I'd love to tell you that as soon as you get clear about the intentional separation issues and help people leave the old world behind, the new way of doing things shows up automatically. Well, it doesn't. And if you've ever been lost hiking in the mountains for a while, you know what it's like to be in between. and you really appreciate anybody that shows up with a map or pointing in the direction No, this is the way to go. Let's go this way. That's not a bad thing when we're in between.

Again, this in between phase of transition is the time when we're not where we used to be. And we're not where we're supposed to be. this plays out individually and it also plays out collectively. There are a number of things that we can do as leaders to help people through this time in between, but there's two really critically essential ones. You've got to do everything we can to enhance trust everywhere and you organization because people will not go through the discomfort and the chaos and the confusion of the time in between, unless they trust each other and they trust themselves, and they trust the leadership. The second dimension is we've got to help people learn things.

We've got to help people explore, try out new ideas, increase their capacity for innovation and exploration. So those are the two critical leadership skills that are required to get people through the in between. Let's look at each in a little bit of detail. Enhancing trust is all about keeping people together on a regular basis. It's about many dimensions that minimally Don't let the trust level slip and ideally, increase, expand enhance the trust level in the organization. Enhancing Trust has an A number of dimensions that leaders can do, and probably the easiest, and in many ways the most important is be extra visible, be extra available.

Lazy is the leader who says I have an open door policy. The objective, especially when people are in this time in between is to be out of the office, engaging with people individually and collectively answering questions, providing information, providing resources. So it's really important that you're visible as the leader. It's a time to under commit and over deliver, as opposed to the reverse. Do what you say you will do. So be very careful about commitments you make because in this time in between people are very sensitive to you saying one thing and then doing something different.

As often as is required, get people together. Or remember one organization who's clients were very chaotic merger. And for, I think it was a period of about six weeks they institutionalized 20 minute early morning meetings. So whoever could be there, whether it was on the phone or using Skype, or in person, whatever timezone they were in at, I think it was nine Central. They used for 20 minutes, people would be able to come together, check in, share information, get any updates from the project team get any updates from local area leaders. And sometimes they need a board in 20 minutes.

Sometimes they need the 20 minutes. But it was a time for people to get together when there wasn't much else that was stable. It's really critically important here to tell people the truth, don't put the right spin on things. Just tell people the simple facts of what's going on. Let's make certain that the decision making processes are very visible. So people aren't blindsided with decisions that come out of the blue.

And as much and as often as possible, show genuine concern for your people. Showing concern can be as simple as wandering past their cubicle, stopping for a second and just say, how are you doing? And then shut up. And listen, don't interrupt, don't try to talk them out of what's going on. Just listen. If they're needing some support, give them some support if you can, but just simply showing up and expressing some genuine concern will go a long way to enhancing trust.

So there's a few ideas. Let's talk about innovation, exploration, creativity and learning. There are a number of things you have to learn Hear in this time in between, because if you already knew them, you'd already be using them and doing them. So here's a few ideas around exploration and learning. As a manager, as a leader, as a project team, as an executive, it's really important to define the goals. This is what success looks like for this particular change.

Don't micromanage everyone. Let people figure out the granular level details on their own. Provide supports for learning whether that's online courses, whether that's mentorship or coaches or training seminars that are required. Maybe it's just a helpline to be able to get a live person, not a menu, a live person, just to get your questions answered. It's really important if you can to get naysayers involved in solving the problems as they continue to unfold because there's no project that goes without a hitch. So getting the people who continually still complain at this point involved in solving the problems can be really helpful, because you're going to get some very interesting ideas that you hadn't thought about before.

There will be mistakes. That's a given. What's important is don't keep repeating the same mistakes unconsciously across the organization. So when we make mistakes, even as a leader when you make mistakes, make sure people know. So that frees up people with, okay, I can try something new. I'm not necessarily going to get at 100%.

Right, but I'm also not going to get fired. So publish don't punish mistakes. And be certain that people can challenge the leaders, people that have different opinions and people that want to know why the delays and why the confusion. People need to be able to have faith that the leaders are there to be true. challenged. So again, that goes back to the trust and the showing up part.

What's really important is to create opportunities to tinker with things, try new things. When you've got people learning new systems, don't put them customer facing with that new system until they've got it figured out. So opportunities to try new skills, new processes, new procedures, new systems in very low threat situations. So there's some thoughts on exploration and learning. What are you going to do?