Change & Thrive

Hawaiian Insights to Transform the Workplace

Richard C.B. Earle, Ph.D.
Managing Director, Canadian Institute of Stress 
&  Hans Selye Foundation

Makana Risser Chai, CEO
Hawaiian Insights, Inc.

Every organization today grapples with change.  What is the best way to implement change?  Which organizations find it easiest to change?  How often are corporate-wide change efforts successful? (Hint: almost never.)

You might think that on military bases and in hospital surgical wards, where management is by command and control, edicts to “Change NOW” would have great impact.  It turns out, they do.  Management “visions” (also known as hallucinations) invariably increase employee resistance to change.

In every organization, a few staff members support change, some resist it, while others sabotage it. Most just keep doing what they’ve been doing, waiting for the fad of the month to pass.

The Canadian Institute of Stress has studied change in organizations since 1981, with more than 105,000 employees in organizations ranging in size from small business to Fortune 500 companies.  We’ve combined that experience with the latest reported research and identified six Best Practices of organizations that change and thrive. 

These best practices echo Hawaiian ways of responding to change.  In 1778, when Captain Cook “discovered” Hawaii, the Hawaiians had a highly structured civilization of feudal chiefs with standing armies.  Respected warriors practiced the art of war and fought frequent battles.  But when the first English ships appeared on the horizon, the Hawaiians did not prepare to fight.  Instead, they filled their canoes with food, gifts and women, and paddled out to greet them.  Talk about embracing change!

Organizations that embrace change have these practices in common:

1.  Management tells a story.  People change their behavior based on feelings, not facts.  First, they must feel the pain.  Tell them the problems the changes are supposed to fix, in a compelling, memorable way.  Management can and should identify the pain and impending risks from their perspective, but employees must be encouraged to identify the problems in their own areas.  Especially focus on “lose-lose” – processes, procedures, and systems that cause problems for employees and the organization.  Tell those stories until everyone in the organization feels the pain.

Pain engages emotions, and might even get employees to take action, but it doesn’t motivate them to sustain it.  People change when they believe they will feel better.  So, employees need to feel the joy.  Tell a simple story that helps them paint a vision of the positive results they will feel.  Give your people the big picture.  Then don’t micro-manage them to get there.

When Captain Cook arrived, the Hawaiian chiefs immediately recognized his superior technology.  They knew their lives were about to change.  They didn’t need to sell the pain to their troops – the warriors could see it for themselves.  The chiefs quickly chose a vision, one they knew would engage their people as much as a war – a party!  The chiefs told their people to welcome the visitors.  But they didn’t specify how to welcome them – unlike hotels today that train their staffs to smile when guests come within 10 feet and speak within 5.  Cook’s men said in all their travels around the world they had never felt as warmly welcomed.  How often do hotel guests say that?

2.  Management lives the change.  Research by Bain & Co. shows that incremental change doesn’t work, because it can’t overcome organizational inertia.  The companies most successful at transforming themselves make big changes, starting with top management.  If management doesn’t make changes, no one else will.  Instead, employees become cynical (at best). 

In successful companies, everyone in management says the same thing, not because they’ve been given common talking points, but because they live it.  That means they implement change tactics where it matters – in their own offices.  If one result to be achieved by the change initiative is to reduce expenses by 10%, executives reduce their own office budgets by 10%.

3.  Work groups initiate their own changes.  Most employees enjoy contributing to change. What they resent is “being changed”.  Most people are more married to their work (not to job or company) than to their spouse. This gut-level fact is both your greatest obstacle and your most powerful resource in making change. Upset the marriage unilaterally and you've got trouble. Offer the opportunity to participate in renewing a better marriage to deal with new business realities, and you've begun an invaluable change partnership.

The key to an effective transformation is to ask work groups about the "lose-lose" parts of their jobs.  Then ask the groups for their proposals for "win-win" solutions.  Facilitate a process for employees to share their success stories.  We’ve found that when work groups initiate changes, organizations see productivity increases of 10% per year or more.

The sailors on Cook’s ships were eager to trade for food, water and gifts.  Though the Hawaiians had never traded for English goods before, they quickly learned appropriate values, because they shared their trading success stories with each other.  Cook’s men sadly noted that soon all the natives were trading supplies at the same (higher) prices.  That’s the benefit when the people on the front lines make the decisions. 

In contrast, later in Hawaiian history, the king decided to export sandalwood to China. He negotiated a price everyone said was too low, then ordered his people to cut down the forests.  The people objected.  They knew it would have catastrophic results.  The king insisted, and for years after the people suffered from drought, famine, floods, and landslides.  By the way, the king used the money to maintain his lavish lifestyle.  Sound like any companies today?

4.  Management respects employees.   People don’t change unless they receive support from peers and management.  They need training and team meetings.  Performance management systems may need to be changed.  Their pay must fairly compensate them for the increased value they’re bringing to the organization with their win-win solutions.

Most important, management must recognize that change – even successful change – is stressful for employees.  This is on top of the stress they already have in life.  Employees need tools for handling this stress.  Being part of the change process is a necessary, but not sufficient, method for reducing stress.

Research in the book, The Enthusiastic Employee, documents that employees feel satisfaction, become enthusiastic, and increase their engagement at work when the workplace fosters fairness, achievement and camaraderie.  All three of these are necessary for employees to feel respected – and are naturally attained as part of an effective change process.

5.  The team celebrates wins.  People are motivated by short-term wins.  That’s why, although big changes are more successful, they must be broken into thousands of small changes that can be celebrated.  And managers need to acknowledge employees for their successes. 

Many managers resist occasionally saying “Thank you” or celebrating successes achieved by a work team, perhaps not wishing to let employees relax or feel satisfied “because bigger demands are coming”. This flies in the face of observations by the Institute that at least 90% of employees want to contribute more than they are paid for, so long as the stress of doing so results in roughly commensurate levels of work satisfaction.

6.  Executives don’t lead change – they facilitate it. Nobody can lead change.  Most of the time, leaders just get in the way of change.  The best we can do is follow its lead.  Your organization faces continuous change outside, so you have to change continuously inside.   Neuroscience has proven that any new habit or change must be constantly reinforced.  Set up feedback loops and processes to continue to tell the story, live the change, encourage employee changes, respect employees and celebrate wins.

Incidentally, this is where a consultant might be helpful.  Bringing in an outsider to tell employees how to change is a sure way to kill motivation.  But a consultant can help to set up the process to facilitate win-win solutions from your employee work groups.

In the 228 years since first contact, the Hawaiian people have changed continuously.  Not all of the changes have been for the good.  But unlike some indigenous cultures that died out, the Hawaiian culture today is vibrant and alive, because its people chose to change and thrive.  You can too.

Contact us about our speaking and consulting to help your organization change and thrive!

Richard Earle, Ph.D. is a principal of the Vital Corporation.  He has managed the workplace services of the Canadian Institute of Stress since 1980, assisting corporations in North America, Japan and Europe to “Make Change Successful, not Stressful”. His books and university lectures have been translated into French, Spanish, Japanese and Italian. Richard’s corporate consultancies span most fields in the private and public sectors.

Makana Risser Chai, CEO of Hawaiian Insights, Inc., connects Native Hawaiian practitioners with organizations that want to improve employee relations and customer service through Hawaiian traditions proven successful by the latest research.