![Yesterday Seth Godin, the father of permission marketing, wrote about people’s differences. In a post titled: When in doubt, draw a bell curve Godin mused:
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Yesterday Seth Godin, the father of permission marketing, wrote about people’s differences. In a post titled: When in doubt, draw a bell curve Godin mused:
“We’re puzzled when we see uneven acceptance or uneven performance, because it’s easy to imagine that any group of people is homogeneous. But they’re not.”
Like me Stephen Waddington, partner and chief engagement officer at global communications firm Ketchum, is a fan of Godin’s daily posts. And, in a Tweet laid down the gauntlet for me to “get all over this.”
Here’s my response:
A good analogy for how people deal with change is how we approach fire. There are some who run as soon as they see it. Others who will only move when they feel the heat of the flames. Many will sit, waiting to see what the others do.
When faced with change all of us split into one of three camps. I call these the Yays, Sways and No-Way-Josés.
The Yays
The Yays are the poster boys and girls of change. They embrace the change. And, best of all they embrace it visibly. They become change agents and push the initiative forward. They use either their hierarchical authority or their social network, or a combination of the two in order to influence the change positively.
The No-Way-Josés
At the other end of my bell curve lie the No-Way-Josés. Former UK Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, once famously said “Turn if you want to. This woman’s not for turning.” Similarly this group of employee will not consider participating in the change at any cost. Consciously or not they have just begun an exit strategy.
The Sways
Lying in the middle of these two poles are the Sways. They are hesitant about the change.
It is probable that of the three groups the Sways will need the most of a change manager’s time and attention.
The good news is that the Sways’ change ‘vote’ can be secured with effective change management skills. They just need a reassuring ‘nudge’ in the right direction.
Bell curve shape
Don’t expect the groups to be evenly distributed either. The size of each group will depend on many inputs like the size, type and personal impact of change.
These are short thoughts. For longer, more fully-formed thoughts covering business, public relations and change visit www.sabguthrie.info or sign up to email updates.
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