Change Management - Change Processes That Work For People

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

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

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

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

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

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 "