December 2015

5 Core Culture Characteristics that Nurture Change!

You may have heard the quote; “The only thing that is constant is change!” It is true, change is inevitable but not always positive or successful! The reality is that some work cultures support positive and successful change, while other cultures sabotage change. There are many factors involved, such as team workload, other current changes in progress, team beliefs about change, clear communication about the change, benefits of the change, appropriate training, coaching and support provided during the change, etc.

I help dental teams nationwide successfully embrace change. This month is dedicated to learning how to create a culture where change can be a more positive, successful and sustainable experience!

Change requires us to have courage to face our fear of the unpredictable unknown! Regardless of how dysfunctional, unhappy, unproductive or toxic the current culture may be it often feels safer to keep the status quo. The known almost always feels safer than the unknown. That is why the value of the change must be clear to those expected to make the change. It is important for the value and benefits of change to rate an 8 or above on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being high. Otherwise, the chance for the change to be sustained is limited.

After working with dental teams for many years I have found 5 consistent characteristics in the cultures that support positive and successful change.

• Trust in leadership
• Clear and consistent direction
• Structured plan
• Adequate training and practice time
• Realistic workload

The number one core characteristic that supports change is trust in the leadership. If the team members trust their leader(s) they will be more willing to step into the unpredictable unknown. Leaders can build trust by embodying the following traits:

• Model the waddle is the number one leadership principle – in other words lead by example
• Have a clear and consistent direction
• Be transparent and keep the team in the loop as much as possible
• Be open to suggestions and feedback
• Address any obstacles, fears or concerns the team may have

The second core characteristic is to communicate a clear and consistent direction. It is important to use a decision strategy to avoid emotion driven decisions in the heat of the moment. I teach the following four strategic steps:

• What’s in the best interests of the patients, practice and the team – not any individual and long term
  • Think about 10 months and 10 years instead of next 10 minutes or 10 days
• What is practical and realistic based on time, people and money currently available
• What is the precedence being set – if we can’t do it across the board for everyone on the team it will feel like favoritism and divide the team
• What is the level of passion which we are willing to support the decision – will we support it when push comes to shove even if it may result in losing an employee or a patient

Set your team up to succeed by delegating the change clearly and concisely. I suggest the following delegation process:

• Clarify expectations
• Ask questions to make sure everyone understands
• Write objective down in bullet points if more than a couple of things
• Set expectation of completion time and date
• Under promise and over deliver
• For more involved longer tasks schedule a check in

The third core characteristic is for leadership to work with the team to develop a well-structured plan. If you want the team to embrace a change ask for their suggestions and feedback on how to implement the change. If you want the team to have ownership give them authorship as well. A well-structured plan is well thought out and clearly defined. I teach teams the R.I.S.E. Implementation Process to help them work together to create a well-structured plan. R.I.S.E. is an acronym for Review, Implement, Sustain and Evaluate.

• Review
  • What is it we are currently doing
  • WIIFTT – What’s in it for the team if we make the change
    • It is important for the value/benefits to rate an 8 or above on scale of 1 to 10 or it is difficult to sustain
• Implement
  • What are we going to change
  • Who is going to do it
  • Who are we going to do it for
  • When are we going to do it – including time, sequence and flow
  • Where are we going do it – very specific location
  • Why are we going to do it – WIIFTT if we make the change – there must always be something in it for the team for the team to sustain the change
  • How are we going do it
    • Practice verbal skills
    • Practice role playing – yes I know it’s weird but it’s effective
    • Practice the entire physical walk through – never test it out for the first time on a patient
  • Create standard operating procedures
  • Schedule the roll out date
• Sustain
  • In order to sustain it is important for the new change to become a habit
  • It takes a range of anywhere between 17 to 257 days to form a habit depending on the difficulty with the average being 66 days
    • Give any new change at least 60 days to get comfortable before considering any changes
  • Be precise and consistent to make the change become a habit much sooner
    • Same sequence and steps for every team member every time
  • Support the change positively in words, actions and attitude
• Evaluate
  • Is the process still working effectively
  • If not what is the value and benefits in a change
  • Any change takes ongoing tweaking

The fourth core characteristic is to schedule appropriate and adequate training and practice time. I have found that the most positive and successful changes happen when the team has time to train and practice.

Team meetings are the perfect opportunity for training and practice time. Utilize your team meetings to:

• Update systems/protocols
• Implement new ideas
• Monitor yearly goals
• Practice, practice, practice
  • Verbal skills, role playing and physical walk through

Team meetings are more effective when you:

• Schedule often enough
• Schedule time enough
• Schedule when most can attend
• Get feedback from the entire team
  • Encourage solution focused suggestions on how to overcome potential obstacles

The fifth core characteristic is to be realistic with the workload. It will be very difficult to get the team excited about embracing something new if they are already swamped and consistently running behind. It is important to evaluate whether there is enough time, money and people to implement the change successfully. Even the most committed employees will become resistant to change if they are consistently overwhelmed.

Embodying these 5 core characteristics will nurture a culture where change becomes a more positive, successful and sustainable experience.