What if your effort to introduce some change was met, not with resistance, but with support from those most affected? This may be a rare occurrence, but it doesn’t have to be this way. It all begins with how you launch the planned change.
A Problem with Change Management. I have never been comfortable with the idea of “change management.” I think this term sends the wrong message. It seems to imply that change is something to be planned, managed and delivered as if it were a construction project. But human beings and organizations are more complex than most projects. When someone tries to “manage” us through some change we generally don’t like it. Yet change managers take on a responsibility to make the effort succeed while expecting to meet resistance. To compensate, they often tend to take a running start through some dazzling “launch” event in the hopes that it will sweep any resistance to change out of the way.
Failure to Launch. Change efforts need to be properly launched, of course. The difficulty comes when the launch is approached as a sales, entertainment or project management event. Unfortunately, anything designed to sell or manage us into some change is likely to meet with grudging acceptance at best, and active resistance at worst. We all have very good “push detectors” that sense when we feel someone is trying to push us in a certain direction.
I recently participated in a thoughtfully designed, fairly open launch effort designed to get members of a nonprofit organization to commit to a new capital campaign. Three options were presented to the group. A lot of information and discussion preceded the final go-ahead decision. But even in a careful, relatively open discussion of the decision, the sense of being managed to the “right” decision began to trigger my “push detector.” I later heard that others were similarly affected. This is unfortunate as this is a very well-intentioned effort, but the need to “manage” the launch of this initiative was foremost in the leader’s mind. It could have been otherwise.
Engaging Change. There is another way to launch some change. It can create “pull” rather than “push,” and more easily engage those who need to be “on board.” It requires more particular attention to the individual needs of different stakeholders.
Specifically, there are three steps necessary to a successful launching of a change initiative. Both are fairly simple in and of themselves. Yet, most change initiatives fail to complete them.
1) Identify all those with a stake in the change. Stakeholders can be those who have to work in a new way, those affected by change in some way, production, sales, customers, suppliers, employees, managers, and so on. For each stakeholder group, complete Step 2.
2) Complete all four requirements of a case for change from the perspective of the particular stakeholder group. The four requirements are:
- Dissatisfaction with current state
- Vision of desired state
- Skill or capability necessary to work towards desired state
- First steps that provide a clear way forward way
All four must be present to overcome the natural tendency of the stakeholder group or organization to resist change. Unfortunately, many change efforts forget to address all four of these requirements. The launch effort may be all about the future vision for shareholders and not address employee concerns, or the path forward is not clear for different groups, and so on.
3) The third and final step is to communicate all four elements of the case for change as necessary to address the perspectives of various stakeholder groups. Different stakeholders are likely to require different kinds of information to engage with the change. Some stakeholders need to understand the dissatisfaction with the current state. Others may not have the vision. Or feel they lack the necessary skill to do it. An effective, engaging launch is one that addresses the concerns and questions of the different stakeholders as opposed to pushing the change.
Can this be done efficiently? I have assisted in efforts to address build the case for change with a cross section of all stakeholders in various settings. Some times it takes a few weeks to accomplish using multiple meetings, focus groups and presentations. Sometimes it can be accomplished in a single, large appropriately designed meeting. For an example of this latter approach, see Creating a World Class Manufacturer in Record Time. This article also appears in The Handbook of Large Group Methods, edited by Bunker and Alban (2006).
For more on building change efforts because they not only get well launched, but also because they are able to last and create their desired impact, see Building the Stickability of New Initiatives at www.Brownfield and Lent.com.
