Whether you are a team leader, manager or a CEO, getting people to work effectively can be both invigorating and enervating. When colleagues are responsible, reliable and open to critical feedback, the going is smooth. But the ideal colleague is often the exception rather than the rule. How do you deal with someone who’s great at work but is always late, even jeopardizing customer meetings? Or one who rarely respects deadlines, yet is a creative problem-solver and an ace strategist? If a staff member has undeniable assets but continues to display glaring weaknesses, can you help them change?
Having a talk where you lay out their strengths and point out growth areas maybe the obvious thing to do. Some of these conversations go well but they seldom result in long-lasting change. Further, some conversations backfire, with the person getting defensive and possibly more resistant to change. For change to be effective, motivation to do so has to stem from within. That’s where motivational interviewing (MI) comes in.
In their book, Motivational Interviewing, William Miller and Stephen Rollnick define MI as a “collaborative conversation” for “strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment for change.” Though this method grew out of the counselling space, it lends itself to diverse arenas where human beings are trying to foster change, including education and work.
Spirit of MI
For MI to work its magic, you first need to imbibe its spirit which involves four facets. The first, partnership, indicates that MI is not a top-down, directive approach. Rather than doing it “to” or “on” a person, you do it “for” and “with” them. Even if you are their boss, avoid falling into the “expert trap” wherein you know how to help them resolve their issues. Rather, MI is a “way for activating their own motivation and resources,” which you believe lies in them.
This leads to the second aspect that underpins the MI spirit, acceptance. At a deep level, this involves recognizing the “inherent worth and potential of every human being.” Most importantly, we need to approach the person non-judgmentally, being open to their perspective and situation. Rather than assuming you know how someone thinks and feels, we need to solicit and accept our colleague’s viewpoint. As far as possible, we need to grant the person autonomy to choose a course of action. It also helps to acknowledge and affirm a “person’s strengths and efforts” even as you delve into growth areas and change.
The MI spirit also entails being compassionate where you “actively promote the other person’s welfare.” Only if the person feels that you have their best interests in mind, will they be open with you. The MI spirit believes that the person does not lack attributes you value. Instead, the person already has “within them much of what is needed.” Your role is to help them draw it out or evoke it.
Four Processes
To implement MI, you need to follow four processes of engaging, focusing, evoking and planning. Though they are sequential, they also overlap and may recur. Engaging involves establishing a connection with your colleague before having a change conversation. If you have a cordial relationship, this may happen easily within a few seconds. If not, you may need to work on building a connection before venturing into touchy topics that can trigger a defensive response.
The next step of focusing is when you gradually steer the conversation towards certain change goals. Evoking, the third process that is at “the heart of MI,” is when you tap into or draw forth your colleagues “own ideas and feelings” regarding change. When it comes to making changes, most people are ambivalent as they consider the pros and cons of a decision. By using MI, you may gently nudge the person towards voicing “change talk.” People are more likely to enact change when they hear themselves making a case for it rather than you telling them what to do. That is why we need to inhibit our “righting reflex” and instead evoke our colleague’s own motivation to change.
The planning step involves generating a concrete action plan. Again, granting your colleague autonomy is more likely to result in sustainable change. As change takes place, these steps may need to be revisited as a plan may not be successful or new obstacles may arise.
Four Skills
The four processes of engaging, focusing, evoking and planning are supported by four interviewing skills that can be summed up by the anagram OARS. The first, asking open questions, shows that you have genuine curiosity to learn about your colleague’s point of view. Unlike closed questions, which can usually be answered in one word, like ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Maybe,’ open questions require a person to ponder before answering. Open questions invite a person to engage in exploration and sometimes, you will learn things you weren’t expecting to. An open question to promote engagement might be, “How have things been lately?”
Another way of building engagement is to affirm the person’s strengths and talents. While you may point out your colleagues’ assets, sometimes it’s more powerful if you evoke affirmations from them. Asking about their “strengths, past successes and good efforts,” is a great way to build rapport and trust with a person. When providing affirmations, avoid statements that center around you. Instead of “I think you are responsible,” you may shine the spotlight on the other person by saying, “Time and again, you have proved responsible” while giving a few examples to buttress your assertion.
Reflections are an essential feature of MI and require you to listen attentively to what your colleague is saying. A simple reflection simply paraphrases what the other person says in different words. Complex reflections, on the other hand, involve guessing at what they mean or inferring the emotions behind someone’s words. For example, if your colleague says, “Office politics are a waste of time,” you may say, “You find that office dynamics can sometimes harm productivity and that can be frustrating.” Here, you are going beyond the surface level to understand what they think and feel. While complex reflections are useful in clarifying the deeper meaning behind a person’s words, be open to being corrected by the other person.
The last skill, summarizing, can bring clarity into a conversation. A collective summary sums up the main points that came up during a discussion. A linking summary may connect what your colleague just said to another conversation you might have had in the past. Summaries help people see the broader picture and can provide coherence to a discussion.
By using the four skills of asking open questions, affirming others, reflecting their views and summarizing the main points, we may nudge our colleague through the four steps of engaging, focusing, evoking and planning. While this may be difficult to master in one go, start by using the four skills in your conversations. As you get more comfortable with them, you may start paying attention to “change talk” and evoking a person’s own motivation.
About the Author
The author is Visiting Faculty, School of Education, Azim Premji University & the co-author of Bee-witched.