Consulting principles: our approach in plain terms

Economic success is not everything. But only a successful company can, in the long run, be a contented, committed and motivating company. Success is the currency in which the intelligence, creativity and effort invested are paid. Those who have no success have made their effort in vain – and in the long run that cannot be compensated for by any climate, however "human", or by working conditions, however good.

Success here is whatever the organisation in question understands by success: different standards apply to a public institution or a political association than to a commercial enterprise. We see it as our central task in change management to support our clients through difficult change processes in becoming more successful in their own terms.

But success is only a necessary, not a sufficient, condition for lasting high motivation, quality and performance. More than any programme to improve employee satisfaction, staff at every level need

• a task that challenges them and in which they can prove themselves;
• a purpose in their work that they can recognise;
• clear and trustworthy leadership that provides reliable orientation and backs them up;
• an environment that demands performance of the individual but does not punish mistakes and errors;
• a climate that is as encouraging and as little discouraging as possible;
• superiors and colleagues who respect them as people and treat them with respect – which, as we understand it, is not in contradiction to clear communication and straight feedback, but positively calls for it.

Purpose and challenge

As motivation for change, we are convinced, employees need neither elaborate motivation programmes nor ingenious incentive systems, but first and foremost clear leadership and meaningful, challenging tasks in a supportive and encouraging environment.

People always act in ways that make sense to them

When employees and/or managers behave differently from what makes sense from the company's point of view, it is often all too tempting to explain this by stupidity or laziness. And at the latest when, after a while, all attempts at persuasion and all appeals have proved fruitless, the charge of "mass inertia" is added, and in the worst case that of ill will. Yet such explanatory models are dangerous; they tempt people into trying to force employees into the desired behaviour, and thus easily lead into a power struggle.

It makes far more sense to assume that employees are behaving reasonably from their own subjective point of view – and to ask what reasons, what incentives, sanctions and conditions make it reasonable for them to behave in a way that is unreasonable from the company's point of view. Once you have found that out, you can answer much better what would have to change to make it reasonable for employees to behave in the way that would make sense from the company's point of view.

Constant change is essential in order to keep up with developments in the market and among competitors. Anyone who wants not merely to keep up but to catch up, take the lead and set the direction of their industry needs an even greater capacity for change. The ability to change quickly and purposefully is therefore an important success factor for ambitious companies.

The value of positive experience

Change comes the more easily, the more positive experience a company has with change. That is why it is important, first, to stay in motion: it is not rest and protection that keep people and companies fit, but demanding things of themselves and being asked to deliver. Second, it matters that change is carried out in such a way that it really does enter the organisation's memory as positive experience. For every new change initiative builds on the foundations – or the ruins – of the change projects that went before.

What professional change management achieves

To bring change processes to a successful conclusion, it is important to win the active support of the key performers at every level. Key performers are interested above all in the purpose and the prospects of success of the initiative, in their scope for influence and, not least, in what they themselves stand to gain. Three things are therefore particularly important: clear and coherent objectives, determination on the part of the leadership, and good communication.

Emotions, above all fears and reluctance, are the inevitable companions of change. Anyone who ignores them inflames conflicts and creates additional resistance. An open and serious engagement with them, by contrast, brings relief even when it is not possible to dispel every worry. That is why we consider it right and important to speak plainly from the outset, particularly on uncomfortable subjects. In our experience and conviction it is wrong to give employees false impressions through rose-tinted accounts: in the long run this endangers the credibility of top management as much as the loyalty of employees.

Open communication builds trust

Even though change always brings irritation, uncertainty and fears with it, the extent of resistance and conflict depends largely on how the people and areas affected are treated. Many change processes fail or stay well below their potential because a rough approach and poor communication trigger unnecessary resistance and conflict. Others fail because they are tackled too half-heartedly and because of vain attempts to avoid conflict.

In our projects we therefore work to turn as many employees as possible from objects of change into co-creators of change. That not only creates more acceptance but also better results, because nobody knows the conditions on the ground better than those affected themselves. The most sensible role for consultants here is not to change the company from outside, but to guide a change process from within and to advise and support project teams, project managers and decision-makers along the way.

Change coaching

When it is not consultants who change the company but its own people, change takes on a quite different character: it is no longer experienced as imposed and fought accordingly, but as self-designed, and it strengthens the company's self-confidence and its capacity for change. The aim is that at the end employees do not say: "They have turned everything upside down again!" but: "We changed ourselves."

Equal worth and respect

Central to this is the principle of equal worth. What is meant, as the common phrase has it, is meeting employees, managers and also the works council "on an equal footing", that is, with respect and as partners. Equal worth means neither sameness nor equal rights: different careers, qualifications and experience are a reality, and the same is true of different roles and remits, including decision-making powers. All those involved are nonetheless of equal worth, which means that as we understand it there is no division into a caste of the "important people" who pull the strings and a class of chess pieces or puppets who are to be induced – manipulated, one might also say – as elegantly as possible into the desired changes by skilful pulling of those strings.

"Tricks" make little sense

Such a tricksy way of dealing with the workforce may work in the short term; in the long run it leads inevitably to mistrust, dogged resistance and power struggles. That is why we regard taking people by surprise (the so-called "bombshell strategy"), outwitting them and other forms of manipulation as malpractice in change management, and stand for a straightforward, honest and respectful approach.

Transparency and early communication

Transparency creates trust, orientation and (relative) security. So not only the objectives and the approach should be transparent, but also the results and the interim positions reached. What matters is to start communicating early and to explain not just the results but already the intentions behind the initiative and the approach planned. For unlike technical systems, social systems take a lively interest in what is happening to them and respond in all sorts of ways to the actual or supposed intentions behind an initiative. To prevent a fatal momentum of its own from building up here, one that in the end turns against the change initiative and puts its success at risk, it is essential not to let a communication vacuum arise, but to take the whole organisation (or at least the areas affected) along the road of change and to involve them in the change process as actively as possible.

These principles and guiding ideas shape our approach. And they are what we ask to be measured by.