June 9, 2016: Communicating major change

• Presenter: Patti Sanchez, Chief Strategy Officer at Duarte and coauthor of Illuminate: Ignite Change through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols

  • Moderator: Cathy McVey, Miami University

  • Notetaker: Christine Fitzgerald, Tufts

Resources

• Illuminate: Ignite Change through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols by Nancy Duarte and Patti Sanchez

  • Executive Summary (PDF) of Illuminate

• Recording: This coffee shop was not recorded.

Presentation Notes

(We had record attendance at this Coffee Shop, with about 114 attendees!)

"Inspire others through the power of stories."

How can we be more inspired and equipped to communicate at our best?” We are all leaders and as leaders, we can use stories as a marketing and “leadership tool” to help to get people to move and to do big things.

Managers vs. Leaders – A manager helps people see what is. A leader creates what could be. Creating a better future – leaders get people to go there.

Ideas mean change and all change is hard

o Bad change is not well received

o Good change is different but also can be stressful

o Many resist change and you’ll get push back

o However, change is required to do something new

Venture into the Future – Let’s plan for a “metaphorical expedition to the wilderness.”

· What does this trek into the unknown look like?

· Follow the S-curve of innovation – START – GROW – MATURE – DECLINE – DEATH.

Image: See p.3 of Executive Summary (PDF).

“Never ending process = Change”

Great Leaders are skilled communicators!

It is critical for them to be in order to move people from where they are to where you need them to be.

There are a handful of communication tools to help:

1. Tell Stories

o Create brands

o Transformational tool

2. Deliver Speeches

3. Hold Ceremonies

Tell Stories

The leader creates a character/scenario where they undergo major change. It creates feelings and emotions some times of stress and fear. The idea is to build a bond between the communicator (leader) and the listener. This bond sets up a sense of shared feelings that people can resonate with.

Each venture is like an Epic Tale that has 3 acts:

· Act 1 – Beginning – the likable hero

· Act 2 – Middle – where they encounter some roadblocks

· Act 3 – End – where they emerge transformed

Throughout the story the leader needs to increase tension and release tension to keep the listener engaged.

Deliver Speeches

Example of giving a Vision Talk that includes a long term strategy and the actions for the year including a progress update.

The best speeches use stories….

Discovery – there is a common pattern that great speeches follow, going up and down from What Is (current state) to What Could Be (goal state).

The GAP between what is and what could be – you want to be as big as possible. Help to thrust the hero into the new world. The bigger the GAP, the more you draw in the listener.

Middle – toggle between what is and increase interest in what could be

New Bliss – new world – Vision successful

Use this as an analysis tool – examples of great speeches told in this way include:

· Margaret Thatcher – “Iron Lady Speech”

· Richard Fineman – physicist

· Steve Jobs – into new techn – iPhone keynote launch

· Dr. Martin Luther King – “I have a dream.”

Hold Ceremonies

Commonly like rituals or rite of passage, ceremonies also follow a story structure.

Beginning Middle End

“Separates” “Transitions” “Reincorporates”

From current reality

(Example: Wedding ceremony) – The Latin wedding; little girl in plain clothes……transitions into woman with new behaviors and new clothes.

Whether we are celebrating or mourning things in business, you follow this same structure.

Leaders can use these as their Torchbearers Communications toolkit (see image in Executive Summary above)! They illuminate the path for others much like a guide or Sherpa on a journey.

“Leaders create moments” and when done well, they can sustain energy during change.

“Leaders create movements” when they string good moments together.

So how do leaders create “MOVEMENTS”?

Movements follow a story structure that take you from What is to What could be….

…creating a “Venturescape”

Image: See p.6 of Executive Summary (PDF).

Credible leaders let people understand and “empathize” – acknowledge the process will be hard. Empathy helps travelers on the journey to cross thresholds.

Image: See p.8 of Executive Summary (PDF).

Moving through the Venturescape involves several steps:

• Moment of Inspiration — dream

• Moment of Decision — leap

• Moment of Bravery — fight

• Moment of Endurance — climb

• Moment of Reflection — arrive

Image: See p.9 of Executive Summary (PDF).

Examples of Great Leaders:

Ray Anderson – CEO/founder Interface

Carpet tile business – 20 years of ramped up growth

Realized that there were environmental issues with these carpet tiles after being called “plunderer of the earth.” Read a book: Ecology of commerce.

Became the 1^st industrial company in the world to achieve sustainability status. Initiative was called “Mount Sustainability”. Took leadership team on an offsite for 1 week – like a ceremony to create a Dream – immerse in vision…. Everyone on the team had to help with the transformation. Write down on notecards how they will help to transform the company and commit to the vision. Created a “personal legacy wall” – shared in newsletter and conducted a wave of initiatives. 20 years and nearly zero footprint result.

Steve Jobs – Apple

He is known for his great speeches. Created a change journey going from 1 OS to the next. Mac OS9 – Mac OS X. He was fired originally and created Next Computer Company. Then Apple acquired Next and Steve was rehired to bring Apple back to life! He gave a 3 hour keynote at MACWorld focused on developers. Within 20 minutes, Steve Jobs mentioned empathy for what the developers were experiencing 25 times. Apple – “Pray” – Wired Magazine. Jobs gave lots of speeches to get people to gain faith in Apple again.

He talked about doubts; heard and tackle each doubt 1:1. 2001 Apple committed to 1 OS – manifesto – commitment to Mac OS X.

“Re-DREAM” – next venture – movement of re-dream

He hosted a mock funeral for Mac OS 9 – “we are here to memorialize Mac OS 9…. He is now in that big bit bucket in the sky…"

Jobs was able to lead others into an alternate future.

Action

How can you create…moments that inspire and motivate others to make big changes?

Sometimes you need to use all of these tools together in order to galvanize people.

Especially at the beginning of a venture/change or when it is time to pivot

Symbols

Symbols are the fallout of speeches, stories and ceremonies. Visual reminders.

1) Moments lead to movements

Carry you from one era to the next era to the next era.

Creating an epic tale that leads on….

Leaders need to understand what it takes to motivate people.

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

—Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Questions and Answers

• Q: Your examples highlight individuals and organizations, what about within higher education? Is it same or different?

  • A: It is essentially the same. Example of her daughter who is a teacher in a middle school and she needs to “flip the classroom.” It becomes a movement to get the faculty and the parents to understand. You need to build a case using these tools that will get faculty onboard and gain the support of parents.

• Q: Can you talk about your own experience at Duarte?

  • A: Meta experience…. ~125 people at Duarte…. ~28 years old…. Design firm. A majority of small businesses fail. Constantly need to reinvent. Transitioned from a presentation agency to a communications agency. Had to get people excited about being communication experts at Duarte. Teach customers new ways of communicating that enlighten and challenge.

• Q: Your examples highlighted examples of moving groups of people with shared interests (employees, developers, etc.). How do apply this concept when you are trying to inspire multiple groups, often with different and even competing fears/desires?

  • A: Yes. This model makes it look simplistic. In reality, you can have multiple venturescapes going on at one time that are united by a shared entity/vision. Need to think about it from the stakeholder perspective. An example might be if a group of Admin and a group of Faculty need to buy in to a long-term strategy – you may have a different approach/plan to get each group excited and engaged in the direction but focused on the same outcome.

• Q: Can you share your thoughts on how to grow and inspire trust and transparency, if the environment seems to have problems with staff trusting leaders.

  • A: Listening is key. Reveal the best ideas. Leaders use empathy. Ask questions of their travelers to test how people really feel. Is this working for you? Let people be heard. Then change strategy/approach to engaging based on what you are hearing. Value of storytelling – authenticity tool – only works if you can be real/vulnerable. If you are not honest, it will show and you can’t gain trust.

• Q: How can we use these tools for internal communication inside an IT organization? Especially when the motivations are things like "cut budgets by 5%" and not something more aspirational or noble.

  • A: Empathize with your audience. Help to move from ….. thoughts and feelings the audience has. Move to…what are the thoughts and feelings we want them to think about a topic. Example: We are going to make things better… tell them how…

• Q: What does the makeup of a Change Management team look like? Are they project-based, or part of an organizational entity?

  • A: Both ways… Cross-functional teams. Centralized program office. How you handle depends on the maturity of the organization and what the culture can handle. If a decentralized culture, then x-functional teams work better.

• Q: After initial buy-in of a new initiative, how do you keep the excitement going and the accountability

  • A: Leaders and other need to keep the ongoing communication going… Manufacture moments about how we are winning the fight… Give progress updates.

• Q: What would you suggest IT promote to millennials. Especially when it comes to IT Security policies and/or getting feedback?

  • A: Millennials tend to want more freedom and not be controlled. It is more a game of influence with this constituent – talk to them more about the things that can go wrong if you don’t follow the security guidelines/rules. Information needs to be relatable and meaningful and in some cases funny to get them to latch on and buy-in.

• Q: Is the humor of the Boomer generation...

  • A: No. Compared Johnny Carson to Jay Leno to David Letterman to Stephen Colbert to Jimmy Fallon…

• Q: How do you inspire people who are "numbers" people, when it is difficult or impossible to quantify the unknown future state of bliss?

  • A: Speak the language that #’s people are accustomed to. Appeal to the personal… Understand their self-motivation. Decide in/out quickly… Rationalize logically.