embracing and leading change

Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D.

www.bretlsimmons.com

PRSA “Elevate Your PRactice”

April 29, 2015

Embracing and

Leading Change

www.bretlsimmons.com

http://www.slideshare.net/BretLSimmons

simmonsb@unr.edu

What do you want

to learn today?

What are you going

to do today?

Leadership

The Process of Leadership

Assume responsibility for the choice to

engage with others and use your influence

to pursue substantive changes that

advance a shared purpose

The Process of Leadership

Assume responsibility for the choice to

engage with others and use your influence

to pursue substantive changes that

advance a shared purpose

What is the hardest choice you have to make

when you participate in this process?

Change

Yesterday’s home runs

don’t win today’s games

Babe Ruth

Continuous Change

Radical Change

Sigmoid Curve (Charles Handy)Sigmoid Curve (Charles Handy, 1995)

Discipline of The Second Curve

“..always assume that we are

near the peak of the first curve

and should therefore be starting

to prepare for the second” (p.57)

For anything to change, someone has to start

acting differently. Can you get people to start

behaving differently? (p.4)

Change Metaphor

Rider - Rational – Deliberates, analyzes,

looks into the future

– Provides planning and

direction

Elephant – Emotional– Feels pain and pleasure

– Provides the energy

Direct the Rider

Follow the bright spots:

Investigate and clone the successes

Destination

postcards:Shows the Rider

where you are

headed and the

Elephant why the

journey is worthwhile

Change is easier

when you know where

you are going and why

it is worth it

Script the critical moves

Be specific about the behavior you want to change

Direct the Rider

• What looks like resistance is

often a lack of clarity

• Clarity dissolves resistance

Motivate the Elephant

Find the feeling

Motivation comes from

confidence. The

Elephant has to believe

that it’s capable of

conquering the change

Shrink the change:

Break down the change until it

no longer spooks the Elephant

Sense of progress is critical

Make change a matter of identity, not consequences

Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What

would someone like me do in this situation?

Grow your people

Encourage a growth

mindset by praising

effort rather than skill

Growth Mindset

• Talent is NOT fixed unless you

believe that it is. Treat talent as

something almost everyone can

earn, not that just a few people

own.

• Everyone can learn to work

smarter

28

Motivate the Elephant

Change is hard because people wear

themselves out. What looks like

laziness is often exhaustion

Shape the Path

Tweak the environment. When the situation

changes, behavior changes

Build Habits

Supportive habits that are easy to embrace and

advance the new behavior

Action Triggers: Decisions you make to execute a

certain action when you encounter a certain situation

Checklists help educate

people about what is best by

showing then the right way to

do something

Rally the HerdBehavior is contagious; help it

spread

Shape the path

What looks like a people problem is

often a situation problem. When you

shape the path, you make the change

more likely, no matter what’s happening

with the Rider and the Elephant

The law of crappy

systems trumps

the law of crappy

people

36

Application

Identify a change that needs to happen right

now in your life or work. How can you can

direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and

shape the Path to help improve the success of

this change.

Questions?