People Skills for Business Change and Transformation…

It's all about us humans being... human

Our understandings and behaviours are generated from our experiences, our interpretation of what we’re told, what we’ve learnt, the values we work to, and what we’ve been asked to do. When any of those inputs and understandings become unclear or conflicted, things can start to go in unexpected directions.

When carrying out any form of Business Change, its success relies on clear and consistent communication. During my time as a Change and Project Manager I have used skills and experience gained from theatre and acting (a previous career move…) to help solve disputes and conflict, and to build better teams across functions.

Why are these skills so useful? Theatre and acting techniques are based on building relationships swiftly. They also help with the application of clear and consistent communication. Directors and actors need to understand the script in detail – the characters’ language, motives, actions and interactions – the What, Why and How. This is why actors and directors use these techniques to build relationships between cast members (and the crew), as these relationships are needed to create a successful production over a condensed period of time.

Using these techniques within the business environment provides an effective way to develop clear methods of communication, exploring skills through ‘Doing and experiencing’. This is done within a safe environment where people can try, review & reflect, and try again.

Dealing with change in a business requires People Skills – across the business. It ensures clearer communication, creating a culture where people can ask questions, building understandings through transparency, and creating a much easier buy-in to change.

When you think about it, when dealing with Change, and within a business generally, working on People Skills is a no-brainer.

Doing that by using techniques that build skills and confidence through experience within a safe environment, is another no-brainer.