Managing Conversations about Renewal, Redundancy and Redeployment
Participant Workbook
Human Resources
Organisational Development (OD)
08 6488 1504
Table of Contents
Why am I doing this learning? 3
What will I learn? 3
Positioning challenging conversations 4
The Scott & Jaffe Change Model 6
Planning challenging conversations 7
Your style under stress 8
Your results 9
Key behavioural anchors 10
Assertiveness looks like … 11
Scripts 13
Dealing with emotions and responses 20
Guidelines for individual redundancy meetings 22
Managing survivors – rebuilding trust 26
Practising challenging conversations 27
Planner 27
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Why am I doing this learning?
As a leader at UWA you need to be prepared in the event you have to deliver unexpected and/or unwelcome news, for example when a staff member’s position is made redundant. This module aims to build your knowledge and skills so that you effectively have these challenging conversations while being able to maintain positive and productive relationships with the person the news has impacted.
What will I learn?
At the end of this module you will be able to:
· Describe the importance of properly and effectively handling challenging conversations
· Describe how the emotional stages of the change curve apply to people who receive difficult messages
· Better handle the emotional component of a difficult conversation
· Effectively deal with the different ways people react during challenging conversations
· Demonstrate the appropriate skills to plan and conduct a challenging conversation.
Positioning challenging conversations
Our human barriers
Because we are built for fight/flight
For the last 40 000 years humans have been programmed with the fight or flight response which is the body’s response to perceived threat or danger. During this reaction, certain hormones like adrenalin and cortisol are released, speeding the heart rate, slowing digestion, giving the body a burst of energy and strength to give us the physical ability to enable us to physically fight or run away when faced with danger.
In stressful situations, such as a challenging conversation, most people are aroused and impacted to some degree by their fight or flight response, resulting in behaviours such as aggression, anger, not thinking straight, confusion, being unpredictable, etc
Because avoidance of directness has become part of our culture
With influences such as history, culture, family, experiences, it has become embedded in most people that we don’t like arguments and we don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings, especially if this is in relation to their physical, social or mental behaviours. So when a particular topic of conversation is difficult for any reason, we struggle, feel awkward and uncomfortable and may feel sorry for the person concerned.
Clear, open, honest and sensible adult to adult communication is usually compromised because many of us have learnt to ignore sensitive issues and ‘back down’ or ‘turn a blind eye’ so as to avoid arousing feelings in ourselves or others that we are uncomfortable with.
Because there is almost always an emotional response
Related to the avoidance of directness is that we have also learnt that showing too much emotion can be considered a sign of weakness, lack of control, childishness or evidence that a problem exists. We have also learnt that only ‘positive’ emotions are socially acceptable, especially in the workplace.
We almost always expect a stereotypical response which usually makes us feel uncomfortable when it doesn’t happen, for example if a man cries, if a woman becomes aggressive, if a reputed ‘hot-head’ sits there in stunned silence.
Because many of the roles at UWA require logic and left-brained thinking activities, we are often uncomfortable dealing with the unpredictability and amorphous nature of emotions. These actual and predicted emotional reactions are another reason we tend to avoid challenging conversations.
Because it often involves people needing to change
It is an understatement that we are living in times of fast and large scale change, and very few people are immune from the stress and emotions that change creates. Manager/supervisors often have to deliver unwelcome messages in direct relation to imposed organisational changes that impact on the workplace and the day-to-day work and routines of employees. Changes in relation to organisational upsizing and downsizing, new technology, relocations, impact of globalisation all impact on employees’ life.
The Scott & Jaffe Change Model
Working through the emotional responses:
Managing the emotional responses:
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Planning challenging conversations
Your style under stress
Aim:
The following questions explore how you typically respond when you are in the middle of a crucial conversation.
Instructions:
Before answering, select a specific relationship at work. Answer each statement by thinking about how you usually approach tricky conversations in that relationship.
1 / At times, I avoid situations that might bring me in to contact with people I’m having problems with. / T / F2 / I have put off returning phone calls or emails because I simply didn’t want to deal with the person who sent them. / T / F
3 / Sometimes when people bring up a touchy or awkward issue, I try to change the subject. / T / F
4 / When it comes to dealing with awkward or stressful subjects, sometimes I hold back rather than give my full and candid opinion. / T / F
5 / Rather than tell people exactly what I think, sometimes I rely on jokes, sarcasm or snide remarks to let them know I’m frustrated. / T / F
6 / When I’ve got something tough to bring up, sometimes I offer weak or insincere compliments to soften the blow. / T / F
7 / In order to get my point across, I sometimes exaggerate my side of the argument. / T / F
8 / If I seem to be losing control of a conversation, I might cut people off or change the subject in order to bring it back to where I think it should be. / T / F
9 / When others make points that seem stupid or irrational to me, I sometimes let them know it without holding back at all. / T / F
10 / When I am stunned by a comment, sometimes I say things that others might take as forceful or attacking; comments such as “Give me a break!” or “That’s ridiculous!” / T / F
11 / Sometimes when things get heated, I move from arguing against others’ points to saying things that might hurt them personally. / T / F
12 / If I get into a heated discussion, I’ve been known to be tough on the other person. In fact, the other person may feel a bit insulted or hurt. / T / F
Your results
After you have completed the ‘Your style under stress’ survey, it is time to determine your own individual style. Please complete the following score sheet. For example, if you responded to Question 5 by answering ‘True’, then indicate this by placing a tick in the box provided. Next, add your ticks and indicate your total score.
Did you …Masking / Controlling
Answer ‘True’ to Question 5? / Answer ‘True’ to Question 7?
Answer ‘True’ to Question 6? / Answer ‘True’ to Question 8?
Avoiding / Labelling
Answer ‘True’ to Question 3? / Answer ‘True’ to Question 9?
Answer ‘True’ to Question 4? / Answer ‘True’ to Question 10?
Withdrawing / Attacking
Answer ‘True’ to Question 1? / Answer ‘True’ to Question 11?
Answer ‘True’ to Question 2? / Answer ‘True’ to Question 12?
Flight / Fight
‘Your style under stress’ score indicates which forms of ‘flight’ or ‘fight’ you turn to most often. Your flight and fight scores provide a measure of how frequently you fall into these less than perfect strategies. A high score (one or two checked boxes per domain), means that you use this technique fairly often. It also means you’re human! Most people alternate between holding back and being too forceful.
Adapted from Scott S 2004, Fierce Conversations.
Key behavioural anchors
Having challenging conversations requires many skills, however there are a few key behaviours that must be demonstrated across every challenging conversation.
Managerial courage:
· The ability to make or support the hard decision, own the decision
· The ability to recognise and work through the difficulties of the situation
· The ability to maintain your credibility and integrity
· Empathise but don’t sympathise
· Avoid using emotive language where possible
· Strengthen the concept – this is about the role, not the person
Respect:
· The ability to help the other person maintain their self-esteem
· The ability to make the other person still feel valued
· The ability to treat people with dignity and respect
· The ability to be direct, honest and fair
· The ability to keep the issue/topic and the person separate
· The ability to stay present and in the moment
Assertiveness:
· The ability not to be aggressive nor submissive
· The ability to set out the facts and say what you mean
· The ability to use appropriate communication techniques and language
· The ability to be clear, focused and maintain where you want to be all times
Assertiveness looks like …
People tend to display different patterns of behaviour depending on the situation they are experiencing. The common categories are:
× Flight(Passive) / × Fight
(Aggressive) / P Flow
(Assertive)
Assertive behaviour means we communicate what we think, feel and want in a way that respects the other person. It is honest and appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication. The following tables provide you with an outline that describes these different communication techniques.
Non-verbal behaviourPassive - Flight / Aggressive - Fight / Assertive - Flow
Body movements / · Hunching shoulders
· Covering mouth with hands
· Crossing arms for protection / · Finger pointing
· Fists clenched
· Crossing arms (unapproachable) / · Open hand movements
· Sitting/standing upright and relaxed
Eye contact / · Evasive
· Looking down / · Trying to stare down and intimidate / · Firm direct eye contact without staring
Facial expression / · Ghost smiles when expressing anger or being criticised
· Raising eyebrows
· Jaw trembling, lip biting / · Smiling may become sneering
· Scowling when angry
· Jaw set firmly / · Smiling when pleased
· Frowning when angry
· Features steady
· Jaw relaxed
Speech pattern / · Hesitant and filled with pauses
· Fast to slow language
· Frequent throat clearing / · Fluent, few hesitations
· Often abrupt, clipped
· Emphasising blaming words
· Often fast / · Fluent, few hesitations
· Emphasising key words
· Steady, even pace
Voice / · Often dull, monotonous
· Quiet, often dropping away
· Singsong tone / · Sarcastic tone
· Hard and sharp
· Strident, often shouting, rising at the end / · Steady and firm
· Middle range tone
· Sincere and clear
Verbal behaviour
Passive - Flight / Aggressive - Fight / Assertive - Flow
Type of language / Long rambling statements
Fill in words
“maybe”, “er”, “sort of”Frequent justifications
“I wouldn’t normally say anything, only…”Apologies
“I’m terribly sorry to bother you …”, “Please excuse me, but…”Unacknowledged choice
“I should”, “I ought”, “I have to”Qualifiers
“It’s only my opinion”. “I might be wrong.”Self-dismissal
“It’s not important”. “It really doesn’t matter.”Self-put-downs
“I’m useless”, “I’m hopeless”, “You know me” / Excessive emphasis on “I”“My view is…”, “I think”
Boastfulness
“I haven’t got problems like you”
Opinion expressed as fact
“That’s a useless way to do it.”, “Nobody wants to behave like that”Threatening questions
“Haven’t you finished it yet?”, “Why on earth did you do it like that?”Threatening requests
“You’d better do that”, “I want that done or else”Heavy handed advice
“You should”, “You ought”, “Why don’t you?”Blame
“You made a mess of that”Sarcasm
“You must be joking”, “I don’t suppose you managed to do that?” / “I statements that are brief, clear and to the point“I like”, “I feel”, “I prefer”
Distinction between fact and opinion
“My experience is different”Suggestions without ‘should’ or ‘ought’
“How about…”, “Would you like me to…?”Constructive criticism without blame
“I feel irritated when you interrupt me”Seeking others’ opinions
“How does this fit in with your ideas?”Willingness to explore other solutions
“How can we get around this problem?”When communicating your verbal messages, consider your use of the terms “and” and “but”:
BUTTends to negate/dismiss what has occurred or been said previously. / AND
Allows you to lead forward into another opinion without negating what has been previously communicated.
Scripts
Conversation One - Prior to 1st Consultation Meeting1:1 MEETING
Purpose: To advise employees whose position may be significantly affected by the proposed organisational change eg: redundant. This is generally done 24 hours prior to the 1st Consultation meeting.
Time Frame: Early in the week and time of day, no longer than 30 minutes
Environment: Private setting (no interruptions)
Attendees: Impacted employee; Manager; HR Representative (optional)
Introduction
§ Greet the employee by name and ask him/her to sit down.§ Be pleasant, positive and rational.
§ Close the door
§ Introductions if appropriate
Thank you for meeting me/us today. (Introduce your HRBP if required)
You would have received an invitation to an organisational change meeting for <insert day/date>.
I wanted to meet with you prior to this meeting as I/we will be discussing some proposed changes that may have a significant impact on your role
Background
§ Give a brief background on the drivers for change and summarise the proposed changes that may directly impact the employee· It’s important that you go through this to allow the proposed changes to “sink in” and provide the impacted employee with the opportunity to ask questions.
As you are aware, at the end of 2015 the VC explained the need for change. In February 2016 further details of a proposal were presented to staff.
These were the first steps towards addressing the UWA financial and operational objectives. The drivers for change are:
o the need for resources to invest in building on our existing teaching and research performance, and to deliver a strategy for the University that encompasses innovation and impact;
o the need for an academic structure that will deliver on the strategic goals of the University; and
o the need to deliver a fit for purpose range of professional services.
After the consultation process, the following decisions were made:
o xyz
o xyz
o xyz
:
This means that we are now starting another consultation process regarding <Insert name>
…. (eg: service delivery model, how professional services are delivered)
Introduce New Structure