Abracadabra!

 

If you think that the best approach to implement change is a top-down-force-it-through authoritarian approach, then you are wrong. You don’t force people to change; you help them to change and make the process more enjoyable for them. If you believe that the best way to help people to progress through change is through communication, then you are again wrong. I am not saying that we do not need communication. In fact, substantial amount of communication is good to keep people aligned with the activities going on. However, over-communicating or hard-selling may have negative impact on the change implementation itself. Imagine if I keep telling you that there is a big change coming your way and you have to prepare for this and that, no doubt, I am prepping you up for the change but at the same time, I am also instilling fear in you subconsciously. In fact, I am amplifying the fear of change and giving you extra stress unnecessarily. Some people might argue that communication is the key to keep people out of the dark in any change implementation. Yes, I agree. I just don’t like those that have gone to the extreme in propagandizing it. In reality, the opposite is true – the best form of change takes place without people even noticing it.

Change should be like magic.

I love magic. I always marvel at the uncanny ability of magicians to pull a rabbit out of their empty hats. Do they have supernatural powers? “Abracadabra! And there you go.”, the magician has moved the coin from your pocket into his hand. The change was so swift that you didn’t even notice it had actually occurred. Isn’t this the best performing art of change?

Magicians are just normal people like us, but trained to read and manipulate human minds. They are the masters of deception and illusion. Their magic is nothing more than a series of finely honed actions crafted through in-depth understanding of human psychology. They exploit the weaknesses in human brain to create the illusion of performing the impossible. These days, even neuroscientists and psychologists have shown great interest in the tricks of the mind which have provided them useful insight into how the brain works. In general, there are three critical psychological techniques commonly used by magicians in their magic, and they are – misdirection, illusion and forcing (you may read more on these techniques in this article). Are we able to exploit these techniques in change management? Below are some of my suggestions to accomplish this.

1. Misdirection: Misdirection is the act of diverting the attention of your audience away from the main action. It is an art of deception. In projects where we need to manage change and the stakeholders’ expectation, we may shift their focus from the change itself to another arbitrary activity created as a decoy. For example, in an organizational restructuring project, you may push forward the annual employee appraisal program to keep people busy with the appraisal work. You may even throw a company dinner and dance night to keep people excited and looking forward to it. The key is to have your folks busy and distracted so that their minds are diverted away from the topic of change.
2. Illusion: Illusion is all about manipulating the perception. It is about magnifying things that you want your audience to see and shrinking those that you want to keep away from them. No, I am not suggesting you to lie or sugarcoat the reality in your projects. In fact, you should be honest and report the actual status of your projects. Being honest gives people a perception that you can be trusted and therefore, willing to cooperate and work with you. However, when you report out your project status, be mindful on the words you use and the way you present it so that you are in control of the perception. Pick positive words and be optimistic in your attitude. Remember, your attitude will affect your team and the stakeholders. Do not just report on bad news. Always follow up with suggestions and solutions to calm people down. Work on the perception so that a bad news can become a constructive lesson learned.
3. Forcing: This is a technique that gives the target the illusion of free will when in fact they have none (my favorite). When you engage your stakeholders in projects, do not start off by commanding them to follow you on the only ‘option’ available, even if this is the reality. This will give them an impression that you are too autocratic and demanding. Nobody likes to be herded and pushed around. Always provide them with alternatives. People feel respected when they have the freedom to choose. The remaining work depends on how well you are able to propose and influence your stakeholders to accept the only ‘option’ you have. For example, in one of your projects, you need a stakeholder to update the customer data into a system in real time. You may offer the person with two choices – update instantly in real time or do it in batch at the end of the day. It is quite likely that the person will go for the second option since it requires lesser work. You may then explain to him the benefits of doing it in real time as there are less data discrepancies that he may need to follow up later comparing to updating the data in batch mode. You may even ‘reveal’ to him that the CEO is particularly concerned with the accuracy and timeliness of the data and he might check on them in the system occasionally.