On a more down to earth level, consider a young woman I knew whose long career at the company consisted of moving from one low level clerical job to another. She saw others move ahead. She knew that the clerical position she held had the potential to become a professional position with responsibility and authority, but her requests to upgrade the position were largely ignored. Eventually, the function of which she was a part moved to a different department, exposing her to an entirely new management team.

After a time, she requested a meeting with her new supervisor, and in so many words, asked, “Why can’t I get ahead?”

And this is what her new supervisor told her:

“There are some business credentials required to perform the position at a higher level. We can identify what it will take for you to earn those credentials.

“But more fundamentally, there are some things we need to talk about that prevent others from seeing you as a professional and thinking of you as an employee with potential to contribute in a more significant way.”

And she went on to discuss the employee’s business attire, language and vocabulary, work ethic and attitude. This was not an easy conversation, as you can imagine. It was emotional. It was deeply personal. There was a lot at stake.

But it was a breakthrough conversation that had an enormous impact on the young woman’s life. She made it possible by demonstrating trust in asking, and her supervisor responded courageously, in a respectful, engaged way, with the information that employee needed.

I don’t use the word “courageous” lightly. These are “courageous conversations,” as fellow communicator Ellen Cooperperson terms it. And they are genuine conversations – not soliloquies by the person in authority.

Is there a courageous conversation in your future – with a family member, colleague, friend? Probably. And if you approach it with the right spirit and attitude, it could change your life.

Lesson one: when you are passing the mantle of responsibility to another, hand it off properly.

Andy, on his way out to town to college, hands over his beloved toys to a little girl. He could have simply dropped them off with her; instead he stays to play one last time, fulfilling his own need to say a last goodbye, and introducing her to the wonders and possibilities of his toys.

Lesson two: know your employees’ strengths and use them to accelerate the team’s success.

Mr. Potato Head uses his parts instead of his head to become floppy Mr. Tortilla Head and go places no potato could go. Barbie channels her fashion diva to divert Ken into headlining his own runway show. Slinky Dog becomes a bridge. And the Aliens demonstrate they can do more than just worship The Claw –they can operate one, too.

Lesson three: Act like a team.

The theme of torn loyalties aside, the joy of the movie is seeing the characters display their commitment to each other over and over, forgiving their frailties and weaknesses, finding strength in each other, and leaving no one behind – not even El Buzzo.

That was the answer Washington, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who resigned today, gave to an NPR reporter when asked what she learned from her controversial 3-1/2 year stint. Rhee is stepping down because yesterday her champion, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost his bid for a second term. She was appointed by Fenty to “fix” DC’s notoriously bad public schools and accepted the position with the understanding that she would report to no one but the mayor. She used her authority to fire underperforming teachers, close underperforming schools, and negotiate a performance-based rather than seniority-based contract with the teacher’s union. She was unapologetically aggressive and tough, and unsurprisingly, she was hailed as a hero by some and demonized by others.

Much of what you need to know about how to handle a major change is contained within this 5 minute story: DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Resigns

Did she have a champion? Check.

Did she receive the power and authority to make the change? Check.

Did she have a clear mandate? Check.

Did she have a strong team? Check. 

So what went wrong? Here it is in her own words:

“One of the biggest mistakes we made was we did not have good communication, proactive and aggressively getting out there talking about what the decisions were that we were making, why we were making them, why it was going to help move student achievement forward. ..” In other words, she did not make a compelling business case for change.

“We didn’t communicate particularly well with teachers …” In other words, she didn’t engage and enlist her stakeholders — the people with a vested interest in the change.  Who were Ms. Rhee’s biggest stakeholders? Teachers and parents. They not only didn’t feel enlisted, they felt actively disenfranchised. 

“Along the way we realized those shortcomings and we  tried to course correct. We put some things in place over the past year and a half that have helped tremendously…” But it was too little, too late, and now both she and her champion, the Mayor, are out.

It’s counterintuitive, but the truth every leader needs to know is: to be successful, you must sell the change to your stakeholders, even when you have the power and authority to make it happen without their agreement.

It’s not that she can’t use her badge to swipe herself into a different department, and she does so when she goes to formal meetings. But the new building’s layout and locked doors put an end to the chance meetings that used to take place.

People need physical access to one another. The flow of information, energy and creativity inside a building is as much physical as technological. Hallway and “stop-by” conversations reinforce connections, breed collaboration. Little bits of work get done. Solutions are offered, ideas are hatched, dots are connected and good will is built in the activities that take place between formal meetings.

If your building is full of closed doors, you might want to think about the impact it’s having on your employees. And your customers.

That the execs were surprised makes me suspect that minimal thinking was done about who will handle their work. So I predict that right now, and for a while, roles at BofA may be unclear, processes may be broken, and deadlines will be blown. Employees who reported to these individuals may or may not know to whom they now report. Questions about projects that only the departed execs could answer will go unanswered for a time. Some calls will never be answered. That scenario is probably not what BofA wanted, and it could have been avoided.

In many companies, the thinking about layoffs doesn’t really go much beyond the act of termination. When leaders plan a layoff, their thoughts are typically focused on the event – getting the documents and severance packages together and making the announcement.

I counsel them to think about a wider set of issues:
• What do you want the remaining employees to think about the company after you do this?
• How will you tell affected individuals?
• How and what will you tell their colleagues and staff?
• How does this affect the roles of those who will absorb the work? How will they perceive this?
• How will you tell the internal customers/partners of those individuals and departments?
• How will you plan for work continuity? Whose job is that?
• How do you want departing employees to feel about the company?

Contemplating these questions can put a very different face on the effort, and lead to more thoughtful decisions and a more complete plan for going forward. And that is better for everyone.

Sound familiar? I hear these expressions all the time, and say them, too. How often, though, are these apparent requests for feedback actually accompanied by a pause for a response?
Less often.
Why’zat?
Because usually when we utter these words, we are really just looking for validation that it’s okay to keep on talking. If we really wanted to hear from the other party, we’d ask for her thoughts, and go silent. That’s hard. It takes discipline and patience not to jump in while the other person is collecting her thoughts before speaking. It takes focus to stop mentally teeing up our next thought. And it takes courage, because we might not receive the response we were hoping for.

If you are a leader, deciding to make the change is the easy part. Helping your managers and employees understand and implement the change so you get the results you want is the hard part. So often, companies invest heavily in the technical side of a change without really thinking through the impact on their employees. Nearly any change requires redefining employees’ roles, expectations and behaviors, and many leaders just assume employees will figure it out. But that doesn’t always work.

Failing to address the people side of change can create major hurdles for a business. Here are seven signs of trouble:

1. Employees complain there is “no communication”
2. Managers protect their turf
3. Employees do end-runs around new authority and workarounds on new processes they don’t like or understand
4. Customer complaints increase
5. Decision-making slows to a crawl
6. Good employees leave
7. Employees burn out, give up, go into “coast” mode

Leaders can get better results from their change initiative by appreciating that change will naturally disrupt their employees’ feelings of stability and comfort. While you may be excited about what the change will do for your business, employees are nervous about what the change will do to them.

A wise approach is to think through the implications for jobs, roles and individuals, and communicate both what the impact will be to an individual, and what is in it for them. By doing so, you will be light years ahead of the game. 

That information is an essential part of what an employee needs to process, understand, accept and internalize the change.  And receiving it from you, in respectful, appropriate way, goes a long way toward creating the type of atmosphere and culture that will help your business soar.

If someone asked you to describe your work style, expectations and preferences, what would you say? Your description could include preferences for email and phone response times, meeting protocols, criteria for escalating a problem to you. Here is an example from a real life email from a VP to a group of staff from a remote location who were reassigned to him: “The best way to reach me is by email, and that is my preferred mode of communication. I’m a 24/7 guy, so I do expect you to be checking your Blackberry evenings and on weekends. If the issue is really important, I do want a reply.” 

That’s pretty clear.

Some people are quite adept at “reading” others and figuring out how to work with (or around) them. Not everyone can, though, and it’s just plain faster if you tell your staff how to work effectively with you. Not only will it normalize the idea of talking about workstyles, it will require you to take stock and assess your habits and behaviors.  You might find that enlightening.

Here’s why. Making a change in your organization will likely mean that someone will start doing something she doesn’t do today. Or stop doing something. Or be accountable for something he’s never been measured on before. She may now receive work electronically instead of via paper. He may face a stiff learning curve with a new software program. She may move to another floor, which means associating with different people. Some employees will start work sooner/stay later. Coworkers won’t be able to go to lunch together because now the phones have to be covered during lunchtime. Those things can feel like a loss – a loss of something familiar, safe, known, liked or even just tolerated.

Change impacts the power status quo. It’s possible that someone will lose authority or unofficial power they have enjoyed. For example, say you have a long, onerous process in a part of your business. That probably means there is someone in your organization – a workaround hero – whom everyone calls to get around it. His status and place at the center of activity will change when you fix the process.

It’s also likely that the change will result in someone gaining responsibility. That seems like a good thing, right? You might be surprised to discover that the employee is uncomfortable with her new visibility and accountability, and longs to be invisible again.

So what can you do? First, there is value in thinking about who will be affected and how when designing your change. Second, there is a Yiddish expression: “Everything is good when you talk it over.” This is the essence of successfully managing people through change. Let people articulate how the change affects them. Acknowledge it. Talk about how it affects you too. And always remind people of the WHY of change – why we’re making ourselves uncomfortable now, to get a new, better result.

As it moves, the head of this creature engages with everything from predators to food to weather far sooner than the rest of its body. Metaphorically speaking, the head is aware of change, and is processing information and weighing consequences related to a response, long before the rest of the body has a clue.

Metaphorically speaking, as the “head” of your business, so are you. You know sooner than your employees do when something outside the company – regulation, the economy , competition, technology, customer buying habits – demands a change to the way you do business.  That means you have two things your employees don’t have – a head start on processing the ramifications and the power to do something about it.

When communicating with employees about business change, it’s easy to forget that they have had neither your vantage point, nor the time you have had to think about the implications.  Suspended on that long neck, you’ve “traveled” miles, looking at things from high and low, from multiple angles.  But the view is pretty different from the legs and tail!

If you can start the change conversation where your employees are, rather than from where you are, and be patient enough to let them process the implications, the respect and restraint you show will be repaid with a better outcome. 

+ with apologies to Stephen Jay Gould!