Making changes sustainable – effective collaboration
In our ‘Be Your Best Self workshops’, a common stressor for line managers is, a constant battle to sustain the changes they are trying to achieve. They often complain once they focus on a new project, everything unravels and they have heaps of repeat work to do, unhappy customers and frustrated team members.
Collaboration and accountability are essential to sustain change and are also brilliant behaviours to ensure teams are resilient and have great mental health.
Gino summarised really simply what managers could to embed change effectively:
1. Teach People to Listen, Not Talk
We fail to listen because we’re anxious about our own performance, convinced that our ideas are better than others’, or both. As a result, we get into conflicts that could be avoided, miss opportunities to advance the conversation, alienate the people who haven’t been heard, and diminish our teams’ effectiveness.
2. Train People to Practice Empathy
Being receptive to the views of someone we disagree with is no easy task, but when we approach the situation with a desire to understand our differences, we get a better outcome.
3. Make People More Comfortable with Feedback
Good collaboration involves giving and receiving feedback well—and from a position of influence rather than one of authority.
4. Teach People to Lead and Follow
A lot of attention is paid, in the literature and in the practice of management, to what makes a truly effective leader. There has been much less consideration of how to follow, though that, too, is an important skill.
5. Speak with Clarity and Avoid Abstractions
In any collaboration there are times for open discussion of ideas and times when someone, regardless of whether he or she is a leader, needs to cut through the confusion and clearly articulate the path forward. This is an essential skill for a leader.
