Why do so many smart and capable organizations and individuals struggle with achieving the desired results from change? Is it that the change is not right? The timing? The people? The tools? Was the training insufficient? Maybe the communications were inadequate?
The research (and our experience) tells us that the #1 reason for change not achieving the desired business outcomes is LACK of DESIRE. You ask ‘what do you mean?! Of course, we want to change!’ The ‘we’ is, in most cases, the big ‘We’ i.e. the organization, the team, the leadership. However, each organization, each team, even leadership, is comprised of individuals. Therefore, to truly succeed with change we need to ensure there is desire for the change at an individual level. This is where it can be complicated as individuals will have different reasons, and inhibitors, for that desire.
Enter Design Thinking and specifically, that first component of Design Thinking, Empathize. This is about getting into another’s shoes and uncovering the problems, barriers, concerns that need to be addressed. These are not the ‘reasons for change’ that the organization has outlined. Instead, it is uncovering the answer to two questions:
- The ‘Why’ i.e. the drivers and potential for desire
- The ‘Why Not?’ ie the barriers for desire
What are the groups or personas that will be impacted by this change? What are their goals? Challenges? Opportunities? Fears? How do they currently engage with the process/system/organization/area being changed? Taking the time to build out the profile of each persona and map out their current journey can take as little as a few moments, but the benefits are so great – keep focused on those desired outcomes from the change and what success means!
The answers to these questions are the second component of Design Thinking, Define. With a proper problem statement defined, you can now start to focus on the solution or the approach.
This is the third component, Ideate. Have an open dialogue as to what plan or approach to achieve that desire given the problem statement. Bounce the ideas off some members of those groups, try out the approaches, get feedback. Prototype. Test.
Even if we understand the importance of desire on the success of the change. If this is truly happening at an individual level, how does this scale? Here is where we need that quintessential group – MANAGERS! The Managers are the key, not only to scale but to the success of these efforts overall. The direct manager is who will have the relationship, the credibility and the, all practical, touch points to assess level of desire, have the conversations throughout all of the different stages of change. You are invested in making the change to drive that desired business outcome. Invest a little more time in the management of that change and specifically, nipping the ‘change success killer’ the lack of desire. Leverage the Design Thinking approach, the same one you use in solution visioning and design with your clients, to create that desire. Take the time to create those persona profiles and journey maps, define the problems, brainstorm options and take them for a test drive to identify the one that will best achieve desire for the change across the impacted groups.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-design-thinking-can-help-overcome-change-success-killer-gregory/