Why Teams Resist Change (Even the Good Kind)
If you’ve ever tried to change something in your team – it could be as simple as the rules for using the coffee machine in the kitchen – and then said, “we’re changing this”, you know what happens next.
People’s antennas go UP.
Even if the change is good or needed, there’s talk, there’s resistance.
Humans being humans, change is often really just another word for: “risk.” Or “critique.” Or “more work.”
For a quieter (sometimes more effective) way to shift team culture, change what you measure – and not in the team’s KPIs.
This often leads to changing the culture without saying you’re changing the culture.
Real Examples: Quietly Changing Team Culture
Let me explain what I mean, so you can take this and make it yours:
Example 1: In your weekly team meeting you might add an item to discuss and measure something you want to change. Say you want your sales team to do more outreach to potential clients – adding an item to the weekly team agenda that asks about that will start to focus the team on how much of this they can do. It will probably take a few weeks for the team to start doing this consistently but once they know you will be asking about it, it will become something they focus on in their work.
Example 2 (this is from a client of mine): The leader talked about needing their team members to take more ownership for lodging their expenses. They added an item to weekly meetings to review missing invoices, which created a shift within a few weeks. How? Team members understood they would be held accountable and they changed their behaviour. Within a couple of months, the meeting agenda item wasn’t necessary anymore.
The Power of What You Choose to Measure
With both of these examples, the manager didn’t make a big issue of the change and didn’t talk about ‘changing the culture’. They just paid steady attention to one new thing, and the culture followed. The teams lifted, without seeing this as a Big change.
So, what do you want to see more of from your team?
And how can you start tracking it so they understand they are held accountable for it?
All good things,
Juliet Robinson
Leadership and Change Specialist
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