Drive Change Before It Drives You

Systemic redesign. Cultural diagnostics. Cross-functionality. These phrases may tempt our eyes to glaze over, but in times of major turmoil and change, they pop up frequently. Why? In tough times (or even in perceived soon-to-be tough times) companies and organizations often cast about for new platforms and paradigms that they think will restore profitability, boost productivity and re-establish stability. Organizations generally commit to change because of potential benefits or the appearance of market forces that threaten to overwhelm.

The fact remains that achieving real change generally represents a painful and expensive process, particularly when the hills are alive with sacred cows that must be herded off before lasting change can take place. As often as not, the energizing thought that “anything’s better than this” evaporates in the short-term of change initiatives. A thousand new critics of change appear as if by magic as old comfortable processes are thrown under the bus. Productivity often alarmingly drops as fresh ways painfully move towards new routine.

While a company or division may readily agree on the need to change, executives and managers quickly find that talk is cheap. With little or no corporate buy-in, planning and setting strategic change in motion can result in unfocused change driving employees and managers exactly where they don’t want to go.

How do organizations then avoid common pitfalls such as Groupthink (where people enthusiastically and inexplicably arrive at a disastrously false conclusion), the “not-invented-here” syndrome (where ego and misplaced pride derails buy-in and evokes vision-sapping opposition) and other fallacies of the human dynamic?

Planning for change is key, but you can also plan things to death. The “ready, fire, aim” approach produces rapid action, but can also send your organization right off a financial cliff.

Before embarking on a course of change, consider the answers to three simple questions about your change initiative:
1) So what?
2) Who cares?
3) What’s in it for me?
Alan Rappoport, a media professional whose training clients include Microsoft executives and members of the Israeli and Japanese legislatures, once drilled into me the fact that if you can apply these questions to your intended audience and answer them honestly before commencing action, your initiatives or desired outcomes will be far more likely to succeed.

Now you can dress these questions up a bit and frame them this way if it makes you a bit more comfortable:
1) What is the real problem and solution definition?
2) What is the relevance and credibility of your planned change initiative?
3) What is the degree of initiative ownership among your intended audience and what are their (not your) perceived benefits?

We at MEK like the first version a bit better, as it cuts right to the chase. Nonetheless, either version works. Here’s another thought: When we serve as change agents, we have to beware of another change killer: self-referenced criteria. Self-referenced criteria is another way of expressing this thought: “Since I believe it, or I like it, everybody believes it or everybody else likes it.” Committing that mental error or not answering the three questions will undermine, sub-optimize or outright annihilate future success in your change initiative.

So if you’ve committed to rigorous honesty, answered the three critical questions and planned out why you want to change and where you want to end up, what’s next?

The answer is not readily simple. Hundreds of scholarly tomes have been written about “what’s next” and consultants in change management make a handy living helping organizations to achieve that elusive goal. But if you don’t have the research time or the budget to tap either of the above, consider the following summary from change experts:

•  Establish a sense of urgency. In this time of economic turmoil, that shouldn’t be too difficult, but deadly complacency can set in quickly and silently.

• Start at the top. The person who signs the paychecks or the CEO has to not only buy-in to the change concept, but must openly embrace, champion and live the desired change. Without that overt level of real commitment, forget it.
• Build a team that has enough power to lead change. Note the word “team.” One person can’t do it all.
• Create, fashion and sustain a vision that inspires and sobers at the same time. Change is hard work. Change creates fear, and belief in an attainable vision drives out (or at least mutes) anxiety. People must also know that the vision cannot be achieved without some sweat and toil.
• Enthusiastically communicate the change vision by a factor of 10 to 100. The vision must be understandable and relevant at all levels. It must be consistent. And it often requires a little cheerleading from time to time.
• Deliberately create opportunities for short-term wins. Real change, particularly in corporate culture, represents a long-term proposition. People get worn out. Renew hope and energy with a short-term legitimate win.
• Create opportunities for ownership and buy-in. The vision for change may be initially yours, but if it’s not ultimately a shared vision, initiative collapse will set in.
• The unexpected will occur, so expect it. No battle plan survives its first contact with the enemy. When necessary, be prepared to improvise, adapt and conquer.

Achieving successful change that increases profitability and productive is hard work, but it can done. Start driving strategic change before it drives you.

By Michael Snyder, Managing Principal, The MEK Group