change management

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

A NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY Presented byBruce Baker – Inspired by John P. Kotter

"Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what

you've got." -- Peter F. Drucker

SESSION OBJECTIVES

Understand the fundamentals of Change: Fundamental Skills for Change Organizational Change Forces for Change The Nature of Change Assessing your Environment

Identify with the Journey of Change. The Six Levels of “Change” Understanding each Level of Change through

Classic Examples

FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS FOR CHANGE

The fundamentals are critical for forming a foundation or basis for Change.

Refer to those essential and basic skills that form the foundation for effective change.

Making changes in life requires skill. The better we get at mastering and using

these fundamental skills the easier it is for us to make changes in our lives.

FIVE FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS

Skill # 1: Knowing specifically what it is that you want to change.

Skill #2: Knowing how to prepare for change.

Skill #3: Knowing how to employ your emotions in making the

changes you desire. Skill # 4:

Knowing how to effectively deal with and respond to failure.

Skill #5: Celebrating your successes.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Change in your personal life is not very different to change in your professional life.

Living in a world with constant change requiring continued diligence and attention.

To continue surviving both within and out of organizations change is essential.

Most large scale organizational change fails…why?

Forget about the hardware…think about the software…

PRE-ASSESSMENT FOR CHANGE

Understand the forces for Change

Understand the nature of Change

Assessing your Environment

Start to

Change

FORCES OF CHANGE

Forces for change and the need for change… Forces for change come from internal as well

as external to an organization. What are the forces in your mind?

Our objective: Understand the nature and mechanics of change to support

organizations.

NATURE OF CHANGE

Before looking at the change initiative ask yourself… What is the nature of the change? What are the strategies that need to be employed? How does the “change initiative” affect the organization

internally/externally… Remember: internal and external forces required the change in

the first place.

Considering the above will provide you with: Ideas on what resources you will need. The impact you will make. What obstacles you may anticipate through the

journey.

ASSESSING YOUR ENVIRONMENT

SCOPE OF CHANGE Considering internal dynamics –

How many layers does the change initiative have to penetrate?

Who are the main drivers for change in that specific area?

What level of risk is being imposed on the business and what is the fallback plan?

Considering external dynamics – Customers Government Contractors Society


OBJECT OF CHANGE What is suitable for the change effort?

Business infrastructure e.g. buildings, vehicles etc. Organizational structure e.g. spheres of influence etc. People e.g. numbers, skills, demographics etc. Processes/systems e.g. process improvement, quality

management etc. Culture e.g. values, belief systems etc.

Spider Web principle: Not limited to one object…interdependency.


DURATION OF CHANGE How long the change takes impact significantly

on: Resources needed Psychological impacts on employees etc. Customer impact

Will the change be: Short – over a period of days/weeks Intermediate – several months Long – number of years

Short or long…either may have significant effects…


DEPTH OF CHANGE Consider how deep the effect change will have

on the organization: Will it be in a linear fashion e.g. changing an inventory

system. Very deep and multi-dimensional e.g. changing an

organization from being technically focused to customer focused.

Further examples of Linear and multi-dimensional changes?


DIRECTION OF CHANGE Change will be determined and shaped by those

who lead and drive the initiative.

Top Management Initiators

Middle managers

Drivers

Front-line workers

Implementers

ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENT

DIRECTION OF CHANGE Depending how much more or less pressure

is decided on, depends on a few critical factors:

Do middle managers have the power/influence to initiate change?

What is the risk of non-compliance/failure? What is the overall support for the initiative? At what level does the organization value

autonomy? How urgent is change required? Are volunteers anticipated?

Let’s start our Change Journey

Entrench change and make it stick!

Grow capability for action

Nominate roles and communicate vision

Articulate vision and goals

Harness support from guiding team

Create Urgency

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1






CREATE URGENCY

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

LEVEL 1 – CREATE URGENCY

“You’ve got to talk about change every second of the day” – Jack Welch

Creating a sense of urgency is the first make or break level of the change process.

A behaviour that energizes people and makes them excited to get onboard.

Requires great cooperation, initiative and the willingness to create sacrifice when needed.

A sense of urgency is not to do more but to reprioritize.

Provide a compelling reason to leave their comfort zone and be uncomfortable over the short-term.

WAYS TO CREATE LEVELS OF URGENCY Allowing a financial loss…allow errors to build up. Eliminate obvious examples of excess (e.g.

Executive dining rooms, significantly catered events etc.)

Stop with narrow goals…insist that more people are held accountable for boarder measures.

Share more company performance data with employees.

Insist that people talk more regularly to unsatisfied customers, suppliers etc.

Stop senior managements' unrealistic “happy talk”... Flood people with the future opportunities that will

result in engaging in change initiative.


THE DANGER OF COMPLACENCY! Sources of Complacency:

The absence of major and visible crisis. Too many visible resources. Low overall performance standards. Organization structures that focus employees on

narrowly defined goals. Internal measurement systems that focus on

wrong performance indexes. A lack of sufficient performance feedback from

external sources. A kill-the-messenger-of-bad-news, low-candour,

low confrontation culture. An environment of denial when people are already

stressed and busy. Too much happy talk from senior management.


Off to a

bad start!

A Tale from Ted Watson…


A Tale from Tim Wallace…Off to a

good start!

LEVEL 1 – CREATE URGENCY - DEBRIEF

Seeing• Employees see a video tape of an angry yet important

customer.• Person showing the tape is credible and doesn’t serve up in an

angry voice.

Feeling• Most employees are surprised/fearful/mad.• Many find false pride reducing and a sense of urgency growing.

Changing• Some people act defensively and cling to status quo. More

begin looking for problems.• Start listening to customers/managers and think about the

need to change.

Vision foundation• Employees are receptive to a vision that will activate strategy

to move forward.• A n environment ripe for being receptive & empowered to get

the job done.

INCREASING URGENCY - SUMMARY

What works well! Showing people what needs to change with

something they can feel, touch and see. Showing people valid and dramatic evidence

outside the organization that shows why change is required.

Finding easy/cheep ways to reduce complacency. Never underestimating the levels of

complacency…keep focussed!

INCREASING URGENCY - SUMMARY

What doesn’t work! Exclusively focussing on building the political,

rationale argument and rushing ahead without considering the software!

Ignoring the need to create urgency and rushing ahead to create vision and strategy (like building a house with no foundation).

Believing that with no major crisis you can’t move ahead with your change initiative.

Think you can’t do much without being the person in charge.

We can See it, Taste it and Smell it…Let’s Get it On!

Our Foundation is Built!





HARNESS SUPPORT FROM GUIDING TEAM

Create Urgency

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

LEVEL 2 – HARNESS SUPPORT FROM A GUIDING TEAM

Initiating and seeing change through is huge…doing it alone will most likely result in failure.

A strong guiding team is required…one with the right : Composition Level of trust and Shared objective/s

The good news…when there is urgency more people are willing to: Provide leadership Pull together

NOT THE CORRECT TEAM?

A tale from Gary Lockhart

REMEDYING THE BLUES VERSUS THE GREENS

Seeing? – Credible sources visibly confront the issue guiding the integration of 2 teams. Admitting to the issues and not shooting down people who speak.

Feeling? – People are shocked. Some for the first time, begin to feel optimistic that they can deal with the problem. Frustration/ager reduces.

Changing & seeing it? – The guiding group will now start to have honest conversations about the problem.

Feeling? – Distrust between members of the two groups start to decrease. Optimism creeps up; anger continues down.

Changing? – The group that must guide change begins, for the first time, to act less as two team and more as one.

AN EFFECTIVE GUIDING TEAM

A tale from Tom Spector

PUTTING TOGETHER THE WINNING TEAM It is critical finding the correct mix that will

bring about the expected change: Position Power – Are enough key players on board,

so that those left out cannot easily block progress?

Expertise – Do we have the correct ingredients relative to the task at hand e.g. skills, work experience etc.

Credibility – Does the team have enough people with good reputations in the firm so employees will take it seriously?

Leadership – Does the group include enough proven leaders to be able to drive the change process?

Leader ManagerChange Stability

Leading people Managing work

Long-term Short-term

Vision Objectives

Sets direction Plans detail

Passion Control

Proactive Reactive

Transformational Transactional

Achievement Results

Uses Avoids

New roads Existing roads

Seeks Establishes

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANAGING AND LEADING

BALANCING LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

You need both a Leadership and a Management mix.

Both must be able to work in tandem using the strengths and realizing weakness.

The manager will keep things under control; the leader will drive change.

An extreme on either side (manager/leader)will not bring about desired change.

INDIVIDUALS IN THE TEAM

Character that must be avoided and or managed. The first will fill up the team room and make

everyone know who he/she is…Mr. /Mrs. Ego! The second are those who go out to create

mistrust and kill teamwork. Natural ego develops at the higher echelons but a

realistic thought of weakness and opportunity must prevail.

Damaging trust is equally devastating to the sense of team being built.

TEAM BUILT ON TRUST

Silos in organizations naturally create in-group bias. People being imported from outside. People being promoted within from other teams.

Million dollar question: Are we ensuring that trust is an existing ingredient within the team?

Ensure that trust is developed/developing within the team to ensure effective synergies.

THE “A-TEAM” – MAKING IT HAPPEN!

Find the right people. Positional power Broad expertise A balance of leadership and management

Ensure trust is present. Allow the team to work through adversity – a ton

of talk and joint activity. Trust building events off-site.

Develop a common goal that appeals to all...a

foundation for Vision…




ARTICULATE VISION AND GOALS


Create Urgency

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

LEVEL 3 – ARTICULATE VISION AND GOALS

Articulating a vision and simple strategy cannot be created through authoritarianism and micromanagement.

The vision provides the picture of the future through implicit/explicit commentary on why.

A good vision consists of: Clarifying/simplify the general direction. Motivates people to take the right direction. Coordinates the actions of people quickly &

accurately.

A CLEAR SENSE OF DIRECTION

Answers to the following ensure a successful outcome: What change is needed? What is our vision of the new organization? What should not be altered? What is the best way to make the vision a reality? What change strategies are unacceptably

dangerous? Severe consequences for those guiding

teams not focussed on clear direction or sensible visions…

AN EFFECTIVE CHANGE VISION

Imaginable: Conveys a picture of what the future will look like.

Desirable: Appeals to those that have a long-term stake in the organization.

Feasible: S.M.A.R.T goals. Flexible: Allows enough flexibility to change

with various demands. Communicable: Is easy to communicate…the

elevator speech.

LET’S VOTE

SETTING GOALS

The only way to operationalize the vision is to establish goals/objectives. Example – “achieve 60% of market share within 2

years…” Determine your strategy i.e. what you have

to do to achieve your goals/objectives. An effective vision inspires stakeholders to

want to achieve the goals/objectives set. How do stakeholders know that they have

achieved? Example S.M.A.R.T. Goals

S.M.A.R.T. GOALS

Specific Clearly articulates the scope of the goal e.g. Department initiative etc.

Measurable Specific initiatives and their outcomes measure specifically e.g. turnover, absenteeism, profit etc.

Attainable Stakeholders must be able to reach/achieve the goal…if not people become sceptical.

Realistic Ensure that the goal/s do not separate themselves from the broader vision and strategy.

Time boundState the time the goals will be achieved e.g. end of financial year/end of Q3 etc.



NOMINATE ROLES AND COMMUNICATE VISION



Create Urgency

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

LEVEL 4 – NOMINATING ROLES AND COMMUNICATING VISION

Pulling it all together: Pull the team together sharing and identifying with a

common vision and goal. Specify goals of various participants and be able to

communicate the desired action for change. Depending on the size of change, the following roles

are evident: Change driver – the principle cause and motivator of

change. Change implementer – manages and performs tasks to

bring about change. Change enabler – sets up environment so change can

happen. Change recipient – expected to behave differently in a

changed environment.

KEY DRIVER ROLES FOR CHANGE Change Leader

Also referred to the Change champion/Change agent.

Should be a person in the organization being able to rally resources when needed.

Has strong commitment to see the initiative to the end.

Program sponsor The executive team’s representative ensuring that

resources are allocated. Steering committee

Share overall responsibility in partnership with the sponsor.

Regularly review progress.

COMMUNICATE FOR BUY-IN

Creating “project central headquarters” may be dangerous… Don’t get stuck behind closed doors!

Making change happen is derived by walking the talk/leading by example.

Communicating a compelling message will only happen through face to face interaction which means leaving the room!

PREPARING FOR THE BIG MESSAGE

A tale from Mike Davies and Kevin Bygate

REMEMBER…LET’S DEBRIEF

Seeing• Employees provided a well-prepared presentation.• Encouraged to ask questions…but to debate as well.• Those that answer show that they believe in the vision

and the actions to make the vision come to life.

Feeling• Fear, anger, distrust and pessimism shrink. • A feeling of relief grows. Optimism that the changes are

good, and faith in the future, grow.

Changing• Employees start to buy in to the change initiative.• When asked, they start to take steps to help make the

changes happen.

SUMMARY – WHAT WORKS…WHAT DOESN’T

What works – Communicating what needs to be done simply

and heartfelt. Understand what your audience is feeling. Do

your homework well in advance to ensure that your message is received.

Be open to hard discussion around adversity and try not to answer if you don’t know.

Open up communication channels and rid them of information-junc.

Be open to using new technologies e.g. social networks, intranet portals, Twitter etc.

SUMMARY: WHAT WORKS…WHAT DOESN’T

What does not work – Under-communicating due to fears that you will

panic or overload your employee population. Speaking as though you are only transferring

communication. Accidentally fostering cynicism by not walking the

talk.


GROW CAPABILITY FOR ACTION




Create Urgency

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

LEVEL 5 – GROW CAPABILITY FOR ACTION

Ensure an OrganizationalStructure Sound Enough to Accommodate Change

STRUCTURAL BARRIERS TO EMPLOYEES

Employees understand the vision but are

boxed in

Formal structure makes it too

difficult to act

Lack of employee skills

Systems make it difficult to act

BossDiscourages

action

ENSURING SUPPORT FOR COMPANY HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

The People – i.e. Company software

The Processes and systems – i.e. Company hardware

PEOPLE AND SYSTEMS CAPABILITY

People capability – Software Are the skills and knowledge existent (in many

cases new competencies) in order for people to operate in the new world?

Systems capability – Hardware Includes the functionality, capacity, capability and

reliability of organizational systems to support the delivery of required outputs throughout the change initiative e.g. IT and performance management procedures and systems, organizational structures etc.

PEOPLE CAPABILITY

Delivering training is not just knowledge transfer…it wanting behaviour to change…

Just as you would draw up a detailed plan to communicate…draw up a detailed plan to train.

In order to ensure the plan works well, have the right: Learners – employees, customers, vendors? Learning – does the change content match the change

objective? Time – too late…employees are demoralized…too early…

employees forget. Method – ensuring the correct method of delivery for

actionable outcome. Environment – knowledge transfer is one thing…knowledge

application in the correct environment is another…

SYSTEMS CAPABILITY

A key change-killer…systems that do not support a change imitative destroys enthusiasm and momentum for change.

Just as you would draw up a detailed plan to communicate…draw up a detailed plan to train…ensure you have a detailed plan to support systems.

STRUCTURE UNDERMINING VISION – AN EXAMPLE

Focus on the Customer But…the organization

fragments resources and responsibility for products and services

Give more responsibility to the

lower level employees

But…there are layers of mid-level managers

who second-guess and criticize employees

Speed everything up But …independent silos

don’t communicate and thus slow everything

down

REINFORCING…ONE STEP AT A TIME

WHY HAVE SHORT-TERM WINS?

They provide evidence that sacrifice is worth it e.g. spending on short-term initiatives is justified.

Reward and recognition for those that are agents of change…positive feedback in small increments is powerful.

Helps fine tune the vision and strategies in place...keeps integrity in place.

Helps those that block change an opportunity to lessen resistance.

THE NATURE AND TIMING OF SHORT-TERM WINS

Going over a quick summary of possible anecdotal wins is not the answer…

Four characteristics of short-term wins: It’s visible, large numbers of people can see for

themselves, results that are real. It’s unambiguous: there can be little argument

over the call. It’s clearly related to the initial change vision and

objectives established. Results from strong links that ultimately lead to

the final prize…long lasting change!






Create Urgency

LEVELS OF CHANGE

Level 6

Level 5

Level 4

Level 3

Level 2

Level 1

LEVEL 6 – ENTRENCH CHANGE AND MAKE IT STICK

Change is not only changing infrastructure…it includes changing behaviour/culture – i.e. the way we do things around here.

The “construction crew” can only be around while the house is being built.

An entrenched well nurtured culture will hold things together.

Ensuring your leadership/managerial succession shares and understands the vision

THE BOSS WENT TO SWITZERLAND

A tale from John Harris

WHY THE NEED TO STICK AROUND…

Ensure that change is entrenched to deal with what may come back and re-surface…

Resistance: Always waiting to reassert itself. No matter how successful your change

effort/initiate maybe, there will always be the “resistance coalition”.

The key is to create a new equilibrium that is entrenched into organizational culture.

A change initiative that becomes the culture and not a series of sub-cultures trying to make a stand…

The spider web principle: The problem of interdependence. Organizations are made up of several

interdependent parts e.g. making one change to Production may have a profound impact on the Sales Department’s functions etc.

The days of independent stable parts of an organization are quickly disappearing e.g. acquisitions of varied business lines.

Eliminate unnecessary interdependencies…create a structure conducive to change

WHY THE NEED TO STICK AROUND…B

A

C

D

F

E

SUMMARY – MAKING IT STICK

Success looks like… More change, not less – The guiding team will gain

credibility by short-term wins until a point of equilibrium.

More help – Additional people are brought in, promoted and developed to help with all the changes.

Leadership from senior management – Senior people focus on maintaining clarity of shared purpose…and keeping urgency levels up.

Empowerment below – Lower ranks in the hierarchy are empowered to provide leadership and management.

Reduction of unnecessary interdependencies – making change easier in both short-term and long term initiatives.

NEVER FORGET – FIVE FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS

Skill # 1: Knowing specifically what it is that you want to change.

Skill #2: Knowing how to prepare for change.

Skill #3: Knowing how to employ your emotions in making the

changes you desire. Skill # 4:

Knowing how to effectively deal with and respond to failure.

Skill #5: Celebrating your successes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John P. Kotter. Leading Change. 1996 John P. Kotter, Dan S. Cohen. The Heart of Change. 2002 Mike Davis. Sanctifiedemotions.com article. 2004 Leslie Allan. Managing Change in the Workplace – 2nd addition. 2008

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fundamentals of change

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level of change

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