weLEAD Online Magazine

leadingtoday.org

Do You Have What It Takes To Create a Change-capable Organization?

By Richard Reale

Organizational survival requires rapid adaptation to a changing environment. If survival is at stake, why is it so hard for us to implement change and have it stick? Why is there such a lag in our response to environmental changes? For more than twenty years I have been studying organizations to find the answers to these questions and to identify successful paradigms for creating and leading change-capable organizations. Unsurprisingly, successful lasting change is a rarity. Most disturbing are the organizations that endure the pain of change without achieving the expected benefits… all pain and no gain.

Much of our difficulty with change originates with how we think about it. The staircase model of change has prevailed for decades. While it may be an accurate model of how we have responded to change, it does not represent how change actually occurs. Change is a ramp, not a staircase. Small changes occur continuously at an ever-increasing pace. These small changes typically fly under our organizational radar. Even if they are noticed, many organizations discount early data and wait until they’re doubled over with hunger to review and possibly change their current method of foraging. For most organizations, success breeds stagnation and a blindness to data contrary to the status quo. Failure to respond to early external changes makes the forthcoming internal change larger and more traumatic.

I’ve found that most organizations get hung up with the technical side of change and downplay or disregard the necessary transition process of those who must implement it. Too many leaders view their organizations metaphorically as a machine rather than as a community of people. For organizations to effectively change and adapt, people within the organization must transform themselves. While this may sound obvious, observation proves that it is often overlooked. Most people acknowledge the need for others to change but find novel and creative ways to excuse themselves. Change is rarely effective when coerced. Successful sustainable change occurs most frequently in organizations that create a “change-friendly” culture. Organizations don’t change, per se; people within them do. For the organization to change, each individual must choose to embrace the impending change. In a “change-friendly” environment it is easier for people to assimilate change. Creating this type of environment is the job of leadership.

Elements of a change-friendly environment:

A clear and shared vision of the post-change environment

It’s hard to get anyone excited about a trip if no one knows the destination. To become committed to a change, people in the organization need to create and share the vision of future with as much detail as possible. What will it be like after the change? What behaviors will we see? How might relationships be altered? What new skills will be needed? What will be the benefit of the change?

Even the smallest brush stroke of color added by an individual on the future landscape has the power to garner interest and solicit ownership. To get people to be it, they have to see it. Yes, it takes time to engage people in the vision – but not nearly as much as it would take to lead the charge with an uncommitted or resistant workforce.

Employee involvement and distributed decision-making.

The future destination of the organization may sometimes be non-negotiable, but how it gets there is not. Designing the “how” requires input from those who will be required to live in the new place and follow the new system. When people are authentically involved in the “how” of the change, they are much more likely to be committed to it. When commitment is present, small obstacles will not stall implementation of the plan. People empowered to have a responsible level of decision-making authority over their own environment will construct a more robust future.

Don’t wait for major systemic change to delegate authority. Involve people now! Give people increasing levels of decision-making authority as they prove their ability to handle it. Good decision-making must be cultivated.

A high trust environment built through integrity and honesty

For most people, trust is earned over time with a track record of high integrity. In low-trust environments, a negative meaning is usually attributed to unexpected observations. During change the unexpected occurs frequently. Change is not the time for widespread second- guessing. Mistrust and fear are the enemies of a “change-friendly” environment.

Guard your credibility. The trust of others is easy to lose and hard to regain. Integrity means saying what you are going to do, and doing what you said… without exception. Be honest and reward honesty in others.

“Change-friendly” environments encourage experimentation. Regardless of conventional wisdom, not all experiments are successful. Errors and mistakes are destined to happen; how we react to them will create a culture of growth and improvement or one of fear and hiding. Negative criticism, blame, and backbiting must be consciously banned from the environment.

Leaders see their role as growing others

Did you ever have a person in your life who gave you feedback about something you didn’t do very well without making you defensive? If you’ve been lucky enough to have that experience, you probably realize that the magic was in how you perceived their intention. They spoke not to demean you but rather to help you grow.

Authentic caring and a genuine desire to help others be successful develop loyalty and career passion. Pay attention to how satisfied people are in their jobs; learn what motivates (and demotivates) those who report to you. There is growing evidence that even the distribution of task types within a job can make the difference between a satisfied contributor and a disgruntled employee.

Engage people in planning their own growth. Just remember that great coaches know the potential of their people and help them build on their strengths.

Precision recruitment and placement

It’s amazing the variety of opinions I get when I work with an organization to define a job for benchmarking. It’s important to focus on the job and not the individual currently doing the job, but this is not as easy as it sounds. We all have a tendency to think of a job based on how the incumbent performs it. It’s important to define the job in terms of great performance. If this job were done extraordinarily well, what tangible outcome would we expect to see at the end of the year? Jobs should be defined in terms of measurable outcomes. Be aware that different jobs provide different motivators; those motivators should be in alignment with the motivational needs of the people who fill them.

Bottom line, it’s important to get people into positions that match their behavioral style and provide them the kind of rewards that will stoke their fire. Guard the gate: only allow people into the organization who will flourish there. Validated assessment tools are currently available to help match people with positions.

In “change-friendly” environments, generally an applicant’s attitude and aptitude carry more weight than job experience. Environments that change frequently need people who are positive and able and willing to learn new things.

Carefully select those who will join your community and commit yourself to growing those around you. Great leaders are not afraid to hire the best talent they can find.

Recognition of the nature of human transition during change

While individuals will engage change differently, the process is predictably universal. Early resistance is not bad; it is frequently the reaction of caring, concerned people. Don’t forget, if no one is uncomfortable with the change it’s likely that nothing is changing. Resistance should be worked through, not surgically removed.

Don’t confuse change management with project management; human change is not a linear process. “Change-friendly” environments understand the nature of human transition and work with people to minimize the negative effects of adjusting to the change. Transition is always uncomfortable but it does not have to be totally debilitating. In every change, something must be let go and left behind. Often it’s something that makes us feel comfortable and in control. The hardest things to let go of are those that define how we see ourselves or how we think others perceive us. Into this category go such things as titles, authority, and expertise. These may be the very things that are valued and held in high esteem by the existing culture.

Also, different behavioral styles react differently to change. Knowing where in the process of human adjustment to change, you will discover that how certain styles excel and others derail is valuable information. Tuning the change management process to be sensitive to these differences will lighten the burden of the change by reducing derailments.

A corporate culture that values and rewards those who develop resiliency and embrace change

If less emphasis were placed on titles, authority, and expertise and individuals were valued instead for their natural abilities, change might proceed with fewer traumas. Those who love to learn, for example, will thrive given the opportunity to undertake the steep learning curve of a new idea or philosophy. Valuing people for their natural talents and who they are is less likely to cause them to have an identity crisis any time a change happens. People’s identities and natural talents will usually transcend even the most demanding organizational changes.

There are huge benefits to being change capable. Developing change capability results in more rapid adaptation to the new conditions. Just as timberland fires bring renewed life to the forest, change in our environments usually brings opportunity. Change may bring pain but it also opens the door for creativity and innovation. While most organizations are still wrestling with the trauma of change, change-capable ones are focusing their energy on identifying new opportunities and capitalizing on them. In this turbulent environment only the most adaptable will grow and prosper, thus making change capability development the most sought after competency of this decade.

BACK TO weLEAD HOME PAGE

About the author: Richard Reale earned his Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology. He has held key leadership positions in organizations ranging from start-up companies to Fortune 500 corporations and has taught Organizational Behavior at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

With a long track record of implementing systemic change, Rich established Positive Impact Associates in 1993 to help create environments that foster performance excellence. His methods combine traditional and leading-edge philosophies to enhance individual performance and group collaboration.

Rich’s book, Making Change Stick: Twelve Principles for Transforming Organizations, is available at amazon.com and at the Positive Impact web site,