
Changing workplace behavior isn’t rocket science
Thoughts from Olga Hestnes
Behaviours are patterns of action that give us a feeling of predictability and safety, and they are programmed into us from birth: set meal times, sleep schedules, school timetables, nine to five, Monday to Friday — I could go on forever.
In the workplace, our embedded behaviour enables us to do things on auto-pilot, saving time and effort, so changes and organisational initiatives are usually met at best with scepticism, and most likely with downright resistance.
“I’ve always done it this way, we don’t need all these bells and whistles. Why do we need to change the way we do things, it’s working just fine for me the way it is, and I don’t like change full stop.”
These are typical reactions in organisations undergoing change, and at Sei Mani we’ve learned over the years what it takes to move people from a place of fear and negativity — to a place of enthusiastic and willing participation. Here are just a few:
Create immediate wins and make it enjoyable
People’s first contact with new technology and systems is truly vital. Either they’ll feel encouraged and motivated to invest further effort or quite the opposite — they’ll leave discouraged, stressed and angry, convinced that the old way is better.
Our Genius Desk coaching techniques ensure first encounters with new systems are both useful and comforting. We focus on how the system will meet people’s immediate needs and goals, with easy wins from the start.
This removes fear and reluctance, encouraging further exploration and use. Small changes in behaviour will grow over time, building the behaviour change required in the long run.
And we make it enjoyable. Our coaching sessions are delivered with a human voice, offering colleagues the chance to interact in a different way, one that’s positive, creative and businesslike.
We build the knowledge across the organisation, creating a lasting positive experience. No ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentations, where attendees secretly read their emails. We ensure our sessions are interesting, engaging and very interactive.
Make it tailored
Behavioural change doesn’t come easily, and asking for time in busy work schedules to read lengthy emails and follow do-it-yourself system setup instructions is never popular.
We take a different approach, embedding ourselves in the customer’s environment, and by ‘going native’ we quickly understand the culture, working habits and needs of the users, as well as any pre-existing challenges or obstacles to transformation.
And by doing this, change activities like first line support, coaching, training, communications and learning materials are highly focused and in sync with the unique situation of each organisation.
It’s a cornerstone principle to ensure all activities are customised, both to the organisation and to the specific user groups and departments within it, right through to users on an individual basis. Vanilla ‘one size fits all’ interactions have no place in Sei Mani.
Don’t miss your chance with communications
It’s usual to see both ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ activities in change programmes — the former is aimed at encouraging new behaviours, and the latter at moving people away from behaviours the organisation wants to leave behind. Our focus is on the ‘carrot’ because it’s a far better way to embed long-term and lasting behavioural change.
Communication is key to ‘carrot’ activities. New workflows and actions become lasting behaviours, motivated by an understanding and a willingness to find out more. But most organisational communications lack creativity and clarity, they tend to be one-dimensional emails, that are mostly unread or deleted.
Our communications treat the introduction of a new technology like a consumer product launch focusing on the age-old question of ‘what’s in it for me?’ Our ‘stand-out’ creative, multichannel communications have a clear value proposition that people understand. We ensure they fit in with company culture — and they’re always attention grabbing and effective.
Finally, knowing doesn’t mean acting, so our communications have clear calls to action, encouraging people to book a scheduled coaching session or join us for an informal Genius Desk get-together.
Keep the up motivation
Until new behaviours become patterns, and the changes stick, triggers are needed to encourage users to keep moving in the right direction. After the initial buzz of the launch, momentum needs to be maintained as motivation can be short-lived, resulting in a fall back to the old ways.
Reminder communications and prompts about ongoing events are ways to keep up engagement and momentum. We share success stories and show video interviews, we create an in-house competitive spirit through leaderboards, we continually run refresher training sessions, competitions and ongoing creative communication campaigns, supported by physical assets in the offices.
Fit the tool to the people, not the people to the tool
System setup and configuration is key to creating the right environment for change. When choosing which features to enable/disable and which use cases to focus on — it’s important to focus on industry specifics, company culture, along with infrastructure and current working habits.
For example; knowledge workers are always on the go — so they’ll be interested in mobile apps. Office-based workers who live on email will find Outlook connector for scheduling WebEx meetings useful. Flexible home-based workers will benefit from headsets — so we check that budget has been made available.
In the project mobilisation phase, we work with clients to define business requirements, the system set up, positioning and rollout. And we cover more than human behaviour and employee experience. We have strong technical and operational knowledge, all underpinning the core focus of workplace transformation and agreed business outcomes.
Our secret formula isn’t rocket science. It’s a Genius Desk, an on-demand team of collaboration practitioners and community managers with product specific knowledge and an unmatched passion that transmits itself to end users so they adopt the technologies faster. Hear our team sharing thoughts and secrets about collaboration success.
Originally published at www.sei-mani.com on July 20, 2017.

