’ll add “If legal would allow us to do it” — to liberate thinking and inspire innovation without fear the naysayers will shut you down.
When you apply that thinking to your business transformation, you see it’s how we react to the surprises and disappointments along the way that matters. If we take the long view and use setbacks as learning and growth opportunities, and we continue to revise and iterate, we progress and ultimately achieve and even surpass expectations. Transformation and evolution, whether to a new leadership, strategy or structure, are not linear paths, but rather upward trends over time.
And when our leaders are forthright and acknowledge their wrong turns and missteps, if they own them with transparency and humility, they display the authentic, vulnerable, human attributes that make their compassionate leadership believable. Which is important, because, yes, leaders need to be strong and confident to instill trust and manage change. But they also need to be genuinely caring and compassionate to maintain an emotionally safe culture that unleashes innovation.
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Stay true to your core
Your structure, strategy or leadership may be changing, but you should preserve what matters most to your culture and practices. Job No. 1 is to protect, strengthen and be guided by your mission and core values, even if you need to evolve them.
According to a report in London Business School Review, Satya Nadella spent a year making the rounds at Microsoft, listening and learning, before transitioning into his role as CEO in 2014 after working there for 22 years. He took over during a rough time for the company, when it was being “out-innovated” and leapfrogged by the competition.
So while Nadella understood that people wanted their new CEO to make the changes necessary to turn the company around, they also wanted him “to respect the original ideas of Microsoft,” set by Bill Gates, which were to “put a computer on every desk and in every home.”
But Nadella thought that original mission was part of the problem. It was finite. By then, there already were computers on most desks and in nearly every home in the developed world. To drive the company forward, he needed to evolve its mission into a sustainable, customer-focused anthem that would renew and invigorate a sense of purpose and, ultimately, spark innovation and growth.
So on his first day as CEO, he sent a letter to every employee, describing how he planned to stay focused on their mission but to look at it from a different perspective. And a year later, he shared a refreshed mission that evolved from “Put a computer on every desk and in every home” into Microsoft’s new and current mission: “Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.”
To prepare his teams to develop the new products, services and processes that would be necessary to deliver on the updated mission, Nadella introduced and promoted a “dynamic learning culture.” It’s an environment based on a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset. A place where people want to learn new things, to explore and experiment and overcome obstacles, with the understanding that they may not succeed in everything right away, if ever, or all at once. (Versus a fixed mindset where people rely on what they know rather than risk something new.)
In this way, Nadella remained true to Bill Gate’s mission to change the world while elevating it to inspire and motivate—and drive lifelong learning and exploration.
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Empower and inspire
Chances are, your internal champions will remain involved and positive throughout your transformation. So pay special attention to team members who are less engaged to begin with. Make the time and effort to uncover, validate and address their concerns directly and individually to help them feel informed, included and connected, and in control and empowered over decisions that impact their future and that of the company. Because when everyone feels “in the know,” “in the loop” and “part of the process,” it’s empowering and powerful. And sparks growth that’s unstoppable.
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Lauren Dixon is CEO of Dixon Schwabl Inc., a marketing communications firm, which has been honored as a best place to work.
