After the WASIS Ecstasy, the Laundry

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After the WASIS Ecstasy, the Laundry

• Susanne C. Moser, Ph.D.
• Institute for the Study of Society and
  Environment
• NCAR
• (smoser_at_ucar.edu)

WASIS Workshop Boulder, CO July 20, 2007
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The Going Home Talk

• The ecstasy Where are you at?
• and the laundry
• Where is the rest of the world?
• Likely challenges of practicing WASIS at home
• Some perspectives on change
• Strategies for next Monday and for the long haul

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After the WASIS Ecstasy

• Where are you?
• Excitement about what you learned and gained
• New perspectives and knowledge (theory, concepts)
• New tools (methods, approaches, skills)
• New language
• New friends and colleagues
• New or renewed commitment to WASIS
• Motivation and desire to do things differently
• A little exhausted, a little worried maybe?

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the WASIS Laundry

• When you get back home, back to work
• They werent here!
• They did the laundry while you were gone (the
  kids, dishes, garbage the meetings, phone
  calls, never-ending to-do lists the way weve
  always done it)
• Most of your fellow WASISers arent down the
  hall (but some may be)
• The rest of the world probably isnt waiting to
  change its habits
• thinking, behavior, incentives, job descriptions,
  institutions still the same

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the WASIS Laundry (cont.)

• In a week, a month from now
• Youre alone
• Isolated geographically, intellectually,
  institutionally
• Limited resources
• Never enough time
• Wishing for greater depth or experience in
  knowledge, methods, communication skills
• ? INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK IS MUCH HARDER THAN YOU
  THOUGHT IT IS

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So

• You changed -
• You want to change something else -
• What you want to change may well
  resist.
• This is all NORMAL!
• But how to deal with normal????

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Becoming a Master Interdisciplinarian

• From Directed Learner to
• Independent Performer
• Expert
• Leader
• Visionary

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The Cycle of ChangeMotivation and Resistance
Source Lessons for Living (2006)
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Creating Change

• The two tasks of change agents
• (1) Elevate motivation to change
• (2) Lower resistance/barriers to change
• Implications
• Identify a vision and clear goals
• Strategically assess
• leverage points
• windows of opportunity
• key players
• specific needs/resources
• likely barriers
• Take a realistic, but long-term view

Source Moser Dilling, 2007. Creating a Climate
for Change Communicating Climate Change and
Facilitating Social Change. Cambridge University
Press. See http//www.isse.ucar.edu/communicati
on/book/
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Another Perspective on Change
low
Motivation Confidence
high
low
Competence/ability
Source K. Blanchard Co., Situational
Leadership, 2003
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Creating Change (cont.)
Response to change
Why change projects fail
Source http//www.epmbook.com/orgchange.htm
(2006)
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First-Order Strategies

• Before you say anything else Check in on the
  laundry, thank them for doing it, do some
  yourself
• Identify or create a receptive moment
• Who are you talking to?
• Tell them (only) what they need to know
• Speak in their language
• Help them see how what you bring will help them
• Offer something to them
• Only then ask for what you need to implement the
  change
• Offer to check in regularly, report back
• Do this with everyone who needs to be involved in
  the change

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Support for Change Agents

• Build your local team (because you cant do it
  alone and not all at once)
• Skills, support, sharing the work, etc.
• Establish clear rules, timeline, authority,
  responsibility, accountability
• Communicate more than you think is needed
• Plant the seeds, let it become everyones garden
• Continue to build skills
• Yours
• Everyone elses
• Make use of WASIS connections, resources,
  discussion list
• Maybe a buddy system, mentoring,

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Others need what you need and then some
low
Coaching
Supporting
Motivation Confidence
Directing
Delegating
high
low
Competence/ability
Source K. Blanchard Co., Situational
Leadership, 2003
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What Else? Your Own Ideas

• be aware of the resistors work around them
• include them, make them part of the process,
  dont alienate them communicate a lot, meet face
  to face, ask them about their worries
• Identify the believers, those who support you
• Think of this as culture change, needs to be
  organic, people will respect that you are sincere
• Dont step on peoples toes try to avoid going
  behind peoples backs
• Understand the chain of command who is critical
  to involve in the change
• Be aware of your own cynicism, easy to get
  disillusioned need something to bring you back
  up

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More good ideas

• Challenge your own internal barriers, thoughts
• Dont forget to step back and reflect on whats
  going on, why youre doing it, what strategies
  will help
• Also shut up and listen
• Get champions on your team (people who can bring
  onboard others)
• Dont forget freindship as a motivating factor
• Give people credit for when they have made the
  change acknowledge effort and success THANK YOU
  goes a LONG way!
• Recognize that you yourself may need to change
• Be your own (gentle) critic beware of your own
  flawed thinking
• You are learner and expert at once, sometimes all
  in one day
• When is it right to toot your own horn, when is
  it just important to see that the change happens

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Bread for the Journey

• If you focus on results, you will never change.
  
• If you focus on change, you will get results.
• Jack Dixon

Good luck and stay in touch!