#BacktoBetter: Desire

Change is hard. It’s complicated and emotional. So deciding if you even have the DESIRE to change is one of the biggest questions to ask yourself and your team.

You have to SEE and BELIEVE in the “What’s in it for me?” to really make changes.

Our desire can keep us from being successful. We will need to be personally motivated for any change to be successful. We can come with great intentions but unless we want those washboard abs or to run faster, the intention isn’t enough to hit the gym. It’s our desire to change that gets us moving.

Now think about your employees as they start to transition into our “new normal” or even dare we say “better”. It’s another shift to schedules, habits, and lifestyles. We’ve found some employees with long commutes or coming back to a drab office space may not have the desire to come back at all, in fact, they dread it. They’re gotten cozy in their pajama pants with their laptop in the lap.

Desire looks different for all of us and we will have to visualize our own #BacktoBetter. These changes can be as small as upgrading your coffee, adding a new aquatic pet (hi Gandhi!), to major transformations like reconfiguring and investing into the comfort and ergonomics of your workspace. 

Whatever your changes look like, it’s important to work closely with your people managers. They are the ones who will set the tone, field any resistance, and address most of the questions from employees. If you can get them on board and with the DESIRE to see a new better environment, we can get the whole team sipping the koolaid (or Nespresso) together.

Negativity spreads fast and if one Negative Nancy manager is not on board, that sets the tone for the team and makes it hard for Positive Penny to weigh in, even if she does have the desire to see change and make things better.

We always say, with change, there are challenges but don’t forget to look for opportunities!   

One way to start measuring this next change is by using ADKAR. This is a tool, which is part of the Prosci process, to help you understand where your employees have road blocks and then guide you on how to overcome them. ADKAR stands for: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement.

Make your team AWARE of the changes.

Give them the DESIRE to want to do it!

Keep them in the KNOW with the KNOWLEDGE and information they need to get there.

The ABILITY and Tools to be better come next.

Then REINFORCE, sometimes it takes hearing the same message in different ways to grasp the concept and get on board. Keep the goals clear and reinforce why we wall want to be back to something better!

You can measure success of your space by asking: Do you personally want to be back in the office?