By Arthur F. Carmazzi
Building Credibility in Organisational Development:
As determined in the previous articles, for organisational change to happen, it is essential for the people to believe that change will happen, that they can make it happen, and that it will benefit them.
These beliefs are nurtured by showing almost instant results in performance and efficiency, and making high visibility around the small accomplishments that will be transformed into bigger ones. The active ingredient to generating impact is that each person shares the glory for results and that the leaders look for the tiniest successes in order to acknowledge those groups who achieve them.
Motivational strategies promoting opportunities to grow through training and more potential to advance in the company would be built into the process to maintain higher energy and job appeal. This process includes -
Creating interest requires two components: a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist being some gratification (more rewarding place to work, more advancement, etc.), the antagonist would be an external force that retards this accomplishment (previous attitude of the leaders, a shrinking economy, etc.). The leaders must use the protagonist to unite the teams, departments, managers and individuals to build a greater force that has the capability of beating the antagonist. They must be wooed to understand that they alone can’t defeat it and only as a team they can prevail over the odds (just as a Lethal Weapon Movie, as good as Mel Gibson is, he depends on Danny Glubber to vanquish the bad guys). Teamwork Works.
The higher the perceived value the antagonist provides, i.e. what do they get out of it or what they don’t they lose, will specify the level of cohesiveness the leaders can attain. And the better the cohesiveness, the better the outcomes which can be used to increase credibility and trust.
Trust can also be amplified by sharing information across all levels of staff. Access to information that would otherwise be considered “privileged”, will augment the belief that the leaders have trust on them with it and hence add to credibility of management’s commitment. This will also add to productivity since information provides the tools by which individuals can make decisions and originate ideas.
It is also important that during creating enthusiasm and building credibility that the expectations of the management and staff are managed to avoid dissatisfaction, and therefore reduced motivation.
The expectations which are unrealistic, can easily destroy any good program and therefore its credibility. For example, if a friend tells you that a movie she saw was “absolutely fantastic”, you may be disheartened when you go to see the movie. This is not due to the fact that the movie was bad, rather due to the expectations you developed from your friend’s statement became higher than usual. Therefore, the next time your friend tells you about a movie, you may discount her statements.
Congruency of actions from the leaders is certainly the most crucial for developing credibility. The actions and words of the leaders must go hand in hand. One incongruent action can spoil any credibility that has been built. While it may be considered “unfair”, most employees will seldom give a second chance and just brush the entire program off with a statement such as “See, I knew he/she/they couldn’t change!” Therefore, for at least the first few months of the buy-in period, the leaders must pull out their Superman Costumes and make sure they live up to the changes and policies they are trying to implement.
It is a difficult task to reach overcome the difficulties for Organizational Change within a company that has culture problems, but it is achievable. And, the rewards are much more greater than the initial efforts put forth to create an empowered culture. The benefits stretch beyond the productivity increase and extend to a better, more rewarding place to work for all involved. As David “The finance guy” Rogers once said in his Psychology of Money seminar, “If there is no change, your past will become your future”
In case you hav’t seen this Leadership Training Video on building leaders for a better organizational culture, here it is again:
By
Arthur F. Carmazzi, Founder of the Directive Communication Organizational Development Methodology and Ranked as one of the Global Top 10 most influential Leadership Gurus by Gurus International. Arthur specializes in psychological approaches to leadership and corporate culture transformation. He is a renowned International Speaker and bestselling author of “The 6 Dimensions of Top Achievers”, “Identity Intelligence” and “Lessons from the Monkey King”, “The Psychology of Selecting the RIGHT Employee“, and “The Colored Brain Communication Field Manual“.
More from Arthur Carmazzi can be found at: www.directivecommunication.com and www.carmazzi.net
