European Master in International Management
Thesis on Change Management The positioning of the consultant confronted to resistances in the framework of Change Management project in the public sector Marine Vincent 20/09/2010
Hochscule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Dresden
Skema Business School, France
Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, Moscow
Summary I. QUESTIONS ON CHANGE MANAGEMENT ISSUES
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1.
What Change Management notions cover exactly? a) What is Change? Notion of Change in philosophy (Heraclitus and Parmenides) b) The two types of Change (G. Bateson) The learning process of Change (G.Bateson) c) What is change in the framework of Change Management? Definition and objectives of Change Management Change viewed as a break-down The obstacles to change d) The purpose of Change Management? Change : an ever-present reality Change factors which explain this reality Toward a control of Change Management
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2.
How to approach Change Management? a) An Imperative: Modifying our way of thinking The limit of the disjunctive and analytic model The pertinence of the systemic model b) Change is produced and provoked through interaction Communicating is different from informing Efficient dialogues produce Change Power games: symmetrical and complementary c) The quality of the communication: a fundamental condition The verbal language The non verbal language Precision in the data processing and collection
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II. IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CONFRONTED TO RESISTANCE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 26 1.
Characteristics of the public sector and Change Management practices a) The public sector in France Presentation Problematic b) What are Change Management practices? Methodology of Change Management The structure of Change Management
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2.
The management of the resistance a) Analysis of resistance in a company The value system of a company b) Methodology of taking advantage of the resistance Clarify the statement of the problem Projecting the future wished Detect and mobilize resources c) How to negotiate when confronted to resistance? Focus on interdependence Conflicts and mediation: the necessity of a third person Application for efficiency negotiations
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3.
The positioning of the consultant confronted to resistance a) At the level of the relations skills b) At the level of the management
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INTRODUCTION With the subject of “the positioning of the consultant confronted to resistance in the framework of a Change Management project in the public sector”, I tried to define the best approach and personal qualities that a consultant need to have, if he/she wants to overtake the natural resistance met in a Change Management project within the public sector. In most of the cases, in the framework of a Change Management project, a consultant faces the natural resistances of the actors who live the change. Theses resistances are particularly important in the French public sector that is why to take the public sector as starting point appears to be interesting. However, the subject of this thesis is meant to be to be much larger in its analyze. It takes up a larger view than only centering on the issues of the public sector. Even if the positioning of the consultant changes according to the context of the project or the activity of the sector, his/her approach and behavior towards the resistance should reflect a real way of thinking. The following thesis develops the main idea according which a consultant should develop his/her relational skills if he/she wants to integrate the change on a permanent basis. For a consultant, the development of interpersonal skill more than only technical know-how represent the best mean to deal with the change resistance. In fact, the objective is clearly to engage a deep reflection on the concepts of “Change Management” and “resistance” to be able to assert a point of view on behaviors and approaches a consultant should have to succeed in managing people working in the project. Consequently, my questions are, essentially, at first, based on the problematic of the Change Management and then, around the implementation of behavior and approach for the consultant.
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I. Questions on Change Management issues 1. What Change Management notions cover exactly? a) What is Change?
Notion of Change in philosophy (Heraclitus and Parmenides)
The notion of Change is not a new idea. If we go back to the 6th century, we realize that the three most important schools in Greek philosophy have already thought about the problem of Change. Heraclitus was the first philosopher who highlights the close relationship between Change and permanence. According to him, reality is the result of the perpetual meeting of the two. He emphasizes the ineluctable experience of Change: “everything changes…We never swim twice in the same river” (“Tout coule…On ne se baigne jamais deux fois dans le meme fleuve”). The Being is in perpetual future. Nothing stays how it is and nothing finishes. Everything continually changes, everything is future. On the contrary, Parmenides, his contemporary, considers that the unity of the Being makes it impossible to experience the future. The Being is timeless because what is born doesn’t die, the Being is one, indivisible and non-exposed-to Change. But, according to Parmenides, humans are betrayed by the perception of their senses and the Change in nature does not really exist. He states that reality cannot be understood through our senses but only through reason. We must wait for Hegel, twenty centuries later, to unite the two positions. He insists on the fact that we cannot think about Change without its relation to the notion of permanence. Change awareness can take place only in relation to permanence. But time and Change are invisible, intangible, and inexorable. Although the world changes continually, the awareness
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of this evolution cannot be understood in “real time” but only once the events are over. There will always be a gap between the awareness of Change and the reaction it provokes.
b) The two types of Change (G. Bateson) All living-systems, human or social, are regulated by two fundamental tendencies, the one toward the evolution, the other toward the homeostasis or “dynamic stability”. The relation between both generates all the complexity of Change Management in living-systems. Gregory Bateson, a key figure of the Palo Alto School, has introduced a few essential points for the comprehension of Change Management processes. He distinguishes two types of Change: Change 1 which takes place within a system and Change 2 which affects and modifies the system itself. Change 1: Homeostasis Change 1 allows a system to maintain its stability: the modification operates only on the elements of a system. The homeostasis of a system consists in its aptitude to self-correct its internal or external elements which threat its balance. The cliché, “The more we change the more it is the same”, which reflects the measures taken by a company or a government, also reflects that the change made corresponds to the Change 1 level type. However, Change 1, brought about retroactively, is, in most cases, insufficient. When a human system is unable to regulate its dynamics through its usual measure of selfcorrection, it enters into a crisis. It means that, within this system, a different level of change, Change 2 level, is necessary. If not, the system collapses.
Change 2: The evolution Change 2 is characterized by the fact that the system is modified within itself. Paul Watzlawick, a theorist from Palo Alto School, imagines Change 1 through the example of a car-accelerating to go quicker while maintaining the same pace. On the contrary, Change 2 will correspond to a gear change that will allow the car to go at a higher speed thus gaining access to a higher level of power. 6
But the access to Change level 2 necessitates a transformation of the rules that regulate it. And as it will show in the following sections, the modification of the rules of a human system is the result of a reconstruction of reality, the change of certain of our natural presumptions.
The learning process of Change (G.Bateson) Gregory Bateson brings the process of Change to light. He distinguishes four learning levels and emphasizes the notion of discontinuity.
- Level 0 Level 0 concerns all the cases where a natural reflex and stimulus provokes the same answer. For example, the fact of moving one’s hand away from fire is a natural reflex.
- Level 1 It corresponds to a change of Level 0: if a dog which didn’t have the reflex to bark each time that the bell rang, learned to bark each time the bell rang; and, if the context of the bell ringing doesn’t change, this means the dog learned to definitively change the natural behavior it had before when it heard the bell ringing.
-Level 2 As to the two learning levels, there is no longer the sole act of learning an automatic answer to a stimulus but rather the transfer of the same learning process to a different situation. The individual learns how to learn, he/she is able to transpose his/her knowledge in different contexts. This corresponds to the classical process of socialization at the basis of any human behavior. For example, if I learned to drive, I am able to drive any car thereafter.
- Level 3 – Reaching the three levels related to the domain of psychotherapy, personal development and Change Management for companies.
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The objective of this level is a transformation of the mentality and behavior. People need to access Level 3 when contradictions, blockage, have been provoked by changes in Level 2. Consequently, when shortcomings are encountered in the learning process and the latter becomes an inefficient process, a source of failure, imprisonment and dissatisfaction for an individual, he/she needs to change his/her habits and get rid of the behavior acquired in Level 2. It is always accompanied by a new construction of the reality in order to find new and different answers. Only Level 3 can bring about a deep change.
If at first the reflection upon the notion of Change made think about what change is in itself, then it is necessary to situate it within the context of Change Management so that companies can grasp what it covers exactly in this domain.
c) What is change in the framework of Change Management? Definition and objectives of Change Management Change Management covers a holistic approach from the perception of a problem, to the definition of an action plan which allows the implementation of a solution which is going to co-exist with a company through the instability of its environment. Change Management consists in anticipating, defining and implementing this holistic approach. The first objective of Change Management takes place in the involvement of the main actors in a project. It means they have to have a deep understanding of each other’s communication, professional development and assistance proposals which will best fit the project. What are their attempts, their needs, their willingness? What are they afraid of? What do they want to avoid? A project without full involvement is prone to fail. Devoting time to identifying and involving potential project actors is especially necessary in a context of project inflation where individuals want to give sense to their projects. To reach this objective, one must approach actors, exchange ideas with them, understand their action plans and put in place some meeting point.
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The second objective depends closely on the first one: this is the transformation objective. When individuals adhere to a project, they begin to act on it afterwards. They build a diagnosis of the current situation, imagine solutions and new practices. This approach is materialized by modifications on process, structure, methods. This phase of Change Management is necessary because otherwise the project will limit itself to good intentions and speeches. The moment of their operational implementation is, certainly, the most difficult because it implies questioning the present, imagining the future and acting on it.
The third objective is the evolution. However, it is not on the same time level as the previous. The evolution is a consequence, on the middle or long-term, of the transformation phase. Actors implement transformations and it constitutes a new way of working or sometimes even thinking. In the objectives of a Change Management project, we have several levels of results at stake. Generally, we have the operational results (e.g.: replace the current IT system), project results (e.g.: pay attention to the budget and planning), business results (e.g.: reduce the invoice cost by 15%) and cultural results (e.g: increase employees’ autonomy). The evolution takes place particularly on employees’-autonomy. A Change project is often a pretext of the evolution of the company, which wants to create a win-win circle which allows it to promote new behavior and competences. Changing a company’s culture is a difficult task and it takes generally several years to do so.
A Change plan and its three objectives
Adherence
Transformation
Evolution
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Change viewed as a break-down As shown in the section above, the word change is polymorph and can also designate a total reorganization as well as an office moves. That’s why, in order to not consider Change as the change involved in all the adaptations and evolutions which take place on a daily basis, this notion of Change will be define, within the framework of Change Management in terms of a break-down. In order to bring about changes, it is necessary to have a significant break-down between the present and the future in such a way that we are constrained to make an effort of adaptation. The transition between present and future is not a series of micro-adaptations in the framework of Change Management but rather a leap through a part of the present which will become obsolete at the benefit of a future equivalent of progress. Generally, the progress or the improvement of the future constitutes the appreciation criteria of a change. It is accepted to give-up our present and make some effort if only the expected results foresee a significant improvement. Change is like a pendulum between the existing and the future. The existing is known and mastered, it procures a feeling of comfort and security, it represents the automatic pilot of our activity. Going with the flow of our routines and habits allow to avoid wondering about what the future will be like, often a source of anxiety. The future is characterized by some hope of evolution, promotion and improvement “tomorrow will be better”.
The balance point between the two, present and future represents the risk level perceived by people. This risk level is going to condition the acceptance and the involvement of people in the Change process.
- Is it possibly realized? - Is there more to lose than to win? - Is it going to bring me something more?
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A Change plan and its balance
Evolution Habits
Promotion
Acquired
Improvement
Security
The futur The existing
Risk-taking and the difficulty to go toward the unknown are some of the reasons why people fear naturally change. The more people have habits and routine, the greater their fear will be. Theses transformations are analyzed through the approach of the different topics which characterized the individual work participation. Those characteristics can be organized according to two axes based on the collective and individual degree of participation and the time necessary for their transformation.
A Change plan and where it takes place Collective
Culture Strategy
Working condition
Individual s
Practices
Present
Tools
Organization
Works
cco
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The obstacles to change Paul Watzlawick in his books “Make yourself your own misfortune” and “How to succeed to fail” illustrates a lot of behavior that people have in daily life which doesn’t help them in the desire to change. The objective, here, is not to give some recipe but a more efficient framework to think about Change Management. Here is some trick to avoid.
- Having a restrictive vision of reality When faced with a situation that seems difficult to overcome, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible to manage it but it must be approached differently. Generally, the only access person has to Level 2 (see G. Bateson, “The Learning Process of Change”) represents an imprisonment insofar as he/she has tried all the solutions possible without any results. A scientific experience on monkeys represents this idea. They put a banana in a bowl where monkeys couldn’t take their hands away if they wanted to eat the banana. Obviously, monkeys tried so many times to eat it unsuccessfully because they should have turned the bowl upside down, which represents the learning Level 3 inaccessible to them. But often, people behave like these monkeys which tried many times the same solution and are overwhelmed by our own mental universe. The experience represents the belief in one and unique solution. Going beyond Level 3 demands the intervention of a third person not familiar with the problem. His/her task will firstly require considering the problem outside its original framework in order to imagine other solutions.
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Believe that:
- The “ultrasolutions” is the solution: eliminating causes will eliminate the problem Paul Watzlawick in his books describes the phenomenon which consists in eliminating the problem by eliminating the causes. For example, the totalitarian politician personifies perfectly the concept of the ultrasolution: unemployment is a problem in France, so if we expel foreigners, close the borders to imports, the problem will be solved.
- More information is the solution for more communication The more we have technical commodities to accelerate action, the more we suffer from the lack of leisure time. The new information and communication technologies abolish borders between humans but create more loneliness by depriving them of human contact. Obviously, the flow of exchanges is a fundamental condition in management but it is not sufficient. An efficient Change Management is based on the quality of the relationships which facilitate and develop the information exchange in the company. The quality of these relationships is a priority condition for the information exchange. Willingness to produce and continuously disseminate more information remains a solution in Level 2. The complexity of the communication problem reveals the need for quality solutions, Level 3 of the Change learning process (see G. Bateson).
d) The purpose of Change Management? - Why are Change Management notions so important today? - Is it the last fashionable managerial trend or is it a truly justified managerial approach?
Change : an ever-present reality Change Management has become a permanent leitmotiv for most companies. Leaders often mention it like the solution to the market or technologies evolution, like something
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necessary to practice for the company’s survival. Companies and humans have the impression that they are experiencing daily the Change.
The economic and social model of the “Thirty Glorious Years" characterized by stability is now completely outdated. During this period, to obtain a degree meant, in most cases, having a job for a lifetime. The same is true for the family stability, most people got married once and stayed with the same person all their lives. Today, people are continuously training themselves throughout their lives, engage in different kinds of studies in several countries, make a lot of internships, get different jobs in several companies, will divorce, reconstruct their lives, move… Changes govern the daily life of a company. It is necessary to develop new strategies, adapt the management tools, invent new products, and change the IT systems. The change expresses itself through an external or internal form. When the change is external it comes generally from a legal, environmental or competitive pressure. Companies are in the changes spiral and materialize change through full projects which distract the functioning and habits of the employees.
Change factors which explain this reality Plenty of books and speeches by famous thinkers have dealt with the reasons which explain the upheavals of modern society. Obviously, one of the main changes is the spectacular growth of new technologies. Computer science has deeply transformed our way of functioning by creating networks. The new technologies are production tools but also a traceability and communications tool. Thanks to them, all the transactions can be tracked in real-time. The other Change factor is the globalization which has consequences that are materialized at different levels. The first is through the competition of companies scattered throughout the world which are able to position themselves on the same market. Another factor of Change is the client and his/her demand. The consumer society, which has developed in the last forty years, creates the homo economicus, educated consumers, 14
people who buy by comparing in order to satisfy more and more individual and changing needs.
Toward a control of Change Management Change is no more something rare and episodic but, on the contrary, it conditions our daily working life. That’s why the questions that we naturally ask are the following:
- Everything changes or is there some activity sector which stays stable? - If all-changes, can we think about changes themselves?
Change can be considered only as opposed to stability. Individuals need, for their daily functioning, habits which allow them to confront themselves to transformations. If clients, strategies and organization are changing continuously, what impact does this have on employees?
In order to avoid losing the employees, the management must create some sort of foundation or fixing point that represents stability and reassures them as much as it represents a leap point for Change. This foundation and fixing point are symbolic or cultural. It transmits value and identity in which people can recognize them.
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2. How to approach Change Management? Change is above all thinking differently. If the thinking models are rigid and the environment is always changing then this explains why at one point these models become obsolete. The objective is not to ban the traditional way of thinking but rather to reconsider them in order to see other ways of acting. The problem is not to know if the ways of thinking are good or bad but rather to know if they are efficient and useful. The question is not: What must we think in order to change but how to think differently to encourage Change?
a) An Imperative: Modifying our way of thinking The limit of the disjunctive and analytic model The heritage of the disjunctive model The binary mode of thinking which consists in distinguishing and dissociating the elements to understand a problem is a centuries old model. Aristotle was the initiator of this model and Descartes in his “Discours de la Methode” (Method speech) develop and affirm the Cartesian model of thinking. This book was actually decisive for the development of the scientist research and progresses. However the evolution of the knowledge imposes to reorganize the classical thinking tools. Edgar Morin, a sociologist and philosopher has invested in this grandiose project of constructing a new method to apprehend the complexity of reality.
The restrictive view of binary reasoning The binary mode of reasoning describes problems in terms of dilemma, contradiction, opposition. But is it sufficient to believe that reality is what it is?
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To approach the complexity of reality is much more efficient than thinking in terms of systems, networks and interactions between elements because Change problems in a human system cannot be solved by recurring to technical solutions. The complexity of reality is due to the interactions which link every element of a system together. By trying to exclude or dissociate them, we are able to have a global view of the problem. At the same time, the causality linear can be resumed like this: A causes B which causes C in an infinity chain of causes and effects. Consequently, through this model, it has just to eliminate the causes to resolve the problem but actually causes and effects are produced simultaneously through a circular logic. A and B are at the same time cause and effect.
The pertinence of the systemic model The thinking systemic model constitutes a new step through the thinking history, a new logic to approach the world. This reconsideration of the linear and disjunctive way of thinking allows us to open others perspectives.
A way of thinking which links elements The systemic model focuses on the interaction of system elements. If, initially, it is useful to identify and distinguish the elements of a system, it will be linking them together to have a global view of the situation which is essential. If the analytic model tries to isolate a phenomenon to better study and master it, on the contrary, the systemic model wants to observe and understand the multiple interactions and connections of a system. The conjunctive logic aims to free us from the dictatorship of the black/ white, normal/ abnormal, thesis/antithesis dichotomy. They are actually the two inseparable facets of the same reality. The systemic approach reinstates elements, ideas, individuals in their interactional context and always takes into consideration the interdependences between each one of them. Where the disjunctive way of thinking divides and compartmentalizes the systemic model builds a bridge.
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For example, the performance of a company necessarily composed of senior executives, technicians and administrators, resides more in the quality of the relations and cooperation between these different entities than in the quality of all members taken separately. The relations in a company produce its dynamics and the quality of its management.
Systemic and Analytic Model Chart Disjunctive Logic
Conjunctive Logic
Or Against Element Aim to eliminate
And With Interaction Aim to use and conjugate
Logic of the excluded third (Either this one or the other)
Logic of the included third, of the third possibility (that is at the same time one and the other)
Oppose and distinguish by exposing problems in term of dilemma, alternative
Compose and link things together by considering them in their interaction
Things are right or wrong, useful or dangerous
Things are at the same time right and false, useful and dangerous
Analytic approach
Systemic approach
Disjunctive and binary logic Linear causality Oriented past-present
Ternary and conjunctive logic Circular causality Oriented future-present
To resolve a problem it is necessary at first to know its causes
To resolve a problem it is necessary at first to clarify the objective aimed
Centered on the explication of the dysfunctions and the handicap of the system
Centered on the useful functions of the dysfunctions and on the resources of the system
It feeds from the past to provoke an evolution It feeds from present and make it evolve in function of the aim to reach The past determine the present and the future The past is a source of explanations
The projection of the future wished influence the present The past is a source of resources 18
b) Change is produced and provoked through interaction The communication mistakes come often from the fact that the circular aspect of communication is taken in account. The linear conception of the communication founded on the telephone picture where a transmitter sends a message to a receiver is inappropriate to understand the circular functioning of the interpersonal communication. The Paolo Alto rhetoricians describe communication as a process where everybody participates without being neither at the origin nor at the end. In the relation, there is no separation between individuals, the dichotomy between teacher and student, executive and subordinate, therapist and patient is the result of a linear and dual vision of the communication. On an epistemological plan, it is false to consider the behavior of one as the cause of the behavior of another, both are influenced mutually and simultaneously through this circular logic which governs interactions.
Communicating is different from informing Communicating is not only informing because a fundamental dimension is added to it: the quality to our relation with the others. The fluidity of information exchanges is linked, at first, to the establishment of the quality of the relationship between individuals. Respect, trust, acknowledgement and the ability to listen facilitate the circulation of the information. If information is a sigh system, communication which includes relation makes sense. If the communication is interpersonal, the information is impersonal because it consists only in producing and transmitting a message. Information alone, without communication, is insufficient to generate influence. For example, the strict information to the arrival and departure time of the train won’t make me feel like taking it.
Communication focuses on producing effects on the person chosen. That’s why it implies identifying first expectations, values, and perceptions, of the addressee in order to build some argument which is in line with a reference framework. It is only in this way that the communication acquires its relational dimension and influence function.
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Through technologies of information and communication, there is an increasing gap between its multiplication and the insufficiency of the progresses in interpersonal communication. The more the information there is, the more the quality of the interpersonal communication gets weaker because it doesn’t encourage relations between individuals but on the contrary, it creates solitary confinement.
Efficient dialogues produce Change Communication, which is above all behavioural, aims at producing effects. Like Edward Hall, an anthropologist specialized in the intercultural communication, emphasizes: “it is more important to cause the good answer than send the good message” Change finds fulfilment in exchanges and the term exchange is the root of the word change, isn’t it? Communicating is interfering in order to change the situation, provoke a different behaviour. This way, the more a person has a high hierarchical level in the company, the more his/her communication role becomes a stake in the company. A study has demonstrated that a manager or someone who manages an important team devotes about eighty five percent of his/her time to human contact through the resolution of technical, administrative, financial, human or political issues. Learning to listen how the people you want to talk to think is a fundamental task. The PNL (neurolinguistic programming) provides tools in order to improve our ability to communicate.
Power games: symmetrical and complementary Gregory Bateson, a founder of the Palo Alto School, defined one basic axiom of the interpersonal communication: “we cannot, define our relationship with others” All communication exchanges are either symmetrical or complementary depending on their similarity or their differences. These two forms of relationship are at the heart of all interactional processes where you find power and influence issues.
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According to the context and partner, it is defined, consciously or unconsciously, the nature of our relationships. To summarize, in a complementary relationship, we can distinguish a high and low position while in a symmetrical relation, the notion of level disappears, and both speakers are on the same level. For example, through a complementary relation, if Luc adopts a high position, and Florent the low position and nothing will trouble this interactional system, then the relation will develop the authoritarian side of Luc and the submissive side of Florent. The complementary element imposes the existence of a high and low position. Both people complete each other. To identify the different models of retort in a relationship, the Paolo Alto theorists define six kinds of relations through the Luc and Florent Characters:
a. The stable symmetry: without any level, it is a stable symmetry if Luc defines his positions like symmetry and it is accepted by Florent and vice versa.
b. The stable complementary: if Luc defines his position as high and it is accepted by Florent, then Florent adopts naturally a low position accepted by Luc.
c. The symmetry competition of the high position: if Luc defined his position as high but Florent doesn’t accept the low position by positioning himself as high also.
d. The symmetry competition for the low position: if Luc defined his position as low and is redefined by Florent as high, there is a competition for the low position. For example Luc said: you are more capable than me to write this report. Florent answered: “I disagree, your last report was excellent”. Luc retorted: “Maybe, but it was a lucky break!”
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e. The asymmetric competition for the high position and the symmetry: imagine now that Luc defines his position as high (complementary relationships) but is redefined by Florent as symmetric (without level) who does not, want to adopt a low position then there is a power issue where Luc will look for a complementary relation and Florent a symmetric relation. For example, Luc will say: “It is preferable that I write the report, prepare me just some argument to emphasize.” Luc will retort “Are you sure you can do it? Have you already written this kind of report?” Luc will quote some of his success but Florent will insist “Recognize that it was not so important and not in relation with our actual subject” “What difficulties do you highlight and what part of the report do you want to write exactly?”
f. The asymmetric competition for the low position and the symmetry: if Luc defines his position as low but is redefined by Florent as symmetric, we will be in presence of another power struggle where Luc will research the complementarily relation by adopting the low position and where Florent will look for a symmetric relation.
The communication difficulties lived in the companies come mainly from the rigidity of the hierarchical system which place generally the subordinate in a low position and an executive in a high position.
c) The quality of the communication: a fundamental condition The analysis of the communication has been, for a long time, reduced to the verbal language to the detriment of the non verbal language which is unavoidably associated. That’s why, in this section, both are separated but only in a pedagogical view. The verbal and non verbal languages as power tools of conditioning are, in fact, the perfect tools for Change Management.
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The verbal language The linguist like the anthropologist emphasizes: the language is a way of seeing the world and interpreting our experience. Words are at the same time, motor (able to cause motion) and brake (able to stop) because they are emotionally charged. They are able to generate both motivation as passivity. The emotional content of a word is often more important than the meaning given by the dictionary because words may have different meanings. Words, according to the meaning we give them, are able to limit or increase our possibilities of acting. Consequently, it can be listed some words capable of freezing a situation or encouraging an action. Naturally, the power of these words change according to the person to which they are addressed because like it has said, each word resounds differently according to our emotional story.
Words rather brake
Words rather motor
- Why ?
- In which aim?
- Failure
- Results
- But
- And
- Against
- With
- To distinguish
- Solution
- Problem
- Objective
- Or
- At the same time
- To affront
- To link
- To oppose
- To confront
- To exclude
- To include
- Cause
- Consequence
- Borders
- Bridge
- Limits of the situation
- Opportunities to the situation
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Since words are powerful tools for influencing, it seems pertinent to change the vocabulary when a situation is blocked. For example, in companies’ speeches, it can be often finding expressions such as “We don’t have the choice” “We have to change” that are capable of hindering Change Management dynamics. Engaging in the dynamics of Change Management means creating the desire to change and using all the resources to get through it. Motivating is more efficient than convincing because the effective language is generally more dynamic than the rational language.
Collecting a “Yes, it’s obvious, we have to change” is insufficient to engage a dynamic process of change management. On the contrary, a “We choose to change” constitutes a real involvement. Generally, a decision formulated in terms of “I have to do something” or “I must do that” is much weaker than a decision based on a preference or desire. Like the PNL emphasizes, the solution to be better understood will be not to speak more but rather to better learn how to use your interlocutor’s language.
The non verbal language The most important messages are expressed in a non-verbal way. By watching constantly the non-verbal behaviour, it can be confirmed, or not, if the speaker are on the right track. Like we see the verbal language, conventional codes include a vocabulary, a grammar, and syntax which are not enough to communicate: a second language is added, the body language. In fact, words constitute the raw material (primary resource) of communication, the body the added value. A “yes” can have an infinite number of meanings which depend on the context and the person who speak. An order will have a different impact according to the person who gives it, it will be more or less effective. Western culture encourages us to pay less attention to the non verbal clue that our speaker reveals unconsciously. They are often much more meaningful because they are expressed unconsciously.
The body language cannot lie because it is almost impossible to express physically emotions that we don’t feel. People who inspire trust are usually people whose non verbal behaviour confirms their verbal speech. 24
Consequently, it is necessary to observe them carefully in order to check throughout the exchange the results produced on the spokesperson and correct, if necessary, the errors made. In modifying the behaviour in function of the interlocutor, it is possibly to exercise a real influence. The more efficient method to change the behaviour of the speaker is, at first, the ability to modify ours. It means learning to be flexible in order to quickly readjust the behaviour if necessary.
Precision in the data processing and collection
The ability to listen is not natural, it is the result of a learning process. Before all activity, it is extremely important to adapt to the confrontation of a situation. This contributes in an important way to the quality of the relationship.
Listening implies being focused at Level 3 below the information of the spokesperson. - Listening to the interlocutor’s way of thinking and his/her logic, the way he/she builds his/her reality: the facts that he/she privileges, his/her beliefs, interpretation, arguments, presumptions… - Listening to the content of the conversation: the words he/she employs to express himself/herself. - Listening to minimal messages which constitute the non-verbal communication: intonation of the voice, posture, body movement …
It is important to consider that even if the interlocutor speaks the same language, his/her words have often a different meaning than ours. That’s why, it is necessary to clarify their attempt in terms of Change. The pertinence of the question asked is directly in relation to the ability to listen.
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II. Implementation of Change Management practices confronted to resistance in the public sector 1. Characteristics of the public sector and Change Management practices a) The public sector in France In France, the public sector embraces as well as the public administrations than the public companies. The public administrations represent services in charged of the public interest and are supported financially by taxes. Public companies produce goods and service which are sold on the market. The public sector employs around 6 millions of people that represent 26% of the French active population. In this section, it seems interesting to describe, in particular, more precisely what the public administrations represents exactly.
Presentation
French public administrations French public administrations (noted APU) are represented by some institutional units whose main function is to produce non profit services, to regulate the national economy and to redistribute income and wealth. Their main resources come from obligatory tax. In France, the APU combine three categories: -
The central public administrations (APUC) are made of the State and of the diverse central administration organism (Universities, CNRS, ANPE…)
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Local public administrations (APUL) composed of the territorial collectivities (regions, departments, local authorities) and of diverse local administrative organisms (SDIS, chamber of commerce…)
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The social security administrations (ASSO) are units which distribute welfare payment from socials assessment and organisms which depend on the social insurance (public hospitals…)
Problematic Since a few years, the State reform is planned by all governments. Nobody, neither from the right nor from the left wing, is opposed to the idea of reforming but the sense of the word reform have different significations according to people. Some want to improve the public services functioning, others want to reduce the number of civil servants. For some, it is necessary to decentralize and for others the unique and indivisible Republic is the only one guarantor of its own principles. However, nowadays, everybody agree that the worrying situation of the public finance requires a policy of cost reduction but all are, in the same time, trouble by the important resistances met with the syndicate power in the civil service. Consequently, it seems particularly interesting to take the public sector as starting point for a concrete illustration of the resistance management in the framework the Change management. The situation of the French public finance The Pébereau report about the public debt, ordered by the French government in 2005, describes the worrying dynamic of the public finance trough the accumulation of deficit. Indeed, since 25 years, the public’s receipts have been systematically inferiors to the expenses. Furthermore, the future expenses linked to the ageing of the population conjugated with the current financial situation increase the urgency of reforming the French system. What does exactly constitute the State budget? 27
The French State budget The State budget corresponds to all its resources and expenses. Its main resources come from impost and -directs or indirect taxes - regularly paid by French citizens and companies. As an example, it exists, as direct taxes, the income-tax for all citizens and the corporation-tax for the companies according to their benefits. On the contrary, the TVA, is an indirect tax and constitute nearly the half of the State receipts. The expenses represent the money that the State uses to finance the public action: education, police, justice, research, culture …. For many years, the State expenses are superiors to its receipts which let appear a deficit each year. The accumulation of theses deficits, along the years, constitute the State debt.
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b) What are Change Management practices? Methodology of Change Management
What is consultant to achieve when they do Change Management? It is generally acknowledge that all team leaders agree on the need to undertake Change Management (improving the motivation of the actors involved and the performance of a project), but not necessarily that they all agree on the tools to implement it. For some, Change Management is limited to communication and action plans. For others, Change Management integrates impact studies and proposition of transition plans. With the objective of clarifying theses different approaches this paper will to summarize the methodology of change management. Three main steps in Change Management projects can be differentiated: -
A diagnosis of the change which corresponds to the analysis and the context of the change
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An accompanied cycle of the change which illustrates the implementation of Change Management as a lever
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A pilot change cycle whose objective is to check the accomplishment of Change Management goals Cummunication
Impact study
Formation
Diagnostic of Change
Management of transformations
Management of resistances
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The diagnosis of Change The diagnosis of Change represents the key phase of Change Management’s operational approach insofar as it allows determining what the needs of a Change Management project are. What is needed? Communication? Professional Training? Coaching? If yes, to which extent exactly? Many Change Management projects develop communication plans without working on a study of location and framing beforehand. In order to avoid to implement actions contrary to the initial purpose nor to waste time and money, it is recommended to complete a diagnosis as exhaustive as possible. The diagnosis is to be done at the beginning of the project and constitutes the first delivery of Change Management. It should include precisely: -
Information concerning the project (planning, objectives, delivery, resources)
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Concerned Structure, process and actors (mapping of the perimeter)
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Envisaged Change
The Impact study The impact report consists in listing the Changes generated by the project by specifying the impacts of different natures (organizational, cultural…) and also the actors who are affected. What are the actions to manage? Who is concerned? Which plan do actors have to foresee? According to which deadline? It represents a diagnosis of the actions they want to undertake. The communication and professional training report depend on the impact report because their contents will be drawn up based on the nature and numbers of the established impacts.
The Communication report The communication report is definitely what is first think about and is also the most difficult to achieve. The way of wining people over a future project consists in describing this virtual future and communicating about it in order to make it becomes a reality. The communication main difficulty consists in not falling into the common sense pattern: for instance when one suggest that it is necessary to change because of the world changes, 30
because of the technicality (the server AS400 cannot bear an integrated system), or of the optimism excess (with this organization, all your problems will be resolved). The communication report describes our standpoint based on the organization’s target and disseminates it through different media. Communication report indicators represent the image and visibility of the change.
Professional training The professional training report is not necessary for all Change Management projects. The communication action plan may include an aspect of information-training through the explanations which describe what is going to change. In many projects, and particularly in the IT system, the professional training phase is very important as it is necessary to provide the actors of the company with new skills. The professional training plan defines the needs, contents, beneficiaries and deadlines. This plan is the basis for the production phase, the professional training and the knowledge assessment.
The actors and resistance management The social and organizational analysis is a delivery that can be done for each project or for the whole company in question with a regular update. It consists in defining the company culture, its value system, routines, habits and the level of resistance of the different groups of stakeholders. It is about an ethnographic model to determine the implicit rules whereby the groups of actors are formed.
The structure of Change Management The project mode is the most employed mode to manage Change Management project. The concerned projects are various: implementation of new IT applications, procedures, a reorganization, a merger, the creation of a new job position. A project is organized around three axes: the planning, the delivery and the cost. It is complemented by a launch and an implementation. 31
In a project, Change Management should implement the different deliveries with the different without forgetting to take into account their implications and roles. The different targets of Change Management are the following:
- The Change Management team: the mission consists in formalizing the change strategy and the different deliveries in accordance with the different active supporters of the project - The team project: its assignment is to achieve the transformation action under the best possible conditions. All its members should be prescribers and producers of change - The sponsors: as decision-making actors in the project, the sponsors have to be aware of the importance of their institutional role. - The relay: Change Management team has to create an actors network that is going to promote the information messages and will participate in the transformation. - The users: main change actors, they are the main target of the project. Their position and participation has to be measured and managed in order to successfully conclude the project - The beneficiaries: they are the people who benefit from the change. They can either be the users or be different The benefiaries
The users
The relay
The sponsor The team project The Change Managem ent team
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2. The management of the resistance a) Analysis of resistance in a company Changing is often considered as leading to loose a well-known situation for an uncertain future. Changing often frightens people because it obliges them to learn to adapt to a new situation. Based on their aspirations, habits, personality, a change project provokes different resistance forms. It is essential to identify and deal with theses resistances to avoid to strangle the project. It is all the more difficult as, they can be more or less visible and detectable. They can be part of the value system of the company or due to isolated individuals. With the objective of succeeding in managing the resistance, it is important to draw up a sociological report which consists in identifying the main source of resistance through interviews and observations.
The value system of a company The implementation of a change project depends closely on the value system of a company. The value system is a form of invisible social structure, it is not formalized in writing but simply perceived through conversations or practices. It represents a whole picture of the implicit codes and rules that the actors used to represent their environment and drive their actions. This way of doing is accepted and valued by all. Two American writers, Johnson and Scholes define this notion as “a representation of the implicit beliefs of a company”. Indeed, the cultural aspect of a company is composed of seven elements. The routines They define the “know how” (way of doing) of the company members, among them, inside the company or outside when they represent their company. The routines constitute the social interaction rules of the members among the members. They condition the integration of a new person in the group who accepts and promotes these rules. For example, it can be the way of saying hello, of speaking, eating…
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The rites There are some events which define the company’s social life and determine what is of utmost importance for the company’s tightly knitted social structure. They constitute chronological milestones that give a sense of belonging to the group. As example can be cited, the end-of-the-year trip or the publication of the meaning business figures.
The myths They highlight some events, objects or person to establish a link between an important moment in the history of the company and the present. These historical moments refer to acts of bravery, heroism, creativity, innovation strategies for the company. Myths constitute references which inspire respect and guide the present behavior of each member.
The symbols They are a coded representation of the organization’s frame of mind. For example, in companies of the sector of new technologies, casual wear is the common practice to show that belonging to an old organization is not anymore fashionable. Symbols can be spotted in the use of specific vocabulary, dress code, decoration, organization of the offices…
The power structure They represent the real area of power and decision-making beyond the official organizational chart. It consists in defining the company members who dispose of a real legitimacy and influence to stand up and be heard.
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The control system They define elements on which the organization focuses in order to determine their performance. These criteria give also some indications to the actors on the way they should behave to be appreciated by the decisional instances.
The organizational structure It describes the way the organization affects the liberty zones at the hierarchical level. It allows seeing each other’s freedom.
The value system It contains the main elements which formalize the values and condition the behavior and frame of mind of the actors. In all Change Management programs, it is necessary to identify it in order to determine the way the Change should be managed.
The rites and routines
The mythes and symbols
Value system The control system
The organizational and power structure
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Naturally, actors are afraid of the change because they fear the loss of their gains and benefits and to be compels to make effort to adapt themselves. In order to illustrate this notion of relative acceptation it is necessary to speak more in details of resistances.
Resistances The change is at the heart of all managerial process included in macro plans (adapting the Company to the outside constrains) and/or micro plan (organizing and mobilizing human resources around new project). If actors are not convinced of change legitimacy for them and the company, the adaptation process of the organization could be not complemented. The sociologist (Crozier, 1977) has since a long time ago demonstrated the relative rationality of the actors and their capacity to show their own motivation. The change required that actors accept the risk of loosing a well-known existence for an uncertain future. Confronted to this situation, actors do not necessary agree to take this risk and so develop active or passive resistance. The change resistance comes from the fear of the emptiness and of the necessary demand of adaption. Confronted to the Change, actors formalize their resistance in their speeches and actions.
The fear of emptiness and time of adaptation Human being is naturally afraid of the change. The acceptation of the change is not natural except in case of situation which would be not possible anymore. What make accept the change is its rationalization: its projection in the future. What is seen first, is no more the effort or the process of abandoning but the benefit and the hope of a better future. In companies, the word “Change” has taken the connotation of “progress” that’s why it is very difficult for someone to say he/she is opposed to change because that means that this person stands progress or improvement. However actors develop avoiding strategies which consist in not being directly opposed to the project nor being invested sufficiently for its success. That materialized trough the inertia of actors. As matter of the facts, projects give the impression to not move forward and the reason mentioned to justify this are often the lack of the time or that means that the project is not enough adapted to the needs. Intellectually well-known, consultants often forget the notions of the benefit of the 36
production and planning demand. Indeed, it is very difficult to exploit operationally behaviour even if they are the stake of the Change Management.
The post -change depression The post-change depression is natural because as it is what makes believe that the change is not immediate. An effort is often still necessary before being able to really enjoy the change results. For example, if you are used on a daily basis to go to work by one way like an automat you don’t ask yourself anymore which way you are going to take. This experience allows you to economize time of reflection (where am I going?) and research of information (research on a map or asking someone). Habits which are born from the repetition have something reassuring. Now if you decide to change your daily work way, you have to learn again another distance and it will imply a time of adaptation; time during which you are going to be less efficient and you will spend energy to familiarize with your new daily work day. This transition period occurs only a few days before that you will be able to judge the benefit of your distance. Change management must facilitate the support and transition of this adaptation period. The change supposed to bring benefit, is materialized, at first, by an absence of benefit. Change management takes place: -
To preparing before actors and organization to make the perturbation be the weakest possible
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To support actors during the phase of depression to make it be the shortest possible
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To emphasize short times gains to encourage the curb inversion
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To communicate on the corrections actions and the resources availability to deals with problems
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Categories of actors The previous paragraph shows that human will have a naturally a tendency to fear the change and to find avoiding strategy not to have suffered from it. In a change project, three types of actors can be generally distinguished: -
The decision-maker: person in charge with the decision to change and to justify their choice
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The project team: all actors who design and realize the change
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The user/beneficiary: all actors directly or indirectly concerned by the change
Inside the user group can be generally distinguish, three types of behaviour. Theses categories should to be more moderated and understood as methodological mark than like an absolute categorization. The proactive: are the prescriber of the change. They show not only show their support to the change project but also look for sharing it with the most of the population. They don’t hesitate to talk about the project and to drive for each person to participate. They represent 10% of the concerned population. There a few to generally appreciate the change and their intervention depends closely to their legitimacy. Their motivations are various. They are the persons who have technical belief or friendship and solidarity with the team project. In any case, their role is essential as they constitute the change relay. The passives: they represent a larger part of the population as they are about 80% of the person at the beginning of a project. The fear of being engaged, the attempt of the results or a bad comprehension provokes certain neutrality by the actors. The implicit motivation to this kind of behaviour is characterized by a research of safety. Their passivity is often at the origin of the inertia of some projects.It is only after having received proof of success that they turn to participation. They generally demonstrate opposition but are in favour of the wait-and-see policy. The objective is to transfer this mass into the realization and success of the project. The lack of understanding or resources arguments is often quote to conceal a passive behaviour. Consequently, they use an avoiding strategy.
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The opponents: they show openly and in public their opposition against to the project. There are few and we can estimate them about 10% of the concerned population. For ideological, political reasons or conflict between people, they try to convince to give up the project. Their behaviour is materialized more or less collectively. It can be informal comment, attack against project team or in extreme case strike. Generally, they limit their actions to formal or informal comments but if they are too many criticism they can justify and encourage a passive attitude. However, their weak number put their nuisance capacity in perspective. In a project, it is necessary to have opponent people in order to reinforce the arguments and dealing with elements that will be not be treated without contestation. Theses three types of behaviour evolve as the project goes along. The number of proactive and opponent stay stable but the passive go toward participation or opposition. We consider that for the success of a project, it is necessary to have at least 41% of passive who go toward the participation. A project which has managed the change resistance will have between 51% and 80% of favourable person at the end of the project. The 10 tricks to avoid in the resistances management 1. Panic too quickly as soon as the first negatives signs appear 2. Celebrate too quickly the first positive signs 3. Devote too much time to convince the 10% opponent while others waiting 4. Don’t listen opponents in order to avoid the “contagion” of their arguments 5. Refuse the expression of any individuals suffering 6. Interpret a general attitude on the base of some isolated reporting 7. Consider that the symbols are secondary 8. Pretend cancelling the “despair valley” 9. Don’t pilot the collectives attitudes in a project of more ten months 10. Consider too quickly that a project is only technical and will not generate resistance
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b) Methodology of taking advantage of the resistance This section proposes to identify the different steps of change management confronted to resistance: helping the speaker to clarify his/her problem and supporting him/her in his/her desire to change by projecting the future. At the beginning, the difficulties met to provoke change can result, of wrong problem enunciation by the speaker. Another problem can be the lack of knowledge of how to mobilize the demotivated collaborators. It consists in coaching them by clarifying realistic change objective and then reassembles resources and means.
Clarify the statement of the problem A wrong enunciation of the problem can make it impossible to resolve. That is why it is very important to listen the speaker in order to collect information. Bellow you can find the main scenarios:
The problem enunciation is undeterminated It consists in helping the collaborator to contextualize the problem by asking him to describe concretely the demonstration of the problem. All of the two wide problematic fields must be divided in parts. More the fragment chosen to act is little more the results will be quick and visible.
The enunciation framework is too restrictive On the contrary, collaborators may have a too restrictive problem’s enunciation. It is essential to have a global view of the problem to act efficiently locally however the problem enunciation is often limited to the point of view of the speaker.
The logic level is inadequate They are frequent and often concern the level of confusion: for example, a person can confuse the mean to implement and the objective to reach
The interpretation makes the problem impossible to resolve It is often necessary to put the problem enunciation in a more operational context. 40
The objective in this case is to change the interpretation of the representation of the reality attributed to the situation by the speaker.
Projecting the future wished It is often preferable to exploit the current dissatisfactions to convince of the necessity to change. However, the desire to change is not sufficient. It could be a solution to go far away to provoke the motivation to act differently. In order to enable this motivation, it is necessary to anticipate and so give them what the benefit will be and how useful they are following the future change.
How to choose the quicker itinerancy when the destination is not precise? The clarification of the objectives is capital: it allows to interact in cooperation relationship and to plan clearly the steps to accomplish the change. More the steps are proceed by modest and concrete step more they are easily reached. To pursue a clear objective enable the regulation of behaviours.
John Grinder and Richard Bandler, the PNL (neurolinguistic programmation) founder, have particularly working on objectives definition. According to them, to be operational, a change objective must fulfil the following condition:
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It should be specific, concrete, measurable : established on factual criteria that we can evaluate trough facts
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It should be positively formulated and inserted in a precise context
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it should be realistic : possible to reach
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it should be under the responsibility of the person who want to reach it
For example, the questions to ask in order to collect useful information are: -
What do you want to obtain or improve?
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What are the benefits and advantages wished?
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How will you know that the objective is reached? Which concrete facts will help you to check it? 41
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Is there an obstacle to reach your objective?
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Are there obstacles to the realization of that objective?
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What resources do you need? What are the means to implement?
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What are the steps to cover?
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When do you want to begin?
Detect and mobilize resources We call “resources” all means, psychological, emotional, materials or technical which allow reaching the aimed objective. Milton Erickson advised to always pay attention to the speech of the speaker, of to the resources and to useful learning for the resolution of their problems. “When a person states his/her problem, he/she disposes generally of all resources necessary to resolve it but he/she doesn’t know how to reach it alone”. The role of the consultant consists in highlighting and mobilizes the resources of the concerned person rather than focusing on his/her limitations.
The change difficulties often come from the fact that the person believes that she is not able to do in a different way. According Erickson, the best way to fail a change management project is to think that people “can’t” or “don’t want” change. For him, the most relevant hypothesis is to think that people” don’t know how to change” or “don’t know that they could change” The aptitude to coach and motivate the speaker in a change management process consists in emphasizing their resources. The consultant should consider resistances as potentials allies of change. The consultant’s role is to be a pointer to resources.
The Erickson conception is opposed to the conception of the audit companies which highlights most of the time the functional problem, weakness, handicaps, inhibitions, blockages of the studied company without enough insisting on its resources.
The management of theses audit could discourage and demotivate the employees. In the majority of the case the change can be refused because as people may fear not to have the necessary resources to fulfil it. 42
All change management process can create resistance because it is a natural phenomenon but they can also result of an intervention fault. In recognizing their legitimacy and by exploiting their useful function we facilitate the accomplishment of the change aimed will be facilitated.
c) How to negotiate when confronted to resistance? Conflicts are at the base of living systems evolution. It is the way of considering and approaching them that make them threatening. Human relations are regulated by the vital dynamic of the conflict and the harmony, order and disorder. Conflicts are above all an appeal to a new equilibrium. If most conflicts come from humans rigidities, overtaking them trough flexibility and capacity to stand back from a situation is a solution.
Focus on interdependence Managers and bosses have learned more to order than organize and encourage the cooperation. They are more able to create dependence and submission than mange the creative expression or encourage the enrichment of the differences. In the same way, a lot of teachers meet difficulties with their students because they “teach” more that they “learn to learn”.
In a company, relationship based on interdependence and cooperation are more productive and satisfying than relationship established on the “domination-submission” path. This is less the structures that need to be reformed and modernized than their mode of interactions.
Despite the fact that organizations organize themselves with transverse structure of coordination, the traditional behaviours’ based on a hierarchical organization mainly stay alive even if people tend to recognize it as counterproductive. The distinction of status, functions, socials positions, diploma and formation perpetuate the intellectual and technical wainscoting and raise hierarchies. 43
Distinctions maintain relations of subordination and create more often attitudes of rejection than respect. This underlines that differences leads to an implicit violence in work relationship. The issues of these kind of relationship become more the fight for the positioning of each person than the cooperation to reach a common objective.
The cooperation relationship imply to learn to become richer from the others diversity and exploit this difference to create an added value. In the same spirit, the management doesn’t take place with the uniformisation of the personality of its members but on the contrary with their development.
Conflicts and mediation: the necessity of a third person Some situation of blockage occurs when individuals become unable to consider on another way to modify their way of functioning. In some conflicts, actors are so prisoners of their repetitive scheme so that the appeal to a third person appears to be essential. Arbitrating a conflict consist in transforming a fight of two persons without issue, in an exploration of solution to implement. The mediator has not the obligation to give his/her point of view. His/her aim is more drive to each other to express themselves. He/she has to listen without intervening during both speeches. He/She intervenes only to reformulate and clarify what they said. Then, he/she will define common objectives to the two protagonists.
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Application for efficiency negotiations Principles The negotiated relationships encourage the responsibility and the cooperation. They allow moving from a power of struggle to a partnership. Negotiating objective rather than imposing it orient and canalize the resistance of each other and allow to gain time to reach it. Confronted to divergence or difference of point of views, people tend to answer naturally by confrontation, attack, opposition or passivity rather than compose with others and confront their point of view. Negotiation is a power game which imply to give up the traditional “win-loose” logic of “I am able to win only if you loose” “I will loose because you are stronger” “if I lose, you will loose too” to the benefit of “I win, you win”
I win
I loose you win
you win
I loose
I win
you loose
you loose
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The principle according which “I win if you win” is at the base of the cooperation and negotiation. A negotiation is successful when both sides are winner and satisfied. The compromise let generally both sides half-satisfy. The art of negotiation consist in raising the ally behind the enemy.
Logic of flexibility and not of positioning Recognizing the other point of view doesn’t signify that it is share it but simply that it is respected as valuable. Believing that it exists only one way to attain an objective often drives to a confliction, rigid and reductive way of thinking. Negotiating requires to be flexible in the approach and considering a situation according to different point of view. This flexibility of the negotiator is measured through his/her capacity to modulate his/her answer in function of verbal and non-verbal reaction of the speaker.
The key moment of the negotiator approach The preparation Most negotiation fails due to the absence of preparation or appropriate negotiation. Indeed, most people prepare their negotiation by listing and cumulating their arguments which will justify the legitimacy of their request and position.
During this phase, instead to standing on his/her own arguments, the solution should be to try to detect the one which could be generate more sensitivity and so to think to the objections to be suggested.
Three main principles are at the origin of the preparation relevance:
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To understand the other side as we wish he/her will understand us
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To exploit what could motivate the other side’s desire to cooperate and to find an agreement before trying to convince him/her at any price 46
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To identify the shared value with the speaker
This phase consists essentially in anticipating the potential objection, value, attempt of the speaker to use it as action lever or pressure points.
Bellow examples of pertinent are relevant questions to wonder:
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How can I use it?
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What is the useful function of this objection?
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To what extent this objection can allow me to advance?
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What could be his/her positive intention in objecting that?
The open phase and the framing of the negotiation During the short time that constitutes the open phase, people adjust the symmetric or complementary nature of their relations (see about Luc and Florent…). It is essential for the success of this phase to create a climate of confidence by synchronizing our verbally and non-verbally attitude. It consists in defining a common framework enough wide to be accepted and giving space to the negotiation. The objective is to emphasize the value and common aims with the speaker by announcing, for instance, the context and aim of the negotiation in order to have a first wide agreement. It is also necessary to precise the time frame of the negotiation either by proposing or asking how much time is available.
The argumentation The “criteria” are the selective facts that are selected in the environment to evaluate the situation and decide of the action. The criteria are the foundation of the mental construction: the equilibrium depends on their satisfaction. Because they are at the top of the subjectivity, they can not be eliminated. They can be enriched or extended but if they are put in question, the speaker will mobilize all his/her energy to defend them. Most negotiation fails because criteria and value are not enough taken into account. 47
The collection of the criteria is done into two steps. A first time, is generally collected the value, for instance: -
What are you expecting from a collaborator?
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Liability
The liability is a value not a criterion. To collect criteria, it is necessary to get more in details -
According to you, what indicate the liability of a collaborator?
The answer given will constitute the essential information to build an argumentation which affects the speaker. Aristote emphasized “if you want to convince someone, use his/her own arguments”. That’s why an argument will have an impact only if it corresponds to the other side logic. As stated above, the person who has the best ability to listen and observe best controls the situation as he/she collects constantly information which allows him/her to readjust his/her argumentation.
The conclusion Contrary to the open phase, the conclusion is capital and should be short. It offers the occasion to prove the quality of the attention. Even if the negotiation doesn’t lead to a final agreement, it is necessary to synthesises the key steps of the discussion. The fact of employing the speaker words will retain all his/her attention. It consists in reformulating the common aim defined at the beginning and emphasizing the progression. If the negotiation is not finished, the conclusion aim is to open future perspectives. The difficulty to conclude is generally link to the fact that the agreement or disagreement is not sufficiently emphasized because the speaker doesn’t have enough implied the spokesperson by fear of his answer. For example, it is particularly the case when the speaker are obsess with his/her own arguments.
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The seven key points of the negotiation: - Speaking the other language in order to be more receptive - Using the other point of view in order to extend it - Leaning on the other criteria to motivate the desire to cooperate and give impact to your argument - Obtaining precise information’s on criteria and experiences lived by the speaker to show that you take his/her logic into account - Collecting his deduction in order to be able, if necessary, to refocus on the common objective - Exploring or anticipating the objections; idea or principles likely to block the negotiation - Checking the decisional power of the speaker. If it is only an intermediary, built with him an argumentation adapted to the aimed person. It will motivate the speaker to plead for your cause
An efficient negotiation requires to prepare: define the other side objective by answering to the questions objective and by replacing them in the logic and context of the speaker.
The failure sources in the negotiation -
Judging in a disqualifying way the speaker or his/her speeches
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Don’t observe or listen totally the speaker
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Thinking instead of the other side rather than helping him/her to clarify what
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he/she saying
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Proposing solutions which come from his/her own logic before clarifying the aimed
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objective
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Lacking of rigour by establishing an unclear objective, unrealistic, bad context
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Don’t have taken the time to ask the key-questions in order to check if the objective
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aimed corresponded to the required criteria 49
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Trying to eliminate or evade an objection instead of making a resource to state the objective
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Beginning a power struggle by arguing the other side point of view; tempting to fight or put in question the speaker’s point of view
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Listing his interns commentary instead of paying attention to the opportunities that the speaker delivers over his/her unwilling will
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Thinking while the other speaks and loose consequently the lead of the conversation
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Don’t lean on the speaker’s experience to imply and influence him/her
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Don’t talk or successfully take advantage of representations which risk of strangling the reach of the objective
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Don’t center oneself or the speaker on the common objective when there are disagreement, derives, blockages...
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Don’t observe and take into account the non-verbal signs of the speaker
3. The positioning of the consultant confronted to resistance a) At the level of the relations skills The managerial communication aimed to mobilize the human resources in order to lead toward better results and more satisfaction. To suit the other person is more successful than trying to get something out of him/her.
The quality relations are based on attentive listening, respect and the exploitation of differences, valorization and acknowledgment produce more efficient and rewarding exchanges.
The manager who wants to bring the human resources wasting to an end should be enriching with this way of thinking. The establishment of new relationship into the company consists in reviewing the traditional hierarchical link between employees and so the vertical model of relationship (boss/employee). If interdependence and cooperation are necessary 50
to manage a working team, they impose the emergence of a new mentality and the implementation of a priority condition: to have established common objectives enough clear, negotiated and reachable and then the method to accomplish. In management, most conflicts, fruitless power games, demotivation and lack of any sense of responsibility come from a wrong definition of the objectives. In this perspective, the consultant looks like more as a guide. Trough his/her attentive listening and observation, he/she develop and harmonize the potentialities of each members.
Communicate to provoke reaction Coaching and management are pedagogy of business. It doesn’t enough to explain or understand a problem to successfully change. It is essential to obtain the cooperation of people in order to make them do “in another way”. First of all, it can be considered that to make act people in another way consist in teaching them how to think differently. The entire problem is to obtain the motivation and mobilization of people on a change management project. It is often thought wrongfully that people don’t want to change but the real problem is that they don’t know how to change. The role of a consultant is to teach how to change through the projection of the wished future in order to create the desire to change. The necessary qualities of a consultant to manage a team work have changed for the last twenty years. From the time of technical superiority personified by engineers, the current world is essentially managed by economist and financial people. However nowadays clearly appears a third dimension of the management which emphasizes the capacity to communicate, mobilise and drive Change. This new dimension implies that consultants and managers gain serious knowledge on human mechanism and relationship psychology. Except for their technical competences, the efficiency of the consultant and manager will depends more and more on their strategic capacity to deal with other, to be confronted to conflict and resistance, to motivate people and to promote Change. Theses qualities don’t depends on standardized recipes or teaching in few days of formation
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but the integration not of a linear method (prescriptive or like a check-list) but circular. Detecting the resources to develop them The consultant should be an “obstetrician of resources”. He/she should reason in terms of available resources to develop and exploit by people. In the same perspective, he/she should better think in terms of objectives than in term of problems or limitations. The current consultant has real interpersonal skills and replaces the cold, distant and neutral manager that we was known years ago. His/her capacity to listen and to observe people he/she is going to work with on a Change Management project allow him to detect their resources to reach and the objectives they aim. People feeds them not only on operational management but also on plans, project, vision that is why it is essential to create the desire for a better future. Listening and learning All the art of the pedagogue consists in reasoning in function of the referential framework of his/her student rather than his own idea. In good pedagogue, a consultant will think trough the mind of the speaker. By starting from the speaker’s point of view he/she will facilitate the mutual comprehension. Each person must be at the same time teacher and student, manager and managed as the management performance is appreciated thanks to the encouragement of the desire to change, learn and make better.
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b) At the level of the management Harmonizing to orchestrate In the framework of a change management project, the mission of a consultant is to contribute to the harmony of people who compose the change management team. To exploit the potential of each member and emphasize them are part of the consultant. Knowing how to recognize the resources of each person and taking the benefit of their differences requires a real ability to listen and to comply with other. The consultant instils energy and drives the entire project. Consequently, it is important to define carefully the objective and the responsibility of each person for the success of the change management project. Combining flexibility on the strategy and directivity on the objective One of the excellence criteria of the consultant is to be directive on the objective but flexible on the approach and the method to reach it. It is impossible to be willing to change people if you stay yourself rigid. If a consultant want to go ahead on a project, it is necessary that he/she back away when resistances appears in order to provoke more adequate behaviour. In fact, the flexibility give more solidity and authority, it avoid the break-down and allow to fold up to better straighten. Nowadays, the authority of a consultant is rather measured by his/her capacity to influence cooperation behaviour than exercising his/her domination over people than. That involves an ability to communicate: be flexible on the means, directive on the objective and above all have self-mastery. This new way to work imposes to the consultant a deep change in their authority vision which rely more on their on their personal development than on their hierarchical status, diploma and notoriety. The main work instrument of a consultant is his/her personality. That means that their mainly efficiency relies on their capacity of using their own resources to develop the speakers resources. 53
Having a constructive vision of the human problems In definitive, the efficiency of the management in a Change management project depends on the absence of a priori and theories on individuals and their problems. This behaviour greatly facilitates the people opening and the discovery of the singularity and particularity of each project. In the framework of Change Management project confronted to resistance, these approach means that the consultant is a strategist crafty and respectful who know how orient and readjust the intervention in function of the reactions he/she provokes and the information he/she collects.
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Conclusion Toward an ethical management A consultant must not only give material answer to the resistance he/she can meet in the framework of Change Management project but immaterial answer to the need of acknowledgement of people he/she want to help. Thinking that technical solutions like the implementation of a new information system or the entire restructuration of a company are enough to make the change accepted is an illusion. People naturally have resistance against change and if a consultant doesn’t consider that his/her relational skills are the key to coach the Change, he/she risks to encounter a real problem. Consultants often have a lot of a priori concerning the change approach. In particularly within the public sector, they are more willing to think that people immediately refuse the change and actually they don’t know how to change. With pedagogy, patience and above all open mindedness, the consultant is going to put himself/herself in the speaker mind and analyse what they are afraid of in order to adapt his/her language and reaction. Without this approach, he/she is going to apply standard recipe and method for each change management project and forget the particularity of the context and of the individuals.
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ANNEXES
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Behavioral questionnaire 1. How do you qualify the Change in a) important for the company process? b) you wait for seeing what’s happen c) you are openly opposed d) without opinion 2. How do you inform about Change?
a) by asking information and by going the websites b) during the official communication (meeting…) c) you don’t looking for knowing what’s happen d) without opinion
3. How do you integrate the Change in your a) you made scenarios professional activity? b) you wait for someone ask you something c) you will do it under obligation d) without opinion 4. How do you participate to the Change a) by reporting information Management project? Management team
to
the
b) by doing what we ask you c) by developing contradictories arguments d) without opinion 5. Are you, in general, rather :
a) favorable b) by waiting what it will concretely make c) suspicious about Change d) without opinion
6. What is your first feeling to a Change a) “it makes the things move” announcement? b) “we will again have added work” c) “a lot of noise for nothing” d) without opinion 57
Change
Informal speeches types N°
Type speeches
Actions to limit their resistance effect
1
We don’t have the time
Count the necessary time for the different activity of Change and communicate it
2
We don’t know whose speak
Create a document to communicate on the project (list, flyers…) which precise the resources available and distribute this document to the all actors
3
We are going to ask you added work
Enroll the project in individuals objectives
4
We are not help
Give figures and facts which show the resources and means available
5
This project is not pertinent
Develop the sales talk of the project by quoting external and/or legal’s obligations
6
The arguments are not pertinent
Demand of the person who say that to justify their speech
7
You don’t know the reality of the practical work
Integrate in the Change Management team, people who work in the company
8
Your project is not adapted
Define a general framework of change in comparison to a knowing existing situation and precise the locally adaptation
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Board of fears and attempts
Actors categories Category 1
Numbers
Position
Fears
Attempts
Resistance
Proactive Passives Opposing Not concerned
Category 2
Proactive Neutral Opposing Not concerned
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Françoise Kourilsky « Du désir au plaisir de changer », Dunod 2004 (4ème édition)
D. Autissier et J.M. Moutot « Méthode de conduite du changement », Dunod (2ème édition)
Kotter « The heart of Change », Harvard Business School Press 2000
Dupuy F. « Sociologie du changement : pourquoi et comment changer les organisations », Dunod 2004
Crozier M. et Fridberg E. « Le pouvoir et la règle, l’acteur et le système », Dunod 1995
Bateson G
« Vers une écologie de l’esprit » , Le Seuil, Paris 1980 « La nature et la pensée » Le Seuil, Paris 1984 « La nouvelle communication » Le Seuil, Paris 1981
Watzlawick P. « The language of change” Le Seuil, Paris 1980 « Faites vous-même votre malheur » Le Seuil, Paris 1984 « l’invention de la réalité » Le Seuil, Paris 1988
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