Influencing Change without Saying a Word (Influence and Change 8 of 10)
Posted by Tim on May 19, 2011
What can Architects Teach us About Change?
Use Physical Space
Could someone become a better listener simply by rearranging her office?
What if you arrange the desk, chairs, and computer so that the only thing in her field of view when she speaks with a colleague is that person, and not other people outside the office, missed calls on the phone, or emails popping up on the computer monitor?
The way that the environment is arranged shapes how we interact with it, and with other people, often without our conscious knowledge. Humans usually use the path of least resistance when choosing what we do – that is, the behaviors that are easiest to do are also the most likely to take place. For example, organizations that want to foster more team collaboration between certain people can use the layout of the working area to put these people physically closer together – as a result, they often find that these people form stronger relationships and work more collaboratively. Consider the example of the chronic over-sleeper who places the alarm clock on the other side of the room, forcing him to get up and out of bed in order to turn it off. Consider the chocolate lover who manages to lose weight by simply not keeping sweets in the house.
Equip People for Success
Making the right choices easier and the wrong choices harder is a simple way to make the desired key behaviors more likely to happen. Managers who want to encourage their employees to think critically when making decisions can consistently ask critical thought questions regarding the decision process when employees come to them with a recommendation or decision – the employees will likely become used to having to answer these questions, and begin asking these questions as part of their own decision process. Teams who want to encourage use of a new process can make the process as simple and easy as possible, and possibly look for ways to make old, outdated processes difficult or impossible to use.
Part of making the right behaviors easier is equipping people to use them. For example, if your goal is to eat healthier food, you can “equip” the kitchen with several healthy choices that are easy to prepare. Similarly, if you are a manager trying to get your team to operate with more of a customer mindset, you can “equip” them with the knowledge and skills necessary for them to enact the desired key behaviors. When you provide the necessary tools, training, and resources, you make it easier for people to perform the key behaviors, making those behaviors more likely to happen. Keep in mind, however, that equipping people is only one piece, and like the other influence strategies, unlikely to create sustained change by itself.
Build Habits
A third way to use the environment to our advantage is to create momentum for the desired key behaviors. This is done by creating habits and “hardwiring” the right behaviors.
Have you ever had to push a car from one spot to another? It’s much harder to get the car moving than it is to keep the car moving, isn’t it? Habits are the same way: they take effort to create, which is a big reason that change is often so hard. But once habits are formed, they become part of our routine and are much easier to sustain.
One way to help form habits is to hardwire them into our behavior. This means creating processes and mechanisms that ensure that these key behaviors will occur. Consider the young professional who wants to make a habit of reading, but can never seem to find the time. By planning 10 minutes (only 10!) for reading each morning, and relentlessly committing to keep this time, he can create a habit that becomes easy to sustain once he’s used to it.
Seemingly arbitrary deadlines can also help. Consider the team whose strategic meeting that is highly important, but keeps being put off because it never feels as urgent as the daily fires that must be put out. By putting this meeting on the calendar and committing not to move it, the team can ensure that it actually takes place. Sometimes a deadline – while seemingly arbitrary – can be a good way to ensure that important (but not urgent) things actually take place.
Humans are creatures of habit and routine – the more we can hardwire the desired key behaviors into our habits and routines, the more likely those behaviors are to occur consistently.
Remember This
The easier the key behaviors are to do, the more likely they are to happen. You can impact the ease of use for these behaviors by arranging the physical environment to support the behaviors you want. You should also equip people with what they will need in order to enact the key behaviors. Finally, try hardwiring the key behaviors into schedules, building them into routines, and transforming them into habits, to ensure sustainability.
(1 of 10) Decrypting the “Impact Gene”
(2 of 10) Find the Behaviors that Matter
(3 of 10) Communicate Key Behaviors
(5 of 10) Building Necessary Capabilities
(6 of 10) Enlisting the Right Support
(7 of 10) Using Incentives for Change
