Making Change Stick

 Recently I had a chance to do a half-day workshop on “Making Change Stick” for a group of nonprofit executives at a conference sponsored by NeighborWorks America.  Here’s one of main take-aways that may help you when you are in the process of leading a change.

These particular nonprofit leaders have been working on various improvements in their organizations for the past year – and they have made some successful changes.  I got to be the wet blanket.  I told them that making the initial changes was just the beginning of the work and that they had to be sure not to make a classic “leading change” error:  “celebrating success too soon.”

I asked them “Of the people involved with the change you are leading, what percentage of them fall into these categories?:”

*Enthusiastic – guiding coalition; cheerleaders

*Supportive – would speak on behalf of the change, if asked

*Accepting – passive acceptance

*Resistant – active or passive aggressive

Think about this for a change you are leading.  I suggest that, in order for your change to “stick,” you need at least 50% of your people in the top two categories.  And actually, you need as many people as possible in those top two groups to be really confident that your change is going to “stick.”

The work of leading a change isn’t done until it’s embedded deeply into the culture.  Until people have the attitude of “That’s just the way we do things around here” then there is work to be done.  Good luck leading change as you seek to make even more of a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Sleepwalking Through SWOTs

SWOT analysis – analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization – is usually not done well.  I often feel as if organizations are just sleepwalking through the process.

I think this is because so many people look at this as a mechanical and analytical process while it should be spirited and creative.  Examples:

“I think our #1 Weakness is our Board.  We need new blood and we need to recruit people who are better connected within the community.”

“What!  Our Board is caring and many have been with us since our founding.”

“Exactly.  But that’s about it.”

Or maybe . . . . . .

“I see the Opportunity for us to launch a planned giving program targeting all those widows we know who love the work we do here at the Humane Society.”

“How rude!  Chasing after those nice women just for their money!”

“Their money is going to go somewhere when they die.  What better place than to help take care of the animals they love so much.”

Don’t sleepwalk through your SWOT Analysis.  Make sure you are not making these common mistakes:

*No Rigorous Preparation.  Often there is no prep and a strategy group just shows up one morning asked to identify SWOTs.  Do some pre-work!  Examples:  Involving stakeholders in the SWOT process by asking them for input is a great way to include them and they can produce valuable insights.  There are great tools, like the VPP/McKinsey OCAT, (see my Cool Tool blog) which can allow for a thorough evaluation of strengths and weaknesses.  Collect environmental data that may reveal trends, opportunities, and threats.

*No Healthy Debate.  So many groups will not engage in constructive conflict about anything.  This is a very important place to have healthy debate!  And coming up with the “right” answer of the top five SWOTs is not the most important outcome of the debate.  Through debate, people learn various perspectives of the organization and this will become very important throughout the strategy development and implementation phases.

*Too Rushed.  Allow your organization to take a few hours with the process.  Don’t rush the voting to get done fast.  Break your strategy development team into smaller groups to combat Groupthink and allow for divergent views.  Bring the entire group back together, encourage discussion and develop common understandings.  “Really?  You think that is our biggest weakness?  Why?”

Clarity and common understanding of your SWOTs will allow you to create robust strategies to pursue your mission, vision, and goals as you Leverage your Strengths, Fortify your Weaknesses, Seize your Opportunities, and Block your Threats to make even more of a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

A “Mess” of Trouble is Heading our Way!

You probably have things in your organization that you know need to change, that you want to change, that you know absolutely must change, but – how do you get started?

Many experts agree that the first step in leading a change is to create a “sense of urgency” among those who need to help make that change happen.  But how do you do that?

One of my favorite recipes for creating a sense of urgency is an approach invented by Dr. Russell L. Ackoff, which Russ calls “Formulating the Mess.”

Russ says is that in order to get people to change, you need to need to very graphically show them what a “mess” they are going to be in during the future if they don’t change what they are doing now.  He recommends articulating a very clear future, which extrapolates current trends, and gives a specific picture of what the future will look like if change does not occur.  In fact, Russ says that “it is critical that the mess be presented in as realistic, as believable, and as shocking way as possible.”*

An example Russ gives is work he did with leaders of labor and management at an Alcoa plant in Tennessee who could not get others to understand that both sides in their contract dispute had to change their hard line positions.  They printed fake copies of the town newspaper, dated four years into the future, with the headline “Blount County to Lose Alcoa Plant and 2,300 Jobs.”  The lead article went on to explain the amount of money that the company would lose and the devastation to the local community economy.  Not seeing the date immediately, many people thought the paper was real.  The effort had its intended effect and both sides changed their demands.

I only wonder what might have happened if some leaders from the historic -- now defunct -- nonprofit, Hull House in Chicago, had done something similar years ago when their financial problems started.  Maybe they would have made the dramatic changes necessary and would still be around for the kind of people in need they had served since 1889.

Does your organization need to make significant change?  Show others the “mess” you will be in during the future if you don’t.

*Russell L. Ackoff, Re-Creating the Corporation, Oxford University Press, 1999.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Goal Setting Primer

This is a summary of all the important things you need to remember about goals, with links to my earlier blogs for more detail.  Tack this to your bulletin board as a reminder.

1.  Set Goals!  The mere act of setting even general goals helps direct attention to relevant activities.*  Keep your life and work more relevant by setting goals.

2.  Set Goals as Outcomes.  Focus on what you really want, the results – not the activities.

3.  SMRT.  Make sure that ALL your goals are Specific, Measurable, Relevant, Time-Bound.  The more specific the goals, the more explicitly performance is regulated.*

4.  SMART v. 1.0:  Attainable Goals, which you have an 80+% chance of accomplishing, are good to use if failing at it will have many negative consequences.

5.  SMART v. 2.0:  Aggressive Goals, which you have a 35% chance of accomplishing, will improve your performance.  Research shows that the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of performance.*  But you have to be willing to accept the possible risks of failure.

6.  SMART v. 3.0:  Almost Impossible Goals, which you have a 1% chance of accomplishing, will require you to design innovative ways of going about accomplishing your goal.  “Working harder” on the same process won’t do it.  You have an opportunity for Breakthrough Performance with Almost Impossible Goals.

7.  Almost Impossible Goals are based on the philosophy that “Great Leaders Have a Healthy Disregard for the Impossible.”  Many things that people once thought impossible have been accomplished.  Set goals that inspire you and go for it!

8.  Celebrate Noble Failure.  If you are inspired to pursue a goal and you go for it, but you don’t make it all the way, then appreciate the progress you have made and appreciate that you worked hard at something you really cared about.  This approach will bring you more long term success than letting the fear of failure keep you from doing what truly inspires you.

If you use these principles and apply them to your personal and work life then I promise you much higher levels of performance and satisfaction.  Good luck with all of your goals!

I will write up an article discussing the eight goal-setting blogs and will post it as a free download on my web site by July 15, 2012.  Check it out then – SMART move.

*Locke, E. A. & Latham, G. P.  A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 1990.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

"We celebrate noble failure."

If you are like most people, your relationship with failure is this:  you avoid it at ALL costs.  I am suggesting that if you are going to produce higher levels of performance, and especially breakthrough performance, you need to transform your relationship with failure.

I met a corporate executive once who told me that one of her favorite sayings was “We celebrate noble failure.”  What would “noble failure” look like?

If we really care about something and we want to make a difference and we “go for it” – not irresponsibly, but enthusiastically – and we don’t fully achieve the goal, then I would call that a “noble failure.”

The problem is that we usually don’t “go for it” because we are afraid of failing.  This singular fear keeps us from making more of a difference and increasing our performance.  What we need to do is to shift our focus from whether or not we fully achieve an Aggressive or Almost Impossible Goal to our actual performance on the outcomes we are committed to.  It’s a tradeoff.  If we set bigger goals, the research is clear that we will have higher performance.*  But it also increases the risk of not making it all the way – of failing.  If we can focus more on our delight from increased performance and away from our distaste of failure, then that is transforming our relationship with failure.  I am not saying you have to “love” failure, but you have to at least tolerate it.

Of course, one of the wise reasons you avoid failure is that it is often followed by negative consequences.  Research shows that organizations are only effective using “stretch goals” if they have a “safe-fail” work environment.  If you don’t have that kind of environment where you work, then my advice is to keep setting small Attainable Goals – publicly, with your bosses, etc. – and then set Aggressive or Almost Impossible Goals that you keep to yourself.  You can be publicly successful and produce higher levels of performance.  I gave an example of this in my previous blog.

IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr., once said “The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”

And management guru Tom Peters has said “there’s no substitute for getting smarter faster.  And the way you get smarter is to screw around vigorously.  Try stuff.  See what works.  See what fails miserably.  Learn.  Rinse.  Repeat.”

Transform your relationship with failure.  Learn to celebrate “noble failure.”  Get smarter faster and make even more of a Mission Impact.

*Locke, E. A. & Latham, G. P.  A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 1990.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.