Helping Leaders to Become More Change Friendly

Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan is an American author and business consultant whose focus is leadership, human performance, and the strategic management of change. Of his latest book, Change-Friendly Leadership, Publishers Weekly wrote: "Duncan's tone is lively and peppered with stories, specific processes, and self-assessments; his lessons in leadership and advice for building a culture and behaviors that are open to change are particularly on point. The extraordinary list of accolades from peers (Stephen M.R. Covey, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Ken Blanchard, and many others) are well deserved for this invaluable guide to anyone struggling with the demands of change."

Within Change Friendly Leadership, Duncan asserts that when it comes to creating an effective foundation for change behaviors and relationships are more important for leaders than titles and stature and he highlights 4 behaviours in particular 

1. THINK-FRIENDLY: SEE THE WORLD THROUGH A FRESH LENS - “Your brain has a mind of its own. No kidding. On its own accord, the brain tends to act more out of self-preservation than out of rationality. We have a natural tendency to tell ourselves stories that justify what we're doing or failing to do. We have a natural tendency to allow our stories to masquerade as facts. The good news is that we can teach ourselves a new set of behaviors that serve us better".
2. TALK-FRIENDLY: PUT YOUR BEST VOICE FORWARD - "Because it requires honesty and clarity, true dialogue can be uncomfortable. And because people like to avoid discomfort, it's tempting to allow some topics to remain unaddressed. Most of us have been in situations where there's a relevant issue that nobody seems willing to talk about. We might even say to ourselves, "There's an elephant in this room, and I sure wish someone else would tame that animal." Well, to tame an elephant, you must first acknowledge its existence. Talk-Friendly practitioners understand the difference between implicit and explicit communication. The elephant is implicit. But until the elephant's presence is made explicit, the quality of true dialogue is limited.”
3. TRUST-FRIENDLY: MAKE TRUST FIRST TO MAKE IT LAST - "When trust is low, you pay a "tax" because everything requires more time to accomplish and everything costs you more. When trust is high, you receive a "dividend" because you're able to get things done faster and at a lower cost. This dividend is real. It's not just a feel-good factor. It's an actual economic dividend and the data on it is overwhelming.For example, a Watson Wyatt study showed that high-trust organizations outperformed low-trust organizations by 286 percent in total return to shareholders.” 
4. “TEAM-FRIENDLY: FINDING STRENGTH IN UNITY - "No doubt about it, teamwork is more common as a buzzword than as an actual practice. Without the benefit of nuance, teamwork is one of those catch-all terms often extended as the magic elixir for the moment's most pressing execution issue. But when we're strategic about putting both the team and the work into teamwork, beautiful things can happen. Team members have ready access, individually and collectively, to skillful coaching on teamwork issues. Effective teamwork is not just a nice-to-have element in change efforts. It's a DBM — a double-barreled must. If you're serious about change, teamwork is not an option.”

As important as it is to identify 'what' these behaviours are, in practical terms leaders then need help in 'how' to develop them, and FranklinCovey's work provides tools and insights into all 4. 

For example, when it comes to seeing the world through a fresh lens, our 'See-Do-Get' and Basic Change Model focuses on the power of paradigms and beliefs to impact actions and outcomes. For putting your best foot forward, we consider the unique characteristics that proactive people demonstrate to allow them to do this and also share ideas on how to raise uncomfortable topics in a way the person / people you are engaging with will be responsive to. In terms of making trust first, we share a simple and effective definition for trust (so that everyone can speak about it in the same terms), and we then provide the building blocks for measuring and developing trust at a personal and team level. Finally, to help ensure people find strength in unity, we highlight the mindset required to achieve win-win outcomes, the communication skills needed to leverage the power of diverse perspectives and a '3rd alternative' process which can help teams deliver synergistic outputs.