Achievement at extensive transformation requires more than the best strategic and tactical plans, the customary focus of senior executives and their advisers. It requires deep understanding of the human aspect, as well — the company’s culture, values, people, and behaviours that must be changed to deliver the desired results. Plans themselves do not capture value. Value is realized only through the sustained, collective actions of all employees who are responsible for designing, executing, and implementing the change.
Long-term structural transformation is categorized by scale — it affects all or most of the organization; by scale — it involves significant changes from the status quo; by duration — the change program lasts for months if not years; and by its strategic prominence. Yet companies will reap the rewards only when change occurs at the level of the individual employee.
Many leaders recognize this, and it worries them. When asked what keeps them up at night, senior executives often wonder about “how the workforce will react,” “getting my workforce to collaborate and pull it off,” “leading my employees through this,” “retaining our unique values and sense of identity,” or “creating a culture of commitment and performance.” Leadership teams that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why their best-laid plans go off-centre. Morshona has partnered with dozens of companies to plan and execute extensive change. Through the course of these engagements, we have developed a unique perspective on managing the human side of change. No single methodology fits every company, but a set of practices, tools, and techniques can be adapted to a variety of situations. With these as a systematic, holistic framework, we can help executives understand what to expect, how to manage their own personal change and how to engage the entire organization in the process.
What follows is our Top Ten list of guiding principles for transformational change.
1) Address the human aspect of change systematically: Any transformation of meaning will create people issues. New leaders will be asked to step up, jobs will be changed, new skills and capabilities must be developed, and people will be uncertain and will resist. Dealing with these issues on a reactive, case-by-case basis puts promptness, confidence, and results at risk. A disciplined approach to change management must be one of the four pillars of any transformation approach. This fact-based approach demands as much data collection and analysis, planning, and implementation discipline as a redesign of strategy, systems, or processes. It should be fully integrated into program design and decision-making, both informing and enabling strategic direction. It should be based on a realistic assessment of the organization’s history, readiness, and capacity to change. And it should link multiple change initiatives together. A formal approach for managing change — beginning with the leadership team and then engaging key stakeholders and leaders — should be developed early but adapted often as change moves through the organization.
2) Change starts at the top and begins on day one: Change is inherently unnerving for employees at all levels of an organization, and when it is on the horizon all eyes will turn to the Leader or and the leadership team for strength, support, and direction. The leadership must change first to challenge and motivate the rest of the organisation, speaking with one voice and “walking the talk” to model desired behaviour. Simultaneously, individual executive team members are going through their own personal changes and need to be supported so that they can be in agreement with their executive team members. Executive teams that work well together, that are aligned and committed to the direction of change, that understand the culture and behaviours it intends to introduce, and that can model those changes themselves are best positioned for success.
3) Real change happens at the bottom: As transformation programs progress through strategy/target setting, design, and implementation, they affect different levels of the organization. Change efforts need to include plans for identifying leaders and pushing accountability for design and implementation down through the organization. Strategy and target setting is usually the responsibility of the executive team and its line reports. Design teams drawn from the next layer of leaders and senior managers must be prepared to work across silos and lead the change. Implementation relies on line managers and individual employees. Each of these layers must have identified, trained leaders who are aligned to the company’s vision, prepared to execute their specific assignment, and motivated to make change happen. These change leaders must be free from their current workload and dedicated to the work of change.
4) Confront reality, demonstrate faith, and develop a vision: employees are profoundly rational and will question to what extent change is needed, whether the company is headed in the right direction, and whether they want to personally commit to making change happen. They will look to the leadership for answers. Articulating a formal case for change and creating a written vision statement are invaluable opportunities to create (or force) leadership team alignment. Leaders must then customize this message for various internal audiences, describing the pending change in terms that matter to the individual
• Confronting reality and articulating a compelling need for change
• Demonstrating faith that the company has a viable future and the leadership to get there
• Providing a roadmap to guide behaviour and decision-making
5) Create ownership, not just buy-in: Large change programs require a distributed leadership that has broad influence over decisions both visible and invisible to the senior. Change leaders must reach stretch targets during the transformation and be the supporters that create critical mass for change in the workplace. This requires more than simple buy-in or passive agreement that the direction of change is acceptable. It demands ownership by leaders willing to accept Client responsibility for making change happen in all of the areas they influence or control. Ownership is often best created by involving people in identifying issues and crafting solutions. It is reinforced by a combination of tangible (financial compensation) and psychological (fellowship, sense of shared destiny) incentives and rewards. Many businesses create “design and build” teams led by key change agents to develop the core strategies they will need to implement. Middle and line managers are likewise engaged in Phase III of the change program to flesh out the detailed implementation plans that they will follow.
6) Practice targeted over-communication: The best-laid plans are only as good as the organisation’s ability to understand, adopt, and act on them. Too often, change leaders make the mistake of believing that others understand the issues, feel the need to change, and see the new direction as clearly as they do. The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular, timely advice that is both inspirational and actionable. Communication is both outbound and inbound. It should be targeted so as to provide employees with the right information at the right time, to solicit their input and feedback and to check in on their emotional response to what they’ve heard. Change programs often require over-communication through multiple, redundant channels. However, communication must be timed, coordinated, consistent and personal. The best change leaders speak from the heart and convey a deep sense of personal commitment. They tell a consistent story and view telling the story as a key responsibility in the change process.
7) Openly address culture and attack the cultural centre: organisational culture is an amalgam of shared history, explicit values and beliefs, and common attitudes and behaviours. Change programs often require amending, creating (in new companies or companies built through multiple acquisitions), retaining (in storied consumer goods or manufacturing concerns), or merging (in mergers or acquisitions of large companies) culture to be successful. Culture should be addressed as thoroughly as any other area. This requires developing a baseline through a cultural/organizational diagnostic, defining a clear end state or desired culture, and devising detailed plans to make the transition. After completing the vision and thinking about the desired culture, leaders can assess the current culture to understand the gaps that need to be bridged and to identify strategies to accelerate the development of a new culture. Leaders should be explicit about the type of culture and underlying behaviours that will best support the new way of doing business, and find opportunities to socialize, model, and reward those behaviours. Attacking the cultural centre of a company — the locus of thought, activity, influence, or personal identification — is often an effective way to jump-start culture change.
8) Evaluate the cultural landscape early: Effective change programs pick up speed and intensity as they cascade down, making it critically important to understand and account for culture and behaviours at each level of the organization. Corporations often make the mistake of assessing culture either too late or not at all. Thorough cultural diagnostics can assess organizational readiness to change, bring major issues to the surface, identify cultural factors that will support or inhibit change, and target sources of leadership and resistance. They identify the core values, beliefs, behaviours, and perceptions that must be taken into account for successful change to occur. They serve as the common fact baseline for designing key change elements, such as the new corporate vision, and building the infrastructure and programs needed to drive change.
9) Prepare for the unexpected: No change program has gone completely according to script. Employees will react in unpredicted ways, areas of anticipated resistance will fall away, and the external environment will shift. Effectively managing change requires constantly reassessing the impact of change efforts and the organization’s willingness and ability to adopt the next wave of transformation. Fed by real data from the field and supported by information and decision-making processes that elevate and resolve issues, change leaders can then make the adjustments necessary to maintain momentum and drive results.
10) Speak to the employees as well as to the organization: Change is a personal journey as well as an organisational one. It truly does happen one person and one team at a time. Employee (or teams of employees) need to know how their work will change, what is expected of them during and after the change program, how they will be measured, and what success or failure will mean for them. Be honest and as transparent as possible. People will react to what they see and hear around them. Involve people in the change process. Provide highly visible rewards (promotion, recognition, bonuses) as dramatic reinforcement for embracing change. Sanctioning or removing people standing in the way of change reinforces the organisation’s commitment.
Conclusion
Most leaders contemplating change know that people matter. It is all too enticing, however, to abide on the plans and processes, which don’t talk back and don’t respond emotionally, than to face up to the more difficult, and more critical, human issues. These guidelines should help dispel some of the mystery of successfully mastering the “soft” side of change.
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