On today’s episode of No Bullshit with Alex Willis, Alex will make sure you understand that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks, and he will show you some strategies designed to assist you and your team as you face your next big change. By the end of all our segments, you’ll know why a herd of cattle will run away from an impending storm, while a herd of buffalo will run towards it.
Think back to the last time you went through a big change. Whether it was the last time you moved homes, when you married your partner, or your last promotion, you most likely experienced some levels of stress or growing pains as a result. And that’s okay, change is hard…for everyone.
On today’s episode of No Bullshit with Alex Willis, Alex will make sure you understand that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks, and he will show you some strategies designed to assist you and your team as you face your next big change. By the end of all our segments, you’ll know why a herd of cattle will run away from an impending storm, while a herd of buffalo will run towards it.
In our final segment, The Frame Out, we come full circle, and find out why cattle run away from the impending storm, and why buffalo run towards it. It might be surprising to find out who actually gets rained on the most. Hopefully by the end of the episode, you’ll know which herd you want to belong to.
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[00:00:00] Alex Willis: Hey. Hey my friends. Welcome back to episode 10 where we're talking about leading change and how you as a leader can impact change within yourself as well as your team. Welcome to the frame out where we're framing out what you need to look and think about before you even roll out a change, right? So, Just as a quick recap, in our first segment, we really begin to talk in the takeoff about the theory of change and how do you get.
[00:00:34] Alex Willis: A fast ROI return on investment fast, and we talked about three major things you have to do that I'm not gonna say now you gotta go back and check out that segment of checkout. Then from there we went and talked about the level. And in the level we really begin to talk a little bit about this thing called the change management curve.
[00:00:52] Alex Willis: And there's these key areas that you're going to go through that are hard as shit. That you have to go through In that segment, we talked a little bit about what you're going to see, what you're going to hear, as well as how you should respond. You gotta go back and check it out. And then if you think about the last segment, we really began to kind of even talk even more about the mindset that you have to have, right?
[00:01:13] Alex Willis: A growth mindset versus a fixed mindset and what that looks and feels like. But before you even roll out a change, what should you do? Well, there are several key things I need you thinking about that you should do. That you should frame out before you roll it out. So think about this. You have to really begin to think about all the aspects of that person's life.
[00:01:35] Alex Willis: I know most times you don't think about this. When you roll out change, you're like, well, it's the best process for the company. It's gonna make us a shit load of money. Let's do it Jim. Right? Let's do it Sarah. Let's do it ball. Let's do it, John. Right? Ah, you gotta think about the person. All the aspects. If you can do that well, you can think about where you may find some challenges and some hiccups so that you can get in front of it and get ahead of it, right?
[00:01:58] Alex Willis: So the first thing is processes the change. You roll it out. How will this change or affect the person's process that they do? So, so if you can think about that number one's process. The next one is systems. What type systems will be adjusted as a result of the change? So the process could be such as other things such as, hey, they do step one, they do step two, they do step three.
[00:02:21] Alex Willis: The system could be, uh, Hey listen, they use this software. It's going to change as a result of the change that we're implementing. The next thing is, hey, what tools Will, will, will Tools, tools, T O O L Ss be affected by the change? And if so, how would they be affected with that right there? Which takes us to the next one, which is the person's job role, the new change that we're adding.
[00:02:45] Alex Willis: Are we adding something to their plate that changes their role, right? That we need to go back and look at their roles and responsibilities to kind of say, Hey, listen, I know up until this point this wasn't a part of your role, but now because of the change here is part of your job role With the new change right now, once we can think about the role, the next segment that we can go into, when we can begin to analyze before we even put a change out, is critical behaviors.
[00:03:13] Alex Willis: What type of critical behaviors are needed or will be affected by the change, right? When you can begin to think about that, you can begin to talk about this with the person in advance to truly, truly help them with it. From there, once we understand the critical behaviors, the next one is mindset.
[00:03:30] Alex Willis: Attitude and beliefs, and we can lump all of those together. What type of attitude, beliefs, or mindset will be affected by the person because of the change? Now, this is the one area, my friends, we tend to not think about when it comes to our people, right? We don't think about, Hey, well will that mess them up mentally?
[00:03:48] Alex Willis: Right? I'm gonna give you a perfect example. In construction, when we begin to launch technology into construction, let's just say iPads, And VR software, all this stuff here, and we just rolled it out because hey, BIM models and all that stuff. Oh, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. Hey, we're going to do a prefab man.
[00:04:08] Alex Willis: It's gonna be awesome. Did anyone pull to think about the mindset, the beliefs, or the attitudes of our older or mature workers? Them having to relearn software, relearn computer programming, and many of them didn't even know how to use computers quite frequently. We thought about processes, systems, tools, but man attitude, mindset, how they're thinking about this, how they're feeling.
[00:04:39] Alex Willis: You gotta think about that so you can implement that in your communication strategy to help you out with that. Right? The next one is reporting structure. Will the change affect the person's reporting structure? How they report out, who they report to, who their supervisor is now, do they have multiple people that they're looking at?
[00:04:56] Alex Willis: You wanna think about that so that you can get ahead of that to ultimately do a great job. The next one is performance review. Will this affect their performance review and how we review them as far as what they're doing with this effect? The next stage is compensation. Are we going to have to give more money as a result of putting more responsibility on the person that we're working with?
[00:05:19] Alex Willis: And what does that look like? And then last but not least, my friends, last but not least, is location. Will they have to change location physically? Will they have to change location within the city, the state, out of the country offices? What does that look like? And then how does that affect them right now, if you can go through that laundry list of change.
[00:05:41] Alex Willis: Are those things that could be affected by change? And really begin to write out how each of those areas will affect your people. You can see phenomenal things, my friends, right? So with that being said, I wanna finish off with the story. Finish off with the story. Now, you know, I love stories, man. I'm a former animator, so I like cartoons and stories.
[00:05:59] Alex Willis: This story just helps sell points, right? So if you think about the difference between Buffalo. Buffalo. Right. And cows. Right. And cattle. Buffalo and cattle. Buffalo and cattle, they handle storms differently. Buffalo and cattle handle storms differently. What do I mean? Well, here's what I mean. Cattle look up and they see a storm coming at them and, and they get spooked.
[00:06:24] Alex Willis: They get scared because of the storm, because of the weather change that's about to happen. And so they turn and they sprint away from the storm. They try to outrun the storm, right? And here's the crazy part. Typically they spent a long ass time in the storm because they try to outrun the change that's coming toward them.
[00:06:43] Alex Willis: Now Buffalo, my friend, not so buffalo are totally different now, uh, where on the street is that Buffalo come together. When they see the storm coming toward them, they see the weather change coming. They come together and they charge the change. They charge toward the storm and actually run through it.
[00:07:04] Alex Willis: Here's the deal with that. As a result of their change in strategy versus the cattle, they spend less time in the store, right, because they actually go through it. So what am I challenging you to do? Well, I'm challenging you as leaders to embrace change. I'm challenging you as leaders instead of running from it, looking to complain about it.
[00:07:29] Alex Willis: Think big. Look toward the future. You are big enough. You can do this, my friends, right? And understand this. Everything in life changes. Everything in life changes, or it dies. Alright, so we have to understand in order to be great my friends, it's gonna require constant change. So I wanna challenge you to be comfortable going through that cycle of leaving your comfort zone, knowing you're gonna step into the fear zone, following it up with the learning zone, then the growth dissolve.
[00:08:03] Alex Willis: But be willing to do that cycle over and over and over again, and you will find that you become your best self. Over and over and over again because you embrace change with growth mindset. I wanna thank you for tuning in, my friends. Thank you for checking out and hanging out with me here today. Trust me.
[00:08:22] Alex Willis: Trust me, trust me, if you implement these principles, it will make your life phenomenal. I'll see you next episode. So I wanna thank you again, my friends, for tuning in to No Bullshit with Alex Willis, the number one go-to source for the leadership development in the construction industry. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcasting platform to be notified when we release new episodes.
[00:08:43] Alex Willis: Now, please, please, please, please, please remember we are here for you. We wanna hear from you, my friend. So. If you are going through any kind of leadership chat, anything on the job site, anything in the office that you want to discuss and need help with, we wanna make sure we are here as a resource for you so that you can be phenomenal both at work and well and at home.
[00:09:05] Alex Willis: So with that being said, my friends, until next time, see you later my friends.