This week, together with my wife, brothers and sister-in-law, I’ve helped my father (89) and mother (age unknown!) move home from Morecambe, in Lancashire, to Ilkley, in West Yorkshire. After living in North Lancashire all their lives and having lived in their home for the last 46-years, it was time to move on.
They had previously been consistent in their desire to stay in Morecambe, but my father’s health issues during the pandemic persuaded my mum otherwise. And Ilkely – named this week as The Sunday Times’s Best Place to Live in the UK – offered them great facilities and an apartment that’s just a few hundred yards from my older brother’s house.
You might think that they were sad and emotional on leaving their old home, and perhaps they were. But, their main emotions were relief, happiness and a little excitement.
Managers often worry that their teams are resistant to change. As a result, they believe that their plans to improve performance and productivity will fall flat.
My own experience is that people welcome change as long as three conditions exist. First, there needs to be dissatisfaction with the current situation and a feeling that ‘something needs to change.’ Second, people want to have a clear vision of a better future. And third, there needs to be a way forward; some clear and practical next steps to move towards that vision.
When those three factors came together, my mum and dad were more than happy to make the 60-mile journey to a new life in Ilkley.
How are you working with your teams to establish dissatisfaction with the status quo, create a vision of a better future and determine some initial next-step actions to accelerate change and performance improvement in your organisation?
Off The Record: Moving On by Paul Weller
I’m moving on
The moment finally has come
Like a pebble that’s thrown
Small waves from me grow