This chapter is all about taking the time to build trust, rapport, and to ask the
right questions to get in touch with the real motivating factors for your change community.
Every single of one of the members of the team undergoing the change has a different
perspective, a different world view and different motivations that will impact their ability to
embrace the change one way or the other. Our job as leaders, through discovery, is to identify
and address those factors most commonly shared. Communication is a common thread
throughout the project, as we share timely information, align our activities with the Vision, and
acknowledge / address motivating factors.

“Even though I list Identify Motivating Factors as the second stop on our change management cycle, we do this work first by anticipating and validating the most common factors during pre-planning and discovery work. Ideally some discovery work should begin before any project-initiating
visionary words are spoken, so leaders don’t miss opportunities to relate to their audiences. The themes identified during this early exploration and planning will give us the opportunity to
advocate for our change communities by acknowledging and addressing motivators (or de-motivators) throughout the project and throughout the execution of the entire communication plan.”

Haven’t read the book yet? Click here to order on Amazon, and learn more about how to
relate, empathize, and get in touch with the members of your change community.

Click here to view a list of questions from which we might choose to ask during discovery that
might help us guide our change management approach, and an example of an FAQ.