You know this from the reality of your own companies. This is why it is unsurprising that 70% of planned changes fail their initial aims. Our experience shows that Boards and Senior Management are obsessed with Change Methodology, the set of procedures that cause change to happen. Competing firms argue that their steps are best. Boards look for rational, well-laid out plans that guarantee the desired outcomes of a change campaign.
Change is recognised as a constant, sometimes unwelcome, element of our daily lives. Much has been written about how we can cope with and manage changes, both on a personal and organisational level.
A Google search of 'Managing Change' yields over 21,400,000 pages devoted to techniques for managing this process. Interestingly, if you search for 'Why Change Fails' the number rises above 416,000,000! So there is no scarcity of wisdom on the knowledge, skills and strategies that help us fathom this organisational conundrum.
With such insights available, and with many consultancies offering support, why is the magical solution so elusive?
Business change is always about changing the Human Systems in our organisations. Organisations are made up of free-willed human beings who decide rationally and irrationally to join new directions or ways of doing business. This is why we encounter unintended consequences, rigidity and mess in the change process. Any genuine change agent will tell you that change is messy. We need to realise that our structured plans, while necessary stabilising mechanisms, are not the reality of change as it unfolds. All too often we get involved when organisations are dealing with the aftermath of a change initiative, often following the launch of business transformation programmes supported by large consulting and strategy houses that did not live up to expectations.
In our experience, most of the approaches to change try to impose what are essentially neat, logical and structured processes and approaches on organisations, which are inherently messy and complex. Organisations have their own cultures, with patterns of doing things, which need to be respected and worked with.
Change can rarely be managed but can be navigated. It is as much an art as a science and as such most organisations need the support of skilled change practitioners who can help them plot their own change journey.
Change happens from within the everyday conversations of its people, after all do conversations remain the same or do they change? Our core proposition is that a successful business turnaround, reorganisation or merger demands a change in the DNA of your organisation. Mindset, behaviours, habits need to change. But the DNA is hard to spot, let alone alter, because it is also your DNA too.
What we mean by an organisation's DNA is the implicit ways of working that people go along with but few openly discuss for example:
- The power of the silo functions
- The need for consensus before any decisions are taken
- The shifting of the 'problem' to another function or person
- How failure is dealt with
- Who actually makes decisions and the processes by which they are made or know
These are often so subtle that even those in the organisation may fail to see these patterns. They then wonder why they continue to get the same results when they keep relying on the same ways of tackling problems.
Your function at Board or Senior Executive level is to set direction. You articulate a destination and outcomes that will return value for shareholders, the WHAT of change. The message of this article is to enhance shareholder value by attending to the HOW of change by becoming a catalyst for change. Examine your own practice and provide direction beyond auditing sophisticated change management project plans submitted by senior executives, change departments or external consultants. Ask questions that force the executive to focus on implementation and their leadership of change:
How will the managers deal with unexpected outcomes, resistance and emerging issues
Reflect on how previous change and current mindset is actually stemming from yourself and the board. Have we over emphasised the rational plans and smooth milestones? Do we send a message that we are not interested in the detailed implementation?
Insist on change capability within the organisation - leaders who engage with their organisation lead change from a human systems point of view
Rely less on the rational business case and work the other levers of change to Inspire people. Ensure your executives engage people delving into the organisation to support mindset change
Implementation of change is the key and although less 'sexy' than identifying bold new strategic direction execution is what delivers the real and lasting business benefit. The key to implementation lies not in project planning but in orientation to individuals and their dynamics in groups.
Michael Nolan, change consultant & partner, Sheppard Moscow
