Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/65226
Thought Leader they all were ambassadors of the company's values: "effort, passion, openness" and had good communication skills. Most programmes start with, "how can we get people to change?" rather than "why don't people change?" Can you explain how you came to start with this question? Change in an organisation only occurs when you change people's behaviours. We were launching from a very stable position, which was both a strength and a weakness. It gave us time to prepare the ground, but it also meant that the people who were being asked to change were used to a stable, day-to-day business without too many frights or differences from one day to another. There was no pressing need to change that people could see. We knew from the beginning that we were going to have quite a few barriers against change, so identifying them was critical, as it would tell us where to focus our efforts. In the end, from outside research and from the experiences of the team, we identified seven reasons why people do not change. Tesón's Seven Reasons why people do not change their behaviour 1. They do not understand what changes are expected of them—the title of a change programme does not explain what people need to do differently. 2. There are real barriers that prevent change—these can be physical barriers which prevent information from filtering to all points of the organisation, or they can be people who work against change. 3. They do not know what the change means for them, and this can scare people; 4. They cannot implement the new behaviours, because they do not have the necessary skills; 5. They think change is not important—they have not identified the need to change in their own jobs, someone outside is telling them to do so; 6. They think change is unnecessary—many see change as a new idea that will pass. This is especially relevant in Grupo Codorniu, where the average seniority is 25 years; 7. They are not interested in change—they do not like change in their private lives, so why would they want it in their professional life? How did you use this information to help drive change through the organisation? This was just the first of three pieces of work that allowed us to drive change through the organisation. These seven reasons provided a framework of things to avoid in order to get people to implement new ways of doing things. But we were aware that it was not good enough to just avoid problems, our second task was to understand people's motivations and why they do what they do on a day-to-day basis. To develop our understanding, we brought in consultants and change experts, and we analysed our own experience. First, we agreed that employees do what their bosses ask of them, and this can be influenced through formal and informal objectives identified by their boss. Second, people will interpret what is important, and the culture of the organisation can be used to influence employees who fall into this group. Third, employees will do what they are convinced to do, and internal communications are vital to convincing people to adapt their behaviour. Fourth, people will do what their bosses do, and so convincing managers to act as role models would be very important. Fifth, people are conscious that they are measured and appraised, so they will do what their boss controls. Last, people are conscious of their compensation and benefits and will do what they are rewarded to do. We felt that these six items could be thought of as filters during the change process. We felt that each of these steps would influence some employees, and if we avoided the barriers and successfully addressed these six points, then people would enter the programme, be filtered at the appropriate point, and very few would come out without having changed. We knew that we would have to develop performance and development tools and compensation systems aligned to the new expectations. Did these two insights become your roadmap for change? No, these two pieces helped us understand the barriers and drivers of behavioural change. The roadmap to manage the change, which was the third piece of the puzzle, was developed based on a previous internal project. The roadmap consists of nine steps, with actions underpinning each step. The first step is to identify the need for change. In our case, it was because the market in Spain was stagnant, and New World producers were increasingly competitive. In addition, consumers were demanding affordable wines from recognised brands. After identifying this need, we dedicated time for strategic reflection. We wanted to understand what the change would mean for our products, our people, and for the organisation as a system. The third step was to define the new paradigm and put into writing what we are going to do. We used this step to define our approach to the market; define which products we would concentrate on; articulate the organisation's values; and articulate leadership [38] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | WINTER 2012