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Change is essential…. but is it really?
“It’s just changes for change’s sake” …. Sound familiar? Detractors and resistors who have worked in the same way for years, in traditional style organisations may be resistant to change, and feel like it’s happening to “Give the managers something to do” ….so, is it really essential?
Keeping relevant may lead to huge changes being necessary, but periodic large-scale changes can be a recipe for failures in successfully implementating those changes.
Advances in technology and shifting societal norms mean that our customers and stakeholders increasingly expect ‘always-on’ business; accessible 24 hours a day, constantly updated services and instant gratification. Our businesses often will need an online presence, a social media presence and the ability to book and pay for services remotely. In order to stay competitive here, we need to update processes, procedures and policies to allow for these ever changing needs to be met.
The world economy shifts, and increasing globalisation fuelled by advancing technologies mean that our businesses are often impacted by these shifts more dramatically now than ever before. If we are supplying a product or service that is available from businesses operating overseas, then we may well be competing in a much more unstable economic environment.
A growing economy will mean the potential for a greater demand on our organisations and the need for expansion and recruitment, or simply finding more efficient uses of time so that more can be delivered within the same resource allocation. Downward shifts in the economy will likely cause the need for budget cuts, efficiencies, downsizing or job losses – responding to these factors requires an organisation to be able to change and adapt, quickly and successfully.
There are many factors which will impose necessary changes on your organisation, requiring an agility from you and your employees which is only going to grow. But is change just a necessity by way of reaction to external factors?
Change as a motivator
Extrinsic factors prompt change – obviously… but is that the only time you want to be looking at switching things up in your business? Absolutely not. Modern businesses, regardless of the field they operate in need to be fluid and engage in constant improvement, but there is another great reason to regularly look to adjust how things are done.
It has long been recognised, that human beings have certain needs which will allow them to be happy and motivated to achieve within the various aspects of their lives. There are two well established psychological theories that are still widely held today, which were developed by Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg. Once people have their basic needs met (the hygiene needs) like working conditions and salary, they will report that they are ‘not dissatisfied’ with their jobs. But there is a huge gulf between a ‘not dissatisfied’ employee viewing her job as a pay cheque, a means to an end, and another employee seeing his role as engaging, being highly satisfied and motivated to consistently perform well. An excellent article explaining Herzberg’s theories can be read here.
Herzberg’s Hygiene and Motivation Factors
The secret here is harnessing the concepts of ‘advancement’, ‘personal growth’ and ‘self-actualisation’. Change is important to prevent employees becoming stale and under challenged. Taking the way things are done in a new direction through consultation with the affected staff members allows the development of new skills: the realisation of new opportunities, a way for staff members to innovate, present and deliver on new ideas and gain ownership and self-development from the process.
Changing direction within your business presents wonderful opportunities for your staff. It allows them to utilise their expertise and develop status amongst their peers, this is a huge motivational tool. For more information on the merits of meeting employees needs for status see here.
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Do you get irritated when a member of the team asks…”why?” – What if that team member is new, and has worked in the same industry but for other organisations for many years? New employees are incredibly valuable as a resource to challenge the status quo. They can bring with them ideas and new ways of looking at your core business. They can suggest fantastic ways of delivering your services more efficiently, more successfully and more in line with what the customer is demanding.
If you find yourself wanting to say, “because we have always done it that way” – STOP!! Any employee, new or old should be encouraged to question why things are done the way they are and encouraged to offer innovative suggestions for improvements, simply asking the question, and being receptive to the discussion can yield massive returns!
Change management – then vs now
The widely accepted gold standard for the change management process was developed by John Kotter, Professor at Harvard Business School and published in his 1996 book titled Leading Change. Here Professor Kotter develops a tried and tested approach to successfully embedding big shifts in procedure or structure into a work culture.
The original 8 steps approach (detailed below) developed by Professor Kotter, looks to manage change through wholesale ‘buy in’ from employees, Douglas McGregor had some great things to say about the best ways to engage with people too. Back in 1960 he published his theories regarding the two types of management styles, based on the manager’s beliefs about human nature (Mind Tools 2019). McGregor postulated that managers either believe Theory X or Theory Y and adopt the corresponding management style.
Theory X managers believe that people are lazy and try to get away with doing as little as possible, shirk any kind of responsibility for their actions, have little or no ambition and prefer to be supervised fully. Managers would therefore believe that motivators are limited to financial incentives, and micromanagement is necessary to continually coerce staff into working. This is known as the autocratic leadership style, relying on a system of rewards and punishments, giving them their tasks in agonizing detail and leaving no room for the employee to have any input in to the process.
Theory Y managers start by crediting people with differing needs from one another and assume that people are happy to work and gain motivation through pursuing mutually beneficial outcomes and goals. Theory Y assumes people are happy to take responsibility for their actions and get the most out of their work when they are appreciated and allowed to exercise creativity in how the work is undertaken. Integration of the individual’s goals with the objectives of the organisation they work for is the key component of Theory Y and negates the need for control, rewards or punishments.
The kicker here is that with both these theories, it was discovered that they are often self-fulfilling, with employees developing the tendencies of either Theory X or Y in response to the management style they were subjected to!
In the modern business world, traditional hierarchy structures with top down management and lower level employees being drip fed information only when necessary, are too resistant to change. If you can establish your team, or organisation as one that has fluidity and agility, encourages all employees to innovate and implement change and yokes the aims and goals of everyone with those of the organisation, necessary changes will easily blend into the already dynamic working practices.
It’s as easy as 1,2,3.
Let’s examine Professor Kotter’s model for change management step by step:
Step 1 – Create urgency
This is the most important step! You should absolutely not rush this step and crucially you need to be honest with your teams here. Proffesor Kotter’s original model encourages us to convince the whole organisation that change is necessary. Having open and honest conversations that centre on what is happening in the particular environment in which you work, market pressures and what the competition are doing, are all good ways to convey the need for change to your employees.
- Engage with employees at an individual a level, connect with their personal goals and aspirations, communicate the business need for the change, the benefits of change and the consequences of being left behind
- Identify their specific roles in the change, seek their input and explore how their role will contribute to the change, or again, the impact on their role if reform is sidestepped
- Promote ownership – This step is about open forums for discussion, ideas and concerns should be encouraged, here you are giving the employees a voice
- Identify all the staff being affected and any internal or external stakeholders, and in a broad-brush approach ask for their suggestions and inputs; in other words, CONSULT!
- Asking for input is NOT a sign of weakness, but a sign that you are involving everyone in this exciting process, and it provides you with insights into personalities for use in steps 2 and 4. (I have covered this in more depth in this blog post)
Look to promote the ‘big opportunity’ that can be capitalised on if a change in process or structure can be achieved successfully and quickly. Allow your staff to see that the organisation’s goals will be best met by seizing the opportunities presented, or by reacting to and addressing the threats on the horizon. Remember here that building a solid positive culture in your organisation where staff members align their personal goals to those of the organisation (in other words are invested) will make for a much smoother ‘buy in’ process. McGregor’s Theory Y would suggest that if you have already been including your teams in the direction setting processes, they are likely to have aligned their personal goals with those of the organisation and be personally invested in the success of both.
It is my view that when we as leaders perceive and treat our team members as capable contributors to the process and an invaluable resource of ideas for organisational improvement, the change process is far more successful. These employees will have accumulated experience and knowledge that as leaders we may have been isolated from, we just need to be humble enough to ask. The staunchest ‘change resistors’ are very likely to be our greatest change agents, if we just harness their will to problem solve.
Step 2 – Form a powerful coalition
You have been consulting with the whole workforce at this point, and you will hopefully have developed an understanding of who your best advocates are. Organisations with an inclusive culture will have plenty of strong candidates here. But this is the step where you identify who are the real ‘thought-leaders’ in your company and try your hardest to recruit them to your change coalition. At this stage we need Change Leaders who are almost evangelical advocates for the change you are implementing.
In every organisation there are those people who, for a host of reasons, carry people along with them, either in your favour… or to your detriment. They may hold influence because they are charismatic, because they are the most experienced or because they are the most staunchly cynical (remember cynicism is often mistaken for authenticity and an unwillingness to brown nose). You need a representative selection from every department, team and level to promote your message.
Your coalition should pull together
Your new coalition must work together as a well-oiled machine, staying on message and bringing people along with them at every turn. You will need emotional commitment from this core group, gather them together into a team and build that team up in strength.
A point of note here, if you are operating in a large organisation, where you will be conveying information to big groups, you need to consider your coalition members carefully. A large proportion of people have a phobia for public speaking (glossophobia) and may be terrified to address even modestly sized groups, especially if they are being asked to sell something that at first may be unpopular. Sure, you need good public speakers in your coalition, but don’t make the mistake of excluding the seemingly shy people. Human nature is such that people identify kindred spirits and will listen to them and are naturally suspicious of people who excel at something they hate. Small scale, discreet conversations around the coffee machine have incredible power, where the less outgoing people may find solace.
(If you struggle with public speaking, you can buy a great hypnotherapy course provided by our partner site which really helps with this! – The downloadable audio course is in three parts which you can complete in your own home. It has proven very popular with young professionals who have previously been crippled with nerves in meetings and at conferences. Go ahead and give it a try!)
Your coalition will be tasked with:
- Gathering employees together in large groups to be part of the change process (Step 4)
- Contributing to the planning and design processes of the change strategy
- Training other employees in new systems or processes
- Facilitating continuous improvement and the evaluation processes
Step 3 – Create a vision for change
Why are you doing all this? This step is where you encapsulate the purpose of this whole exercise in a clear vision. It is imperative here to consolidate everything you have picked up from your extensive consultation with your employees.
All the great ideas and solutions that have been floated will help you set the direction of the organisation, then boil that direction down into an easy to remember and understand vision.
At this point you may be thinking that even the phrase vision is too airy fairy for you. You are far too busy and focussed on getting the job done to worry about all that nonsense. Well, remember, at its core, change management is about getting support for the direction you want to take your team or company in, and that means communicating that direction to people wholesale.
For that, you need to distil the whole concept into a meaningful soundbite that can be transmitted to employees easily, in other words, the vision. If you started your business from nothing, you held a picture in your mind’s eye that kept you driven when times were tough… that was your vision, and now your employees need a vision to hold on to as well.
- Help your employees grasp the vision, and the transitions to new and unfamiliar systems will make more sense to them.
- Work out what core values and behaviours are needed to implement the change
- Summarise in a short paragraph (at most) where you see the future of the team or organisation
- Create a strategy that clearly lays out the steps needed to execute the vision
- Work with your coalition team to really embed this vision in their minds, so they can pitch it to people in less than 5 minutes. They need to know this stuff inside out and back to front. Rehearse over and over again with them, role play dealing with possible objections and work out solutions for them
Step 4 – Communicate the vision (enlist a huge volunteer army)
This is the step which Professor Kotter has modified most in his 2014 book Accelerate, where he value adds by exploring the concept of enlisting as many employees as possible as change agents. This is the idea of setting up a network of people across all levels of the organisation who trancend the traditional reporting structure, and keep the organisation fluid and agile.
The aim behind this step is the same though, and that is to get every member of the organisation to have heard and understood the vision that you developed in step 3. In large organisations, its unlikely you’ll have 100% acceptance, but this step is where you tip the odds in your favour.
Once created, your vision will need to cut through the white noise of business as usual, and firmly land in the consciousness of every individual. This means communicating it as often as possible, through as wide a range of channels as you can.
- Make sure your vision forms part of as many discussions each day as possible, right across the organisation – not just in meetings focussed on the changes
- Embed the vision in business as usual activities, refer to it when setting directions or making decisions
- Everyone will be watching you – remember, people do as you do, not as you say
- Be honest about the shortfalls and the tough times ahead – speak openly about where it will be difficult – give reassurances whenever you can
- Tie all performance management and development meetings back to the vision
- Lead by Example – remember people need to see that you are all in this together
Step 5 – Remove obstacles
With every process you are looking to change, or every piece of technology you wish to introduce, there will be other systems that are running in tandem with them. Let’s say you are looking to introduce hot desking to save on office accommodation costs for example. What about your time management procedure, does that conflict with the new approach? Do you require everyone to be in at the same time regardless of the business need, which is stifling the flexibility required for employees to truly hot desk?
This step is about taking the time to really explore the changes you are introducing and identify incompatible systems or uncooperative people that are preventing the transition.
Find a way around obstacles… or remove them all together
This is where you put in place the new processes following your strategy for change, and then continually check for barriers to their successful implementation. Removing these obstacles will be empowering for the affected employees and give people the freedom to execute your vision.
Something to note here is to test your own commitment to the success of the change. You may not have realised it, but the person who is unwilling to let go of an older process or system, maybe you. Be open to stepping outside your comfort zone in some instances and accepting that some things you hold dear may need to go. You can always set up pilot processes here to test changes to systems you are wedded to.
- In every team or section, you’ll need to have someone who is given the mandate to lead on the change and champion it
- Look at the structure of your organisation, how roles are defined and how performance is measured and incentivised, make sure they are modified to work in harmony with the change vision
- Where people are working in harmony with the vision for change, celebrate their achievements
- Act quickly to remove barriers of any kind
- Don’t underestimate the necessity to allay fears in people and try everything possible to bring them along for the ride
- Listen to any cynics and be seen to be listening to those cynics (they often have great points!) then work with them as best you can to help them see what needs to be done – it must be said though, it’s not always possible to bring everyone along successfully
Step 6 – Create short term wins
As with any task, breaking it down into achievable subdivisions makes the whole thing far easier to manage. But there is a second advantage here, success is infectious! These smaller milestones should be achievable, and as unlikely to fail as you can orchestrate. Having successes motivates people to keep working towards the bigger goal and takes the wind out of the negative people’s sails. This step builds momentum and gives the whole process credibility, little by little.
- Work with your change coalition team to come up with these subdivided tasks – it will be tough, but it is more than worth it
- Find elements of the overall process that you can easily implement independently of any doubters
- Think carefully about the likelihood of success, and the financial cost of these early goals, you need them to be achievable and inexpensive to detract from any negative individuals
- Celebrate these early successes and be seen to be rewarding the individuals responsible for them
Step 7 – Build on the change
As the momentum of the project develops, use the fact that everyone is talking about the changes to capitilise on the early successes. Professor Kotter cites ‘declaring victory too early’ as one of the major reasons for failure, so its important here to ensure each change is really embedded. If something has been running well for a month, it shows promise, not success. Month on month improvements and refinements are what we are looking for here.
- Analyse what has gone well, and what has not
- Refine your change strategy to focus and further implement the successes, and reject or modify failures
- Don’t rest on your laurels! – employ continuous improvement models to make sure you have people who are analysing every aspect of the new systems
Step 8 – Anchor the changes in corporate culture
This is the step where you need to focus on the culture of your organisation. Building a great culture is a big subject on its own, but the key point here is embedding the principles behind the original vision for change into your day to day operations. What on earth does that mean? So as not to slip back to how things were, every aspect of your organisation and daily work must reflect the underlying mantra that inspired the change in the first place. Maybe it is to have 24 hour accessibility to your services; maybe its to work far more flexibly, whatever the drivers are, they should guide every minute of every day hereafter.
- Reiterate and report on the progress in every meeting, briefing, toolbox talk or communication
- The underlying values behind the change should be part of your work culture now, right through all your performance management, recruitment, training and reward structures – integrate it thoroughly
Lead from the front, don’t just ‘manage the change’. Referring back to our hotdesking example, do you hot desk? Are you moving further ahead with giving employees the technology to work on the train on the way to their first client? Keep the progressions rolling on. You have made the hardest journey you will ever make corporately, you have influenced countless people to follow you on the initial journey, make every day from now on part of that same journey, no matter where you want it to lead in the future, so that you never have to start from scratch again!
Get involved
As you can see from the post, I am trying to give simple practical help to leaders wherever I can. I would love to hear your thoughts on the tips in this article, so it would be great if you could leave some comments below. Have you successfully implemented big changes? Let me know below!
I will be offering lots of pointers on this site as I develop the content and so let me know about anything you’d like me to cover too. I am also developing some great resources for leaders, and if you subscribe in the box at the top of this page, you’ll have FREE access to the 32 page E-book ‘New Leader Quick Start Guide’ which is an awesome resource for new leaders and a great refresher for those who have more experience!
See you for the next article!
Until next time
Greg Bennett is a Public Health Professional and
Leadership Coach
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References and further reading
- Kotter, J (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review
- Kotter, J (1996). Leading Change. Harvard Business school Press, Boston.
- Kotter, J and Cohen, D (2002). The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Harvard Business school Press, Boston.
- Kotter, J and Rathgeber, H (2006). Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding under Any Conditions. St. Martin’s Press: New York.
- Kotter, J (2012). Accelerate! Harvard Business Review
- Kotter, J (2014). Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World. Harvard Business Review Press, Boston.
- Mind Tools (2019).Herzberg’s Motivators and Hygiene Factors, Learn How to Motivate Your Team. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/herzberg-motivators-hygiene-factors.htm
