Change & Joy at Work: Growth : simplebooklet.com

Change & Joy at Work: GrowthHow can you help your team feel competent during change?It’s not unusual to have a negative reaction to change, even change you’re looking forward to, and thereare several legitimate reasons for that:● Previous changes have gone poorly● Changes announced in the past didn’t happen● Changes with promises of big outcomes were made but fell well short of expectations● You feel like the impact on you and on others is not understood; you don’t know how to make thatclear or what you’re empowered to do about it● You are annoyed because rather than optimizing your work, you now must think more basicallyabout how to do your work● You feel like a beginner, rather than the accomplished professional you’ve worked hard to becomeThis reaction is perfectly normal. While you may not play a part in deciding what is changing you can helpyour team decide how they want to experience the change.One of the ways you can do this is by helping your team members understand they have expertise andskills that are speciﬁcally relevant to the change that’s underway. You can also increase their feeling ofcompetence by giving them (source: https://positivepsychology.com/ﬂow-at-work/):1 © 2023 The Change Decision

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● Meaningful and personalized recognition● Opportunities to learn, mentor and teach● Time to innovate and to explore without fear of making mistakesThis guide steps you through a process to prepare for and have a conversation that makes this connectionand supports your team’s growth through engagement in the change.1: Prepare for the ConversationThis situation has the potential to increase your team member’s Joy at Work by connecting their currentmastery (or the mastery path they’re on) to the change. The ﬁrst step is to think through the ways this maybe possible. The questions below walk you through the process. What you identify through thesequestions can then be used as content for the conversation.Change Impact:● What will your team member need to do differently with this change?● In what ways might that make them feel like a beginner?Skills and Enjoyment:● What are their current areas of expertise and mastery?Signs that may indicate mastery:● They can apply their expertise in a novel way to solve problems.● Colleagues can easily use what they’ve created to solve a problem.● They explain complex concepts clearly so that others can see their relevance to theproblem at hand.● What work do you see them enjoying?Signs that may indicate enjoyment:● They get lost in their work and sometimes lose track of time.● They appear to enjoy explaining the insights they discover and sharing what they’velearned.● They talk about the work as it relates to the future of the company or its potentialimportance to the world.● Their body language becomes open and bright when asked about it.● What skills are they progressing in?Signs that may indicate skills development:● They apply skills faster or more easily.● They speak about the work with growing conﬁdence.● They take on bigger challenges.● They talk about progress and what’s ahead.Competencies and this Change:● How might they apply their skills and expertise to this change?● How could applying their current skills to this change increase their mastery?● How could they apply their skills and expertise to help others with the change?2 © 2023 The Change Decision

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● How might they get enjoyment out of any of this?● How might this make the change outcome better for them, the team, the customer, and thecompany?Protection from Harm:● What are the risks for your team member if they apply their skills and expertise to this change?● What are the risks to you, the team, the company, and the change goal?● What could you do to reduce these risks?Support and Feedback:● What support might they need from you or others?● What mentor relationships would your team member welcome (either as mentee or mentor)?● How could you set up ways for them to get frequent feedback from you and others?2: Have the ConversationThe goal of the conversation is to explore the possibilities together and then decide what each of you willdo. Because this is largely a development conversation, it’s important that the team member owns theplan to move forward. You can make speciﬁc requests related to the change, but, to achieve joy, it’s theirwillingness to grow that matters. You can encourage their willingness through this exploratoryconversation but you cannot force it.Conversation ﬂow:1. Open: Acknowledge the change impact on them as you see it:“With the recent change in [change description], you may be feeling the impact in this way.”[summarize the impact you see]“I’ve done some thinking about this and I believe you have skills that apply to this change that I’d like totalk about and explore with you to see if you agree.”2. Discuss the Impact: Use the answers to the Change Impact questions to describe the impact. The goalhere is for your team member to feel heard.“To go into the impact a little deeper, this is what I think the implications are for you but I’d like to conﬁrmthat with you and ﬁnd out what else you think I need to see.”[describe the impacts you see and invite the team member to react]“What else am I not seeing?”3. Turn to the Opportunities: Use the answers to the Competencies and this Change questions tohighlight the opportunities you see for applying their skills to this change.“I think you have speciﬁc expertise and skills that would be good for the change. Let me give you anexample.”[describe an example]3 © 2023 The Change Decision

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“You may not see it the same way or you may see other possibilities. What is your initial reaction?”4. Talk about their Skills: Use the answers to the Skills and Enjoyment questions to share what you see.Expertise: “These are the areas of expertise I believe you have.”[Describe this and why you believe this is true, then ask, “Do I have that right from your point of view?”]Enjoyment: “This is the work I see you enjoying.”[Describe this and why you believe this is true, then ask, “Do I have that right from your point of view?”]Skills Progression: “These are the skills I see you progressing in.”[Describe this and why you believe this is true, then ask, “Do I have that right from your point of view?”]5. Return back to Opportunities: Use the answers to the Competencies and this Change questions todive into the opportunities you both see for applying their skills to this change.“Knowing what you know about the change, how do you see your expertise as an asset in this situation?”“How could you help others with the change?”“How might this improve your expertise?”“Would you enjoy this?”6. Discuss Blockers: Use the answers to the Protection from Harm questions to explore this.“Let’s talk about what could get in the way and what could be done about it. Here’s what I see.”[describe the risks]“Do you agree and what else comes to mind?”“What could you do to make this a non-issue? What do you think I could do to help you with that?”7. Discuss a Plan of Action and Support: Use the answers to the Support and Feedback questions toidentify speciﬁc next steps.“Given everything we’ve discussed, I’d like you to give some thought to a plan to put this into action. Somethings to think about are:● Support you need from me and others.● How can we get you regular, frequent feedback so you know the impact you’re having?● If you want to set up any new mentor relationships -- either as a mentee or mentor to others -- andhow I can help you with that.How does that sound?”8. Summarize: Use the answers to the Competencies and Change questions to highlight the good thingsthat could come out of this.“Thanks for exploring this today. I know the change may be difﬁcult but I do think there’s something goodthat can come out of it because of the positive impact you can have.”4 © 2023 The Change Decision

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3: Change & Joy ConnectionThe potential for growth is part of every change but that growth may not be experienced as joyful. As aChange Agent or Expert, you can help people see the possibilities for joy.The Research: Why is Competence a potential path to joy, especially in thecontext of change?● Competence Motivation Theory says that people are more likely to engage in activities in whichthey feel they have skills and experience. As humans, we know this to be true, intuitively, based onour personal experiences. If a change can only happen when the people involved behave in a newway, a lack of feeling competent can cause people to delay, avoid, or disengage completely.● Self-Determination Theory says we have “three innate psychological needs--competence,autonomy, and relatedness--when satisﬁed yield enhanced self-motivation and mental health andwhen thwarted lead to diminished motivation and well-being.”● Researcher and Author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, raised our awareness about the experience ofFlow and being “in the zone” as a source of enjoyment and its connection to feelings of creativity,mastery, and competence.● In Jo Manion’s 2002 dissertation, “Joy at Work, As Experienced as Expressed” (Fielding GraduateInstitute), her research describes the connection between what employees bring to their work(skills, experience) and the conditions the employer creates (time, tools, encouragement) to feelingthe joy of competence. In her study of nurses, a major theme indicated competence as a source ofjoy, which they felt when they 1.) had the skills and expertise needed, and 2.) had the support fromtheir employer which provided the conditions for the nurse to apply their talents, resulting infeeling they successfully gave the patient the care they needed. This was especially satisfying inchallenging cases. (pages 186-193)● In Hilary Scarlett’s book, Neuroscience for Organizational Change (2019, page 30), she explainsthat the brain enjoys novelty but there is a threshold over which something new is registered as athreat by the brain. This begs the question, how can growth be experienced as novelty withoutcrossing over to threat?● Our own research about what people say Joy at Work means to them these competency themesfrequently emerge:○ It was hard but we all focused; people helped each other.○ We took risks and sometimes failed, but we mostly had conﬁdence that we could recover.Change & Joy ModelExperience tells us that it’s not what is changing that is most upsetting to people, it’s how change ishandled. Even the most difﬁcult change can be done in a way that is respectful of everyone involved,including those directly impacted, the decision-makers, the company, and the customers. With this idea inmind, we can see the potential for reframing change toward an upward spiral for the organization and thepeople involved in the change.5 © 2023 The Change Decision

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This Change & Joy Model illustrates the simple idea that how change is introduced and handled willimpact the organization’s Joy at Work, which from our research we see as the dimensions on the right. Atthe same time, the amount of Joy at Work already present in the organization will impact how well thechange will go and if the value of making the change is ultimately achieved.Rather than thinking, “how can we get through this change with the least impact on productivity aspossible,” you can ask, “how can this change be made and increase our joy in the process.” The ﬁrststatement is a rational business question but misses the traction you can get through people by asking thesecond question. Even the most mundane business changes framed this way have the potential to upliftthe organization.The Joy at Work Growth DimensionWe deﬁne growth as an employee’s willingness to improve, explore, learn, integrate new information, andtake on bigger and more complex challenges. In our deﬁnition of Joy at Work, both the employee and thecompany need to participate for it to exist. The company, leaders, and managers create the conditions foremployees to contribute in this way and extend the invitation and employees accept the invitation.Without the participation of both parties, it’s difﬁcult for joy and its beneﬁts to be experienced.As a Change Agent or Expert, the question that follows is, how can I create the conditions such that peoplewould be willing to grow as part of this change? Given competence is for some a potential path to joy, amore speciﬁc question is, how can I increase my team’s feeling of competence during the disruption anduncertainty of change?Hypothesis: Connect their current mastery (or path to mastery) to the change.How does this situation show up in the change process?Focusing on growth is especially relevant when the implications of a change mean that the expertise somepeople have, are known for and that has been seen historically as highly valuable is now less valuable orirrelevant. People may be actively competing for these expert roles and pursuing education for theseroles. Given the evolution of work and continuing advancements in tech, this situation is likely to be anexperience everyone will have in their career.6 © 2023 The Change Decision

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If you are a Change Agent or a Change Expert (who is advising leaders/organizations) this will be revealedto you in the Impact Assessment in answer to the question: What will people need to do differently? Whenthis situation is revealed, you could follow up with these questions to dive deeper:● How will this change disrupt their professional development? Their career path?● How surprised will they be by the shift?● How can the investment people have made already transition positively to the new world?What could go wrong and how to handle it● What you think they’re good at, they may not like. You can avoid this problem by framing theconversation as an exploration between the two of you instead of coming across as evaluatingtheir skills. To aid in this, the observable indicators of expertise, enjoyment, and skills progressionare included in the suggested conversation ﬂow (see step 4 on page 4) so you can describe to yourteam member why you think the way you do. Thinking of your meeting as a Developmentconversation means they own the next steps. Staying open and asking how they see things willencourage them to decide what to do from that point forward especially as it relates to the change.● They may not feel conﬁdent enough to try what you discuss. This is where it’s good to focus onthe support and feedback they need and explore the risks they see. Setting up smallishexperiments can be a way for your team member to take a step forward and build theirmomentum. In this article, Ed describes the concept of a Leadership Bubble that you can putaround your employee to protect them and others from harm as they develop new skills.● They may exhibit a narcissistic response to your discussion. This means they react with anunreasonable and unearned sense of self-importance. This response is likely to offend theircolleagues and cause bigger problems later if it’s not addressed by you. When this happens settingclear boundaries is a way to reign in the response. For example, describe the limits of the work andtheir authority; say who they should and should not work with to get the work done, why and howyou see the nature of those relationships; explain what they have the authority to decide and limitsof that authority; say how you expect to be kept informed. Ultimately, they own their developmentso they create the plan. As a ﬁrst step, you can ask them to outline the plan and then have ameeting to walk through it together. This article about the difference between self-esteem andnarcissism can be helpful to encourage behavior that’s healthy for your team’s culture.● They may not be interested. There may be many reasons for their lack of interest, one of whichcould be that they just don’t have the brain space to take it on! If this is the case, you could focus onhelping them with the transition by asking questions about how they’re experiencing the changeand what you could do to make it easier for them. You may not be able to do everything they askbut there are likely a few things you could do that are reasonable.● They may feel completely disconnected. This reaction is probably a sign of a larger problem that’sworth a closer look. This article about how to help your disconnected employee provides someuseful advice.Remember, the opportunity to grow joy in the workplace is available to you with every change, even themost mundane business changes. As a Change Agent or Expert you can have a positive inﬂuence on howyour team decides to experience change.7 © 2023 The Change Decision

Change & Joy at Work: Growth