It is interesting hearing more and more conversations about Change Managers (add any other change title here as well) and the need to have some people skills like psychology (not the degree though) in order to better understand your audience/stakeholders.
This is a tough ask for people that do not have this in their repertoire to suddenly roll out and start using in situations requiring an understanding of what makes people tick!
So how do you add something that is not in your tool kit?
First up, don't panic.
We all have people skills of sorts and we just need to understand what our strengths are and how they can help.
Think about how you interact with people in your day to day life. Whether it be over a coffee, playing sport, social events, even at work. Do you listen? Are you a great organiser? Do you try and simplify things? What about simply pitching in when someone needs your help?
These are all skills that will help you in the Change Management space!
When running (lean or HCD) workshops such as a Lean Coffee or some stakeholder analysis, listening is a key skill that is needed. It is then what you do with what you heard that propels you into the CM space.
Running these workshops and helping people navigate their way through change is where the organiser comes in.
Decluttering and removing the noise is a great skill in the CM arena as you remove a lot of obstacles for people when you do this and allow them to shift (realign) from current to future state.
As you can see, it is not always about what you have been taught to do in the CM workshops but what personal skills/attributes you are able to draw on that gives you a point of difference when rolling out a change program. I have yet to see this delivered in any programs currently being offered (the team at Earth2Mars touch on it) where the teams delivering the program have you complete some assessments to determine where your strengths lie such as doing Gallups CliftonStrengths or 5 Voices.
We all have unique talents that we can offer as Change agents. Uncover your Super Power/s so you can take your offering to the next level and really empower your audience to help you deliver exceptional change.
- Andrew O'Shea
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