Introduction

Change is a process – not just a business process, but more fundamentally an internalized process, reliant on a willingness of those experiencing change to behaviorally adapt to the cultural/environmental/logistical shifts they face. The challenge for organizations and their change leaders is that the change process is both individual and communal. Ushering people through change is never so easy or simple as a roadmap showing how close the initiative is to goal. For this reason, change managers must think systematically; strategizing who they need to solicit help from to not only implement change, but embed adaptive behaviors and iterative learning within the organizational culture.

To frame an approach to change in this way, I recommend using the model (see below) put forth by Dave Logan in Tribal Leadership. #TribalLeadership looks at what group dynamics and mindsets cause some tribes to blunder while other soar to new heights of success. #Tribe refers to an interdependent group of people united by a common cause. The tribes who excelled believed in what they were capable of achieving together and valued their collective success over that of the individual. Teams/tribes according to Logan, need to be united by a basic set of operating principles (core values) that align to a noble cause (mission statement) regardless of whether it is an individual project or an entire organization. This creates a “north star” for all future related decisions to be held up against.

But even so, leaders will still face obstacles to bring their teams through transitions together. Below are 10 Guiding Principles to managing change effectively. Once an initiative’s planning is underway (i.e. outcomes are being identified, strategies are being vetted, tactical project plans are being designed)  here’s is how to help your tribe define the difference between current state and future state, build communication, model positive behavior, and drive a call to action.

10 Guiding Principles to Effectively Leading Change

Core Values

Core values are the foundation for all frameworks.

In Tribal Leadership (2011, p.152-153), Dave Logan discusses the need to recognize values as a way of building a common purpose among leaders of the change initiative. Opposing values can lead to opposing morals and motives, which will hinder cohesion participant recommendations and vetted with the senior change sponsor. Guiding coalitions require coaching and structured activities / conversations among the leadership guiding the change. Underlying values are the moral compass for achieving the vision of the change initiative. By making them tangibly defined, they become concrete and can be pointed to for guidance in moments of decision paralysis.

A Noble Cause

Start with the end in mind.

Not only do change managers need to have vision for the change they are working towards, but they must have personal vision for the outcomes of the interactions they have while on the path to seeing the change through (Covey, 1989, p.97-102). Change practitioners focus company vision on capitalizing big opportunities (Kotter, 2012) while empowering behavioral changes of individuals through charismatic leadership (Nadler & Tushman, 1990, p.83)  

Outcomes

Assess your current state to define your future state.

You cannot solve a problem that you cannot see. Change can only happen effectively if change agents know what they are changing (from). The Beckhard Harris model (as cited in Cawsey, Descza, & Ingols, 2016, p. 55) shows how a gap analysis works to flesh out a vision for the future as it relates to present status quo. This helps in designing milestones of improvement towards future states of success. It’s important for change practitioners to be able to evaluate progress towards achieving team outcomes as part of their communication of change to the entire tribe.

 Set measurable outcomes

People need success to be tangible and quantifiable for a sense of progress and accomplishment. Success measurements act as goals to work towards and maintain visionary alignment. Building in points of assessment for what is helping and hindering progress towards goals also enables change practitioners and their teams to focus time, energy, and resources where they are most needed to get results. Iterative learning addresses progress as circumstances change (Schaffer & Thomson, 1998).

Planning precedes implementation

Cognitive ease can cause people to over simplify the vision for change without evaluating the risks and implications that it has for ourselves and other people (Kahneman, 2011). When we do not vet decision implications, we find things “happening to us” rather than us “making things happen”. (Cummings & Worley, 2009). This leads to reactionary behaviors that cannot propel change forward in a directed way. When we put ample time into planning change and preparing people for change, we set implementation leaders up for greater success. While not every change factor can or will be accounted for, planning processes work to set expectations for what is to come, develop communication strategies, build team trust, and gain alignment of initiatives, priorities, and outcomes.

Assets

Nurture guiding coalitions.

By nurturing guiding coalitions, change practitioners cultivate team empowerment (Nadler & Tushman, 1990, p.89). Guiding coalitions should be selected very strategically to represent the voice of all identified stakeholders and include people from all levels of the organization to ensure a balanced perspective in the coalition’s efforts.

Behaviors

The linchpin of all change processes is communication, and a plan by which to do so.

Change cannot be planned or take place in a vacuum. Transparency of the need for change and how it will be addressed is pertinent to building buy in at all levels. People find ease in knowing what to expect and how they will be affected by the change to come. They need the opportunity to personally prepare themselves for what they must do for the change transition. However, communication must be streamlined to ensure that shared information remains reliable through being shared with the right people at the right time, with a clear and consistent call to action for everyone. Philip Kitchen and Finbarr Daly summarize this nicely saying, “employees can only work effectively if they can participate in the organization and they can only participate if they are fully informed”, (as cited in Kitchen & Daly, 2002.)

Walk the talk.

Change practitioners have to model the behaviors that they expect to see from their business partners. Leaders are not exceptions to their rules; people will not follow someone that is inconsistent between what they say and what they do. Vineet Nayar talks about this in Employees First, Customers Second, where he discusses his use of the Mirror Mirror exercise to evaluate his own thought processes and decision making in the wake of helping his company to do the same (2010). Honest self-evaluation by leaders can unearth the reality of how their behaviors are mimicked by the wider organization. The health of our interpersonal leadership is a direct reflection of our personal leadership (Covey, 1989.)

 Assume positive intent and be aware of your biases

Human beings by their very nature are prone to a margin of error in their predictions and perspectives because of how the cognitive mind works. Daniel Kahneman discusses in his book Thinking Fast and Slow the two complementary modes of thought that humans use to navigate choice within their daily environment(s). People form cognitive biases – faulty conclusions caused by misassumption or mis-association of knowledge and experience. Cognitive biases are subconscious traps that people don’t recognize they fall into in the face of a decision to be made. When our mental models kick in, we fill in gaps to form stories that confirm what we know to be true (Senge, 1990). This is where we open ourselves to misinterpretation and drawing incorrect conclusions. It is important to check ourselves before we diagnose and respond to resistance or adversity, but also to seek understanding of others’ perspectives and what biases or mental models might be influencing them.

 Persist in the face of adversity

Adversity is a natural result of conflicting interests, whether situational, emotional or otherwise. How people choose to deal with adversity impacts a change practitioner’s well being just as much as the well being of their cause (Margolis & Stoltz, 2010). Asking people to change is asking them to venture into the unknown without a guarantee of being better than the present. Maintaining an “active” approach that focuses on response and resolution rather than the assumptions of adverse impact is imperative to change resilience (2010). One strategy for addressing protection of the status quo is to work with those individuals on identifying what is at stake or at risk if status quo is maintained.

References

Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols. (2016). Organizational Change: An action-oriented toolkit. Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE Publications, Inc.

Covey, S. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people. (pp. 97-102). New York: Simon and Schuster.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley C. G. (2009). The nature of planned change. In Organization development & change (9th ed., pp. 23-45). US: Thomson South-western.

Kahneman. (2011). Thinking Fast and Slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Kitchen, P. J., & Finbarr, D. (2002). Internal communication during change management. Corporate Communication, 7(1) 46-53.

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Accelerate. Harvard Business Review, 90(11), 45-58.

Logan, D. et al. (2011). Tribal Leadership: Leveraging natural groups to build a thriving organization. (pp.152-153). New York: Collins.

Margolis, J. D. & Stoltz P. G. (2010). How to bounce back from adversity. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 88(1/2), 86-92.

Nadler, D., & Tushman, M. (1990). Beyond the charismatic leader: Leadership and organizational change. California Management Review, 32(2), 77-97.

Nayar, V. (2010). Trust through transparency: Creating a culture of change – How open communication with employees and customers enables transformative change. Employees first, customers second: Turning conventional management upside down (pp. 47-87). Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Schaffer, R. H., & Thomson, H. A. (1998). Successful change programs begin with results. In Harvard business review on change (pp. 189-214). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Senge, P. M. (1990). Mental models. In The fifth discipline (pp. 163-190). New York: Doubleday.