Building Expectations
At some point, we’ve all had our expectations raised and then dashed. Whether it was a new bike, a personal relationship, or an anticipated promotion, the feeling was essentially the same: disappointment.
Time and time again, despite warnings, organizations create this same negative dynamic when they fail to follow through on promises made to their employees. These promises can be explicit (“we’ll have monthly staff meetings”) or implicit (you’ve asked employees what they want to see improved, so they expect you to take action). The explicit agreements can be measured and quantified. For instance, you can document that you held 10 staff meetings this year (and compare it to the number for last year).
While failure to achieve the explicit goals can damage your credibility, it’s the unfulfilled implicit promises that create a climate of distrust and cynicism that interfere with change efforts and can negatively impact current and future performance. Once you’ve alluded to a possibility of change, you’ve created an expectation. For example, when you conduct attitude/organizational climate surveys or solicit problem-solving ideas from your employees, you’ve created the expectation that the information will be used to make improvements. Therefore, you need to be prepared to take action. When you don’t take action, or delay it, you are sending a message to your staff that their needs are not important. This probably is not your intention (unless you are planning on going out of business).
If your employees are already doubtful about your commitment to change, all they need are a few pieces of evidence to support their suspicions. Armed with that “proof”, they return to business as usual and may be more entrenched in their previous behaviors than before.
In order to achieve success in these efforts, the critical factors to consider are communication, follow-through, measurement, and recognition/reward. To the degree that any of these elements are missing, your chances for success are reduced.
If you’re interested in using survey results to improve your organization’s performance or increasing the success of your change efforts, please contact Kammy Haynes.
For a PDF version of this newsletter, please click here. If you are unable to read pdf files, download the free Adobe Reader program.