Length:
2 hours
Team preparation is to look at the commitment spectrum and the commitment planning example.
We're going to go through a step-by-step process, using a real change you want to make as an example. So you will need to think of a change you are involved in already, or would like to make in the future, before starting the exercise.
You will probably want to follow up this exercise with the building commitment to change exercise, which takes you through how to communicate with the different groups involved in the change programme.
The exercise
- First, think of all the people you are going to want to get on board for this change to work brilliantly. You can ignore for the moment all the people who report up through a hierarchy to you – your team, the people who report direct to them and so on. This exercise is about your stakeholders – people who you don’t have direct control over but have to “influence” to make the change effective. (See the managing stakeholders briefing for more background on stakeholders.)
- You should include your boss – you don’t directly control them, after all.
- Obviously, you’ll want to get the whole world committed to your marvellous changes. But you will need to prioritise in terms of whose commitment is essential to making the change work well, otherwise you’ll be spending too much time trying to convince people unnecessarily. Group people together in your mind if you think they have similar attitudes to your change.
- Take a look at the commitment spectrum and commitment planning example. In terms of current levels of commitment, in my example, I have assessed that Group 1 is pretty neutral about the change, Group 2 has probably not even bothered to think about it or are unaware of it, Group 4 and 5 are fine about it too, but Group 3 doesn’t like the idea (see the light figures on the example sheet).
- Plot your own stakeholder groups on a blank commitment planning template.
- Next, plot where on the commitment spectrum you need each of your groups to be. It is natural to want everyone to finish up the “commitment” position, but we are trying to prioritise your influencing efforts here, so just put each group at the minimum level of commitment you need from them to make the change work.
- You really will want “commitment” from some, because they have to put work in to make your changes work. But maybe all you need from your boss is “acceptance”. So go through each of your stakeholder groups and plot the minimum level of commitment you need from them.
- Our example sheet shows that we really need commitment from Groups 1 and 3, but that acceptance is all we need from Groups 2, 4 and 5.
- Now you can see exactly who you need to influence. In our example we need to shift Group 1 from "acceptance" to active "commitment", Group 2 from not knowing much about it to a position of acceptance, and the hardest group – Group 3 – from resisting our proposals at the moment to actively being committed to them. Groups 4 and 5 are already where we need them to be.
- For the change you are considering, complete your own commitment planning template as a team. (You can project the sheet as a template that everyone can see.)
- You can get quite sophisticated about how you deal with stakeholders depending on how powerful they are (see the power-interests matrix) and whether you trust them (see the trust-agreement matrix), but for this exercise we will assume that you can identify the shifts in commitment you need fairly straightforwardly.
- Finally, note down some of the reasons why the groups you need to influence are where they currently are on the commitment spectrum. Note down key stakeholder interests, priorities and concerns You will need this information for the second part of this exercise – building commitment to change.