Yesterday I got a phone call from a prospective client wanting to “book a speaker who would make my people want to change.” The caller was the vice president of a large company going through a substantial transformation - and he didn’t know the first thing about people and change.

I asked him if the people he wanted to embrace the change understood and agreed with the business rationale behind the change, if they’d had been involved with designing the change, and if they had any control over its rollout. The long pause on the other end of the line spoke volumes.

Which only shows how far we still need to come in our change-leadership practices. There are three lessons from this scenerio:

1. The folks who report to this VP aren’t “his people” - and no speaker (or anyone else) can “make them want to change.” They belong to no one but themselves. And they can and will make up their own minds about whether or not to support the change.
2. In order for people to make an informed decision, they need to be trusted with all the relevant information about a change – the competitive and economic pressures, customer feedback, other alternatives considered and rejected, etc.
3. People tend to like and support changes that they create – and they certainly want to have a sense of control over their own destinies. The most effective strategies any leader can use are those that include people in designing the change and its process.

At least that’s my opinion. What do you think?