How to manage change - and at the speed of change? How to deal with the turbulence? This is challenging and of all the current strategies for managing change it's a perspective that is increasingly relevant in the current climate.
Business guru Daryl Conner offers a fresh view on change management and says that given that people will resist change - and that resistance will be articulated as "why?" - and he suggests [in his book "Managing at the Speed of Change"] that senior management prepare very thorough answers to the following questions:
- What's so very wrong with the way that we've been doing things up to now?
- Why were we doing them wrong before?
- What will happen to me?
- When will happen to me?
- What if anything can I do about it
- What then is expected of me?
- What does this mean for me in my day-to-day job?
- What will you the management or leadership do about it?
- If [or more likely when] I encounter problems, what do I do, to whom do I turn?
We need to stop assuming we are one project away from things settling down
The Daryl Conner model starts with the premise that "Uninformed Optimism" is always followed by "Informed Pessimism" and humans will choose the comfort of familiarity over the anxiety that comes with the unknown.
He suggests that as we now live in an era of perpetual change and disturbance, we need to expect more change: "we need to stop assuming we are one project away from things settling down."
He says that we focus an inordinate amount of time and energy into trying to make people feel comfortable during a major change - where as the reality is they won't - dramatic change is uncomfortable.
The leader's role in change is not to make people feel happy about the change: it's helping them succeed despite their discomfort. It is not necessary for people to like what has happened to them - it is necessary that they make the adjustments that will help them succeed in the new environment.
In his book "Leading at the Edge of Chaos" [Wiley, 1998] Conner suggests some practical dos and don'ts for leading through turbulence. Here are a few examples:
The "Do's" of ongoing turbulence
- Be honest - more not less turmoil lies ahead
- Be concerned with whether people can successfully assimilate additional changes when new initiatives are being considered
- Pay more attention to how you learn than to what you learn
- Remember that it is everyone's job is to succeed in unfamiliar environments
- Increase your tolerance for ambiguity during periods of uncertainty
- View some of today's disturbance as the potential for tomorrow's new possibilities
- Translate "either/or" choices into "both/and" thinking
- Take some of the mystery and mystique out of change by learning to understand its patterns and dynamics
- Experiment with all and everything that you can, but remember to maintain your core values so you have an internal reference point for making key decisions
The "Don'ts" of ongoing turbulence
- Don't wait for things to slow down
- Don't ever think your organisation is one step from tranquility
- Stop feeling sorry for yourself that life has become so challenging
- Stop feeling like a victim when you don't get what you want
- Don't think that your people are entitled to always feel comfortable during change, or that you or your organisation has failed if this doesn't happen
- Stop being drawn to the excitement of initiating change bit bored or distracted with what it takes to sustain it
- Don't think that any one person or single group can resolve the really important issues in isolation
- Stop relying on your own knowledge, assumptions, and perceptions as the only valid basis of determining what to do next
In my opinion, this is a deeply pragmatic view that is well attuned to the current climate and one that resonates deeply with and is totally consistent with the holistic and wide view perspective of a programme based approach to change management.
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