Change

1. Alignment to action

In an Alignment to Action workshop, we ensure that all stakeholders are rowing in the same boat and define the goal. We decide on the flag. After all, change is not an end in itself. It helps you reach your ultimate destination with your organisation.
This step cannot be ignored: many transformation processes break down on theoretical vagueness or on the fact that insufficient time has been taken for reflection in this initial phase. Our team is therefore not satisfied with non-binding agreements. It keeps going until there is a commitment to results on the table and the visions of all concerned converge into one clear goal. Until an authentic commitment by everyone to make the desired move together is in place. We formulate this end goal as a very concrete, measurable project with a binding timeline.

2. Pick your battles wisely

What specific behavioural changes do you want to see? With the end goal in mind, we make the transition to tangibly perceptible behaviour which everyone - wherever they are in the organisation - can identify with and vigorously relate to. We seek feasible interim goals that people are confident will genuinely be achieved. By this means, we distil a (small) set of desired and achievable behavioural indicators that will subsequently be the main lever of a major impact. Small interventions with great effect, provided that everyone applies them.

3. Don't push but pull

We thus make an appeal for contributions by every individual employee and use the most powerful instrument of change in doing so: peer-to-peer influence. Fundamental behavioural change does not happen through top-down PowerPoints or abstract newsletters. Our team applies the “don’t push but pull” principle: employees have to be attracted, enthused by the new way of doing things. For this purpose, we carefully select a group of people “from the shop floor” with strong influence and high visibility, who enthusiastically embody the behaviour that we want to see the rest of the organisation copying. We engage them as change agents or influencers. This is the only way for the change to “go viral” so that we can be sure of an irreversible (r)evolution and upscaling.

4. Surfing

To achieve this so-called ‘social infection’, knowledge of the informal social networks and loops within an organisation is of inestimable value. The Better Minds team’s goal is not to create yet another new structure or process, but to surf on the existing informal undercurrents within the organisation. These have to be gradually aligned with the flag so that they also support the end goal. For this purpose, we use our expertise in group dynamics on the one hand and the individual (unique) social intelligence of the company on the other. We feed oxygen into these informal networks and support the communication skills of the influencers, who – themselves with both feet planted in the field of everyday business reality – sense what works and what doesn’t, where resistance will arise and how best to counter it. These pioneers are, so to speak, “scouts” who constantly check the initial plan for soundness and adjust it where necessary.

5. Celebrate The Flag

When the end result is achieved, it is important to highlight that fact effectively. This makes the efforts made particularly visible once again. It reinforces people’s faith in the organisation’s resilience and agility and creates a support platform for undertaking new challenges.