People First Change Launched
WPLC announces the launch of Engaging Change @YourBigPic.
We meet Martin Johnson the founder of BIG PICTURE® and learn from using Engaging Change @YourBigPic how the latest addition to the WPLC catalogue can be applied successfully to any change project.
Martin starts by explaining how since the start of the industrial age change has always been done to workers. But we know he says, enthusiastically that change projects are more successful when people are involved in how their work and the organisations, they work in need to change.
Imagine, he questions, how good it would feel to be a worker in any workplace regardless of your level of seniority to know that you were playing an active part in defining how you are going to spend your working day!
Imagine again, he continues, how much easier the life of managers and those people who are responsible for achieving successful outcomes for change projects would be if they were working with actively engaged people who are actually the driving force behind the success of that change project.
It would be amazing wouldn't it? He says with a big grin.
After a career in learning and development I have to admit that life would have been easier if I had been working with employees who not only claimed to understand the need to change but were interested in achieving the changes required to secure their future employment.
It is easy to agree with Martin when he describes the approach used by many organisations to manage change simply resulting in employees and eventually managers that are often discontent, disillusioned and disengaged, all of which have a negative impact on employee productivity. Something that probably just increases the need to change.
No matter how much you think you have communicated to your employees says Martin you still hear them saying, no-one asked us, the boss just did it!
Martin explains that he understands that successfully changing any organisation is difficult. For everyone involved there are an endless stream of unproductive activities including meetings that achieve nothing, and a stream of communications that never seem to be understood in the way intended.
The best way to describe the commonly used approach says Martin is as a one-way, top-down, outside-in approach, and all the evidence shows us that this approach is doomed to fail in both the short and long term.
Engaging Change @YourBigPic says Martin enables change managers to create a two-way, bottom-up, inside-out in quick time solution to delivering a successful change project. It is an approach that is based on the principle that every voice in every part of the organisation should be heard because every voice is a valuable contribution to the solution.
The passion Martin feels for delivering this approach is clear!
The Here and Now
Many change projects focus their communications with workers on how wonderful the future is going to be says Martin. It is a pointless activity unless you have also explained the problems that the organisation has today and how unless things change these are likely to impact the potential success of the business.
The important thing is that the worker stops seeing any problems as being something separate to them and that by creating a very personal picture of the current situation the worker is able to see themselves as part of the problem as well as part of the solution.
A worker is, says, Martin no longer standing apart from the project they are can see themselves in the picture and connect with it personally.
It can be difficult he continues when nothing ever stays the same, but with Engaging Change @YourBigPic you will get an ever-changing perspective of the situation presented in a variety of formats.
The Future
The clear understanding of the present that Engaging Change @YourBigPic enables managers and workers to build provides the framework that enables them to focus on defining where the organisation needs to be without being held back by the limitations of the status quo.
It is we all agree that the need for change and the actions needed to achieve that change have become embedded in our thinking and left us poised for action, as a team.
Making and Doing
Engaging Change @YourBigPic is says Martin about using the BIG PICTURE® tools in a way that is very personalised to a specific organisation with a skilled professional facilitator.
It’s all about creating a great conversation.
There is a trade-off though cautions Martin .. you have to put something out there to make this happen.
Engaging Change @YourBigPic provides the mechanism for that conversation with instantly recognisable symbols and an interactive physical or Digital board, that allows groups of almost any size to explore and understand key information, behaviours, and culture. With an expert facilitator every single colleague in an organisation will be hands-on.
It sounds a bit unsettling but when Martin explains that Engaging Change @YourBigPic actually utilises the art of play, through these interactive tools to bring your organisational and personal goals to life and how each individual can contribute to the overall success of the team around them, it all seems to fit into place and make a lot of sense.
Take-Ins & Outs
The professional Engaging Change @YourBigPic facilitator will use BIG PICTURE® activities and tools to maximise engagement in sessions.
Martin explained that the activities which the WPLC team experienced are based on tried and tested facilitation plans that had been tailored to our specific needs.
It is clear that instead of having a facilitator we could have nominated someone to train as an in-house facilitator, as Martin says with confidence with a little help anyone can learn how to take over the reins and then continue with as much support as we wish!
The WPLC team did just as Martin said we would leave the Engaging Change @YourBigPic session that he facilitated with us equipped with a ‘ground up’ picture of the WPLC business and how we fit in to the wider HR support services of Abeceder.
We are all confident that we now have a clear picture of how we can support both our customers and suppliers and will be able to create a set of prioritised opportunities for both that we can help them achieve. We even worked out some ways in which we can start to learn more.
It seems that Martin is fulfilling the promises he made for what BIG PICTURE®, a vision that he has been working on for at least a decade, would deliver.
As a team we can see how we will emerge from the chaos of 2020 with a plan that details who we need to involve and what they will be doing.
We have worked out how we will measure our success against that plan, including how we will impact our customers.
Surprisingly, well perhaps we should not really be surprised, but we have also realised that the Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience given us an insight into who we need to connect with if we are to achieve our plan.
Having all of these answers is great, but we all agree that the most valuable aspect of the Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience is not that we have the answers, but that we have all agreed that we have the answers that we really need.
Staying Power
Engaging Change @YourBigPic involves and engages everyone in your own personalised BIG PICTURE®. It is, says Martin something that all the evidence from the research shows stays with people as they develop their own contribution to achieving the objectives of the change project.
Your Facilitator
Obviously, we know that it will never be possible for Martin to deliver every Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience, so we ask him about his team of delivery partners.
He is as passionate about his team as every other part of BIG PICTURE®. His has he explains never worked with a business that was the same as any other, everyone has been unique. So, he has built a team who embrace the organisation and can make a connection with its Background, history, culture, and values.
Martin talks about the importance of his good fortune of being able to have found a team of partners that enable BIG PICTURE® to deliver an Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience into organisations of any type, of any size and in any location. The experience can be delivered face to face or on-line.
Like the WPLC team Martin likes every change initiative to start with a conversation. Your WPLC adviser will be able to help you with the initial stages of exploring your change project and identifying exactly the right Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience team to help you make some magic happen!
Why Engaging Change @YourBigPic
Engaging Change @YourBigPic was created by Martin Johnson, who we found to be someone with a passion for helping people achieve.
Martin has in Engaging Change @YourBigPic created a personalised facilitated experience of theBIG PICTURE® approach, that provides the structure for allowing any team, regardless of size, type or location with the structure that enables them to have a constructive focused conversation.
We know from experience that explaining to people how what they do impacts other people will improve the quality of the work that that person does. Engaging Change @YourBigPic is an ideal way to help people discover the impact that they have on their working colleagues.
In an increasingly visual world in which we are told attention spans are ever decreasing Engaging Change @YourBigPic provides a fantastically visual and tactile way to solve problems.
The WPLC team really enjoyed the facilitated Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience. It enabled us to get involved straight away with a completely new way of addressing challenges.
Outcomes
Of course, we only add new tools to the WPLC catalogue when we know that they work and create the outcomes that they claim.
We decided to assess Engaging Change @YourBigPic in a theoretical situation, but quickly found ourselves starting to talk about the impact COVID 19 was having on learning and development. Engaging Change @YourBigPic seemed to provide the ideal format for that discussion.
After experiencing Engaging Change @YourBigPic we can confirm that putting your colleagues at the centre of the change project means does give everyone the opportunity to develop their own perspective. And perhaps to see the issue from the perspective of other people as well.
The process does create a wider and deeper understanding, which is perhaps what we all expected, what was perhaps a surprise was how much fun the Engaging Change @YourBigPic process was.
We are by design a diverse team with wide ranging interests that sometimes take us in very different directions. But after Engaging Change @YourBigPic there is a consensus that we all have a greater understanding of what other members of the team are doing. We also agree that we are all feeling more comfortable with the prospect of not just making but also receiving suggestions from others.
The Engaging Change @YourBigPic process, does we admit, create at least one questioning of colleagues, situation that might have in another context have created a confrontation. In this structured context it feels more like an opportunity to share and build a wider understanding.
There are many, many words that can be used to describe a positive experience, but it is also important to look at the downside as well.
Engaging Change @YourBigPic works, but the big danger is that you rush in. Like everything else, you know that when things look easy it is because the practitioner knows their stuff! The instructions for benefiting from an Engaging Change @YourBigPic experience are straight forward, but you ignore them at your own risk.
When it comes to the vote everyone on the WPLC team gives a confident yes to Engaging Change @YourBigPic. The reasons are straight forward
Engaging Change @YourBigPic provides:
- One single view that everyone can agree on and have a stake in. We are firm believers that for a change project to work a worker needs to see the personal advantage of them contributing to the change
- The process of achieving that single view acknowledges that the situation is likely to change and that it is the responsibility of the people involved to keep up to date.
- For an open discussion of the challenges and the opportunities that the organisation faces.
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