Confidence and Self Efficacy are Key

What role does individual and organizational “confidence” play in implementing a new product, program, practice or service in an organization?

Huge!

As the third component of Implementation Intelligence© confidence in many respects drives the other two - capacity and competence.

Why?

Dictionary definitions of confidence include terms or words like "being certain", "proven", "demonstrated" or "self assured".  Yet, it’s not just knowing something or being able to do something that makes one confident.  Rather, it is the application of knowing and doing that produces a result, effect and “belief” that creates confidence.

I recall vividly playing baseball and my first introduction to the “curveball”.  My brother and I stayed after practice one day and pleaded with our father to pitch additional batting practice.  My father had always pitched harder to both my brother and myself building a level of confidence that at times included a lot of swinging and missing.  I remember experimenting with my swing, bat size, stance, position and etc. all in attempt to “catch” up my swing with the velocity of the pitch.

Never allowing either of us to develop poor habits or shortcuts with our swing, my father would work with us what seemed endlessly to get it right - and then, we experienced the curve ball.  For those with a similar experience, do you remember the feeling of the ball heading right at you and bailing out only to have the ball “change” course for a strike?  I do.

My father patiently demonstrated how to hit a curve ball including what to look for from the pitcher, elbow, arm motion, and etc.  We learned patience, how to roll our hips to keep our weight balanced, as well as not pulling the pitch but driving it the opposite field. Over time and a lot of practice, both my bother and I became pretty proficient in hitting all forms of curveballs.  We developed a confidence based on knowledge and application.  We’re we perfect – far from it.  We’re we successful every time – absolutely not.  We did, however, step into the batter’s box with not only a proven confidence but also what I would learn later as self-efficacy.

"Self efficacy is commonly defined as the belief in one's capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome. Learners with a strong sense of efficacy are more likely to challenge themselves with difficult tasks and be intrinsically motivated. These learners will put forth a high degree of effort in order to meet their commitments, and attribute failure to things that are in their control, rather than blaming external factors. Self-efficacious learners also recover quickly from setbacks, and ultimately are likely to achieve their personal goals” (downloaded from (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html).  We also know that learner efficacy is derived from teacher efficacy - the ability of the teacher to challenge, support, reinforce, stretch, and “be there” to assist students in developing self-efficacy.

Consider the influence of individual self-efficacy on organizational efficacy in much the same way as learner self-efficacy is fostered by teacher self-efficacy.  Self-efficacy applies to implementation confidence of an organization in the same manner that it does to a learner.  Consider,

·  Does the organization challenge itself with difficult tasks?

·  How successful has the organization been with these challenges?

·  What obstacles or barriers were there to success?

·  What did the organization learn, how did it grow?

·  What does the organization do differently as a result of challenging difficult tasks? 

·  Does our organization intrinsically motivate itself?  How? And how well?

·  Does our organization attribute failure or the lack of success to factors within its control?  

·  Is the organization resilient?  

·  Does the organization recover quickly from setbacks?

These are but a few of the questions an organization must ask itself to assess their self-efficacy and emerging confidence to implement a new product, program, practice or service.  Far too often, assumptions are made about the confidence of an organization to implement. 

Lastly, I offer that organizations must have all three – capacity, competence, and confidence to increase the likelihood for successful implementation of a new product, program, practice or service. I advocate for pre-assessing these components before launching not as a readiness check but for the individual and organizational opportunity to increase awareness, understanding, and support for the “new”.