#14 - Change: how we react, how those around us are impacted, and how to thrive.

Hey, we're live. It's Mike and Sam, and thanks for joining us today. It's exciting. It's nice weather outside, but we're in here because we have some things we want to share with you. Mike—

Talk about change. I'm going to interrupt you right there. I think the weather is changing from where I am to where you are because we do not have nice weather where I am.

Well, your dog was just outside. Who would send their dog out? Who would send their dog out in bad weather? Come on, Mike.

Somebody's humane and lets a dog do what it needs to do.

Okay. Okay. So, you're saying that the weather is changing from where you are to where I am?

That's correct.

Well, you know, that's very interesting because we said maybe we should talk about change today.

That's right. So, and I know you have a lot of strong feelings about change and helping people change. And wow, are we in an era of change right now? I mean, this is the definition. of change the last 6 weeks in so many people's lives. What do you think are the keys, Sam, to coping and thriving through a period of change?

Well, in any organization, change is really what's going to produce what's next for the organization. Not all change is good, but all good is going to flow through some form of change. And we are facing change now. It's really key for a leader to communicate 3 pieces of information if they want to make change something that's easily adaptable and adopted by their people. One, what is it that we're going to change? You need to communicate the what. The next is, how are we going to change? You need to communicate how we're going to change. And the third piece of information is, why are we changing? And sometimes there's some change that's thrown on us that's out of our control. But sometimes, and a lot of times, we are generating change because we're trying to transform the organization. The reason it's so important to communicate what are we changing, why are we changing, how are we changing Is because there are people in our organization. They need to know what is changing. If they don't know what's changing, they can't get on board. Those are the what people. Then there's the why people. They need to know why things are changing. And if you don't give them that information, they can't get on board. And then there are the how people. And they need to know. And all they need to know is, how are we doing it? Give me the 3 steps, the 4 steps, the 5 steps, and I'm on board. Now, here's the key. There's always that one person that's that we call them the troublemaker. They always ask a bazillion questions and they are disruptive, it seems like, and they resist change. They're not the troublemaker. They are the what, why, how people. And those are the people that need to know what is changing, why it's changing, and how it's changing. Accountable leaders always communicate all that information because they're dealing with transparency.

And when you put that out there, the Well, I think one of the biggest mistakes people make with all 3 of those is they don't bring people into the relationship decision-making process prior to the announcement. Right? So they, they have a small group making all these big plans for everybody else without bringing everybody else in there. And you cannot build mutuality, mutually amazing relationships in an organization when you make it about a tiny tribe running the rest of the, the organization. community. You need to bring everybody into the change process. When you do that, they gain ownership; they are part of the how. They might not be part of the why, right? You have to, you might have to draw that out and bring them in. But they could be a huge part of the how, which can really make a big difference in how an organization transitions through change.

Exactly. And, and a lot of that really deals with transparency and trust. And so, do the people trust leadership? If they don't trust leadership, then there is an underlying major issue. So, trust has to be in place. Transparency is what's going to be a part of generating that trust. So, do they trust leadership, first of all? Then, second of all, does leadership trust their people? If leadership doesn't trust their people, that's when they keep them out of the decision-making process. They just don't think they're— they don't trust their people. They don't think they're qualified. They devalue their people. And that's a bad situation as well. When a leader is willing to be transparent and say, OK, we have an issue. We need to address this. We need to come up with a better way of doing something. It's going to impact people. It's going to impact the organization. What are your thoughts? And you get them involved in the conversation, then they're part of driving that change.

Yeah, one of the things I've seen, we were once in a company's meeting room there. We had their Strategic Leadership Council round. And this conversation came up about Transparency versus privacy. And those are 2 very different topics. And what'll sometimes happen in a company is what you keep private, people think is manipulation versus, versus being transparent. But you actually need both. You need transparency, and there are items that are private. You don't have the right as an employee to know everybody else's business, as an example.

Exactly. That's private.

So there, when you go through change, you have to be able to explain to the organization There are gonna be some things we are not gonna be able to announce until certain times because of the way things roll out to honor or make sure this runs smoothly and honor all parties involved. We're gonna be as transparent as possible, but there's still some privacy in some changes that occur. And so we have to honor that.

Well, and there's legal issues. Maybe you're rolling out a new— a name change, for instance, and you're trying to get a registration on a name. And so you just can't share the new name until the registration is in place and you have the protection that you need.

But I'm going to go— that's a great example. That's a privacy issue that we are trying to keep that private on purpose because—

Exactly.

Protect.

But I'm going to go back to what I said before, and this is key. What's the trust in the relationship? When people do not trust leadership, then every step of the way, it's a challenge. And when, when leadership is truly accountable and has built this relationship of trust over time, then people understand that some things are private, some things that just can't be shared. They'll tell us, you know what, they'll let us know when we need to know. When people feel that way, then there's this high degree of trust. And, but that is something that leadership has earned, not that the people have earned. That's something that leadership has earned by their actions.

Yeah. And it's huge. It makes a big, big impact there. And so, what we want to be able to do is make sure that if you're an organization and people say, oh, we don't trust, what I have found, Sam, often when they don't trust is that every, the constant, always in motion of change. So, there's no trust because you're always throwing new at us and it never lands. And you never actually do everything you said. And that's a big part of not trusting change. is when an organization's constantly throwing ideas out, you're in a constant turmoil of change. So you don't trust the next one because the last one didn't happen. And, and 1 out of 10 happens. And I have to be very aware of that as a leader myself. I can get excited and spitball these ideas. I have to be very clear, I am brainstorming right now, because if I don't say that out loud, it can sound like I'm making all these changes all the time. And there's a huge difference.

Well, exactly. And then, it looks wishy-washy. You don't know what leadership is thinking, what they believe, or the direction they should go. That looks like there's a lack of leadership at the highest level. People don't know who to follow. And it's like, we see these organizations where they run these initiatives out. And it's like the program of the month kind of deal. Oh yeah, it's just another program. It'll, you know, I don't need to get on board. It's going to pass anyway. And because there's no real commitment from leadership, there's no commitment to a set of values, a set of beliefs, a direction, knowing really what your purpose and mission are. And so then, all this stuff comes up. Now, when there's a solid foundation and when there's trust and when leadership says, we're turning left at the light, everyone's on board. And then, change is nothing but a decision at that point. And off you go.

Well, and there's a major factor there too. Typically what you were describing there, the individuals do not have a personal why. So the organization might have threw out a why. Here's why we're doing this. We have not tied it into your personal why, which is essential. And that's a big piece a lot of organizations miss. They go, we're going to broadcast our why, but they didn't go around and figure out what's the why for all of our people to be in on this. And are we driving from their why and our why? Is that a shared why?

Yeah, well, bottom line is that change is incredibly important. There are changes that are forced on us, like the changes we're facing right now just in society. And we don't know where they're going to go. And people are concerned about that. And so, we need to be aware of that. But then, there are the changes that we're proactively driving in our lives and in our organizations. And those changes based on decisions that we make determine where we end up. And so we need to position ourselves to embrace change, to look for ways to change, because that's what's going to allow us to thrive and create sustainability.

Love it. And what a great way for us to wrap up today, Sam. We want to make sure everybody watching knows you can find us on youtube.com/SamSilverstein, youtube.com/CenterForRespect, and you can always find us on iTunes. Just look up Mike and Sam. Thanks for joining us.

Everybody stay well.