No change strategy works in all contexts. There are five contexts or focus levels for change leadership.
"Leading Change is like bailing a boat -- you must keep at it
to stay afloat." —Murray Johannsen
Leading Change or Managing It?
There is both a leadership and a management component
to change. Change management implies we need to use logic, like
putting together a budget or a PowerPoint presentation. This type
of thinking results the strange phenomenon of executives issuing
a memo as a persuasive tool.
Resistance to change functions partly at an irrational,
unconscious level. This makes change management an oxymoron like resident alien, business ethics, and humble CEO. Any major
change brings up numerous defense mechanisms and strong emotions
such as fear.
Many managers fail to realize that the authority
they exercise so ably within the confines of the status quo fails
miserably when faced with the uncertainties and fears inherent
in dealing with a major change. Leaders understand
this, many managers do not.
Subject
Overview
Teaching Story:
My Poor Foot
A woman is out looking for
a pet, and so she's trying the local pet shops. She walks
into a small pet shop
and explains her need to the attendant. He thinks for a moment
and then says, "I've got just the thing for you madam.
I'll just get him."
With that, he disappears into the back of the shop, and returns
a few seconds later with a cute little puppy. "This dog
is a special dog," he tells her. "It is able to fly," he
explains, and with that throws the dog into the air. It immediately
begins to float gracefully around the shop.
"
There is one problem with him, however. Whenever you say 'my
apple' he'll eat whatever you've mentioned." The lady
watches in astonishment as the dog zooms over to the shop attendant
and furiously devours an apple he has produced from his pocket.
"
He's cute, and so unusual. I'll take him," she says, and
a few minutes later she is on her way back home with dog to
show her husband.
"
Darling, look what a clever pet I bought today!" she exclaims
when she gets back home. "He can fly!"
The husband peers at the dog, and then remarks, "Fly eh?
My foot!"
Lessoned Learned: Change brings discomfort.
Teaching
Story:
The Parable of the Boiled Frog
If you put a frog in a pail very
hot water, it will jump out. However, if one puts the same
animal in a pot of water at room temperature, it will not be
able to detect the rising temperature and will boil to death.
Moral of the Story: Imperceptible change can be dangerous.
Five Focus Areas For Leading Change
Leading Change:
Five Areas
Discussion
The Organizational
Level
The productivity and competitive problems American manufactures face result from ineffective top management, petrified in place, unwilling to accept change, failing to provide vision and leadership.
Phillip Alspach, President, Intercom, Inc., Harvard Business Review, November/December 1986
The greatest challenge management faces is
leading change in some aspect of organizational
performance. Fundamentally an organization that is not
growing, is usually declining.
Leading change in this area requires finding
a champion and mastering the basic tools associated with the
field.
Leading Change at The Group Level
Q: How many cheerleaders does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Twelve...One to make the change and 11 to give her a hug.
One can't turn a frog into the prince--just
as calling a group a team doesn't make it so. Building
high performance teams requires leading according to sound principles
of group dynamics and the skillful use of twelve
types of interventions to build teams.
Leading change in this area requires mastering
techniques such as group facilitation and team building methods.
Change at the Individual (Interpersonal) Level
Q: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One, but the light bulb has really got to want to be changed.
Obedience to authority has grave limitations
when it comes to change management at the interpersonal
level. Leadership at this level is essentially a moment
of truth between two human beings.
Leading change means that managers must master the art of influence.
Barriers to Change at The Self (Intrapersonal) Level
The man that doesn't change his mind doesn't think.
—Freddie Laker, British businessman
Once when John Maynard Keynes, the great British economist, was rebuked for changing his mind on some issue, he turned the tables on his accuser with a sharp reply: "Sir, when I learn new facts, I sometimes change my opinion. What do you do?"
Even though people love to complain about
the status quo, they rarely want to do anything about it.
It takes a strong leader who can unlearn habits practiced
over a lifetime. If you think another person is hard to
change, try to change yourself and overcome self-mastery barriers.
The Strategy Level: The Importance of Having a Change Strategy
It does no good to have a map, if you cannot follow it.
M. Johannsen
A grasshopper decided to seek the advise of the wise owl about a personnel problem. Each winter the grasshopper suffered from the ravages of severe cold, shivering through a winter of low temperatures. All of the grasshoppers known remedies where to no available so he laid the problem on the lap of the owl. After a period of consideration the owl proscribed a solution, “Become a cricket, a beast which hibernates during the winter. Profusely thanking the owl, the grasshopper jumped away only to realized a little later he did not now how to turn into a cricket. Returning to the owl, he asked how to could make the change to which the owl replied, “Hey, I gave you the principle, you need to flesh out the details.”
Leadership characteristics
such as persistence, perseverance, and dogged determination
are not enough for success in leading change--you must also follow
a sound strategy.
One aspect of strategy has to do with competitive strategy and how to deal with the competition. Sun Tzu and The Art of War is the classic example.
Leading change in the strategy
area is about creating a vision of the future but is also about being able to execute on it.
Leading Change Internet Articles
Articles Focused on Leading Change in Organizations
Leading and Motivating Change. This article is by a couple of Pepperdine professors discuss six practical aspects of any change process. Professors being professors, they tend to focus on the logic of change management, rather than the paradigms underlying the concept of leading change.
The CEO Refresher. For those of us who like the meat and not the sizzle, this page covers a set of key principles for leading change. There is even a few ideas on why change fails.
Winning At Change. This is a classic article on—it formed the basis for the information John Kotter turned into his book called "Leading Change."
Making Change Happen. This is an interview with John Kotter, who is one of the better known individuals who special focus is organizational change.
When Gertsner took over the leadership role, IBM was a sick organization losing money. It became the talk of Wall Street analysts who believed it had lost its way, had no future, and was irrelevant to the world of modern computing.
Gertsner saw it differently and since he was skilled at the art of leading change, the company was nursed back to greatness.
A Final Word
We strongly recommend
to those who are really serious about focus at the contextual level more appropriate to their goals. For example, not all principles that work in the organization are appropriate to the group level and vice versa.
Leading Change Jokes
The Advertising Team
An advertising team is working very late at night on a project due the next morning. Suddenly, a Genie appears before them and offers to each of them one wish.
The copywriter says: "I've always dreamed of writing the great American novel and having my work studied in schools across the land. I'd like to go to a tropical island where I can concentrate and write my masterpiece." The Genie says, "No problem!" and poof! The copywriter is gone.
The art director says: "I want to create a painting so beautiful that it would hang in the Louvre Museum in Paris for all the world to admire. I want to go to the French countryside to work on my painting." The Genie says, "Your wish is granted!" and poof! The art director is gone.
The Genie then turns to the account executive and says, "And what is your wish?" The account executive says, "I want those two back here right now."
Change That Script
The patient shook his doctor's hand in gratitude and said, "Since we are the best of friends, I would not want to insult you by offering payment. But I would like for you to know that I had mentioned you in my will."
"That is very kind of you," said the doctor emotionally, and then added,"Can I see that prescription I just gave you? I'd like to make a little change..."
Grounds For Divorce
The other day at work I ran into Bob. We chatted over lunch and he dropped a bombshell on me. "Rodney" he said, "Becky and I are going to get a divorce".
I was stunned. "Why? What happened, you two seem so happy together"
"Well" he said, "ever since we got married, my wife has tried to change me. She got me to stop drinking, smoking, running around at all hours of the night and more. She taught me how to dress well, enjoy the fine arts, gourmet cooking, classical music and how to invest in the stock market."
"Are you a little bitter because she spent so much time trying to change you." I probed.
"Nah, I'm not bitter. Now that I'm so improved, she just isn't good enough for me."
Subject
Overview
Quotes
About Change
Resisting
change is like holding your breath, if you persist, you die.
Lao
Tzu, the founder of Taoism
“There is a certain relief in change,
even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found traveling
in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's
position and be bruised in a new place.”
Washington
Irving, 1783-1859, American essayist and novelist, Tales
of a Traveler
“Only the wisest and the stupidest of men never change.”
Confucious, 551?-479? B.C. Analects
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
Winston Churchill, 1974-1965, English Prime Minister,
writer, soldier, Speech, House of Commons, 1925
“All organizations do change when put under sufficient pressure.
This pressure must be either external to the organization
or the result of very strong leadership.”
Bruce Henderson, CEO, Boston Consulting Group, Inc, Henderson
on Corporate Strategy (Abit, 1979)
