For things to change first I must change…

Canadian Peter de Jager, change management expert, writer and keynote speaker, took a provocative look at change at the Wellington Branch SIG this week to a sell-out audience. It was such a popular session that I took my own chair to be guaranteed a seat (but the session was just along the corridor from my office, so taking my own seat was not such a big deal really). The wait list to attend his session was almost as big as the number attending, and after listening to Peter for nearly two hours I can understand why.

Peter started his session by saying that there was nothing he could tell this audience that they didn’t already know, but within a very few minutes it became obvious that the audience didn’t in fact know it all, or if they did they had probably forgotten at least some of it – I know I had.

In his opening line Peter asked how many of us believed that people are resistant to change and naturally nearly all of us put our hands up. He then told us not to bother putting our hands up again as no-one really cares what we think anyway (so true that!) and within minutes he had us convincing ourselves that people don’t in fact resist change. The audience admitted that getting married and having kids were the biggest life-changing situations most of us would ever face (one of our more curmudgeonly members actually challenged the status of marriage and likened it more to Ground Hog Day – thanks Roger) and yet we all did so willingly (mostly), so if we hated change why were we so keen to do something that would change our lives forever?

It was pretty hard to argue with such good, common sense home-truths and throughout the session Peter gave us example after example of how we often got it wrong and how we could just as easily get it right.

Some of the key points that struck a chord with me include;

• Communicating Change is vital – start with “why” as this frames everything
• Don’t mistake the reasons for resistance. ‘Control’ is a form of resistance and control is really dangerous for organisations
• Change is not always good so don’t expect it to be received as such
• People want to protect the status quo for whatever reason
• No ownership or acceptance if the decision has already been made. Apathy is the killer to acceptance if no input from those affected is allowed
• Questions regarding change should be viewed as an opportunity not a threat. If asked “Why?” a threat only exists if there isn’t a good reason for change

Peter also shared some memorable quotes with us;

“Creativity is when I decide to do something differently. Change is when you decide I should do something differently.”

“If things are going to remain the same around here things are going to have to change.”

After the session I was fortunate to be able to spend a bit more time with Peter and as a result I think we’ve secured him to speak at the 2011 HRINZ National Conference. His speaking style is relaxed, confident, humorous and pitched just right. He’s been working in this area for over 35 years so you’d expect him to be pretty good at it, and he is. The feedback from even the hardest to please in the audience has been excellent – Peter really hit the spot – and while change is a big deal at the moment thanks to the recent recession, as Peter points out we live with it on a daily basis and will continue to do so.

HRINZ has a few of Peter’s books for sale so if you’d like to find out more about change and his views on how to manage it well I’d recommend buying one (or more) of the three titles we have. They are ‘Truth Picks’ @ $20, ‘A Pocketful of Change’ @ $15 and ‘So? You’re a Manager Now What?’ @ $15 – all are plus GST. If you’d like to purchase any of these please email hrinz@hrinz.org.nz and we’ll do the rest. While I haven’t read any of them yet I intend to as they’re all written in Peter’s very easy presentation style and certainly won’t put you to sleep like so many business books do.

Peter also provides free webinars (something that HRINZ is also keen to start offering) and if you’d like to know more contact Peter at pdejager@technobility.com.

My thanks go to the Wellington Branch Committee of HRINZ for making Peter available to us and to Peter for a refreshingly honest presentation.

Follow Peter on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pdejager.

1. Malcolm Mason says:

   April 17, 2010 at 11:55 pm

   Change is upon us and whether you accept it as the norm (Millennial Generation) of fight it with every fibre (my Baby Boomer Generation), t’is upon us. Peter de Jager seems to have the ability to help us deal with it in a most effective way. Help us deal with it Peter, it’s not coming fast- IT’S HERE!!!

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