“Motivation” is about motion – getting something, or someone, to move. Our research shows that the type of conversation you use will materially impact the likelihood of your success. Here’s how it works. Conversation for Understanding ONLY – Likelihood of Success = LOW. Using an Understanding Conversation on its own is the least likely to […]
This will be a multi-part post about “motivation”, i.e., getting people into action. Here’s the starting point: What does it take to get people to do what needs to be done? How do you get people into action? Why are people not doing what they are assigned? We often get these questions from managers who […]
That’s what a friend, Earl, said to me two months ago: “I can retire in 1 year and 1 ½ months.” I could tell this wasn’t a simple fact for him, because it was accompanied by a sad face and a sigh of defeat. This guy can’t wait to leave his job behind. We talked […]
The understanding conversation is the one that some senior-level managers and executives dislike. A VP in a financial firm once asked me, “Why should I ask people who work for me to give me input on a plan? Won’t they think I don’t know what I’m doing?” The difficulty is that it is a dialogue, […]
One of the myths the students and managers in my leading and managing change classes persist in believing is that people don’t “buy in” to a change is because there is something they don’t understand. They are mistaken. Implicit in this “myth of understanding” is the belief that understanding is the key to agreement, acceptance, […]
I recently talked to Jeremy, a staff member whose organization is changing from one type of work structure to another. Prior to the change, each work unit in the organization made recommendations on how the allocation of work in their area, who should do the work, and the timelines that should apply. According to Jeremy, […]
Managers undermine their integrity in following a “don’t tell them” strategy. The topic in my leading change class today was integrity and its impact on a leader’s ability to effect change. Integrity was defined as honoring your word and doing what you said you would do by when you said you would do it and […]
Successful change depends on the use of the four conversations. I recently led an MBA course on Leading and Managing Change to a group of practicing managers in which they were required to produce an “impossible change” – one that was currently well beyond their position and capability to produce. In other words, they couldn’t […]
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