Effect of the learning dip when delivering change

- Change means people have to learn new things. So it can't be just business as usual. It's business as usual and more. The challenge managers face is how to accommodate that learning while also trying to maintain the current business performance. As managers, to understand the impact of learning on BAU, we first need to understand what happens when people learn something new. And for this, we're going to look at the conscious competence cycle. It begins when staff are unconsciously incompetent. They feel like they're doing a good job and don't even know they need to learn something new. Let's say an organization has received complaints about their customer service and plans to radically change their procedures. Their customer services staff probably feel they're doing their jobs well and are unaware of the need to change. Their manager will draw their attention to the plan changes. And now they are consciously incompetent, meaning that they are now aware that their current levels of performance in customer services is no longer adequate. So they'll now go through the cycle of change. And as the new procedures for customer services are introduced, staff will be trained on them. Staff are now said to be consciously competent. As they start applying the new procedures, there'll be thinking more carefully and taking more time as they get used to the new way of working. Eventually as time passes, the staff become unconsciously competent, which is when the work becomes a habit and productivity increases. The end result should be that the customer services team are competent in handling queries and customer complaints or reducing. As a manager, be aware that during the consciously incompetent and consciously competent parts of the cycle, productivity is going to drop while staff adapt to the new ways of working. So to address this, consider adjusting the staff performance levels during the early part of the cycle to relieve stress and keep them moving forward while also having to learn. Next, consider the support required during the learning dip to keep it as short and minimally disruptive as you can. Think about how you can encourage and motivate staff and keep the focus on learning and achieving performance. Provide recognition for staff efforts where and when it's due. And finally, accept that this will take time. There's always an urgency on keeping performance levels up, but realistically they'll be affected by the change. So expect it and plan for it. These approaches ensure that staff have the time to learn without the added pressure of performing at the same time and will ultimately lead to greater levels of productivity and motivation once the change has been delivered.