Knowing your team – which one are they?

(note that the genders and names are not real and don’t mean I think one gender sits in one camp or the other)!

The victimised person

This person (we’ll call him Mr Mopey) is a sad man – he’s a victim of the change, someone it is happening to rather than with. He’ll feel sad, dejected and withdrawn from the goings on.

Make Mr Mopey happy by including him. Tell him what’s going on and that you’ve thought about him.

The critical person

The critical person (Miss Militant) is against this change. She’s seen better, or seen it tried (and failed) before.  The point with Miss Militant is that her anti-behaviour could be because she’s actually pretty experienced, or because conversely she has very little knowledge. Also, be careful – she could be militant for other non change related reasons, which have been emphasised and exacerbated by it.

Miss Militant might make your best super user yet – persuade her and you’ve got it made.

The indifferent person

The indifferent person (Mrs Idontcare) doesn’t care about what’s going on.  She knows, or think she knows a bit of what’s happening or how it is going to happen but probably thinks it’s not much to do with her.  Maybe Mrs Idontcare doesn’t actually need to care, so make sure you understand how she needs to work.

Giving Mrs Idontcare a role in the team making changes, be it as an ambassador, or as a ’super user’ or someone equally spiffing will help her get off the fence and change her stance.

The change friendly person

The change friendly person (Master Cool) is change’s friend. Master Cool has seen the benefits, knows the ‘bad old days’ and can’t wait to get going.  Make sure Master Cool is up-to-date - a blindly optimistic raver can actually be a negative vibe if they’re out of date of spouting vacuous nonsense about the change: “it will change your life, like majorly, I’m pretty sure…"

So What?

• Everyone needs to be communicated to. A lot (but not too much). Often (but not too often).
• Victim people and critical people might make good change ambassadors.
• Indifferent people may be justifiably so - Before you start on a change, map out where you think your people can justifiably be – if you only need someone to be a bystander, then fine – but if a victim really needs to fully embrace the change, then work is needed.
• People change, so effort taken at one point doesn’t mean they ‘graduate’ to the next level and stay there.