Organisational change for humans

Sometimes it pays to think small

What does it take to get people to adopt new tools or habits at work?

If you want to get the company to adopt a new project management tool or communication platform, what would it take to get the organisation as a whole to lean in and make the change?

Is it about expectation management? If you tell the the organisation that "this is how we work now" is that enough?

Clearly no...

How about offering training? What if you show people explicitly how to use the tools and do the things. Is that enough? Surely education will solve all our problems.

Clearly no...

What if you are able to get everyone to whole heartedly agree that the change is a good change? What if you win hearts and minds?

Erm..still no...

Wait, but why?

Many leaders seem to forget something very important about the people that work in their organisations.

People are people.

Think about yourself for a moment. Think of all the times you you knew what to do, wanted to do it, saw the value in it, and then didn't do it. Have you ever struggled to start to exercise? Cut down on the candy or social media usage? Practice a skill? Have you ever failed to show up and do what you told yourself you would do?

If you are one of those mutants with iron-clad willpower, look around. What are people usually like? What do they struggle with in their day to day lives? Where do those struggles come from? How many people do you know who have struggles to quit smoking. Just knowing that something matters isn't enough to elicit change.

Humans are messy and there are many reasons for people to not be their best selves. So much of our behaviour is determined by our context, social norms and pre-existing auto-pilot routines. We are prone to rational biases, we do not have perfect willpower, we get tired. We are overconfident, or underconfident. We look away from things that fall into the broad category of "not my job" or "not my problem" or "someone else will deal with that". We struggle to hold each other accountable at all, let alone in a way that is both effective and kind. We fight for our egos rather than for what is true.

We are far from perfect and building systems that rely on perfect humans is not likely to work.

If you want to change the behaviour of an organisation, you need to know a thing or two about how to change the behaviour of an individual human. You need to know a thing or two about the perfectly normal things that people tend to trip over even when they are highly motivated to change.

Scaling that up is not straightforward. But you need to start somewhere.

Start small

Let's start with a little thought experiment. You are a leader in an organisation and that organisation is scaling up. Well done you!

Small organisations are able to handle a degree of chaos, but as things scale up it's important to get systems in place. There is a need for some solid project management tooling and practices.

So you call a meeting, make your case, win hearts and minds. A project management tool is chosen, the people are trained and onboarded.

Practically speaking, the first thing everyone has agreed to do is: Track their own tasks (and their team's tasks) in a consistent way using the new tool.

It's a small change really. Surely everyone was keeping track of their tasks already. They just need to change their habits.

What would it take to make this kinda small change a success?

The real work

What I described above is the first step. The stage is set and people will conceivably be able to succeed. But setting the stage is not enough.

The real work of behaviour change happens afterwards. A seed has been planted, but the real work comes next.

The real work is about changing people's habits and how they show up. If a person doesn't magically change their habits overnight, it is not because there is something wrong with them or because they are being naughty. It's because they are human.

So what does it take to get humans to change?

There are 2 main levers to pull on:

1. the psychology of behaviour change

Ok, this is a huge topic on it's own. Let's 80/20 it.

You can get a lot done just by focusing on understanding how habits work.

Habit formation is hard. It's hard enough that people write books about it.

You should read those books. Leaders should work to understand what it takes for one person to intentionally change their own behaviour in small ways.

I would go further and say that leaders should work to help their people understand what it takes to change their own behaviour.

Here are some books I've personally found very useful:

And in case you need your Hubermann fix, here is the man himself:

2. Coaching and accountability

Turning every employee into a super expert on behaviour change, with iron clad willpower is not likely, even if they all enjoy podcasts. The next part of the puzzle is support structures. People are affected by their contexts in big ways.

An organisation is not a collection of individuals, it is a team (or a team of teams). And a good team is more than the sum of it's parts.

The real magic is in the interactions. How can you create structures and systems that help people show up in the way they want to show up?

The goal here should be to learn about the effects of the behaviour change you are chasing (there is probably something worth learning), and to help team members look at themselves and level up.

This in itself is a huge mega topic. It deserves a lot more air-time than this small fraction of a blog-post. But leading with curiosity, compassion and systems thinking will go a long way.

Happy side effects

Let's continue on with our story from above. Fast forward a bit.

The organisation has successfully adopted the new project management tool, people have incorporated it into their daily routines. The chaos of scale is being wrangled in a visible way. Wonderful

Now, think about the people. Let's zoom in on the individual again. What does this organisational change mean for the people?

At the very least, people needed to practice intentional behaviour change (this is worth practising). They might have learned a thing or two about habit formation (these skills are useful outside of work). Through intentional coaching and accountability, they have learned about cleaner ways of tracking their work (this pays dividends in so many ways).

They have become people who are more able to change when change is required.

What other skills might have been practised along the way? What were the mechanisms used for coaching and accountability?

Adaptable organisations

An adaptable organisation is made up of adaptable people.

It's useful to maintain a growth mindset about people's ability to adapt. It's not like some people are adaptable and some are not. There is a science and practice to behaviour change (like so many things), this can be learned. There are skills to be practised.

Many organisations say that they prioritise the growth of their people.

What if the work itself was an avenue to personal growth?