Managing Change in Organizations
In a recent article in our ongoing series “Organizations that Work” we talked about how our unique approach to organizational design, implementation and sustainment focuses on four key areas to assure success and manage risk at all stages of the journey. One of those key areas of focus—education and change management—is vital to reducing risk, ensuring success, and keeping everyone aligned with the overall objectives as the organization transitions from its current state. In this week’s blog we’ll go into a little more detail on our approach to managing change, which is tightly linked to our overall process for redesigning and implementing a new organization.
Our approach to Change Management (and our tools) have evolved from decades of work with senior executives, their teams, and their organizations. Over time, we have helped our clients with hundreds of organization transformation projects.
The pitfalls of failing at managing change are well documented, so we’d like to offer instead some observations from our experience about how executive leaders often underestimate the need for an investment in effective change management. It’s not that these leaders have bad intentions—rather, they are typically making some assumptions which, if incorrect, could have a negative impact on the project overall.
Here are our Top Three Reasons Executives Give to Downplay Managing Change
- “We all know why we’re doing this”. This message (or some version of it) often comes up in discussion at some point in our projects. By the time an organizational redesign project is in full swing, the most senior leader has typically been thinking for several months (or possibly up to a year) about making a change. There may well have been discussions about the need for change without a specific direction being arrived at. Leaders sometimes assume that “everyone knows” why a change is necessary and what it means for them and the organization. Psychologically, this is referred to as the False Consensus Effect. More often than not, there is a great deal of uncertainty and lack of clarity about change that should not be underestimated, and which needs to be addressed consistently and directly.
- “We’ve made our case clearly—from a business perspective the evidence for change is unmistakable”. A clear and compelling business case for change is very important in any successful change effort, as it frequently underpins the key messaging points that will be used throughout the process. Equally (or perhaps more) important is the need to be able to explain clearly and succinctly what the change will mean for individuals in the organization. This is often unclear at the outset (and it is OK to say so) but as events unfold and the future becomes clearer, messaging needs to evolve and become more personal. Everyone wants an answer to their own “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me?).
- “We’ve talked about this already/enough”. Closely related to #1 above, this statement often reflects a confluence of factors; the fact that the leadership team has often been talking and thinking about change for some time before it is operationalized, and a belief that people will tune out if they hear or see the same messaging more than once. Even the most well-intentioned and senior executive leaders sometimes need to be reminded that, given the vast amount of information that is dispensed and consumed daily, one or two townhalls and email announcements is simply not enough to get the entire organization clear on what is going on and why. A good, simple baseline is the “Rule of 7” that is widely quoted (you can google it); a more contemporary measure would likely be more like 15-20. We believe it’s almost impossible to over-communicate in attempting to manage change.
Core International’s Framework for Managing Change
Our framework for managing change is comprised of the following best practices:
Establishing the need for change
Changing the structure of an organization is hard work, and it requires everybody involved to be motivated and to put in the necessary effort. This is why it is paramount that every single member of the organization is invested in the process of transforming it for the better. If they aren’t engaged, initiating change becomes more difficult, and internal resistance can increase.
The first step of leading a design change is to create a clear, compelling “sense of urgency” or the need to change the current structure.
The right team
No one person, no matter how competent, is capable of single-handedly developing the right vision, communicating it to everyone, eliminating all the key obstacles, generating short term wins, and anchoring a new design into the organization’s systems and culture.
Establishing an effective change team will help implement the needed changes and mitigate risks to successful implementation.
Engage with a strong vision
After people are motivated and convinced that change is needed, and after a team that can lead it has been established, a clear company-wide vision for the desired outcome of the process is required. A clear vision can help everyone understand why they are being asked to do something differently. When people see for themselves what the organization is trying to achieve, the directives they are given tend to make more sense and they can actively support the change.
Clear communications
Communicating the vision should be a regular activity that is repeated at a consistent frequency, in both formal and informal situations. You and your fellow change leaders should talk about it with people every chance you get. Everybody should understand and be able to support the vision, which means their concerns will need to be acknowledged and were possible, addressed. Everybody needs to support the vision for the future, but they cannot do that if they don’t fully understand it, and that requires time to talk it out with their manager and leadership.
Enable the organization to change
Enabling a new structure broadly means removing barriers to allow people to do their best work. The new structure may require the development of new skills, additional headcount, technology, training, compensation reviews, and the reward and recognition of new behaviours.
Celebrate
Now that everything is in motion, you need to keep morale high by making sure that every single short-term win is visible and communicated. This is a simple concept which yields significant results, and it allows for the organization to track the process in a positive and reassuring way. Making sure that every win is made known gives you a regular chance to praise everyone’s efforts and reassure everyone watching from the sidelines that the vision is on the right track and working properly.
The wins must be clearly related to the change effort. Such wins provide evidence that the sacrifices that people are making are paying off. This increases the sense of urgency and the optimism of those who are making the effort to change. These wins also serve to reward the change agents by providing positive feedback that boosts morale and motivation.
Sustain the change
Another common reason for change projects to fail is the fact that many managers feel change has been achieved before it has solidified. Too often, initial successes can make leadership complacent, and they stop talking about the vision, and doing the things that led to long term success.
The new behaviors and approaches to levels of work should be heightened, and their connection to the company’s success should be pointed out regularly and articulated clearly.
The structure changes that have been achieved should be made permanent and should be solidified as a consistent part of the new company culture. Your work on the change project will not be done until there is alignment of organizational processes and programs in support of the new structure and levels of work.
This blog is part of our ongoing series Organizations that Work. To see all of the blogs in the series that have been posted so far, click here.
Every Tuesday over the next few months, we will be posting blogs that take you from the pain of poor organization design, to identifying the root causes, to the benefits of undertaking strategic organization review. We will discuss the steps needed to effectively align your structure and work with your strategy, and we’ll discuss the processes that take out the guess work and help you to get it done. Through it all we will discuss how to lead the change from start to finish.
If you’d like to speak with us about how we can help you on your journey to an organization that works, please follow us on LinkedIn or book a call directly with one of our partners.
This blog was written by Ed McMahon. Ed is the managing partner with Core International, and specializes in creating organization designs structured to deliver strategy and improve performance.
Our approach draws on several bodies of work including Stratified Systems Theory, the work of Dr. Elliott Jaques. For more on Dr. Jaques and his work visit the Requisite Organization International Institute at ROII Requisite – ROII Requisite.