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 second segment, The Level, you will see the typical timeline of how a new change impacts a team. You may have felt this before at work where morale and productivity are at all-time lows before the tides change, people adjust, and both start to improve to even higher levels than before the change was introduced. Alex will outline this all for you on what’s called, “The Change Curve.”
Tune into our next segment, The Foundation, where Alex showcases the final steps along The Change Curve. You’ll also be challenged to think of the last time you had to go through any type of big change in your life. Using this example, Alex will walk you through the Circles of Change, which represent the stages we overcome in order to grow.
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[00:00:00] Alex Willis: Hey, welcome back to episode 10, my friends, where we're talking about change management and what you as a leader can do and how you can affect change really, really well within yourself as well as your organization. In our first segment, we really begin to talk about a few things to get you up and going.
[00:00:27] Alex Willis: Fast, right? So we said, Hey, listen, how do you get a quick ROI return on investment for change? Three things you gotta think about, speed of adoption, ultimate utilization and proficiency with your team. If you can get them to do all three of those things fast, you can begin to see huge value from the chain.
[00:00:43] Alex Willis: Now in this segment, as we talk a little bit about the level I want you to understand, The change curve that you can expect to see. So if I had to kind of give you a picture to think about, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. If you're driving or you're listening, you gotta visualize this. I want you to think about a graph.
[00:01:00] Alex Willis: On one axis, the vertical axis going up and down. Vertical, vertical, we have performance, right? So, so understand the higher up on this graph you go, the better your performance, right? On the vertical one. Now, on the horizontal axis at the bottom, you have time, time, time, time, right? So understand the farther you go out on this bottom vertical axis, the more time it takes, right?
[00:01:22] Alex Willis: So I want you to think about that. So if you're thinking about performance and time, those are two huge factors. There are huge, huge pieces of this thing called change, right? So, so as we get started, as we get started, the first thing that you can expect to see is what we like to call the denial stage.
[00:01:42] Alex Willis: The denial stage. Now, please understand the denial stage starts at the very, very top of performance because people have been performing at their current level pretty well. But because of the change, please understand that their performance is starting to drop. It's starting to drop because you're putting new techniques in new tactics, new things that you want them to do, so their performance is going down and it's in this denial stage that you'll see people being very indifferent.
[00:02:11] Alex Willis: People will have disbelief, ha, I can't believe we're doing this. Right? You'll see people going through the motions. You'll see people avoiding or trying to withdraw from the new process, right? What will you hear? What will you hear? As a leader, you're going to hear a lot of silence. A lot of silence. Some people saying, well, this is okay.
[00:02:30] Alex Willis: Don't worry. They've done this stuff before. They won't stick with it. You'll hear a lot of the naysayers saying stuff like that. As well as people saying, you know, well, I'm not worrying about this. It won't affect me right now. Please, please, please understand it's in this stage as a leader, you have to really begin to stick to your principles and really use what I like to call the denial stage strategies.
[00:02:54] Alex Willis: You have to, number one, provide frequent feedback about the change. And you have to really do that in such a way to let people know what is changing and what's not changing right now. Here's why you have to do that, because number two in this strategy is you have to address rumors quickly. Please understand when we are left to ourselves, my friends, we roam with our brains and we begin to tell all kind of things because we are indifferent about the change.
[00:03:21] Alex Willis: We don't know what the outcome's going to be, and so therefore, you have to really begin to address rumors really, really, really quickly. Right now. If you could begin to do that, even in the process of starting this, you could begin to have small wins of success here. Please, please, please understand it's in this process, my friends, that you're also going to see production start to decrease.
[00:03:48] Alex Willis: Production will go down. I want you to think about it from the example I gave you earlier from working out the first week of working out. How do you feel? You feel like shit. Let's be honest. You don't feel amazing, right? You're not like, yeah, man. This is the best thing I've ever done in my life, man. I feel great already.
[00:04:06] Alex Willis: No, you are sore. You are tired. You are like, why am I doing this right? And if you're not careful, most people quit because of that. Because instead of having this increase of energy, they even lost energy. They are tired, they don't feel good. They're like, Hey, it was better for me, dude, eating McDonald's. No offense to McDonald's, right?
[00:04:26] Alex Willis: But you know, they, they felt better doing it the other way because of change. So you have to understand, you have to push through this denial stage now. If you push through the denial stage, where do you go next? Well understand on that curve, you dip even farther down. You go from denial to resistance with yourself as well as most people.
[00:04:48] Alex Willis: What does that look like? Well, it's in this stage that you really begin to get angry and hostile sometimes like. Damn it. Why are we doing this? The other way was better. It just worked more efficiently. Right? You also began to hear a lot of complaining and a lot of people pushing the envelope trying to go back the other way.
[00:05:04] Alex Willis: Resisting, right? And it's in this stage that you'll hear, this is unfair. It doesn't make sense. I'm leaving, I'm quitting. Why are we doing this? Right? So, so understand that this resistance phase is where you as a leader, you really have to be strong. My friends. Oftentimes, this is where a lot of companies and organizations throw in the towel and turn away, right?
[00:05:30] Alex Willis: Why? Well, here's why. Because people are very upset. People don't like the processes going forward, as well as production is at an all time low. A i I think about that. My team is upset. The change isn't working well right now. Production is an all time low, and we've been doing it for a little while now, so it's not like we just started this yesterday.
[00:05:55] Alex Willis: So most leaders would look at this as a huge failure when truth be told, this is just part of the growth process, my friend, such as working out changing jobs, learning a new skill to play, instrument, foreign language, same process. You're going to have the resistance, and so what do you do? What are some of the techniques, some of the skills that you can do to get through and push through this zone?
[00:06:21] Alex Willis: Well, in the resistance zone, one thing you have to do is legitimize people's feeling. I know you think there's no feelings in construction. Hear me out, my friends. That's not true. You have to legitimize people's feelings. Now, what do I mean by that? Hey, you have to let 'em know, Hey, listen. I can understand why you feel that way.
[00:06:41] Alex Willis: We still have to stick to the change in where we're going, right? So you can legitimize their feelings, but still be firm to stick where you're going right now. It's also in this stage here that you have to really clarify the change, right? You have to really clarify the case for the change. Know here's why we're doing this, and this is where you as a leader have to do a great job of painting long-term vision of where we're going.
[00:07:06] Alex Willis: Here's why we're doing this. Here's where we're going with it. Please understand my friends. This works not only at work, but at home as as well with your family, with your kids, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, spouse, painting that long-term vision, creating a strong case as to why you're staying with the change.
[00:07:24] Alex Willis: In this stage here, you also wanna give more information of why we're doing it, why we're sticking to it, as well as you want to establish firm expectations. That you expect everyone to trust your leadership as well as the company and move forward with it. I'll say this, my friends, hands down. This will be your most challenging area for you because as I said before, it's in this stage right here that you really begin to struggle with moving forward because you've been doing it for a while.
[00:07:55] Alex Willis: People are tired, people are angry, they're frustrated. Production is down, usually morale is down, and this is where the cream rises to the top. This is where you as a leader have to understand where you're going, what you're doing, why you're doing it, and really begin to dig deep. To dig into your vision here in this stage right now, if you can push through.
[00:08:19] Alex Willis: You can begin to get to that middle of the curve. It's still low, but understand it's at this point, you've been consistent. You've legitimized feelings, you've clarified why we're doing it, painted a clear vision for the future. You've established clear goals that you expect people to stick with it, and it's at this stage.
[00:08:39] Alex Willis: Then all of a sudden, people begin to really test it because they really begin to see that, Hey, listen, our organization, the people that I'm working with, my leader on my team, They're sticking to their guns on this. So it looks like we're going to do this for real this time, right? So it's at this testing stage.
[00:08:55] Alex Willis: Here's what you're gonna see. If you could push through, it's almost like a light bulb goes off. Aha moments and you'll begin to see, looking at my notes, you'll see people exploring with new options, trying it out. You'll see people taking risks, right? Actually doing it going forward. At times you'll see activity without focus, which can be dangerous, a little time in construction.
[00:09:15] Alex Willis: So it's in this stage, you really need to be thinking about safety. If you put a new policy in place, you put new tools out there, some type of things, something of that nature. It's at this testing stage that most companies, most leaders see a increase in safety violations. So you as a leader, knowing the curve, knowing what you're up for, you can begin to act accordingly and do what I like to call are, call audibles so that you can really begin to master this and make sure it happens well.
[00:09:42] Alex Willis: So what do you, what will you hear? What will you hear? Right? What you hear? Enthusiasm. From your team. Finally you're like, whew. Finally, right? You'll hear optimism, you'll hear people say, Hey, let's try that. Or Hey, I got an idea. Maybe if we did this and this, we could get even better, right? So, so you'll get morale picking up.
[00:10:00] Alex Willis: So, so what do you need to do in this testing stage? Well, a couple things. Number one, focus on short-term goals. Don't think about the long term right now. It's in the testing stage. You gotta roll it back in because you're trying to get quick wins for your team. If you can begin to get quick wins for your team, similar to sports, momentum starts rolling my friends, and when momentum starts rolling, you can begin to conquer the world with that.
[00:10:26] Alex Willis: Right now. What else do you need to do? Well encourage people to focus and encourage them to try it even more. Right? So encourage 'em to focus, encourage 'em to try it even more. Encourage them to try new skills, to learn new skills around whatever the change is, right? And then last but not least, you really want to encourage their effort.
[00:10:47] Alex Willis: If you see 'em struggling, encourage 'em. Encourage 'em. This is your time to be a phenomenal cheerleader for your team right now. If you could begin to do that with the excitement and these aha moments that they have. Also having an awareness that safety could be a real challenge. You could begin to do a phenomenal job of guiding your team to this start of the uptick.
[00:11:10] Alex Willis: With the change. Now, in our next segment, we're gonna really dive into what that looks like, right? So I want you to think about this. We went through the denial starting out. Then we have resistance from people like, oh hell no, to now. Let me test it out. Let me see. And now as we talk about the next segment, we're gonna talk about what comes next and what you have to do as a leader to keep the momentum going.
[00:11:35] Alex Willis: But I'm gonna hold that for our next segment, right? I'm gonna leave you in the testing phase, and if you wanna learn what you have to do to keep you from going back, you have to tune in to our next segment of soul. I look forward to seeing you in our next. Segment the foundation. Hey, I want to thank you again for tuning in to No Bullshit with Alex Willis, the number one go-to source for leadership development in the construction industry, my friends, and don't forget to hit play on that next segment.