The Top 10 Strategies for Changing Attitudes!

The Top 10 Strategies for Changing Attitudes!


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As work life becomes more complex and environmental changes force people and organizations to adapt more quickly--creating turbulence among our systems--more and more people seek to institute or embrace change. The following 10 strategies are a place to begin that personal and organizational change.



1. Release people from prior commitment.



Probably most overlooked is this strategy. Most often we forget that one of the reasons people don't change their attitude is that they have made a conscious or subconscious prior commitment. Uncovering those hidden agendas usually results in an opportunity to change one's attitude about previous commitments. Even stability can be a prior commitment and until I understand that this new change, method or system is going to produce stability--I am not willing to let go of what is stable.



2. Provide new information.



Often, people don't see or feel the need to change. Providing information to support change or the need to change can often open previously closed doors. Communicating change initiatives prior to implementation is often scary but almost always better than not doing it until the implementation begins.



3. Use fear positively.



Deming says drive out fear. Yet, fear can be positive if we take the time to frame it correctly. Fear of some sort, often creates the urgency needed for change to take place and for change gaps to be bridged, BUT THE KEY TO USING FEAR is to show how the present path is NOT the best one. You don't just threaten people by stating if they don't do it they will suffer the consequences. You use a combination of tactics to show with information how the present direction will lead to lower levels of benefits and more sacrifice than changing directions--personally or organizationally.



4. Resolve cognitive dissonance.



Most often, each of us has a dialectic taking place inside ourselves about our attitudes and about the results of our behaviors. To resolve this dissonance or conflict can often lead to positive changes in attitudes for us personally as well as in organizations. People are certain that their behavior always works, yet must often protect that faulty behavior with an attitude. Helping them to understand the conflict between their attitude and the behavior can lead to positive change.



5. Gather influence from friends, peers and family.



One of the major reasons--in my view--for using 360 degree assessment is so that someone can get hit over the head by people whose opinions often matter--saving leadership from doing it. While this may be the crass side of 360, it does work because of the influence of friends and peers. 360s certainly have weaknesses and used solely for the purpose of changing attitudes is probably more harmful than helpful in the "long term." However, a structured ongoing program of development that includes regular 360 Assessment and training can be effective in changing attitudes.



6. Co-opt.



Giving people--whose attitude is deviant from the norm--leadership opportunity can often lead to positive change for the person and the organization. Some say resistance is energy and this resistant energy occurs often in the form of challenging attitudes and opposition--disagreeableness. Yet, often this energy can be harnessed to propel the organization forward while leading to attitudinal change in the opposition.



7. Have compassion.



This may seem like a strange change initiative and a few years ago I would have thought you were "different" even mentioning it, yet compassion appears to hold the key to changing attitudes. Of course the Buddhist philosophy enamors this method in its teachings and it is consistently brought forward by people like the Dali Lama. Compassion has a way of building both rapport and offering peace to oneself and those in opposition. Often the worst thing we can do is to fight fire with fire--merely fueling the opposing forces and heightening our own negative emotions.



8. Seek first to understand.



An age old maxim made popular by Stephen Covey's 7 habits, empathy like compassion forces us to take the view of the opposing force and to attempt to understand the reasons for the resistance. Much has been written about this "soft" skill but by far, the caring sense that someone expresses authentically towards another person removes barriers to changes in attitudes. Empathy creates openings for new information and influence to, reach through previously locked doors.



9. Have acceptance.



I hesitated a moment when offering this particular point, yet feel that without acceptance--recognizing that we are all different and that resistance is not always bad--we would lose valuable energy and innovation. Change occurs consciously and unconsciously and sometimes resistance is just change occurring unconsciously--forcing us to examine things that are outside of our own path. By accepting that some people will oppose our path, we open ourselves and our organizations to the innovative spark of difference.



10. Dialog.



Providing the space for the disclosure of assumptions, mental models and tightly held beliefs in "safe" harbors can lead to effective attitude change. If the above strategies are combined into an amalgam of actions, then change in attitude is likely to precipitate. None of this is easy, especially in those organizations or those people that are fully



ingrained in the attitudes of resistance for resistance sake. Yet, taking the time to structure an ongoing dialog can be the initiative for many of the other strategies to provide motivational force to change one's attitude. Coaching often stages this personal dialog and can lead to further dialog in organizations as a result. Coaching often stabilizes the long term effects of short term intervention strategies and enables lasting and continuous change.