Navigating Change Management in IT, with Meridith Fix

LendLease, won the 2021 Fast companies top innovative lists, and 2021 GRESB award as a sector leader. Meridith is now consulting organizations on how to manage technology change from a human perspective, and is a wealth of knowledge for those organizations that are making the right investment, but might need a little help with adoption and policy building and getting maximizing those investments that we make from a human perspective. Meridith, welcome to the IT Matters podcast.

And over the course of my career, I found myself working on several large transformation initiatives and numerous little individual projects. And technology is the easy part, it's the people part that's the hard part. And that's because we're all different. I tell my daughters, we're like snowflakes. Each and every one of us is unique and different. So I love working with people with a dash of technology. And that's me.

out of. I know that if you're maybe a little bit more focused on the West Coast change is a little easier. A lot of our technology companies originate out of Silicon Valley. Where we're based out of in the southeast, change is a much harder equation to solve. What

are some of the insights that you've learned of your career to start building the foundations for a technology change earlier on because as as we've discussed before, starting when you're deploying a technology doesn't always go as planned.

sustain continuous change. What I'd like to do is just take a minute and show you this diagram here that I've referred to a lot. And it really looks at the rate of innovation, compared to our ability as humans to adapt. Right. So as you can see, there's a pretty big gap here. And I think the challenge for organizations for the C suite is to figure out how to close that gap. And I think that's a really, really important thing to understand and talk about, and really why why does this gap

exist? And this gap exists people resist change out of fear, out of fear and distrust. Because our brains are wired to keep us safe. We have this sort of natural inclination to lean towards the status quo to prioritize the present. And so I think one of the things that companies on the West Coast, technology companies, one of the ways that maybe they're different, is because they understand the importance of creating psychologically safe

cultures. I mean, you see that in the Agile Manifesto from years and years ago, which software companies have kind of taken to heart. I think that's part of why you see that that difference. And I think, you know, what's important for all companies, regardless of whether they're a technology or not, is to take some lessons from that and to figure out how they can create that safe environment and organizations for people because that will help them to navigate change.

can do for us. So we'll, you know, reassign that person and let them keep their job and continue adding value to the organization. And I think, you know, over time, companies have adopted a different approach, they've had to, so I think anytime company, a company goes through a round of layoffs, and then more layoffs, and then more layoffs, things like that contribute to sort of instability that people feel. That just in and of itself, is going to make the culture feel a

little bit more unsafe. It's not to say that companies shouldn't do that, right, they have to do that in some situations. But it contributes to that instability. One of the things that we did at my former company, before I left, we made a decision to outsource a lot of our IT operations and support to a managed service. And that impacted about 50% of the IT roles in the organization globally, about 50% of their roles were made redundant. But then the bulk of the 50% that

remained had new roles. So they took on more, they did things differently. So essentially, everyone in the IT organization had to change. And what I learned through that, is that three things, these three fundamentals that I believe about people. People want to do the right thing. They want to do the best job they can. They do the best they can with the tools they have, with the information they have, and they want to feel valued or appreciated for what

they're doing. And I think you know, if you can do those things for your people, that will help you to overcome that instability that people feel with the way the world works today with frequent layoffs in large organizations.

grow are they next. So definitely, bringing that to the organization that's ready for change is an important precursor before implementing an MSP. The tech industry is known for its fast paced, dynamic nature. How

can IT leaders create a culture of continuous learning and development to help employees keep up with evolving technologies and skills?

want. But let's make sure that we sort of schedule that, such that when you come out of the class, you can actually use what you've learned, right. But also, I encourage the team to do what I call passion projects. And I didn't invent that term. I've seen it, you know, in other places, but like, find something that you're passionate about, and go do that, whether that's volunteer at a local organization, like we have Apparo here in Charlotte that works with nonprofits on their

IT strategies and solutions. So go do something in the volunteer space or, you know, join a softball league, and bring your your teammates along with you. So really, anything that you're doing, where you're learning something new, I think brings valuable skills back to the table, I think we have to get away from just looking at technology skills for our IT organization for our people. To

me, that's very important. And then I guess the other thing I just want to say in that space is focusing on your strengths, like we all have strengths. And that's what makes us unique and different. And that's kind of our you know, gift to the world. So I'm a big proponent of focusing on your strengths, because most likely, those strengths are something that's easy for you to do, you're really good at it, and you enjoy

doing it. And so if you can get all that, you know, together that's really going to help your employees learn and want to keep learning but also feel like really engaged and want to contribute to the overall team. So that's, I'm a big proponent of that learning in all areas.

team. What are some of the ways that you've been able to draw out hints and clues that this person would either be a great fit for your team or not a great fit for your team from that more of an emotional intelligence perspective, for more of the soft skills perspective.

So if I had 10 direct reports, and seven of them were great at oral presentation skills being up in the front of a room, if I've got an an open role, I might look for someone that might not be as skilled, that's as important for me, I might need someone who loves like written communication, who loves to review business requirements, documents, that kind of thing.

So whether it's a technical skill like that, or, you know, some particular thing that I'm looking for, to balance out the group, like someone who loves to organize team events. As I'm interviewing candidates for that role, I'm always looking for complementary skills. So it would vary, you know, between, depending on what the makeup of the team is at that particular point in time, but I'm one of the things that I like to do is

to get people talking. I'm a pretty strong introvert, so the more I can get you to talk, the better. I'm also very inquisitive by nature. So I just went ask a lot of questions, and then have the candidate talking a lot. And that, you know, would give me a really good idea as to how the person communicated, how they responded to questions like, were they really listening and responding to my question or just saying what they thought they needed to say. So that's what I did during the interview

process. I'd look for complementary skills, soft skills, and the more technical skills, and then get people talking during the interview. And then I guess the final thing I would add is that we would often do a team interview so I don't want to just rely on my intuition when I'm interviewing someone, but the we would invite others to participate in the interview process as well. Trying to do the same thing I get the person talking so you can figure out as much as you can about the individual.

communicate this way. You know, the four quadrants are, there's more visionary, there's an analytical, someone that more focused on methodology, and then more of that emotional connection type. I wonder if in some of these interviews, you had employees, that team members that had these different traits, people that came into the interview and connected with those traits resonate with them more and are more impactful than

the other ones. Yeah, visionary comes in and is explaining the vision, but most of your team is more of that methodology, analytical side, they can be a great fit, but they just haven't been able to connect on those aspects of communication. Yeah. Have you had any experience with judging personalities of your team and people you might be interviewing?

appreciating. If we needed a dose of analytical, they know go through this step, and then this one, and then this one, and they do it slow and do it methodically, we would know we didn't have that on our team, or we had too much of that on our team. So that didn't really play in to our decisions. Like it didn't get us in a position

where we were in conflict. We also did a lot, I think, prior to even like posting the role, like we talked a lot about, well, what is it that we're looking for in this particular role? What do we need to augment our team so that we together are a stronger leadership team. So we did a lot of prep work before then as well. And you know, by doing that prep work, and having those conversations ahead of time, that probably helped us to

be more aligned. After we interviewed the candidate, when we were actually making that decision. Sort of begin with the end in mind, kind of thinking.

have to do. And it is it is cookie cutter, it's, you know, they have to check the box in a lot of ways, it's very time consuming. And really, rather than a point in time you're reviewing your employees throughout the year. What are some pain points that you've encountered in doing reviews? And do you think there's any ways to innovate in this area?

people. I love helping people build on their strengths. But I cannot, I hated performance reviews. And I think you know when you and I were talking I said yeah, I'm so thankful I don't have to do those anymore. Or at least I don't have to do

them right now. The bee in my bonnet that I really get, like the worst thing for me is this forced bell shaped curve, or call it calibration, call it whatever you want to but it's this idea that proliferates and performance management processes that you know people fit into this bell shaped curve. And I just feel like that is detrimental to creating the kind of environment that we talked

about, you know. If if people really want to do their best, and they're trying their best, and they're doing the best they can with the tools they have, and they want to feel appreciated for doing that, you know, that bell shaped curve does not do that. In fact, I feel like it does the opposite. And as you know, a manager, I really felt boxed in and I want to share with people what I love about what they're doing so that

they can do more of it. But I've got to figure out, like, where do they fit in this bell shaped curve, it's just extremely, extremely painful. And in terms of like, well, what can be done about that? Are companies still doing that? I think, you know, leadership teams are hearing that 95% of people are not happy

with this kind of process. And so you're starting to see with some of the more forward looking innovative companies that they are looking at different ways of managing performance in their organization. Deloitte, GE, Adobe, those are a couple of

good companies to look at. And they've been a multi year journeys to move away from these, like annual performance reviews to, you know, processes that help encourage the continuous coaching and feedback, and focusing more on personal growth and development, rather than some specific goals written on a piece of paper once

a year. So I think, you know, companies are opening their eyes, and they're starting to look at things, you know, a little bit differently, but it's, you know, it's gonna take some time for sure, so most of us have to still operate in this, like, you know, traditional type of performance management system. So I just would encourage people to like, you know, keep the faith, change

is coming. And just focus on that, like continuous coaching and helping you know, your, your team, your people to grow personally, and you know have that open dialogue, and then don't ever, the worst thing is like going into a performance review and surprising an employee. That's like walking into a boardroom and not knowing the answer before you walk in, right? Like, there should be no surprises, if you're giving your people continuous feedback throughout the year, if you're

really truly doing that. Even though it's an annual stinky process, there shouldn't be any surprises.

was like this? And, you know, what are some of the ways that an IT leader can target an employee like this and get the most out of them, you know, help them kind of reinvent themselves at the company.

feedback with you? And then just, you know, have the open conversation to say, look, you know, I see so much potential in you, what can we do so that everybody else can see that too? And, you know, talk through, like, what's not working currently, what is working? And then figure out, like, how do we get them more of what is working? How do we help them build on their strengths, so that they can show to everybody else? That untapped potential that I see. That's how I've

handled that in the past. And it tends to work pretty well. Because again, people want to be seen and heard for who they are, they want to feel like their efforts are appreciated. And even if it's not going in the right direction, they still have, you know, value and skills that they can contribute to the team, and I think the other thing is the leader has to look in the mirror and say, hey, if this employee is doing the best they can with the tools they have then maybe I'm not giving

them the right tools. I think there's some responsibility on both sides there.

through and be accessible. Yeah, it is a rapidly changing technology environment and you know 2024 with artificial artificial intelligence, impacting multiple sectors impacting a lot of what we have spoken about today. Where do you see some of the generative AI

impacting change management, employee reviews? Where do you see that landing in some of the areas that you have expertise on?

organizations, right? You're more innovative technology oriented ones, they're going to be way down the road faster. But the bulk of people don't work in those organizations, right. You know, they work for a construction company, or a hospital or, you know, a school system. And so I think we used to have the same manage that fact, like, what what are the facts? And let's start with the facts. And let's talk about what what's really happening, like,

what's the potential? How do we think that's going to impact you or your role, and then sort of start to plan for that. I think, you know, the more we can do to allay people's concerns and fears about AI, actually, the more people will embrace it, and the farther we'll be able to take it. And the more benefit, we'll see from it. Have you dabbled with any of the ChatGPT or Bard functions? A little bit. Yeah, a little bit.

So and I inevitably end up writing it, in my words, in my way, so that, you know, as a communicator, I come across as real and authentically me. But I do use it for inspiration. And I think, you know, the same will be true for a long time to come until I have my own personal ChatGPT, which maybe is around the corner. I don't know.

employee base behind you. And that's how you bring your executive team along. And that's ultimately, you know, by having all of those people sort of on that journey with you, that's how you ultimately deliver the best thing to your customer. So, "Be the change you want to see in the world", I think is for me anyway, words to live by.