A or B?

A or B?

One of the very best things to enjoy during a nice weekend summer’s day is a cream tea. What could be better than sitting in a warm garden centre cafe, being served a pot of tea and a bone china teacup, accompanied by a warm, freshly baked scone just out of the oven with strawberry jam and a dollop of clotted cream? Nothing beats it in my book.

A scone, strawberry jam, clotted cream and tea. Four basic ingredients. So what's the big deal? Giving people choice is key. 

There is a friendly ongoing debate between county neighbours Cornwall and Devon on whether you place the jam first on the scone, or you place the cream first. Personally, I like to mix it up and alternate each half. I also prefer raspberry jam. Call me crazy, I’m that kind of Guy. 

Everyone has their own preferred way of drinking tea. I know some people who like it very milky (shudders), some who like the milk ‘waved’ over the cup and some who like a minuscule ‘pipette’ sized droplet of milk.  Some people are very clear on which kind of scone they like (plain, fruit or cheese) and how they prefer to decorate their scone. But the end result is the same for everyone.  A lovely, delicious scone with a perfect cup of tea to wash it down with. 

Serving a cream tea is very similar to managing change. You can either do this in two ways:

Option A - AKA ‘Do To’ to everyone the same vanilla way.  Serve a cup of tea by putting everything in the cup, guessing what people want in terms of tea strength, milk and sugar. Then serve a scone with clotted cream placed on the bottom of each half of a scone and then jam on top; again guessing that the recipient wants cream first and that the ‘right’ amount of jam and cream is used. 

Or

Option B - AKA ‘Work With’ everyone in a personalised way. Start by attractively presenting the choices available by placing a nice tray on the table. Then on the tray, place a pot of tea, tea cup, milk jug and allow the recipient to allow the tea to steep to their desired strength. Alongside, on a plate, place a couple of warm, uncut scones, with lots of jam and clotted cream so they can decorate their scone exactly how they wish. 

Sadly, organisational change programmes often take a ‘do to’ approach and adopt a blanket approach to everyone - this is one of the reasons why there is a high chance of failure. Why?  Because everyone consumes change differently. It’s that simple. Change needs to be personalised. 

But if you ‘work with’ people by engaging them and giving them some choice - so they feel they have some real agency in the change - you are far more likely to succeed on helping them navigate the change journey - and this is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to engage people’s hearts and minds in change. 

So next time you are changing something, think scones.