As HR leaders from major operations can testify, staff bring to work deeply engrained values and behaviour that will either hinder their performance or for some will help them excel. Through the programmes we have developed with our clients, I truly believe that the following five stage model might help you embed successful behavioural change to drive performance within your organisation.
Create awareness through a burning personal platform
In order to change behaviour, people must be personally aware of the change they need to create. If there is no burning platform then change and desire to change is limited from the outset. So in the workplace, businesses might have the best thought through learning interventions, but unless they create awareness within individuals for the need to change their behaviour or they lack a genuine and purposeful burning platform the change will be limited.
Create a conscious choice to change
Essential to any programme's success is the need to drive real engagement in people to be the change they need to be. It is this emotional connection within people that will truly motivate them to embrace new ways of working. Some examples of supporting people make a conscious choice to change, include creating 'disturb' scenarios and activities that can often be uncomfortable, to bring this to life for people, allowing them to experience the impact of their current behaviour and how it might feel to others. Once individuals make a personal and conscious choice to change there is greater chance it will lead to new behaviours.
Create leverage in your organisation
Behavioural change fails because leaders don't share what is it they need to change for fear of revealing the cracks in their personality. This important stage is often overlooked at peril - the ability to create an environment where change is encouraged, supported and allowed to happen is crucial. All too often the pre-conceived ideas that others have of individuals in work, act as a barrier for change to take place, for example, if we all know that a leader is a poor communicator, then we are not likely to be open to seeing a change in their behaviour, because our expectation is that they won't change. It is crucial to engage others to support individuals learning, allowing individuals to explore pre-conceived ideas that may exist about them. This can be very challenging particularly at a leadership level as it requires individuals to be open about their development and invite others to support them in a very tangible and visible way. I believe it is this stage that can create a seismic shift in culture change and is where most organisations fail.
Encourage active learning
This stage is all about acquiring new knowledge and taking action. Based on 70/20/10 learning, blended with in-the-moment coaching, learning can be embedded through key re-enforcement steps including observation (in situ), teaching others what's been learned and stages of reflection and accountability. Intentionally practice and read about it. Old habits take time to change so it's important to include embedding activities and consolidation support to ensure new habits are formed in your operation.
Make new behaviours stick
Emerging from the 'active learning' phase, the most important part of creating any change and continuing to drive performance is making it sustainable so new habits become truly embedded and they feel like second nature. So it's crucial for HR leaders to make sure that there are internal learning mechanisms in place and there is real alignment with development and performance plans. Consolidating the newly developed skills of your leaders or staff is imperative to the success of improving performance.
Marc Jantzen (pictured), CEO of Blue Sky Performance Improvement is one of 30 top UK CEOS that took part in the Sports Relief Leaderboard Triathlon challenge at Blenheim on Sunday 10 June.
