Signals Matter in Change

iPhones distributed to the salesforce. Time clock destroyed in the lobby with a bat. Moving senior leadership offices to the same floor. Moving senior leaders out of offices and onto main floor. Spending authority increased to $2000 for every client-facing employee. Sacred cows slaughtered at every turn. When employees are faced with the task of changing how work gets done, they will always ask 3 questions before committing to the change. The first question of course is “why”. Leaders must consistently respond to this question because in the absence of information, an employee’s mind will answer it anyway. And their answer is typically not positive, causing fear, confusion, etc. The second question an employee will ask is “what”. What specifically do you want us to change? Again, leaders have a responsibility to discern for people what the expected shift must be but also to clarify what ISN’T changing.