Change in the 21st Century is about feelings and perspectives

The value in anticipating change

How do you teach people to think strategically, recognize patterns, and anticipate problems and opportunities before they occur? If you are a fan of the movie "Gosford Park", you will recognize the following quote by Mrs. Wilson played by Helen Mirren.

"What gift do you think a good servant has that separates them from the others? It's the gift of anticipation." - Mrs. Wilson

As the head servant in an early 20th Century England country household, Mrs. Wilson's value was in her capacity and capability to anticipate the needs of the upstairs guests and mobilize the downstairs servants through the chaos. She bridged the gulf between upstairs and downstairs by connecting critical information and balancing all the pieces.

Moving forward to the 21st Century, there is a new level of complexity and “chaos” that can be managed only when information flows across boundaries. When we recognize that critical information can be held anywhere in and out of the organization, we create opportunities for those with information to influence decision-making.

Today, any one of our clients may simultaneously be working on quality systems, process improvement, employee empowerment, and several other programs designed to improve personal and organizational performance. How do they connect and balance all the pieces? In managing change, the challenge is to understand how the pieces balance off one another, how changing one element changes the rest, and how sequencing and pace affect the whole structure.

Managing change means creating conversations between the people leading the change effort and those who are expected to implement the new strategies. Managing change is managing the organizational context in which change can occur. However, managing the emotional and intellectual connections that are essential for transformation is critical.

“All real change involves major uncertainty, and we cannot deny the questioning time to others simply because we have already answered the questions for ourselves.”    – Bernice McCarthy

Change is fundamentally about feelings and perspectives

Organizations that expect workers to contribute with their heads and hearts must accept that emotions are essential to the new 21st Century management style. The old management paradigm allowed people to have feelings, as long as their feelings were positive.

The new management paradigm affirms that managing people is managing feelings. 

Whether or not people have “negative” emotions is not the issue; it’s how they deal with their emotions. The most successful change programs reveal that large organizations connect with their people most directly through values – and that values, ultimately, are about beliefs AND feelings.

When an organization denies the validity of emotions in the workplace or seeks to permit only certain kinds of emotions, two things happen. The first is that managers cut themselves off from their own emotional lives. Second, in doing so, they cut off the ideas, solutions, and new perspectives that other people can contribute.

Bringing dynamic change to your organization - with a bit of help

What changes are being implemented in your business in 2018? What new models do you need to explore? What expert resources would help in connecting and balancing all the pieces? How will you lead in this new management paradigm in which feelings and perspective play a big role in the success of change? 

Dynamic change in business is not a DIY project. We can help you bring dynamic change to your organization more efficiently, effectively, and with less stress on everyone. We are passionate about helping our clients implement changes that contribute to a better workplace, good profits, and true growth even when change is driven by compliance and legislation.

We help leaders to be effective by recognizing and utilizing their competencies while adapting their behaviour in situations that require a different approach. Our key tools and resources for leading dynamic change include Emotional Intelligence, TRACTION (EOS Model), Net Promoter System, and the Emerson Suite.

Contact Patricia Muir at [email protected], at 416-804-4383, on LinkedIn, Maestro’s Facebook, Twitter.