Want change? Provide clarity for people’s Elephants and Riders

24 Sep Want change? Provide clarity for people’s Elephants and Riders

As value accumulates or erodes in a brand, what and how you do things change. Is value building nicely? Do more of those things. That’s change. Eroding like the beach at high tide, stop or switch things around. Also change.

Those changes with a small c happen endlessly and usually unnoticed. People in organisations often say, ‘Things never change around here’. Nonsense, we’re constantly twiddling at the edges of our stuff.

But when it comes to change with a big C involving big groups or whole organisations. It gets way, way more complicated.

In The Happiness Hypothesis, Social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt introduces us to the Elephant and the Rider. Representing the two sides of behaviour—the emotional (Elephant) and rational (Rider). His analogy is a memorable visual that applies seamlessly to help think about how people can change.

Popular authors Dan and Chip Heath apply Haidt’s concept to organisations in their book Switch. “If you want to change things, you’ve got to appeal to both. The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy … so when Elephants and Riders move together, change can come easily.”

Dan and Chip start by revealing three surprising things that stymie successful change. First, they note, “What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem”. Second, “What looks like laziness is often exhaustion”. The third tackles communication.

They say, “It’s true that an unmotivated Elephant can doom a change effort, but let’s not forget that the Rider has his own issues. He’s a navel-gazer, an analyzer, a wheel-spinner. If the rider isn’t sure exactly what direction to go, he tends to lead the Elephant in circles. And as we’ll see, that tendency explains the third and final surprise about change: What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity.”

Being clear is more than carefully chosen words. Ask people why something didn’t change, and you’ll get endless opinions. But I bet communication will lurk somewhere on the list. Too much, not enough, the wrong things, murky, irrelevant. What you’re saying, how, when and to whom you’re saying it all matters.

Goals and messages are too often fuzzy, with more loopholes than a government policy. I can’t do something if I don’t understand it, and I won’t do something unless I know the reason. So, a vital first step is to uncover the things buried in how people do things and feel today that will hinder efforts.

I call them obstacles, and knowing them is a crucial step in communicating clearly. Some are easy to spot, but many are sneaky, hiding behind doors, waiting to trip you when you least expect it.

To find them, ask people open questions such as “What matters most to you about your work?” Asking many people one question is counterintuitive, but analysing the accumulated responses always reveals insights galore.

What if a previous change project was bumpy and absent any real return on people’s efforts? Their responses to a ‘what matters’ style of question might reveal disappointment and doubts about their capabilities. Their lack of confidence is an obstacle.

In that situation, overcoming the doubt and moving them towards belief will require deliberate choices. It’s essential that what you’re doing and how you’re doing it gives the Rider direction and the Elephant a reason to get on board. But, what and how you communicate those things must also address the obstacle.

That doesn’t mean directly calling out their lack of confidence. Instead, you could use language that builds their morale, encourages problem-solving, and stimulates curiosity about what’s happening. For example, “How can you x?” instead of “Can you x?”.

Boost their belief by frequently sharing small wins to show progress. Reporting on big milestones is ok. But if there’s too much time between updates, niggles can spiral. A CEO I’ve worked with calls them ‘clicks’. As the clicks become a clamour, people’s faith that they can prevail grows.

You’ll have other ideas. There are numerous ways to wrangle communicating a big C change. But regardless of whether you’re contemplating or in the middle of one. Targeting the obstacles standing in the way of people’s elephants and their riders will improve the odds of your success.

Thanks for reading.