This month’s Ho‘ohana: Organizational Change and the Daily Five Minutes.

Last week Kim Payton added his comments to our December Ho‘ohana, and I encourage you to take a look at his “human prism” of responses: when you encounter change, where might your colors be? Truth be told, I’ve had all three of the reactions he describes. However I have a new goal to always be the “response able” person --- love the term and all it suggests.

However my first vote will always be for pro-activity versus re-activity: let’s all be “change drivers.” As Kim points out, this connection is way too good for us to pass up:

Positive change = new learning = new confidence with all kinds of change.

As Managing with Aloha makes its way from bookstore shelves to you, I’m able to feel like a holiday-enthralled child who gets to open early Christmas presents: my Christmas tree is my inbox, and I’m finding emails from new readers nearly every day --- such a wonderful thing! So what does that have to do with change? Well, so far, there seems to be one tool suggested in my book getting the most affirmative votes once managers try it for themselves, and that’s the Daily Five Minutes. For instance, this story was just sent to me a few days ago:

“I'm into my second reading of your book and highlighting more things that are becoming significant to me and I must confess that after 27 years in the industry and thinking that I knew a lot, your book is like "going back to school all over again!"  It has really opened my eyes to how I'm interacting with my managers and employees and how our managers interact with one another and their respective employees.  I used your "Daily Five Minutes" today with one of our Guest Service Agents who is really in tune with the cultural significance of the area that we "occupy" and we talked story for well...more than 5 minutes.  Knowing his interest and the pride he has in his cultural heritage, I've asked him to do more research and to bring back his learning to the property.  I promised him the opportunity to share his knowledge with our other GSA's and managers so that we can begin to understand "our sense of place". 

This is only a start, but it's an exciting one!  Can't wait for our next manager's meeting when we just talk about the value of Aloha.  I'm blessed with a staff of managers and employees who take pride in what they do and who they represent and I believe that we can take the next step towards understanding ourselves better by incorporating some of the values you have shared in your book.” --- Mike Tasaka

With the Daily Five Minutes in your manager’s toolbox, everyone in your organization can be groomed to be a good change driver. Over time (and not much time) the Daily Five Minutes grooms employees to be business partners, and it creates a healthy habit that grooms continuous feedback. “Taking Five” nourishes all three of the suggestions Kim shares, as things he’s discovered which really help people deal with organizational change:

• Making leadership more approachable, and helping leaders themselves with daily practice in accepting feedback of all kinds

• Providing a forum for essential, detail, and personal communication, a communication that flows two ways and not just top-down

• Providing support in helping people talk about and deal with whatever they may fear with change, for the Daily Five Minutes is all about committing to relationships that are built on trust.

There was one sentence in Kim’s comments that jumped off the screen at me:

“I encounter many people who seem almost constitutionally suspicious of management, as if, to trust management, they have to become somebody else that they would not recognize.”

Sound all too familiar?

The Daily Five Minutes gives management a new persona, one that is familiar, safe, trust-worthy, and responsive. And yes, it does encourage employees to be somebody else they may not recognize within them --- your new business partners. Try it.

For today, catch up with our Ho ‘ohana on Organizational Change. (First post, Kim’s essay, Second post, this is the Third Post.) Meanwhile, I’ll prepare another book excerpt on the Daily Five Minutes for you tomorrow. For those of you who already have Managing with Aloha, you’ll find I introduce the Daily Five Minutes on page 145 with the value of ‘Ike loa, to seek knowledge and wisdom. Read page 187 too.