Some habits are hard to change. However, in the current economic climate, organisations can use external facilitation to change behaviours quicker than ever before; enabling them to put plans into action faster, says Paolo Moscuzza

Some 20 years ago a friend convinced me to try out a kick-boxing lesson. About half way into the session I got hit in the face and it hurt. Although I was slightly shocked, my sparring partner calmly told me “don’t drop your guard.” Not less than a minute later, he did the same again. But this time I half blocked his aim and so only felt half the effect. Again he calmly told me “don’t drop your guard.” After those two blows, I did not drop my guard again. At the time I was disgusted. If I had been given the chance to fill in a feedback form I would have said that it was totally inappropriate for someone to be subjected to that type of training in his first session. The following week I went back for more (albeit reluctantly) and I did not drop my guard once.  It was only then that I realised that some lessons can only be learnt quickly the hard way.

What I find interesting about my memory of the above event is the difference between my short-term reaction (i.e. how dare he do that to me), and the longer-term interpretation (i.e. it was for my own benefit). It was during the second session that my initial reaction of shock changed within minutes to a more positive one.
Although I resented it at the time, the same effect may have taken months through a softer “remember, he is a beginner” approach. Harsher tactics, which are appropriately set up, managed and debriefed well, can be very powerful catalysts for accelerating changes.  And in ER Consultants’ experience they can be used effectively in the learning and development arena.

Facilitated learning
Let me illustrate this with a project we ran a few years ago. The CEO wanted to change the way that directors worked with each other because too much energy was being wasted in unproductive behaviour. His senior team was simply taking too long to deliver projects that could have been achieved much quicker with effective collaboration, and this was having a huge impact on the bottom line. So ER Consultants ran a development programme for the senior team. As part of our project, I ran a series of coaching sessions for senior individuals in parallel with a development programme.

This didn’t go down well with some senior executives who thought they didn’t need any help. One outspoken director, Anthony for example, made it clear that he did not want to be on the programme. He was also reluctant about being coached after he got his 360 degree feedback, which clearly highlighted areas he could develop. His response was: “I have come out low in some areas because the questions were worded badly in the first place.” But the 360 degree feedback revealed a consistent pattern of Anthony being unhelpful to people who were from other parts of the organisation. However, at the end of a practical exercise in a workshop that I facilitated, he still claimed that he was “fine at this people stuff.” He said to me “you are just making too much of it,” even though it emerged that he had reduced several individuals to tears in the last month.

Learning hard lessons fast
Nevertheless, Anthony reluctantly continued to attend the coaching and development workshops. He continuously performed badly in the practical exercises with his colleagues. These sessions ultimately made him confront some of the assumptions he was making about himself. Like my kick boxing session, the initial knocks came as a bit of a shock to Anthony. However, he began to appreciate my directness in the individual coaching sessions I ran with him over six months. At the end of the programme, not only did he admit that he had not been aware of the fact that he could be such a nightmare to work with, but that on reflection, he was “a bit embarrassed” about how he used to behave. The battle for Anthony (like for so many) was not the change itself, but accepting the fact he needed to change in the first place. Anthony’s experience reveals that short-term reactions to an uncomfortable experience often reflect current emotions – i.e. shock, anger. Yet these uncomfortable experiences carried out in safe environments, such as coaching sessions or training workshops, can provide fast, positive learning, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.

Although it’s important to get people to feel motivated and fired up to put things into practice quickly, it’s also vital to get them to step outside their comfort zone and try different things. That’s what we do in our sessions.  We don’t just engage in feel-good techniques, but also get people to step outside their comfort zone, even though the challenge may not be one that they feel good about immediately afterwards. After all, that’s where the real learning happens.

Techniques to accelerate learning
There are a number of techniques I use to bring about accelerated learning and change. These include the build up, the activity and the interpretation.

Build up – The positioning is critical. A case study or simulation activity needs credibility and that requires research and knowledge right through to points of detail that can often appear irrelevant. In our facilitation work with partners from City law firm Stephenson Harwood, we carried out in depth research into the context and language that partners use on a day-to-day basis to ensure the practical sessions felt real and relevant.

The activity – We go to great lengths to create the right activities to demonstrate desired/undesired behaviours through a range of workshops, sometimes with the use of actors. In Anthony’s case, one critical activity we created was one where he arrogantly went into a role play with an actor and completely misread her body language, misheard what she said and seized up when she burst into tears.

Interpretation – We interpret the results for individuals and demonstrate how the behaviour impacts their work relationships. For example, whilst Anthony rejected many activities, describing them as “unrealistic” and “I would never do that in real life”, the feedback he got from his 360 feedback and practical exercises in workshops demonstrated clearly how his behaviour often resulted in upsetting many colleagues.

All three steps need to be in place to provide the foundations for accelerated change. If one of them is missing or is handled badly, it’s easier for individuals to reject and dismiss change.

The current economic climate provides a fantastic opportunity for achieving change more quickly. From a learning and development perspective, organizations have the opportunity to think about what changes they need to make a real impact and be successful in future. Many organisations are already looking at how they can develop their staff to become more effective in the current environment. ER Consultants is currently advising one organisation, for example, on how to ensure the tough performance management process is brought to life effectively through difficult conversations that have historically been avoided. I am also exploring ways of increasing the impact of very capable senior managers who simply aren’t as effective as they could be. Whilst these solutions may not need boxing gloves, they do need more challenging learning experiences that we can help to facilitate.

For more information, contact: Paolo.Moscuzza@erconsultants.co.uk

© er consultants Topics Issue 1, 2009