Are You Waiting For Them To Change?

Sure you are. Me, too.

And why not? "They" have received performance reviews, performance feedback, 360 feedback, assessment center feedback, team feedback, and feedback about the validity of the feedback.

Then, "they" were exposed to workshops, seminars, leadership and management development programs.

It's reasonable to think that we're going to see changed people; people who have learned and decided to use the very best knowledge and methods for managing their organizations.

Dan McCarthy started me thinking about this with his post about retaining middle managers and a related Knowledge at Wharton Article.

Dan's synopsis:

"OK, so we need to engage them, treat them with respect, and recognize their contributions. Sounds like the same things we need to do to develop and retain generation Y, generation X, diverse employees, or any other employee. This all seems to simple - and doesn't cost anything!

I've gotta believe any reasonably intelligent leader gets this. So why the big gap between "knowing" and "doing"??"

Why the gap?

I spend the bulk of my time working with organizations who want to answer that question and do something about it. Here's what I've observed:

After decades of verifiable research, first-hand observation, and workshops/seminars, etc., managers don't really exhibit much change--other than the fact that people "know" what they should do but often don't do it.

So, we have to go back to each organization and ask: "What are you really rewarding?" vs. "What do you say is right?"

What people "know" is that if they "do" a certain thing, it will either be rewarded or at least not punished.

If we watch each organization, we can find out the unspoken rules that actually drive managerial behavior. These can include systems that reward short-term cost cutting while asking for long-term growth; sales goals that are acknowledged as unrealistic but are still measured each month with a warning "from above" about the consequences of not making your target (even if we all know, (wink), that they can't really be reached; or, creating self-directed teams who discover at year-end that each has still been paid according to his/her individual scale with no financial acknowledgment of outstanding team performance.

Every time there is a mismatch between stated purpose and reality, there is an increase in the gap between "knowing" and "doing."

Why not? There's nothing to be gained by doing the requested "right" thing.

What's causing the knowing-doing gap in your organization?

Comments

[Steve Bannister]

Steve,

So true!

"Minding the Gap" is everything. I read a great book by Luc de Brabandere called, "The Forgotten Half of Change" http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Half-Change-Creativity-Perception/dp/1419502751.

Brabandere talks about how people have no problem changing their environment but they have a huge problem in changing their perspective. Successful change involves changing twice (environment and perspective).

Thanks for the post and keep up the great work on your blog!

Cheers,
Steve

[Steve Roesler]

Steve,

Man, you just gave me a great line for tomorrow morning. Am sitting in a hotel room getting ready to do a team session with some folks who are undergoing more changes than most people ever have to endure at a job. the "environment/perspective" approach could go a long way to helping them.

Apologies to you and the London Underground for pinching the photo:-)