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To get different results do something radically different - stop talking
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"I am an HR manager in a Fortune 500 company, and
I
have been tasked with implementing a new
performance management process - the latest in a
series of changes that we have had to adapt to and
roll out after a merger late last year. I am getting the
sense that my team is a little burned out and I wonder
about their ability to enthusiastically get behind this
latest change. What suggestions do you have?"
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80% of restructurings fail
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Consider just one variable that often goes unspoken in a merger - the "winners" and the "losers" in the process. Most senior leadership teams take great pains to stress that mergers are the synergistic combination of goals. But we all know that this simply is not true.
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Chances are that you and your team have all been
talking, for what seems like years now, about all of
these changes, communicated by memos, flip charts
and power point presentations. Research suggests
that close to 80 percent of corporate or
department "restructurings" fail. If you are not seeing
new results from just talking - using words, whether
spoken aloud or captured on flipcharts or in meeting
minutes - try something really different. Try building
or creating something together with LEGO SERIOUS
PLAY and build trust - literally -and deeper
understanding of one another in the process.
Because LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is an expressive
language that accesses deep or subconscious
knowledge, workshop participants are able to build
concrete models of abstract words and ideas.
Getting clear on the abstract is particularly useful in
times when our "stories" need to shift at a deep level.
Given time, we may all eventually "get there," but the
process can be supported, enhanced, and speeded
up if you take a little time and "work the process."
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Break the "meeting dynamics"
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Deep change (like the merger of two different corporate cultures) is very, very difficult to achieve. In fact, studies of coronary bypass surgery patients have shown that people would - literally - rather die than change.
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Metaphors are particularly helpful in deep change and
to build new stories. They can serve as the gateways
to different levels of understanding and perspectives.
Using metaphors can enable you to construct
something - literally - outside of yourself onto which
you can project a story. A process, such as LEGO
SERIOUS PLAY, that uses your kinesthetic, visual,
auditory, and spatial senses can help you tap into
subconscious creativity that gets suppressed in times
of stress. Working kinesthetically can also help to
break free of typical "meeting dynamics" when one or
two people (adept wordsmiths or extreme extraverts)
tend to dominate, while others get only a few words in
edgewise.
When faced with a major change, such as a merger,
people need to be able to tell a very different story
about who they are, what they know, and for and with
whom. When the "story line" has radically changed -
we work for a new organization, the organization has
radically changed its focus, our roles have changed
significantly - people can find it hard to build a
coherent story, at least until they have really gotten
accustomed to the new state. It can be helpful to
see "the story" as something temporarily outside
themselves - as something that is not just the usual
stream of conversation in their own heads.*
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The need for new stories
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*Taken by permission from the Linkage Inc's
June 2008 LINK&LEARN eNewsletter.
For full article click here.
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Tel.+1.413.348.7190
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Robert Rasmussen & Associates LLC is a LEGO
SERIOUS PLAY Consultancy. We build answers in
real-
time for challenges related to Strategy, Innovation,
Identity, Team Building, Culture and Systems. We are
part of global network of consultancies offering
services with LEGO SERIOUS PLAY
www.rasmus.us
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