Towards Transformational Change

Towards Transformational Change

Much has been shared on Change Management in so many ‘to do’ consulting manuals. However, change has a soft and a hard part: and interesting enough the softer part is harder relative to the other.

I look at change metaphorically speaking as a sailboat on the ocean.

For me, the hard part is the Project Management aspects: Prepare, Engage, Design, Implement, Monitor, Embed, Evaluate and Terminate and the ‘check points’ that would determine Go/No Go, at each stage. This is the intellectual part of change. The content part of change.

However, it is the softer aspect of HOW, we will deliver change that is more crucial. People connect to a Vision, a compelling vision of the future, a place which would be better than Today: that story needs to be told: Together we are changing! The story needs to be reinforced regularly and wins/losses shared transparently along the journey to build trust, credibility and for leaders to come across as being fair, transparent and authentic.

Kottler model of Change is an interesting framework that creates this. So too, the CAP (Change Acceleration Process) by GE. Each consultant uses their own framework that works best for them. Each step builds on the Process element of change. It is said that if you had 10 hours, what would you you use most of the time on: Sharpen the axe (Process) , or chop wood? (Content).

Amongst all, the most crucial part of the process: the Principles of Transition. This work is to be co-created by the steerco, and to be understood widely across the organization. Transition principles lays out clearly the Performance Ambitions, Reasons for Change, Business Case, and the why of Change. That said, it should speak to the Values of the company, and how it would approach all elements of change through those lenses, like the North Star that is fixed and directional.

Even more importantly, it should clarify, the Leadership Standards as to how leaders are expected to lead change and the ‘Must Do’ behaviours.

In my experience of dealing with change, I believe, that people are not uncomfortable with dealing with change. They are indeed uncomfortable with the uncertainty that change brings and not having answers to the questions that get raised, which leads to anxiety and personal frustration. Communication, Communication and even more communications , allows people to embrace change.

Abiding by standards, Principles of transition, Being fair, transparent and authentic with skill, and sensitive to how people respond to change is crucial for change to be transformative.

Change when handled well would lead to institution building, at its worst, it creates one bad design to another bad design. Structures are transformed, but people in those structures continue to operate without any change.

For change to be institutional, it needs to define and embed new ways of working, that is reinforced by rewards.  The tolerance of the lowest error, determines the threshold of the culture. If you tolerate late arrival to the meeting, no matter how insignificant that establishes the implicit tolerance and culture of the workplace. Leaders need to demonstrate what they are intolerant too and call this out publicly. Clearly, between what is said, and what is done, done beats said, any day.

When Strategy and Culture collide, who eats who for breakfast?

Most Change is destined to fail: the hard is delivered: the easy bit. The soft is left undone. Organization that truly wish to bring transformational change must focus on that 1% difference, which is a significant differentiator. It is the 1% difference which makes the 100% difference.