The people need a plan too. Titans. Cultivated Management newsletter
Hi and welcome to this week's Cultivated Management newsletter. Hope you are all having a good week.
Your People Need A Plan Too
Making epic change within an organisation is hard. In fact, in some organisations making small changes is hard. If you're struggling with making lasting change, trying to initiate change or thinking of making some changes, then maybe the following short thoughts may be helpful to you.
It's usual for managers to present change in the form of processes, budgets, diagrams, actions, project plans and many other forms of communication/documentation.
Something along the lines of "We're currently doing this. We're going to transition to do this other thing instead. And here's how we'll do it and what the end result will look like."
Depending on your company culture and personal style these diagrams or plans may be simple pictures or detailed business plans or excel spreadsheets or something else entirely.
They're pretty much all the same - a model of what the world will look like, a representation of what's going to change.
This is good. You should produce the right level and style of plan your company needs.
But the thing that's often missing is a plan for your team; the people who will do the work. And this is why most transitions from one way of working to another don't succeed.
Intellectually most people can see the benefit of this new approach or transition. "We'll be faster, cheaper, more adaptive, cool, yada yada" - enter your own business reasons for change here.
The problem is that most meaningful changes require people to change also.
Change is really easy if people don't have to change. It becomes hard when people need to change.
Yet most plans for change don't focus on the people. They don't focus on how and why people need to change, how the management will support that change or what training or mentoring or coaching will be available.
There are often very few plans around how the company culture will change or how it needs to change to accomodate the change to the new working process. It's usually just methods, strategies and process, usually accompanied by some measures to see how the change is progressing.
What about the people? What plan do you have for them? Without a change in the team it's unlikely a business change will succeed, or remain in place for a period of time.
Don't be shy about looking at yourself too. In my experience, most transitions struggle or fail because the managers are the ones who need to change. Change is hard if you have to change.
Some people are open to change, some people force themselves regularly to change and others shy away from it at all costs. I've not met anyone who likes change because it can be painful and hard. Management are often the most resistant to change.
So if you're changing something then go forth and make plans and draw diagrams and set goals and put in place measures, but do the same for the people who are going to be part of that business change. They too will need to change and they require just as much focus as the business plans do.
Book of the week
What an astonishing book I have for you this week. It's called Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. This book is Gold. It's basically a collection of ideas from the Titans of industry, sport and technology who share their tools, technique, routines and wisdom.
The book is structured around Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. Some of the chapters are to be skipped but as Tim points out, as you skip a section, ask yourself why? I found myself skipping only a few sections, but I ultimately may as well have dipped this book in highlighter fluid. There is much to learn from the people in this book. If you're dedicated to being a Cultivated Manager, a manager who improves themselves so they can be a better manager, then this book should hold some deep insights for you.
I would heartily recommend this book.
Writing this week
I didn't post anything this week on the blog….I'm trying to work out why. My focus is not where it needs to be. It's a perennial struggle as I try to take on too much. Back to basics I think - stick my work in my calendar 😃 I'll be posting next week for sure.
Until next time..
Rob..