Organizational Change vs. Rocket Science: "When to Do" Is Harder than "What to Do"

I want you to read this blog carefully. Yet, if I were to demand that you read it twice, or if I were to force you to pay me $10 if you got a test question wrong – if I were to coerce you – then you would probably drop the article right away. “What a pompous jerk! I don’t have to do anything he says!” Leaders and change agents understand that coercion does not motivate people to follow. Yet, every waning change initiative that I see in my work with Fortune 500 companies is always met with (unintentionally) coercive communication. See if you recognize some of these phrases: “We have no choice. If we don’t change, then we will go under. This is just how it is now.” I say that these phrases are unintentionally coercive because they are meant to explain why change is needed, but they really come off as saying “you don’t have a choice but to do as I say.” And we wonder why we fail at the human side of organizational change, or why people resist change. We know what not to do, and then we do it anyway.

I came to this conclusion at the end of a day-long session with a group of HR managers where I shared my approach to organizational assessment and empirically based techniques for using this data as the catalyst for a collaborative change process. One manager politely said, in effect, “this approach is exactly like the change model that we already use.” So, I asked for examples of cross-level, cross-functional collaboration. I asked to look at the performance metrics and criteria that were used to evaluate the process. I asked to see the communications that were sent to employees describing the actions, missteps, and ultimate success of the project. Silence. They may have known what to do, but they didn’t do it. I did some thinking on my plane ride that evening. Perhaps as a consultant, I am too quick to teach what to do, and I am ignoring the part about when to do.

Many OD consultants have been warned through Peter Block’s and Edgar Schein’s books to resist taking on the role of the expert, who has all the answers and who will tell the client what to do. (This just in: We don’t have all the answers, and clients tend to enact what they have come to discover themselves.) Ah, but managers read different books, which espouse the virtues of decisiveness, confidence, charisma, and action. Leaders lead. They don’t ask people "would you please follow?" or stand up to say “I don’t know.” At least they don’t do these things by nature. Perhaps, however, there are some opportunities that call for more consultative behaviors than leadership behaviors. Let me rephrase that: There are some opportunities that call for more consultative behaviors than traditional leadership behaviors. The most effective company leader with whom I have worked led a cultural transformation by slowing down the decision making process, inviting collaboration from all levels of management through a permanent “Delta Team,” and using her authority to enact what that team decided to do. Okay, so not every decision came through this process, and not all employees were on the team, but improved organization-wide survey metrics and full attainment of revenue goals pointed to success after less than a year. Are there lessons here?

• All employees were asked to nominate a representative to the Delta Team.

• The team (including members who were not even management) was given full disclosure of all pertinent information for them to investigate root causes and steps forward.

• Actions were tried and tested until the outcome was achieved, and feedback from those who nominated the team brought the changes full circle, back to the people who were doing the changing.

Leading change by sharing leadership. Knowing when to resist the urge to take charge. Finding the opportunities to ask for change and then asking if the change worked. This ain’t rocket science. It’s harder than that—it’s recognizing when to do (and when not to do) what we already know. It is the art of being vigilant for opportunities and disciplined to acting accordingly.

To be honest, I won’t stop teaching the “what to do” part of my organizational change model, but I will begin soliciting more “in the moment” examples that help address opportunities to apply the model. I will also need to discuss what knee-jerk reactions need to be held in check at those moments in favor of a more planned, less natural reaction. Here are some prepackaged dialog starters:

1. In this situation you have an opportunity to spark a series of behaviors that will lead to the outcome you want. What are your options?

2. The easiest reaction would be ____, but that will not get you to where you want to go.

3. What are some ways to apply the elements of successful change?

• How can you set up a specific desired outcome with a clear definition of success, but not presume that you know the best way to achieve that outcome?
• How can you give employees freedom to act, but guide them almost subliminally to choosing the right course of action?
• How can you involve employees, especially those close to the matter at hand and those without high formal authority, to become part of the solution?
• How can you ensure that a novel approach will be given a chance to succeed, even in some small “laboratory” test within the organization?
• How can you use informal networks of communication to share ideas, provide honest feedback, and tell success stories?
• How can you document the process to show ROI and apply the same or similar process to the next opportunity?

 
This content is protected by the 1976 Copyright Protection Act of the United States of America. The proper citation for this blog is as follows: Mastrangelo, P. M. (date posted). Title of Post. Bump on a Blog, available at http://paulmastrangelo.blogspot.com. This post is not intended to represent any person or organization other than Paul M. Mastrangelo.