I am asked this question in some form several times a week by business owners, managers and leaders from different kinds of organisations. I usually design and deliver training and coaching or facilitate sessions to address this issue, but I am coming to the conclusion that sometimes the solutions may be simpler than we think.
You may be familiar with the Neurological Levels approach to change, developed by Robert Dilts, which is a systemic way of thinking about an individual or a team or whole organisation.
This powerful model helps us to understand that we can influence change in a system at many different levels, and the ripple effect will impact other parts of the system. This post explores how we can re-engage our people at the Environment level and we will cover the other levels in future posts.
You can download a printable version of this model here.
Can we re-energise our people by changing the environment or context?
If you make an environmental change like painting a dingy office in bright, light colours, people are likely to ‘feel better’, which is likely to generate more energy, which in turn will increase the pace of their actions at the Behavioural level. This may generate more positive results reinforcing the new pace. It may also have some impact on them at the Capability level because when we ‘feel better’ we are more likely to generate more positive, proactive and creative thinking, which could generate more sophisticated levels of skill and talent (more about this in a later post).
Further change could ripple into the Beliefs and Values level too. This could mean a belief formed or changed with significance at any level. For example:
“I can get great results here.” Environment
“I can get great results here.” Behaviour
“I can get great results here.” Capability
“I can get great results here.” Identity
“I can get great results here.” Values or Spirit (mission/purpose)
Listen to the patterns of emphasis your people put on their words and you will learn a great deal about their limiting, resourceful and emerging beliefs.
What if we don’t have the resources available to paint the walls or buy new computers? Anyway, over time, the walls will fade and the new computers will be out of date – what then? There are limitations to instigating change at this level but you may be surprised by how simply you can change a system from here. Our on-going leadership challenge is to keep ourselves alert to what might make a useful difference and we often miss opportunities here because we look for more sophisticated solutions first. Here are a few examples:
Where did you get that rug?
One start-up company I worked with couldn’t afford to refurbish their office which was rather shabby. So, we asked everyone to bring in an item they personally found inspiring. Soon the entire building was adorned with posters, pot plants, photos, textiles and works of art freely brought in by everyone who worked there. The place was a-buzz with people asking questions about these items. “What does that mean to you?” “How does that inspire you?” “What’s the story behind that?” and the learning they gained about each other in the process became a powerful source of connection.
One guy brought in some left over paint, and a small group painted the main lobby. The owner of the business was amazed at how his people took ownership of their environment. He asked them “Why didn’t you do this before?” and they said “We simply didn’t think about it or realise how important it might be.” Their visiting customers also appreciated the informal and relaxed feel about the place as well as learning more about the people in the business.
How do you sit on a bean bag?
Another client once asked for help because his new leadership team was particularly unproductive in their weekly review meetings. He said “They sit around the board table with their laptops open and I know some of them even email each other during the meetings!” He was particularly concerned that they were avoiding issues and lacked understanding about each others parts of the business. Key business decisions were not being taken and the rest of the business was beginning to suffer. He had asked them for a change of behaviour and for a week they were more engaged but by the next meeting they just reverted to old patterns.
We chose to make some very simple changes. Instead of having the meeting in the board room we changed it to a light and airy room at the local football club. We thought this might help them to step back from their operational activities and take a broader perspective. Instead of a board table and chairs we invested in a set of brightly coloured bean bags which we set up in a circle. I’m sure you can imagine the shocked expressions as the team arrived for the first session at the new venue!
It’s difficult to balance a laptop on your knee when you’re sitting on a bean bag………by the third week the lap tops had been abandoned and communication had shifted dramatically to a much more honest and meaningful level. This team developed quickly into the most high-performing team the leader had ever experienced.
I’m no salesman!
A manager recently asked me to coach a Sales Rep who was underperforming. The manager thought the Rep needed to develop his sales technique and his interpersonal skills. I met the Rep and concluded very quickly that his people and selling skills were excellent. After some probing he explained “I’m just not a Sales person” (notice this is an Identity level statement). We brought in the manager and agreed a new strategy. The ” Rep” would no longer be selling (the perceived context), instead he would be presenting (new context) the products on a road show. The Rep was clearly very relieved “I’m a great Presenter” he said. They agreed to track his performance by measuring enquiries resulting from his presentations, but his actual sales results rocketed!
So, keep asking yourself “What do I really want to achieve and are there some simple environmental or contextual changes I can make to create the desired effect?” You may be surprised by how a simple change can have a powerful impact.
What are your experiences of change at this level? I’d love to hear from you. Look out for my next post where we will explore this model further to help inspire more passion at work.
Passionately, Lorraine
P.S. I am always happy to help you explore these issues with your people and your business goals. Just make contact.
Bobby Connor (aged 80-something) still works for NASA because he LOVES the science and the adventure…..he was part of the ground team for the first moon landing and still talks about the future with passion and excitement. 
