Changing Attitudes

All too often, well planned programmes designed to create change within an organisation fail to achieve what they set out to achieve. The intentions were good, the process was good, the plan was well established, but the end goal was not achieved. Why is this?

By Mike Gourley, Director, Human Synergistics

Our research shows that the answer lies in people's attitudes - how they think and behave on the job - not only those in leadership positions but everyone throughout an organisation.

For genuine change to take place, things need to be done differently. That means people will need to think and behave differently.

Every successful change programme has one key element common to all - they address thinking and behaviour and approach changing attitudes through learning. Changing the way we do things is all about learning - learning new ways of thinking about what you do and how you do it.

Those programmes that do not end in successful change usually fail because they expected people to do things different simply because they were told to. Whether it's a CEO's new vision and values, a services firm trying to improve customer service or a factory attempting to improve its safety record, posters, directives, announcements and other exhortations simply don't work.

There is a truism in adult learning: adults learn through a process of enquiry and discovery. That means people need to be involved in a process that has them decide that the best thing to do is to change. But most organisations just try to tell people that they have to change.

To put it blunty: people will tolerate the conclusions of their leaders, but they will ultimately only act upon their own conclusions.

So what does this mean in terms of successfully implementing improvement programmes?

1. Involving organisational members in small groups to learn problem solving and goal setting.
2. Training those in leadership positions in the skills required to this.
3. Using groups to explore the issues, set goals and build solutions.
4. Providing feedback to managers to help them learn leadership and management styles that facilitate rather than constrain people's performance.
5. Educating those in leadership positions in achievement thinking and achievement motivation so they are aware of strategies for building this throughout the organisation.
6. Building genuine leadership capability - transforming managers into leaders.
7. Focusing on the organisation's culture and how this encourages or hinders change.

There is so much cynicism about change because most change initiatives go about it the wrong way. In our experience, people can and do change. Entire organisations can change. We've seen the results.

At the individual level we know people change because we use tools to measure behaviour. In pre-and-post tests, 75% of managers show significant positive change.

In one company, independent academics reviewed the data and related changes in managers' styles with changes in performance of their business units. This study showed that the more managers changed to constructive styles of leadership, the more sales went up, staff turnover went down and other factors affecting profit improved. In fact, the study showed that, on a return on expenditure basis, for every $1 spent on leadership development the company received $10.80 return on investment (from increased sales and increased profitability) at the business unit level.