Strategies For Managing Change

Change Management Risk Assessment - The Context of Risk Vs Readiness

2010-12-01T08:55:00.000+00:00

Change management risk assessment is complex and multi-dimensional and thus transcends what is traditionally understood by the concept of "risk assessment". Risk assessment of a change management initiative is based on the premise that "organisational risk" is the inverse of "change readiness".

In other words, the more ready the organisation is to change, the lower the risk of failure of the change initiative. So if we can establish some useful means for defining and calibrating change readiness then we can take steps to mitigate the likely causes of failure.

An appropriately selected change readiness assessment tool not only informs an initial change management risk assessment, but it also forms a baseline and be can re-administered to measure progress in change readiness - and thus reduction in change management risk - over time.

For a project management based change initiative, these assessments will help to reduce project risk.

The results of these assessments will shape key areas of the change management strategy and plan - specifically the communication strategy.

However, many companies - particularly in North America - do not stop and evaluate lessons leaned from past change initiatives before launching the next one. In recent interviews a key piece of advice that John Kotter offers is for organisational leaders to take the time to get themselves informed about what does and doesn't work - before launching into action with a change initiative. As he says: "If you get that knowledge upfront, it can save you great grief and money later on."

But before getting into the mechanics of tools that can be used to undertake a change readiness assessment we need to be understand the context of change management risk assessment and appreciate the significance of a number of inter-related factors:

(1) The marginal rate of change is increasing - and continues to do so

We used to believe that change occurs in cycles and waves that ebb and flow. This may be accurate over long time spans of hundreds of years, but in the present the rate of change is continually increasing and this has a significant impact on any change management risk assessment.

Based on his latest researches, Kotter says: "Many organisations just can't keep up with the speed of change."

This is profoundly important because it is closely linked to another major and frequently overlooked factor...

(2) The emergence of the flat world and horizontal management

I was tempted to headline this point the "death of command and control" - but that is not strictly true as there will always be situations where there is a need for firm direction and senior management edicts for compliance with the legal requirements related to the management and governance of organisations, and also in crisis situations.

However, in the "horizontal world" we now live in, information is available to all and the current and emergent technology infrastructure coupled with the proliferation of social media channels and tools allows for almost immediate dissemination and comment of gossip, opinion and factual information.

The days when decisions affecting many were taken by a few and then imposed on the many are dying - if for no other reason than people want and expect to be involved and they resist change that is imposed upon them. This is self-evident in the failure of 70% of significant change initiatives.

One of the keys to change management risk assessment lies in understanding the extent to which the change leadership are engaging directly with the "informal organisation" - sometimes referred to as the "shadow organisation" - from the outset - from the planning stage right through to implementation and beyond.

(3) Recognition of the importance of the emotional dimension of leadership

Many thought leaders in the world of change management and change leadership are now speaking vociferously about the importance of the emotional dimension of leadership and the need to address the human dimension of change.

These people include Daniel Goleman with his focus on primal leadership; John Kotter emphasises the need to motivate people by speaking to their feelings; Jon Katzenbach highlights the value of personalising the workplace; Andy Pearson emphasises how people will respond to their leaders efforts to connect with their emotional side; and of course William Bridges' says that "A change can work only if the people affected by it can get through the transition it causes successfully."

(4) The importance of the informal networks

Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan, Authors of "Leading outside the Lines" make the important point that organisational leaders struggle to recognise the importance of the informal networks within their organisation, and the need to engage with them and mobilize them as a key method of accelerating the efforts of the formal (management) elements of the organisation.

Neil Farmer - a leading UK change expert and the leader of 5 major and successful UK corporate change initiatives - points out that whilst the formal organisation determines all routine aspects of what takes place, and in so doing provides the necessary "glue" of stability and repeatability, the shadow or informal organisation largely determines the scope and pace of change and is thus a major factor in change management risk assessment. He says that where the informal and formal organisations come into conflict, the informal nearly always are the most powerful.

(5) The answers are (almost) always at the frontline

With the exception of technical, financial and legal issues, the answers to issues relating to successful change planning, change impacts, change implementations and most importantly benefit realisation are to be found at the frontline.

In my own work I have found time and time again that the answers to the most challenging business issues, project and programme failures and performance problems always - without exception lies with the front line staff - those directly involved in "doing it".

Also, the creative solutions to issues identified via change management risk assessment are to be found there as well.

All it takes, in my experience is the time, courtesy and empathic listening to the people at the "coal face" to find out what the issues and impacts are and also to discover what the solutions are.

(6) Stuck in Jurassic Park

The first and biggest step to making all this happen is one that can only be taken by the CEO and senior management of the organisation, and that is to relinquish (or at least relax) "command and control" sufficiently to empower the change leaders to identify and work in collaboration with the informal networks.

In my direct and observed experience, this still seldom happens. The dinosaurs still stalk the corridors of corporate power. The DNA of the leaders and senior management of most organisations (especially large ones) seems to be hard-coded to resist this - thus resistance to truly effective change management risk assessment starts at the top.

Here in the UK at least, this resistance to change in management style reflects the myopia that results from a general business culture fixated on short-term results.

All too often, the only conditions that encourage directors to relax command and control are either the appointment of a new CEO and/or senior management team, or the threat of a fairly major exposure i.e. an issue that is severe enough to create a personal accountability and potentially one that could be politically exploited to the personal detriment of the individual executive.

However, as Kotter's observed rate of change gathers momentum these people will be exposed to ever increasing exposures and will either adapt or follow the fate of their Jurassic predecessors...

So the common thread running through all of these factors is the people dimension and the paramount need for change leaders to base their change readiness assessments around a detailed, direct and early engagement with the informal aspects of their organisation.

To find out more about "Change Management and Readiness" please see: Change Management Risk Assessment.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process "

Change Management Risk Assessment - The 2 Key Parameters

2010-12-01T08:46:00.000+00:00

The two parameters of any change management risk assessment are firstly a change legacy assessment; followed by a present assessment.

Legacy assessment

It is absolute nonsense to contemplate - let alone commence - a change initiative without serious reference to your organisations' history of attempting change.

Staggeringly, so many companies - especially in North America - do just that and rush into their next change initiative without debriefing and without conducting a change management risk assessment - and specifically without assessing what did and didn't work last time, and why.

You need to get that knowledge and insight now, right up front as it can help you repeating past mistakes and failing with this your current initiative.

Your organisations' "change readiness" is best indicated by your organisations' legacy of change initiatives (both those that worked and those that didn't work) as it provides an important early indicator of what lies ahead.

You also need to look at the scars left by successful as well as unsuccessful initiatives as it is crucial to understand and address the scar tissue left by previous initiatives.

Present assessment

There are 2 aspects to a "present assessment": organisational readiness and individual readiness for change.

In this article we are going to focus on the people aspect, as individual readiness for change is more complex than it may appear:

# Who will be assessed for change readiness

# When will they be assessed?

# How will they be assessed and by what criteria?

These questions are addressed by considering the "6 Stages of Concern" which have been identified by Pat Zigarmi and Judd Hoskstra who are organisational change experts and co-authors of Ken Blanchard Companies "Leading People Through Change" programme.

They have co-authored an excellent article: "Leadership strategies for making change stick" that is based around the results and findings of a major study conducted by Blanchard in 2008 with over 900 training and HR leaders as to how they approach change.

They emphasise the need for change leadership's involvement with people at all levels - in other words engaging with, and working through, the informal networks and the informal organisation. And it is their conclusion that for change to "stick", you, as change leader, have to anticipate, un-cover and address the various layers and levels of concerns as and when they arise, and these have been identified as 6 stages of concerns:

(1) Information concerns - what is the change and why is it needed?

(2) Personal concerns - how will the change affect me personally and will I win or lose?

(3) Implementation concerns - what do I do first and how do I manage all the details?

(4) Impact concerns - is the effort worth it and is the change making a difference?

(5) Collaboration concerns - who else should be involved and how do we spread the word?

(6) Refinement concerns - how can we make the change even better?

A further dimension to be considered in any form of individual change readiness assessment is the "readiness for change gap" that exists between management and non-management employees.

Simply put, the less power and formal influence an employee has the less informed they will be and the greater their range of concerns. Research conducted by Jim Walters Jim Walters, director of customer relations for Rochester Public Utilities, showed that (in the utility sector) there were 3 main gaps between management and non management employees:

(1) Management employees are less ready for change than non-management employees.

(2) A significant difference exists between management and non-management employees' task and impact related concerns for change.

(3) Management employees feel significantly more empowered than non-management employees.

So individual assessments of change readiness need to take full account of these identified stages of concern and the likely different perspectives and emphases of non-management employees compared with management employees - and all of this in the full context of the change legacy and scar tissue left from previous attempts at change management.

To find out more about "Change Management and Readiness" please see: Change Management Risk Assessment.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management Risk Assessment - Key Reference Points and Metrics

2010-12-01T08:42:00.000+00:00

In addition to undertaking the "soft assessment" of individual readiness for change surveys, it is necessary to undertake the "hard assessment" to assess organisational readiness for change.

There are a number of inter-related dimensions that need to be assessed, and they are as follows:

# Maturity models
# Cultural assessment
# Benefit realisation
# Impact assessment
# Project complexity

Maturity models

One of the major reference points in change management risk assessment is the maturity model. This is my personal working definition of a maturity model:

"A maturity model is a structured representation of the stages of evolution of an organisation, as it transition through various developmental states and stages, in response to the impacts of changes in the organisation's operating environment.

This evolution represents progress to more developed or advanced states of learning, insight, understanding and practise that support its strategic goals."

Try these initial questions:

# Do you use project management?
# Do you use programme management?
# Do you know the difference?
# Do you know why knowing the difference matters?
# What is your organisation's business process maturity?
# What is your organisation's change management maturity?

Then try this simple test - review the different levels listed below (based on the P3M3 project management maturity model) - firstly in relation to project management and then secondly with programme management - and then across the other areas outlined above and see which best describes your organisation:

(No need for consultants - just treat this as a quick thought experiment initially - before examining each area in more depth.)

# Level 0 - No process - the organisation has no project and /or programme management skills or experience
# Level 1 - Awareness process - the organisation is able to recognize projects and/or programmes - but has little structured approach to dealing with them.
# Level 2 - Repeatable process - there may be areas that are beginning to use standard approaches to projects and/or programmes but there is no consistency of approach across the organisation.
# Level 3 - Defined process - there will be a consistent set of standards being used across the organisation with clear process ownership.
# Level 4 - Managed process - the organisation monitors and measures its process efficiency, with active interventions to improve the way it delivers based largely on evidence or performance based information.
# Level 5 - Optimised process - the organisation will be focussing on optimisation of its quantitatively managed processes to take into account changing business needs and external factors.

Cultural assessment

Organisational culture is the single biggest determinant of how an individual will behave within a business or organisational environment. It will over-ride education, intelligence and common sense. Therefore it needs to be an integral aspect of any change management risk assessment.

All too often I have seen many senior people in large organisations, whilst under the influence of the dominant organisational culture, behave in ways that on occasions defied common sense and the "blindingly obvious".

Culture is also a major determinant in how people will react to change and change leaders' attempts to apply "change management" to them.

Any attempt to address organisational culture involves these 3 processes:

# Cognition - understanding fully: "what we look like - how we want to look
# Communication - providing the framework and language of change
# Change - using appropriate tools, techniques and change processes

Cultural mapping and analysis is a critical aspect of change management risk assessment.

Benefit realisation

One of the many reasons that I advocate using a programme management based approach to change is that it focuses on the realisation of benefits.

Any change initiative that does not have clearly defined benefits supported by a benefit realisation plan runs yet another significant and common risk of failure.

This is often occurs where there is a project management driven change initiative, and it occurs because the focus of change management risk assessment is on the delivery of the new capability. This frequently causes change managers to overlook the need to implement plans to ensure that the defined organisational benefits are realised.

Impact Assessment

The failure - by change leaders - to identify and take full account of the impact of a change initiative on those people who will be most impacted by it is another major reason for change failure and thus another significant component of change management risk assessment.

A thorough stakeholder mapping and analysis is a key component of the programme based approach to managing a change initiative.

However, as Pat Zigarmi and Judd Hoskstra of Blanchard's say:"Bottom line - people who plan change rarely implement the plan."

But there is a deeper dimension to this - people don't want you to try to sell change to them - they want to understand it and be involved in making it happen.

They also want to be asked 'what works; what doesn't'. If they are asked they will provide valuable guidelines and become an integral part of the process. This is - or should be - an integral aspect of the pre-programme review and planning process

Project Complexity

For change initiatives that comprise one or more projects and that will be delivered within a project management framework, project complexity is another significant aspect of change management risk assessment.

Statistically the size of the project, the scope of project and the duration of the project all contribute to project complexity and increased risk.

Two other important perspectives are your organisations legacy with projects which will be reflected in your organisation's level of project management maturity all of which can simply be stated as your organisational capability.

Thus there is a very need to devise or acquire an assessment tool that will enable you to assess the complexity of your change initiative in relation to your organisational capability to handle it.

To find out more about "Change Management and Readiness" please see: Change Management Risk Assessment.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management Risk Assessment - Hard and Soft Tools

2010-12-01T08:38:00.000+00:00

The first and obvious place to start a change management risk assessment is with an examination of your organisation's change legacy.

There is no prescriptive method for doing this, but I would recommend looking at all project debriefing and wrap-up reports, I would look closely at benefit realisation (or lack of it), change impacts, what worked and what didn't and why, with reference to the views and opinions of those directly involved in the attempted implementations.

I would also pay particularly close attention to the views and opinions of those directly impacted by the initiatives - those people working at the frontline.

Questionnaires, web-based tools, group and individual discussions can undertake present assessments of individual readiness for change.

Present assessments of organisational readiness can and should include an organisational assessment against project and programme management, business process and change management maturity models.

This does not need to be a lengthy exercise but can be undertaken quickly and informally. The purpose at this stage is simply to quickly formulate some reasonably solid reference points and to assess your organisation's reasonable and realistic capability in each of these areas.

A structured and comprehensive assessment of organisational culture, benefit realisation, and impact assessment are all addressed as an integral part of the programme based change model and methodology that I recommend.

The whole question of project complexity - specifically with reference to and in the context of organisational capability - in relation to change readiness, is addressed in a proprietary methodology created and applied by UK change practitioner, author and thought leader Peter Duschinsky of "The Imaginist Company".

Peter is a change management consultant with over 30 years of experience of bringing best practice and new ways of working into the UK business and public sectors:

"I came up against this challenge when trying to argue the case for taking a more people-focused approach to change projects. It became clear to me in working with public sector organisations that most projects failed to deliver the planned benefits because the complexity of what they were trying to achieve was not within the capability of the organisation to cope with yet another change initiative. But senior management were not interested."

For many of us change management practitioners the challenge is how to convince senior management that the "just do it" approach has a significant chance of failing.

Peter discovered that the secret is to develop a quantified analysis and business case for time and resources to tackle these issues and to communicate this in a language that the Board understands - impact on the ROI of the project.

So how to turn 'soft' issues into hard financials?

In response to this challenge Peter created a Project Readiness Healthcheck methodology - that he calls an INPACT assessment - to:

# Map the predominant culture (or cultures - depending on the size of the organisation, there's almost certainly more than one).
# Assess the maturity of their capability to manage business processes - this matters because weaknesses here will lead to disaster when it comes to introducing new systems.
# Measure the level of trust/distrust and respect/lack of respect in the relationships between people. This is all to do with the politics and culture and simply put, the greater the level of distrust, the harder it will be to achieve a successful initiative and the more time and effort you will need to overcome these barriers.
# Establish where the project lies on a complexity scale, ranging from 'simple' to 'way too complex', where the key factors include the project scope, number of stakeholders and timescales.

The resulting composite findings create a 'dashboard' of indicators which accurately predict the potential for success and can be accurately expressed in terms of quantified impact on the change project business plan's projected ROI.

And this is a language that organisational leaders do understand and care about!

To find out more about "Change Management and Readiness" please see: Change Management Risk Assessment.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management Leadership Qualities - The Renewable Leader

2010-12-01T08:33:00.000+00:00

Harvard professor, and change leadership and management thought leader, John Kotter defines an adaptive organisation as one where there is a strong receptivity to change and innovation, where risk taking is encouraged, and where people are pro-active and supportive of each other both in their work and personal lives. Perhaps most importantly he highlights the importance of trust - between employees and their fellow employees and between non-management and management employees.

Corporate culture experts Lisa Jackson and Gerry Schmidt define the leader of an adaptive organisation as a leader who derives, and benefits from, a strategic advantage that is the result of having built and encouraged teams and individuals who are receptive to change, who have the capacity to adapt quickly and resourcefully to opportunities and threats. They call this type of leader a "Renewable Leader".

Given that we now operate in an environment where the marginal rate of change is increasing - and continues to do so, and is closely related to the emergence of the flat world and horizontal management, successful change leadership no longer enjoy the luxury of making decisions that affect many without reference to and inclusion of the many in the whole decision making process.

Engagement and empowerment are now the relevant buzzwords. However change leaders choose to interpret these words, and whether or not they choose to act upon them, the inescapable present reality is challenging. On the one hand a market environment of escalating change on many fronts, and on the other hand workforces with ever-increasing expectations of being "kept in the loop" and quality of working life.

In this "horizontal world", where information is readily available to all and popular culture fuelled by technology and a proliferation of social media channels and tools demands and allows for almost immediate dissemination and comment of gossip, opinion and factual information, people want and expect to be involved and they will, and do, resist change that is imposed upon them.

In this context the leadership qualities that are required are all about a facilitative leadership style that builds teams and creates organisational environments where people make better quality and faster choices, and choices that are aligned with the organisational vision.

However, this does not come naturally to many organisational leaders reared, nurtured and sustained in the comforting routines of "command and control".

So how does a leader become a "renewable leader", what are the leadership qualities that make this possible? What does "engagement" and "empowerment" mean in practice?

(1) Reducing command and control

It means moving away from the habitual reactive mode of so many senior executives - especially prevalent here in the UK where I live - and abandoning the belief and practice that only senior management and organisational leaders have any monopoly on "what if" scenario planning and abandoning the even more dangerous notion that only they can anticipate change and make contingent arrangements to cope with it.

(2) Understanding and accepting that change is normal

The simple, obvious yet frightening reality is that change is natural and change is normal.

Renewable leaders understand this, and rather than thinking and acting in terms of resistance and how to deal with it, they focus on building organisations with the capabilities, capacity and cultures that are change friendly and change responsive.

Renewable leaders see strong competitive advantage in working towards this.

Renewable leaders start by becoming change friendly themselves, they develop this amongst their management teams, and they develop this across their whole organisations.

(3) Demonstrating and building trust

Renewable leaders understand the importance of trust and how trust is built when they take the time to explain decisions, when they take the time to link decisions to the organisational vision and strategy, and when they take the time to ensure that everyone understands them.

People need and want to see the connection between what they are being asked to do and the bigger picture.

Lisa Jackson and Gerry Schmidt say that a very tangible sign of a high-trust organisation is one where the "decision rights" are operating well; and this only happens when everyone is very clear about who has the authority to make which decisions and management, and employees honour those boundaries.

It does take time to build this level of trust. We are talking about trust where a team knows that their boss will not meddle or interfere with their decisions; where they trust one another and where the person making the decision does so with collaboration from the team; and where the decision is thus one that serves the objectives of the whole organisation.

These are the qualities of the renewable leader.

To find out more about "Change Management and Readiness" please see: Change Management Risk Assessment.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Leadership Qualities - Creating and Leading a Culture of Change

2010-12-01T08:29:00.000+00:00

Let's just fantasize for a moment and try to visualise an organisational environment where people don't fear change but actually welcome it. This feels a bit like John Lennon's "Imagine"!

What would it take to make this possible? Is this possible?

A "readiness for change" culture is essentially a culture that is not only ready for change, but is also a culture that accepts change and even thrives on it.

So what does a "readiness for change" culture look like?

(1) An informed workforce

An informed workforce can be defined as a workforce that understands both the organisational vision, strategy and objectives and yet at the same time understands how what they do individually and as teams in their everyday work moves the organisation towards (or away from) these objectives.

When an informed workforce sees the organisational "big picture," they are far better equipped to make good decisions and to come up with innovative and problem solving ideas.

(2) An empowered workforce

An empowered workforce is allowed and encouraged to initiate day-to-day improvements on their own authority.

Because they are informed, they can exercise their empowerment, as they know what impact it will have; plus, they are more likely to act quickly and responsively.

An empowered workforce is re-inforced with the knowledge of their boundaries and has the freedom to exercise their decision rights (without interference) within the security of these well-defined and universally recognised boundaries.

(3) An outspoken workforce

An outspoken workforce is one that is encouraged to identify and discuss important issues they would in any other circumstances be either unaware of or unwilling to address - you could call this a preparedness to "speak the unspeakable".

An outspoken workforce that is informed and empowered recognises that these difficult issues are often the key to unblocking serious log-jams and will speak out, whereas the typical un-informed and un-empowered workforce will often feel that these issues are just "too sensitive", or too "politically difficult" or just plain fraught to openly expressed.

What are the leadership qualities that make all this possible?

First and foremost the leadership qualities that build and create a "change readiness" culture are totally focused on understanding and "reverse-engineering" the critical disconnects between organisational leadership and management, and the rest of the non-management employees. These disconnects can be summarized as an organisational management and leadership that is detached from direct feedback from the frontline and the human consequences of their decisions.

This is all about moving away from the prevalent transactional leadership style with its reward and punishment mechanisms to gain compliance, and moving towards facilitative leadership that engages directly with the informal networks and aspects of the organisation.

This isn't so hard for organisational leadership to take on board and enact once they realise that in so doing they are dealing directly with the crustacean rock bottom root causes of resistance to change whilst simultaneously unleashing a flood of new innovations and solutions.

Trouble is that are still way too many organisational leaders who act like "monkeys with their fists stuck in the jar" and who clench their fists as they hang onto to the "sweeties" of command and control.

And we all know what happened to the monkeys....

To find out more about "Change Management and Readiness" please see: Change Management Risk Assessment.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process "

Change Management - Change Processes That Work For People

2010-10-14T18:06:00.002+01:00

The traditional command control approach to organisational change invariably starts with the sponsorship of new initiatives from the top. Senior management then assemble a project team to develop the ideas - and these become a recommendation that is then sold to and eventually resisted by large sections of the wider organisation.

Sound familiar?

Yet another report - this time by UK based organisational performance, leadership development and executive coaching consultancy, Lane4 - provides compelling evidence that supports this perspective of consistent and persistent poor leadership and change management, in other words the failure of the traditional command-control leadership style.

Their global study shows that whilst nearly 90% of businesses had experienced major change in the preceding 24 months, less than 10% felt they had been really successful at change management.

Their findings were depressingly predictable and showed yet again that people factors and leadership ability were the most significant causes of failure - and occasional success.

Root causes of the failure can be traced to command-control leadership and management styles applied to change management, over-reliance on a project management process driven approach, basic lack of change management knowledge and skill, and management detachment.

In my view it is management detachment that is the real killer here as management detachment feeds the disconnection between senior management, "the big idea" and everyone else - especially those people at the frontline.

The resolution to these issues is very simple; it involves a change of style of leadership and the utilisation of different processes - namely processes that work for people.

Change processes that work for people are change processes that involve people from the outset and throughout the full life cycle of the initiative.

The Guiding Principles of Change Processes That Work For People

(1) Involve the informal networks and natural leaders, or what is also known as the "shadow organisation", that exists outside of the formal management power and influence structure and that comprises up to 75% of the organisation.

(2) Connect and communicate by facilitating and encouraging listening, dialogue and the building of trusting relationships.

(3) Create coalitions and communities for action.

(4) Generate, harness and focus the energies of these groups to solve problems, create a shared vision of the future and realise the benefits of that vision.

(5) Practice broadly democratic and participation-based principles with transparency and fairness.

In summary we are describing a command control structure that recognises that its primary role in a change initiative is to define the boundaries, objectives and focus of the wider participation and discussion, to be realistic about goals, and to apply these principles.

To find out more about "Change Processes That Work For People" please see: Change Management Templates.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management for Supervisors and First Line Management

2010-10-14T18:04:00.000+01:00

Your organisation's CEO and senior management have had a "big idea" or your organisation is facing major external challenges.

It is fairly obvious to you that the size, scope and complexity, priority, timescale and strategic importance of the proposed change is such that it is likely to have a big impact on your people, that it will probably disrupt your day-to-day running of your team.

Let's proceed on the fairly safe assumption that your boss has a limited understanding of how to successfully lead and manage a step change. We are also going to assume that your boss is focused on achieving the benefits of the change as quickly as possible and mistakenly assumes that everyone can be "managed through the change".

We're also going to assume that your boss also believes that the change can be handled within "business as usual" and under-estimates the scope and scale of what will be involved.

This may all sound cynical - but it is very typical. We are making these assumptions, as unfortunately these are the most common scenarios.

As a first line manager or supervisor, you are in the firing line. It will be down to you to implement their ideas.

Critical Action Points

In order of priority and sequence you have 4 critical actions.

The basis on which you proceed with your involvement in the implementation of this change initiative will be shaped by the outcome of the following steps:

(1) Your first and most urgent and important task is to meet with your boss - probably more than once - and to seek clarification on these key questions:

# The organisational need for the change
# The specifics of what will change
# The benefits of the change
# The impacts of the change

(2) You need to reach clarity and agreement with your boss on how you proceed in implementing the changes.

(3) Having completed your discussions with your boss, and before instigating any action, and in addition to discussing this with your other supervisory/management colleagues, hold informal talks as soon as possible with a small group drawn from your wider team.

(4) Outline the challenges, give them the background and the reasons for the potential change and invite their views and feedback on how to implement - and listen.

Stalling Points

(1) Failing to ask your boss questions

Failing to appreciate that you may be helping your boss by asking questions, as chances are he won't know all the answers and you are giving him the information he needs to seek clarification from, and manage, his boss.

It is all too easy to take the line of least resistance. It is too easy to go along with whatever it is you have been asked to implement, without initiating an informed discussion with your boss about the implications of what has been proposed, and (based on your knowledge) an informed recommendation as to how to proceed in a way that is most likely to succeed.

(2) Failing to understand the role and critical importance of involving your people in this change process.

Failing to understand that your people's active involvement and support is critical to the success or failing of your efforts to implement the change initiative. To succeed with any change initiative you need the involvement and support of your people from the outset.

(3) Failing to understand that your people will need coaching and guiding, as well as managing, through the change.

Failing to appreciate that for any major change initiative to succeed your role is to provide the people for whom you have formal responsibility with facilitative leadership. This means that you have to help them to make it happen.

Facilitative leadership will require from you: communication skills, social skills and a supportive approach.

In order to deliver this level of support, you need information, and it is or primary importance that you ask your boss the right questions in order to understand and communicate this to your people.

Whilst your formal power - via the command-control hierarchy - remains intact, the power needed to drive this change initiative is based on collaboration and support.

To find out more about "Change Processes That Work For People" please see: Change Management Templates.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management for Middle Managers - The Pre-Change Initiative Review + Cultural Analysis

2010-10-14T18:02:00.000+01:00

Lets us assume that you and your informal and formal team have met a number of times, and a shared high-level perception of the initial objective has now emerged. This means that you now have a shared view of the organisational need for the change, the specifics of what will change, the benefits of the change, and the impacts of the change.

You are well aware of the need to reach a shared high-level perception of the initial objective with at least 80% of all those who represent the formal power and political influence in your organisation. In recognition of this you extend the process across every area of your responsibility within the organisation that is likely to be impacted by the change initiative. To facilitate all this you need to:

# Create a guiding coalition - drawn from the formal and informal networks of your teams - to steer the change initiative and support any change team that your boss may have established.

# If your boss has not established an organisation-wide change team, then you appoint a change team within your areas of responsibility with the appropriate skills and resources to lead and manage the initiative

# Adopt a structured methodology to undertake an extensive pre-planning exercise and cultural analysis.

# Conduct an extensive and intensive pre-change initiative review and cultural analysis involving all of, or a significant cross section of, areas of your organisation that will be impacted by the change initiative.

Stalling Points

# "Why bother with all that - let's just get on with it?"

You will experience pressure from your boss and/or colleagues who see all this as a complete waste of time and who will seek to persuade you to "just get on with it"

You may yourself be tempted to "just get on with it"

Having clarified the "big idea" and obtained a measure of support and momentum, one of the commonest mistakes is to dive straight into a project or task level implementation of the good idea... and it nearly always fails

The processes outlined here may seem time consuming, and they are, but they are lot less time consuming than the resource and effort that you and your team will otherwise be expending as you attempt to salvage a change initiative that fails

# Failing to understand and take full account of your organisation's maturity

Another often over-looked factor that contributes to change failure is that there are limits to how far and how fast people and organisations can change. It is essential for you to have a cognitive map and analysis that facilitates your understanding of this in relation to your organisation

You need to know where your organisation sits on a change management maturity model, a project management maturity model and a programme management maturity model

Understanding and taking full account of your organisation's maturity in each of these disciplines will provide a powerful indication of your organisation's overall ability to manage each of these disciplines in a way that will support your strategic goals in general and this change initiative in particular

This understanding will enable you assess how far and how fast your organisation has the capacity to change, and the appropriate resources that will be needed to maximise this

# Failing to understand and take full account of your organisation's cultures

Organisational culture is the single biggest determinant of how people in your organisation will behave - and especially in the context of a step change. It will over-ride education, intelligence and common sense

You cannot make a successful step change (and realise the benefits) without changing your organisational culture

You cannot change your organisational culture - or more accurately, cultures - without first understanding the culture(s) and where the gaps and areas of "cultural dissonance" are located and subsequently how this will be different in the changed organisation

Your people need to know: "this is what we look like now" to be able to recognise: "this is how we want to be"

You - and your change team - need to know where the supportive and resistant sub-cultures are located so that you can identify the individuals who inhabit this range of sub-cultural attitudes and behaviours (which may or may not be receptive and open to change) and into the identification and mapping of the networks of these individuals

The identification, development and support of the supportive subcultures, individuals, "natural leaders" and their informal networks is essential to overcoming resistance and to your achievement of a successful change initiative

Critical Action Point

Just do it! Undertake the pre-change initiative review and cultural analysis.

Your pre-change initiative review and cultural analysis will provide you, and your change team, with the input to the preparation and delivery of an executable change initiative programme plan and subsequent project and task level plans.

The benefits of involving all, or a significant cross section of, areas of your organisation that will be impacted by the change initiative are:

# You understand as fully as possible the impact it is likely to have

# You achieve a greater level of early acceptance

# You get a wider spectrum of inputs to the whole process

# You reduce the danger of making assumptions

# You get shared clarity across the organisation as to what, why and how the organisation will look after the change

# You, your coalition and your change team understand how you are going to reap the benefits from the change.

To find out more about "Change Processes That Work For People" please see: Change Management Templates.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management for Organisational Leaders - Ongoing Implementation

2010-10-14T17:59:00.000+01:00

As the formal leader of your organisation you have the power and influence to exercise considerable leverage over your change initiative, and not just during the start-up phases but also throughout the ongoing implementation.

Here are 6 "big picture" areas that require your ongoing focus and attention:

(1) Relaxing the command-control management style

This first and biggest step is one that can only be taken by you as the CEO, and your senior management team, and that is to relinquish (or at least relax) "command and control". Not totally of course, as there is always a need for firm direction and senior management edicts, but sufficiently to empower the change team leaders to identify and work in collaboration with the informal networks.

(2) Dealing with the politics in change-supportive ways

You are in the prime position to understand the politics, and you have the power to influence the political self-interest of the individuals and groups you are dealing with in change-supportive ways.

(3) Setting the emotional tone

It is sobering realisation that as leader of your organisation, a big part of the culture and "general feel" or "emotional tone" of what it is like to work in your organisation is determined to a very large extent by you. Goleman et al have research-based evidence that your style as leader - how you communicate - determines about 70% of the emotional climate which in turns drives 20-30% of business performance or your organisation.

(4) Skilling your people in communication competencies

Communication is key to change. How you are as a person models the behaviours, especially the communication behaviours, of your senior team and through them the whole of your organisation.

Thus, communicating for change means skilling your people in communicative competences such as empathy, active listening, trust, risk-taking, and courage. It also means creating the space and opportunities for this to happen.

(5) Sustaining the effort

Kotter is very clear that a major mistake that change leaders make is to declare victory too soon. Early wins are important and need to be celebrated, but the effort needs to be recalibrated and intensified at these times and the tendency and temptation to "ease up" should be resisted.

For any change to be sustained, it needs to become embedded in the new "way we do things around here" - that is the culture. A major part of this is for you, as ultimate change leader, to ensure the articulation of the connections between new behaviours and organisational success.

This is where you - and your coalition team and your change team - talk about progress every chance you get. Tell success stories about the change process, and repeat other success stories that you hear.

As ultimate change leader, this is all about your continuous big picture focus to ensure that the change is seen in every aspect of your organisation.

(6) "Do it different, do it right" creates a change receptive culture

Through your focus on sustaining the effort, not only will the change become embedded in the culture but, and as a very welcome by-product, you are creating an adaptive culture more able and receptive to deal with further future change.

Stalling Points

Not doing these things!

Pressure of business as usual takes over.

Critical Action Point

Recognising that these are 6 "big picture" areas that do require your ongoing personal focus and attention.

Staying in the loop.

To find out more about "Change Processes That Work For People" please see: Change Management Templates.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management for Organisational Leaders - Starting Out

2010-10-14T17:56:00.001+01:00

You have an idea, you have a vision for a significant visionary change, and/or your organisation is facing major external challenges...

It is fairly obvious to you that the size, scope and complexity, priority, timescale and strategic importance of the proposed change is such that it is a step change, and as such should not be introduced as part of "Business As Usual" as it would disrupt the day-to-day running of your organisation.

It is also apparent that if this potential change initiative is to proceed, it needs to be regarded and handled as a specific initiative and will require some form of change management process.

Typical Stalling Points

(1) Failure to understand your role

Failure to appreciate that for any major change initiative to succeed your role is to provide facilitative leadership, that is, to ensure the wider involvement of people at all levels - especially in the informal networks

Facilitative leadership will require from you: communication skills, social skills and a collaborative approach

Whilst your command-control hierarchy remains intact - and it needs to for the exercising of legal authority to ratify decisions - the power needed to drive this change initiative is based on synergy and mutuality and is multi-directional

(2) Failure to understand what has and hasn't worked before

So many companies - especially in North America - just rush into the next change initiative without debriefing and assessing what did and didn't work last time, and why.

You need to get that knowledge and insight now, right up front as it can help you repeating past mistakes and failing with this initiative.

Your organisations' "transition readiness" is best indicated by your organisations' legacy of change initiatives (both those that worked and those that didn't work) as it provides an important early indicator of what lies ahead.

You also need to look at the scars left by successful as well as unsuccessful initiatives as it is crucial to understand and address the scar tissue left by previous initiatives.

(3) Failure to understand the role and critical importance of your informal networks

Failing to understand that your informal networks are critical to the success or failure of your change initiative

To succeed with any change initiative you need the involvement and support of your informal networks - from the outset

Your informal networks are the source of most of your potential resistance and the source of most of your solutions

Critical Action Point

Before instigating any action, and in addition to discussing this with your senior management team, hold informal talks as soon as possible with a small group drawn from the informal networks within your organisation.

Outline the challenges, give them the background and the reasons for the potential change and invite their views and feedback on how to proceed - and listen.

To find out more about "Change Processes That Work For People" please see: Change Management Templates.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process

Change Management for Non Management Employees - Understanding the Transitions

2010-10-14T17:50:00.001+01:00

As you may well be aware, the underlying reason for the 70% failure rate of all major change initiatives, is the failure to take full account of the impact of change on those people who are most impacted by it.

There are two levels of impact. The first is fairly obvious as it concerns the new ways of working, the cultural shifts, and the new processes, procedures and structures.

However there is a second and less obvious yet more profound level of impact is the emotional and psychological adjustments that people go through as they adjust to these new ways.

It is this emotional impact that is usually neglected. Given that people are attached to "how things are", there is a sense of loss and emotional upheaval if that certainty, and the security it provides, is threatened.

This is important, because people cannot work effectively if they are experiencing emotional turbulence. Their ability to get work done depends on their emotions being under control. A leader has to address those often unconscious and unexpressed fears along the way, in order to help people keep them under control.

Transition management is all about seeing the situation through the eyes of the other guy - it is a perspective based on empathy, and it makes excellent business sense.

Yet this is seldom applied!

However, by becoming aware of this dimension, you can equip yourself to anticipate and handle your own emotional responses to the change that is going to be imposed on you. You may also be able to help colleagues and just possibly your line manager.

Critical Action Point

The most effective thing you can do, if you haven't already done so, is to familiarise yourself with the fundamentals of William Bridges' Transition Model which is built around 3 simple questions:

(1) What is changing?
(2) What will actually be different because of the change?
(3) Who is going to lose what?

Bridges has identified 3 stages that we all pass through as we make the necessary emotional and psychological adjustment to the imposed organisational change, so you will help yourself considerably if you can figure out how you are going to manage yourself through these 3 transition stages

(1) Ending, losing, letting go - dealing with your losses and preparing to move on
(2) Passing though the unsettling and destabilising "neutral zone" where you make the psychological realignments and readjustments.
(3) Entering the new beginning - typically this involves developing a new identity and a new sense of purpose.

Stalling Points

The biggest and most common stalling point is failing to grasp that we all need support during the emotional adjustments that accompany change.

Change is always an emotional business. You will be doing yourself a very great dis-service if you fail to understand and prepare for this.

William Bridges is emphatic in drawing the important distinction between organisational change and what he calls the "transition" that people need to move through in order to successfully adapt to the new circumstances arising from that change. We ignore it at our peril.

To find out more about "Change Processes That Work For People" please see: Change Management Templates.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with this FREE download: Starting the Change Process "

Conflict Resolution Tips - Influence Without Authority in Change Management

2010-08-23T13:38:00.003+01:00

"It is not always evident when you are going to make a withdrawal from the favor bank of politics,... but it is always obvious you are making a deposit" [Jennifer Steinhauer]

There are many situations where we are not in charge, we do not have formal authority and yet we need to resolve things and get things done.

In change management there are often situations - especially political situations - where as change leaders and change managers we cannot force people to do things and we do not have formal authority to influence outcomes and often there is resistance and sometimes conflict.

This where the power of informal networks matters, in change management this really is one of the most powerful conflict resolution tips - the power of influence without authority - the influence that is gained by the practise of "the law of reciprocity".

Here is a 6-step model:

(1) Assume everyone is a potential ally

This is a more constructive mind-set than assuming an adversarial approach. It is all too easy to stereotype people and project our own experiences and feelings on to the other guy. As somebody once said; before criticizing a man - and making assumptions about his motivations, walk a mile in his shoes.

There will be occasions when you need something or support from a person who has no formal obligation to cooperate with you.

A good place to start is to begin by reviewing what you know about that person to see if there are areas of overlapping interests that could form the basis of an alliance.

You always have something in common with the other person - you are both human beings. As Dale Carnegie advised in "How to win friends and influence people", become genuinely interested in other people - as people, encourage others to talk about themselves, be a good listener, always talk in terms of the other person's interests.

(2) Clarify what you want, when and why

It is important to be very clear about what you want from a potential ally. Be very clear about your organisational goals and your personal goals - which may not be the same thing.

You also need to be clear about your priorities and the order of your priorities, and timescales - what your short term and long-term goals.

Is your focus task oriented and you are prepared to jeopardize or sacrifice a relationship of is your focus on preserving or improving a relationship?

(3) Understand the other person's situation

It is extremely useful to understand - or attempt to understand - the organisational influences, pressures and requirements of a possible ally.

Once you focus on this you can directly and indirectly ascertain a lot of information about the other person's situation. Find out what they care about.

(4) Identify the trading currencies

You will probably have a reasonable idea of what a potential ally can do for you, but it is useful to assess what you bring to the table.

We often have more resources than we may realise.

This all about identifying "secondary currencies" - that is things that have a higher perceived value to the other person than they do to you. This could be relationships, knowledge, connections, information, influence or any one of many things. This is why understanding what matters to the other person is so important.

There is one secondary currency that we all have, and that is to be aware of and sensitive to the other person as a human being and to look for and implement ways of building a connection. We all have insecurities and needs for approval and recognition. Change leaders who exercise high levels of emotional intelligence and self-awareness will nearly always find ways of connecting with people.

(5) Building and utilising relationships

The first aspect of this is the nature of your relationship with the other person. Is it good, bad or indifferent? If it is anything less than good, then clearly you are going to need to invest time and energy in building trust and credibility.

The second aspect of developing and dealing with relationships is the preferred communication style of the other person. Do they like lots of analysis and facts and figures, or are they visual and appreciate graphics, power-points multi-media, or are they kinesthetic and prefer to engage themselves directly and physically in what you are seeking to communicate

(6) Influence when the time is right to trade

Once you have undertaken the analysis of the other person's situation and what is important to them, identified "trading currencies" and assessed and where necessary improved your relationship, then (and only then) are you in a position to "trade" with the other person - when the time is right.

The timing will dictated by their attraction and need for what you have to offer balanced against your need for what they have to offer. Other factors affecting the timing and nature of the "trade" will be the organisation's culture and the unwritten rules about "how things get done around here" and bluntly how many risks you are prepared to take.

Find out more about: Conflict Resolution Tips - Influence Without Authority

Conflict Resolution Tips - Overcoming Silos and Turf Wars in Change Management

2010-08-23T13:35:00.000+01:00

The negative aspect of organisational politics occurs when individuals drive their own personal agendas and priorities at the expense of the wider corporate agenda.

The motivation for this type of politics is partly personal advancement up the "greasy pole" and partly the lust for power that some of us (yes I am guilty of this too!) have to control resources, decisions, people and outcomes. Of itself this need not necessarily be a bad thing, it only becomes that when it jeopardizes the corporate strategy and (in my view more importantly) damages people.

In a silo-structured organisation, the politics of the functional managers that develop protective strategies of their own "fiefdoms" becomes counter productive and frequently obstructive to the objectives of a change initiative that is aligned to a corporate vision and strategy.

As Patrick Lencioni observes in his book "Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars", the place where the blame lies for silos and politics is at the top of the organisation: "Every departmental silo can ultimately be traced back to the leaders of those departments who have failed to understand the interdependencies that must exist among [the departments]"

One of the many reasons I strongly favour a programme management based approach to change is that the comprehensive nature of the approach focuses on the achievement of the organisational strategic vision by ensuring that the envisaged organisational benefits are actually realised. This is an organisation-wide perspective that transcends the interests of any particular fiefdom.

Shifting the balance of power

But this is only possible if the CEO and other directors and senior management take - and stand by - the hard decision to shift the balance of power and support the change programme. This means empowering the change management leadership and team to have authority over functional management within defined and boundaries and terms of reference.

This is what I call: "sponsorship with balls, bottle and teeth"!

The 4 components of the terms of reference

These terms of reference include four components:

(1) A simple clear vision that consists of a single point of focus that is shared by the entire leadership team and, as Kotter suggests, at least 75% of the management team. This point of focus is what drives the change management leadership and team for the duration of the change programme.

(2) A blueprint that defines and clarifies exactly what is meant by the vision, in other words, specifically how the organisation will be different after the vision has been realised.

(3) This accompanied by a statement and definition of the organisational benefits that will be realised through the change initiative stating the nature of the benefits, where and when they will arise and how they will be measured.

(4) And finally, the provision of a statement that outlines the change methodology that will be applied by the change management leadership and team. It includes the programme level implementation and the tactical task level implementation that translates the vision into practical actionable steps.

Find out more about: Conflict Resolution Tips - Overcoming Silos and Turf Wars

Conflict Resolution Tips - Dealing With Politics in Resistance to Change Management

2010-08-23T13:30:00.000+01:00

Perspectives on politics vary. There is the negative view, which sees politics as the exercise of personal power used for personal gain and at the other end of the spectrum the positive view, that sees politics as a social power used to create motivation or to accomplish group goals.

Nevertheless whether you are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether you understand it or not, in corporate life (and especially in the UK - where I live and work) the political dimension is all-important.

The higher your contacts are up the ladder, within an organisation, the greater the extent to which the political dimension is important.

At director level, in all large organisations, the political dimension can shape the decision making process very considerably and will often be the major determining factor.

Personal power in an organisational context can be described as the ability to influence another person to do what you want, when and how you want them to do it without having to alter your own behaviour in ways you don't want to.

Symbols of political power and influence include things such as: early access to critical and "insider" information; being sought out for an opinion by senior people; getting favoured people into jobs; exercising control of key resources and influencing an agenda.

Sources of power cover a wide spectrum: legitimate power - based on position, appointment and contract; coercive power - the means to force someone to do something; referent power - based on charisma and the power of personality; expert power - based on knowledge and specialist expertise; and information power - as the source of critical information.

Influence can be described as the process of changing in some way the thoughts, perspective, behaviour and feelings of another person.

Politics in an organisational context is the use of power and influence. It has been said that politics is simply how power gets worked out on a practical day-to-day basis.

Understand the political self-interest of the individuals and groups you are dealing with is therefore essential in implementing change, as at its most fundamental level effective change management involves trade-offs in order to be lasting.

How to deal with resistance created or exacerbated by political factors

(1) Get ahead of the game by undertaking some form of early political assessment as part of your cultural analysis and mapping of informal personal networks

(2) Do not wait until a political issue becomes critical, as this point it will have gained momentum, and it is probably going to be too late.

(3) Do not take action to quash resistance but only to accomplish a positive goal. This may of course mean sidelining, removing or replacing deeply resistant individuals. This is a serious and important point, as there will always be people who will resist change to the death. The tendency is to expend a lot of energy trying to get them on side. John Kotter says: "Forget it, get rid of them, no matter who they are in terms of power or relationship to you because if you let them inside the tent they will do so much damage they will undermine the change."

Here are some practical "hands on" strategies for dealing with politics in resistance to change management

(a) Focus on the specifics and details of the transactional aspects of the work. When people are focused on actually doing the work, they have far less time and energy for engaging in politics.

(b) Focus your attention on the "bread and butter" basic, standard transactional aspects that do not involve "specials" and "exceptions". This will mean that you do not need to involve the "expert" assistance or knowledge of the "queen bee" political movers and shakers.

(c) Isolate and group together all your "specials", "exceptions", work-arounds and non-standard transactions for the attention of "special ones" those you have identified as political movers and shakers - or as they like to see themselves - the "queen bees".

(d) Take advantage of the increased opportunities to build relationships and communicate with people as you engage with them on the specifics and details of the transactional aspects of actually doing the work.

(e) As a guiding principle, always remember that politics is a practice - it's all about reaching mature compromises, developing relationships and getting results; always draw a distinction between the people and the problem; focus on interests, not positions; always seek options for mutual gain; and always apply objective criteria.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with the Conflict Resolution Tips - Dealing With Politics

Conflict Resolution Tips For Change Management Teams

2010-08-23T13:21:00.000+01:00

Collaboration within and between teams is an essential facet of organisational life in general and change management in particular. So as a change leader it is helpful to have a basic framework for resolving conflicts within work place teams.

Conflict within teams is natural

Conflict of opinions is inevitable and healthy and necessary to the overall effectiveness and productivity of the team. Team members will have strong opinions with each proponent of a particular perspective having their own carefully considered logic and business case. But team members will also have strong feelings and emotions - especially in the context of a change initiative. It is important to allow the expression of strong opinions and feelings but in a way that minimises destructive conflict arising from polarised positions and escalating tension and disagreement.

Clarify the terms of reference of the team

It may sound obvious but clear terms of reference for the team will go a long way to mitigating destructive conflict. This should include a clear statement of: the purpose of the team; methodologies, tools processes that will be used; time scales; clearly defined individual roles and responsibilities; ground rules and guidelines for participation and behavioural expectations; and defined processes for conflict resolution. Underlying all of this is the understanding and agreement that whilst conflict is inevitable it will be depersonalised.

Depersonalising conflict within teams

The key to depersonalising conflict within teams is focus. Focus on issues and ideas not personalities. When conflict arises acknowledge that it exists. Broad principles for depersonalising conflict within teams are:

# To encourage team members to seek to keep focused on the issues

# To criticise and question the ideas and not the person in discussion

# To understand all angles of the other person's perspective

# To try to see it from the perspective of the other person,

# To identify areas of common ground

Arriving at a shared perspective

Here is an approach that I recommend to building a shared perspective. It is based around 3 core concepts and a process comprising a series of structured steps.

The 3 concepts are:

(1) Our aspirations: What crying need does this idea satisfy? What's vitally important about this? Does this connect with the bigger picture beyond this immediate task or situation?

(2) The "necessary and sufficient" actions that are needed to achieve those aspirations. These "necessary and sufficient" actions can be defined as actions that focus on all aspects of what's required to achieve anything - and in a way that is very clear and operationally effective.

(3) The limitations, constraints and externally imposed conditions over which we have no control. These limitations are circumstance, factors and issues - that may be arbitrary, unfair, unrealistic - that we may not like, that we may fundamentally disagree with - that are immovable - that are non-negotiable - that we cannot change and have no control over - that determine the environment in which we (a) either accept and work within to fulfil the "necessary and sufficient" actions to deliver our aspirations, or (b) reject, remove ourselves from the environment and work elsewhere

The process is a facilitated process where each team member presents to the group their aspirations and the rest of the group listen quietly and without interruption. In preparation, each person prepares a short informal presentation of their idea, including their view of the impact on their idea of working within the limitations and conditions imposed on the group, and on a scale of 1 -10 (with 10 being highest) what is their realistic "wish list" of "10 rated" "necessary and sufficient" actions to achieve their aspiration. Whilst each person is presenting their idea, the rest of the group make notes and ask themselves the following questions:

# What negative reactions am I feeling to each of my other team members' aspirations?

# How would I edit or change their aspirations so that I am comfortable with them?

# How will my other team members feel about my edited version of their aspirations?

# How can I edit or change my edited version of their aspirations so that they will be comfortable with it (and so that I am still comfortable with it)?

# What is the impact and effect on my aspirations (especially the bigger picture aspects that transcend me) of working within the limitations, constraints and externally imposed conditions over which we have no control?

# What is the impact and effect on my aspirations (especially the bigger picture aspects that transcend me) of not working within the limitations, constraints and externally imposed conditions over which we have no control?

# Am I prepared to accept and work within these limitations or not?

# On a scale of 1 -10 (with 10 being highest) what is my realistic "wish list" of "10 rated" "necessary and sufficient" actions to achieve my aspirations?

# What negative reactions am I feeling to each of my other team members' "wish lists"?

# How would I edit or change their "wish lists" so that I am comfortable with them?

# How will my other team members feel about my edited version of their "wish lists"?

# How can I edit or change my edited version of their "wish lists" so that they will be comfortable with it (and so that I am still comfortable with it)?

After an agreed interval the facilitator asks each group member to re-represent their amended ideas and wish lists of necessary and sufficient actions. All agreed aspirations and actions are brought together as combined team aspirations and actions All points where there are still negative reactions are submitted to the above process until there is agreement. There is sharing of views re impacts of working within limitations or not.

All team members are identified who are prepared to work within the limitations. Individual "offline" discussions are held with any team members who feel they are not prepared to work within the limitations and if agreement cannot be reached they are asked to leave the team.

Find out more about: Conflict Resolution Tips.

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Facilitative Leadership - 5 Characteristics of Facilitative Change Leadership

2010-08-23T13:15:00.000+01:00

(1) Facilitative leaders exercise advanced communication skills

These 3 techniques can help ensure that your people are involved in the change management process and that they are assured of your interest:

(a) Confirming - your understanding. When you confirm, you verify that you understand what the other person said.

(b) Acknowledging - shows that you value what the other person has said.

(c) Bridging - make links between points you have both made. When you bridge, you make a connection between one or more points that the other person and you have made.

The purpose of all this is to build a shared perception.

(2) Facilitative leaders create the environment where people want to participate

So often I hear CEOs and directors moaning: "But why don't they just do it?"

Another question I often here is: "How can I get them to share ownership of decisions and the outcomes - how do I get them to follow through on their commitments?"

There are 2 aspects to resolving this:

(a) Harnessing the emotional energy of the group

Your leadership style needs to be tranformative and inspirational - it is up to you to exercise emotional intelligence, build connection with your people and to harness the emotional energy of the group - so that feel the possibilities of belonging and cooperating together as a group for the greater good of the group.

(b) Personalise and "emotionalise" the energy for change

People need to know cognitively why the change is so important (vision, strategy, business case etc) but they also need to feel emotionally what it will mean to them personally. They need to feel the personal impact of the change.

The more they feel it the more they will prioritise it - because it matters to them personally.

It then rapidly becomes natural for the facilitative leaders to ask rather than tell groups what they need to be doing, and to ask them what help they need to move forward rather than attempting to control their activities.

(3) Facilitative leaders encourage people to "speak the unspeakable"

Facilitative leaders encourage people to identify and discuss important issues they may be unaware of or unwilling to address - I call this "speaking the unspeakable".

These are often issues that are felt to be "too sensitive", "politically difficult" or just plain fraught to be easily and openly expressed.

Yet it is very often these difficult issues that are key to unblocking log-jams.

As change leader you achieve this by providing the tools, language and process to make this possible.

There are many excellent tools available and you need to select an appropriate tool and process for your situation.

(4) Facilitative leaders recognise that they are changing the culture

If, as part of your preparation and planning, you have undertaken a thorough cultural analysis and planning process you will have been through - and equally important, taken your people through - a process of cognition involving a thorough cultural mapping and analysis of "How we look now" and "How we want to look in future".

You will have a defined a cultural framework for the organisation that identifies the desired-culture (the dominant culture that will exist when the vision for the change is successfully realised) - i.e. "how we will look in the future" .

As you involve your people in this and other processes, you are subtly changing the culture in the desired direction by your continuous involvement of your people in these processes. The new culture slowly emerges.

(5) Facilitative leaders operate from a position of considerable self awareness and emotional intelligence

As a facilitative leader you begin with self-awareness - awareness of your own thoughts and feelings, and how these affect your actions, and how they affect the states of others.

As your self-awareness develops, you begin to lead with an integrity and authenticity that resonates with others, and inspires them to follow.

Find out more about: Facilitative Leadership - 5 Characteristics

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with the 8 FREE Introductory Lessons from Practitioners Masterclass

Facilitative Leadership in Change Management - What is It?

2010-08-23T13:11:00.000+01:00

What is facilitative leadership? The definition and understanding of facilitative leadership has evolved over time, and has emerged from the more familiar term "transformational leadership" which is all about inspiring employees to look beyond self-interest and focus on wider organisational goals. Facilitative leadership requires communication skills, social skills and a collaborative approach.

Facilitative leadership is the opposite style of leadership from the centralised command-control transactional leadership style that is fairly typical of many organisations. It is particularly well suited to the context and environment of change management initiatives.

It is now often viewed as a broad strategy that has been described as: "the behaviours that enhance the collective ability... to adapt, solve problems, and improve performance." (Conley & Goldman 1994)

Key to this is the emphasis on "collective ability" and the facilitative leader's role is to ensure the wider involvement of people at all levels - especially in the informal networks - a key to success in change management.

Whilst the command-control hierarchy remains intact - and it needs to for the exercising of legal authority to ratify decisions - in contrast to centralised command-control transactional leadership, the power here is based on synergy and mutuality and is multi-directional.

Key strategies that are employed include:

Resolving resource issues
Team building
Feedback
Coordination
Conflict management and resolution
Communication networks
Collaborative politics

All of these strategies involve processes that are dependent on informal negotiation and communication.

(1) Facilitative leadership and informal networks

Facilitative leadership recognises and fully utilise the informal networks that exist in organisations. This partly because this type of leader recognises the value of working with and through informal as well as formal networks, and also because the (s)he is a pragmatist and recognises that up to 75% of an organisation's natural leaders and informal networks sit outside of the formal management structure.

In change management, facilitative leadership is a crucial skill that needs to be applied and especially to the informal networks, given that the shadow or informal organisation largely determines the scope and pace of change.

(2) "There is no such thing as a singular success"

At root, facilitative leadership recognises that no one has a monopoly of talent, ideas or solutions and that organisational success is a group effort.

A programme manager friend of mine used to express it this way: "There is no such thing as a singular success"!

From my own experience, I have found time and time again that the answers to the most challenging business issues, project and programme failures and performance problems always - without exception lies with the front line staff - those directly involved in "doing it". All you have to do is ask them, listen to them and then act upon what they tell you - with their support.

(3) The importance of trust

Ultimately, all of these strategies and processes rely on trust: "...a letting go of control and an increasing belief that others can and will function independently and successfully within a common framework of expectations and accountability." (Conley & Goldman 1994)

Find out more about: Facilitative Leadership in Change Management

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with the 8 FREE Introductory Lessons from Practitioners Masterclass

Dealing With Resistance to Change - 5 Guiding Principles

2010-08-23T13:05:00.000+01:00

Here are 5 key aspects to dealing with resistance to change:

(1) Factual aspect of dealing with resistance to change

A well-executed communication strategy is vital to a successful change management initiative, and is integral to dealing with the factual aspects of resistance.

People need facts. They need to know the rationale and the logic for the change. They need to hear the specifics about the intended organisational benefits that will be realised through the change. The structural and content aspect of your communications will benefit greatly from the discipline of a programme-based approach to leading and managing your change initiative.

(2) Emotional aspect of dealing with resistance to change

The idea of the importance of the human and emotional dimension of change is now increasingly mainstream as most of the main thought leaders in the world of change management and change leadership are now speaking vociferously about this. This is also an integral aspect of a well-executed communication strategy, and is a key function of change leadership - "primal leadership" as Daniel Goleman now defines it.

(3) Personal aspect of dealing with resistance to change

If your people don't like you - if they are resistant to you - you've got problems. An frequently overlooked and ignored factor is YOU as change leader.

Given that the primary causes of failure in change initiatives are all people related, it seems fairly self-evident that change leadership requires some very special qualities in the person[s] leading the change. So getting this component right yet another critical element of leading a successful change initiative.

(4) Individual and collective capacity for change

There is a point beyond which individuals and organisations just cannot change - even if they want to. This is yet another often over-looked factor. It is assumed that given enough information and support just about anything is possible. In theory it may be - in strategic reviews and planning exercises - but in practise it isn't.

There are very real limits as to how far and how fast people and organisations can change. In very simple terms those limits are to do with the degree and level of individual and organisational evolution. There is an evolutionary path of progression that we all follow as our awareness and capabilities expand in response to increasingly complex changes in our external environment.

So to take a simple example, an individual cannot jump from childhood to adult maturity in one step and without evolving through all of the intervening stages of development. To make practical use of this understanding it is necessary to have a cognitive map and simple tools of analysis to facilitate our understanding of this.

In a change leadership and management context, this can be cultural mapping and analysis and also the selective use of a range of maturity models. For example, this could include project, programme and change management maturity models

(5) Acceptance of the limitations of change

One final dimension that is rarely, if ever, discussed in dealing with resistance to change, is that however well a change initiative is prepared and delivered, "stuff happens" - often unexpected "stuff"! The unpalatable reality is that regardless of whether we accept it or not, there are significant aspects of our personal and organisational lives that are out of our control.

In the context of an organisational change, the experience for many, many people is that change is imposed upon them, and even senior management often find that they are considerably constrained by factors totally beyond their control. All of these things are frequently very stressful and often not fully resolvable. And so the remaining necessary skill is learning to recognise and accept the limitations of the situations we find ourselves in.

As the old saying goes, we need to figure out what we can change and also what we can't change and have the sense and grace to know the difference and live with it - something that is rarely, if ever, taught in management training!

Find out more about: Dealing With Resistance to Change.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with the 8 FREE Introductory Lessons from Practitioners Masterclass

Dealing With Resistance to Change - The Best Change Management Approach

2010-08-23T13:00:00.001+01:00

Resistance to change is a very natural and healthy reaction! As a generalisation, the older you get the more likely you are to resist change - you've seen it all before, you know what works and what doesn't, so why change it now?

Sources of resistance to change

The 2 fundamental sources of resistance are fear and aspiration.

Resistance to change in an organisational context often makes sense, and a healthy fear of change is a necessary and integral protective aspect of our survival mechanism. Very often we are right to be fearful of the potential consequences of a change and especially of an imposed change - and as it really may be detrimental to our best interests and survival in our current environment.

Uncertainty about the impact of the change and the extent and nature of that impact is another big factor in resistance to change. This is what I call "aspirational resistance" in other words: "What's in it for me" and: "Is it good for me or bad for me?" Until we are clear about the answers to these questions we will resist change.

So, to a very large extent, resistance to change is the default setting for adult behaviour, and frequently the level of resistance increases in direct proportion to life and work experience, for the very simple reason that: "We have seen it all before!"

Causes of resistance to change

In my experience, in an organisational context, the biggest causes of resistance to change are the behaviour and attitudes of the leaders introducing the change and the managers seeking to implement it.

The specific reason for this lies with their failure to take comprehensive account (often the failure to take any account) of the impacts of the change. This includes paying special attention to the assessment and mitigation of these impacts upon those people who will be most impacted by the change.

The best leadership and change management approach to dealing with resistance to change

The best strategy for dealing with resistance is not to have to!

A change leadership that is self-aware and exercises high levels of emotional intelligence will be sensitive to the emotional dimension and the need to recognise and help people through the transitions they will pass through as they adjust to the organisational change that is impacting them.

A change leadership and management that will recognise the importance of the cultural dimension and will undertake a thorough cultural analysis as a foundational and integral aspect of the change planning and preparation process

A change leadership that understands the major change models - the concepts, and the thinking, behind them. The leadership team recognise the need for a holistic comprehensive change framework that will bridge the massive gap between their strategic vision and the ultimate realisation of the intended organisational benefits.

They are aware of the critical disconnects that occur between management and employees of the organisation, they know where are they are and how they arise.

They make full use of the "shadow organisation" the web of informal networks and will plan and implement the different phases of the change initiative with forethought and skilful preparation and planning.

A change leadership and management that will also fully understand the need to manage the task level aspects of programme implementation. They won't make the common mistake of assuming that because they have told people what they want to happen that it will happen. They know that they need to provide hands-on detailed management in the specifics of what to do and how to do it.

Ultimately they will know that to a considerable extent there are many complex and inter-related aspects to a truly successful change initiative, and thus dealing with resistance to change is rather like handling a Rubik's cube.

So, to personalise this, if you have planned thoroughly and addressed all of the key areas in successfully leading and managing change, you will have removed many totally unnecessary and predictable causes and sources of resistance. You will also now understand where and why resistance remains.

Find out more about: Dealing With Resistance to Change.

Equip yourself to avoid the 70% failure rate of all change initiatives with the 8 FREE Introductory Lessons from Practitioners Masterclass

The Current State Of Change Management In The UK

2010-06-15T09:03:00.003+01:00

The current state of change management in the UK is currently reactive to issues that show up on the board's radar rather than driven by any strategic intent or innovation.

This, and the following observations, are based on current analysis of recent surveys and supported by my own research and experiences.

I appreciate that many readers of this article are non-UK, however I sense that many of the issues we face here in the UK may be shared to some extent in other countries and cultures.

Currently the UK top three drivers for change are:

(1) Increased efficiency
(2) Cost reduction
(3) Corporate restructure

Essentially this is all about stripping out cost rather than innovation to create added customer value.

"Short-termism"

All the evidence shows that change management programmes in the UK are frequently badly thought out, managing change in the workplace is poorly executed and many do not succeed in achieving their stated objectives. The responsibility for this lies predominantly with the directors and senior management.

The main reason for this is the culture of "short-termism" where monthly and quarterly targets drive companies.

The direct effect of this is that the focus in change management is nearly always on getting the quickest return by fixing the most obvious and glaring problems.

This focus on quick fixes often reflects a lack of investment in the organisation in the first place. So change management in the UK is seen as a sort of "magical box of tricks" that will somehow get them through the aspect of change they don't like handling - the people issues - so that they can get to the aspect they do like handling - which is the money.

This also reflects the all too frequent lack of clarity of what the change management initiative is intended to deliver, and a "business case" for change based on knee-jerk reactions.

Whereas the reality is that managing change in the workplace is really all about being able to deal with complexity and "messiness" - with many stakeholders simultaneously - and dealing with a multiplicity of different views of the issues facing the company and how to deal with them!

Change management is imposed from the top-down

Given that these are change management programmes that will have a direct and probably negative impact on employees - with possible job losses, and that the remaining staff will be expected to do more and work harder - they are understandably viewed with suspicion and concern across the organisation.

In too many organisations, change management in the UK is imposed from the top-down, there is little if any consideration given to the need and business benefit of winning hearts and minds.

So the majority on the receiving end of these edicts spend most of their time doing just enough to "be seen to be wanting" to comply but in reality resisting the change and despising and resenting those "on high" who impose this stuff on them.

So when implementing change management and managing change in the workplace directors and senior managers sacrifice the needs and feelings of their employees in the interests of keeping their shareholders happy.

This is reflected in the research that shows that two of the top five biggest mistakes that occur in change management in UK companies are to do with staff issues, and this is closely followed by weaknesses identified amongst senior managers.

Negative assessment of the role of senior management

This short sightedness is ultimately counterproductive because if change management programmes are badly handled - as so many are - then the chance of failure is greater. Furthermore, they can cause more damage to the morale of the company, and thus have a negative effect on future competitiveness.

Research shows a negative assessment of the role senior management play in helping to achieve the end goals of change management initiatives. More than 50% feel that senior management fail specifically in inspiring the workforce, managing change in the workplace and providing effective leadership.

The evidence suggests that senior executives lack basic understanding of the aims of business transformation initiatives and specifically their roles as sponsors; and also are lacking in many of the core skills expected of leaders and that are vital for the implementation of change management.

Yet despite this, there is a widely shared belief that good executive sponsorship is key in helping a change management programme to deliver competitive advantage to a business.

The tide has turned against the major management consultancies

Despite the fact the "change industry" is a multi-billion pound business for UK consultancies, the tide has finally turned against the major blue-chip management consultancies, in terms of perception of "value for money".

The majority of businesses planning a major change management programme prefer to use their own internal resource, or drafting in experts to either fill knowledge gaps or manage the entire process if required.

Summary conclusion

In summary, research findings indicate that all too often, UK companies embark upon change management on a reactive and "knee-jerk" basis to protect them, rather than with desire to innovate and improve.

The tragic result of all this is that too many UK change management initiatives suffer from a lack of vision, bad management skills and are generally under resourced, which leads to a poor reception from workers and ultimately a large number of failed programmes.

This is the current state of change management in the UK. What is it like where you are?

For more on this: " Managing change in the workplace "

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Resistance to Change - Overcoming it by Working With Informal Networks

2010-06-10T12:30:00.005+01:00

Resistance to change is the inevitable consequence when management do not recognise the people dimension of change and when management do not employ change processes, and change management techniques that recognise and work with the political and relational aspects of informal networks that exist within every large organisation.

According to Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan (Authors of "Leading outside the Lines")

"Learning how to mobilize the informal elements of an organization to accelerate the formal elements goes a long way in helping leaders fill the gap between intention and results."

In his famous 8 Step Change Model, John Kotter emphasises the importance of creating and sustaining an energy for change starting with a sense of urgency and then building on that to build a coalition for change. Kotter advises that for a significant change initiative to have any chance of overcoming resistance to change and succeeding, it requires the support of at least 75% of the management.

The recognition, identification and utilisation of informal networks takes these insights a quantum step forward.

UK based change management practitioner Neil Farmer has led 5 successful major change initiatives and he observes that whilst the formal organisation determines all routine aspects of what takes place, and in so doing provides the necessary "glue" of stability and repeatability, the shadow or informal organisation largely determines the scope and pace of change:

"Where the shadow and formal organisations come into conflict in a change situation, the balance of influence in the shadow organisation will almost always win the day."

Key steps to dealing with resistance to change via informal networks

(1) Relaxing "command and control"

The first and biggest step is one that can only be taken by the CEO and senior management of the organisation, and that is to relinquish (or at least relax) "command and control". Not totally of course, as there is always a need for firm direction and senior management edicts, but sufficiently to empower the change leaders to identify and work in collaboration with the informal networks.

In my direct and observed experience, this seldom happens. The DNA of the leaders and senior management of most organisations ( especially large ones) is hard-coded to resist this - thus resistance to change starts at the top. In the UK at least, this resistance to change in management style reflects the myopia that results from a general business culture fixated on short-term results.

All too often, the only conditions that encourage directors to relax command and control are either the appointment of a new CEO and/or senior management team, or the threat of a fairly major exposure i.e. an issue that is severe enough to create a personal accountability and potentially one that could be politically exploited to the personal detriment of the individual executive.

You may feel this is a cynical view but it is (sadly) reflected in change leaders and managers failure in dealing with resistance to change and the resultant 70% failure rate of all significant change initiatives.

(2) Organisation Network Analysis

Organisation Network Analysis (ONA) is an extension of cultural and sub-cultural analysis - moving beyond the identification of entities and individuals who inhabit a range of sub-cultural attitudes and behaviours (which may or may not be receptive and open to change) and into the identification and mapping of the networks of these individuals.

The applied methodology for conducting an Organisation Network Analysis (ONA) is similar to that employed to conduct a cultural analysis, namely an iterative process of informal interviews commencing with a known change positive influencer and preceding on a referral basis until all referrals in the network have been interviewed.

ONA scans are guided and enabled by known change positive influencers and can move from "shallow" scans to increasingly "deeper" (or more detailed ) scans.

(3) Identifying the "change positive" key influencers in the informal networks

Jon Katzenbach call these "change positive" key influencers "master motivators" - these are people right down at the front line who are naturally and intuitively collaborative, who are already recognized amongst their colleagues for their unique ability to gain the emotional commitment of their people - those who intuitively make better use of informal networks and communities of common interest than most good managers do.

There are 2 types of key influencers/master motivators: those who are open-minded to change and those who are by nature positive to change.

(4) Introducing key influencers/master motivators into first line management roles

This first level of management has the most contact and thus most direct influence on people and is thus critical in dealing with resistance to change. Neil Farmer suggests that typically there may be only as few or 30 or 40% of key influencers/master motivators in these positions, and is highly desirable to increase this to 80% as soon as possible.

(5) Don't try to manage the informal networks like the formal networks

Jon Katzenbach says that the biggest mistakes leaders make when trying to manage and maximize the informal organization is to try to manage the informal like the formal. Informal networks will not be told what to do or accept a top down imposition, rather they need to influenced and energised. As Katzenbach says:"...mobilize the informal and manage the formal".

So one of your first steps to dealing with resistance to change is in identifying and mapping the informal networks that exist within your organisation and specifically the individuals within these networks and their relationships.

Resistance to Change - Understanding the Critical Disconnects - Where They Are and How They Arise

2010-06-10T12:27:00.000+01:00

Resistance to change and dealing with resistance to change is a subject about which much has been written and it remains a recurring subject in comments and questions posted on my website and about which people email me. This is hardly surprising given the 70% failure rate.

In the context of dealing with resistance to change, it is important to understand the critical disconnects - where they are and how they arise and how they impact employee responses to change. In my experience there are at least 2 significant areas of disconnection between management and employees.

(1) Management are detached from direct feedback from the frontline and the human consequences of their decisions

The further up the "greasy pole" we look, the greater the disconnection from the frontline. Change management practitioner Neil Farmer of UK based Informal Networks Ltd describes this as:

"... a deadly case of an inverse correlation - on the one hand growing ego and confidence, and on the other diminishing feedback, from source."

Once junior executives start their upward ascent into management they generally do not receive training in the need for and skills of acquiring and processing feedback. Not do they get much, if any, training in the critical interactive skills that are essential to long-lasting success in organisational management. This lack of training and awareness of the need for feedback from the frontline is reinforced with the growing confidence of the developing young executive.

Perversely, the lack of feedback feeds the growing sense of confidence of the executive and as long as he (or she) is seen to be relatively successful then their upward progress continues.

The other factor that feeds the rising executive's growing sense of confidence is the "business by default" factor - this is the business momentum which occurs when long standing businesses tend to keep winning and holding business just because they always have and not least because of the commitment of their frontline staff. So rather than recognising that much of their perceived success is not in fact attributable to their own skills, their confidence grows.

Eventually the manager becomes so far removed from the source of feedback about the actual consequences of management decisions they make, that they completely lose touch with the frontline.

It is from this position of managerial experience and perceived strength that so many change initiatives are conceived and launched.

(2) Up to 75% of an organisation's natural leaders and informal networks sit outside of the formal management structure

In start ups, and very small businesses, staff have a direct and in-depth connection with what they do and the results that are generated. There is usually a strong sense of ownership of tasks. Lines of communication between staff and the business owner will usually be informal and direct, and a strong sense of community develops.

Roll the clock forward a few years and, if the business is fortunate enough to still be in existence and succeeding, the owners may decide to expand.

At this point, processes become more formalised and structured, and layers of management are introduced. As the business continues to expand the owners/investors seek to expand further and having developed a successful business model look to develop their initial success through replication.

Whilst replication is essential to business expansion it inevitably introduces a level of "de-skilling" as business processes are defined and documented, and increasing levels of IT and automation are introduced.

It is around this point that employees experience increasing levels of disconnection from the informality and easy communication of the original (and smaller) business as the formality of the "newish" management structures and business processes are introduced and increasing numbers of new employees are recruited.

Roll the clock forward a few more years and management are looking to maintain or increase productivity and profitablity by introducing process improvements. The disconnect increases...

Roll the clock on a bit further and the first disconnect we discussed above - "Management detachment from direct feedback"- really starts to kick in and so the disconnect increases...

To compensate for this loss of immediacy, intimacy, camaraderie and the ability to resolve stuff quickly without recourse to formal processes and structures, staff develop their own informal "work-arounds" to problems and informal networks occur naturally and "natural leaders" emerge.

This then is the genesis of what is referred to as the "shadow organisation" and what leads to the proliferation of an organisation's informal networks. This is also the fertile soil in which much resistance to change grows.

And yet it is within these informal networks that disconnected management can rediscover the energy and dynamics to successfully deal with resistance to change...

Resistance to Change - Working With Supportive Sub-Cultures to Overcome It

2010-06-10T12:25:00.001+01:00

Resistance to change is the inevitable consequence when senior management overlook the people related issues that are crucial to success, but there is a further, closely related, reason and that is to do with organisational culture.

There is no single "golden bullet" that guarantees a successful change initiative, and that overcomes all resistance to change. Dealing with resistance to change is based on a composite understanding of a number of inter-related factors, including: clarity about what you are doing and why; good leadership; an appropriate change model and methodology; and clear understanding of what is required to translate the change vision and strategy into actionable steps.

Understanding the cultural composition of your organisation

One often-overlooked yet important dimension of resistance to change lies in a clear understanding of the cultural composition of your organisation.

The process that leads to this understanding involves a thorough cultural mapping and analysis focusing on the key questions of "How we look now" and "How we want to look in future". You need to define a cultural framework for the organisation that identifies the:

(1) Dominant-culture of the company now, how it really is now

(2) Espoused-culture - what senior management think (or wish) the culture is - often reflected in so called "mission statements"

(3) Desired-culture - how it will all look after a successful change initiative

But you need to go deeper than that and specifically, you need to know how to identify and connect with all of the "sub-groups" or sub-cultures in your organisation that will assist or resist the change initiative. These can be categorised as:

"Regressive-subcultures" and "Subversive-subcultures"

There are sub-cultures that are "regressive" and who show resistance to change, and there are sub-cultures that are "subversive" and who will go beyond mere resistance to change and seek to undermine it.

"Emergent-subcultures" and "Aspirational-subcultures"

Fortunately, there are other sub-cultures that are "emergent", moving forward and receptive to change but doing so "unknowingly" (that is without full conscious awareness of the significance of their attitudes and behaviour). These people just naturally and automatically seek to do things in the best way possible, and they are naturally open-minded about change.

Better still tho, there are sub-cultures that are "aspirational" and who embrace change and seek it positively. These sub-cultures behave knowingly (that is with full conscious awareness of what they are doing). These are the people who are constantly seeking to "up their game" and who are naturally change-positive.

It is these last two groups who will be key to overcoming resistance to change and who need to an integral part of what John Kotter refers to as your "coalition for change".

Change Management - What is the Appropriate Leadership Response to Change?

2010-06-10T12:23:00.004+01:00

Historically, in times of recession and economic slow down, the organisational response has been "slash and burn" on costs, and to focus on and streamline business processes to squeeze out ever greater efficiencies.

In the recession of the early 90's, the focus was all about achieving those efficiencies by creating and putting in place processes that would deliver those efficiencies regardless of the human cost.

You may recall the period after the last recession when "Business Process Re-engineering" was very popular? And the focus was always on the process and not the people - and getting "buy-in" was once described by a change agent friend of mine as "like trying to get a bunch of turkeys voting in favour of Christmas"!

Lack of leadership and management failure

All too often, change management is largely reactive to issues that show up on the board's radar rather than driven by any strategic intent or innovation. Typically the three main drivers for change are:

Increased efficiency
Cost reduction
Corporate restructure

Essentially this is all about stripping out cost rather than innovation to create added customer value.

The research evidence shows that in these conditions, change initiatives are frequently badly thought out, managing change in the workplace is poorly executed and many change initiatives do not succeed in achieving their stated objectives. The responsibility for this lies predominantly with the directors and senior management.

Change management is often seen by directors and senior management as a sort of "magical box of tricks" that will somehow get them through the aspect of change they don't like handling, the people issues, so that they can get to the aspect they do like handling - which is the money.

This also reflects the all too frequent lack of clarity of what the change initiative is intended to deliver, and a "business case" for change based on knee-jerk reactions.

In these conditions, change management is imposed from the top-down, and little if any consideration is given to the need and business benefit of winning hearts and minds.

So the majority on the receiving end of these edicts spend most of their time doing just enough to "be seen to be wanting" to comply, but in reality, resisting the change and despising and resenting those "on high" who impose this stuff on them.

The reality is that all too often, directors and senior managers sacrifice the needs and feelings of their employees in the interests of keeping their shareholders happy.

The appropriate response

So in short, the appropriate response to change is one that actually works!

What works is an approach that addresses the root cause of human resistance to change:

That looks beyond the organisational "synergies", cost reductions and service improvements, and identifies those people who will be impacted by the change.
That thoroughly assesses what those impacts will be.
That recognises and addresses the emotional issues arising and the personal transitions that accompany the organisational change.
That provides leadership, supported by management processes, and practical, tactical support that deal directly with these impacts.
That does so in ways that work as well for the people within the organisation as they do for the organisation.

Stephen Warrilow