After last week’s article on failed change I was thinking about the concept of capacity. Even with a change that is necessary and positive for the organization, employees, volunteers, and partners must have the capacity to embrace it, or its value will be zilch.
Capacity comes in two flavours: Practical, and Mental.
Practical Capacity
People will tell you they are busy. Tasks completely fill the day. How can they accommodate something new? Even changes that save time require a period of adjustment where employees typically have a foot in two worlds – the old and the new.
Leaders have a few options to add practical capacity:
- Eliminate tasks. Sometimes reviewing a person’s task list reveals tasks that can be cut or made more efficient.
- Introduce additional resources and delegate work to them.
- Ask people to work harder/faster to get it all done.
- Ask people to work overtime.
Mental Capacity
When people believe change is hard, that they can’t do it, or that it’s not worth the effort, they will not adapt. These are mental stances and can be shifted. Leaders can:
- Emphasize benefits for the individual. Point to a better future!
- Emphasize benefits for other people relevant to employees (customers, community, country).
- Remind employees of the strengths and skills they already have that will make them successful.
- Remind people of how they have successfully navigated change in the past.
- Break change into smaller pieces more easily mastered.
- Coach and encourage people through the change.
- Show how others are successfully moving through the change.
The right approach to developing capacity requires a blend across the two dimensions, acknowledging that the mental side is the most important. A poor perspective can veto the benefit of additions to practical capacity.
QUESTION FOR YOU!
I am working on a diagnostic for capacity warning signs. What do you think indicates that people are running out of capacity? Join the conversation on Linkedin right now!
Thoughtfully yours,
Jeff Skipper
