You do not achieve positive and sustainable change through mandates, telling people what they do is shit, or charting the direction and expecting teams to follow.

Making change seems like it should be simple particularly when a business or organisation is clearly losing relevance and therefore customers, however we have all read the statistics around failed change initiatives. I still frequently see attempts to make change through some unusual strategies, the most common being mandates, telling people that that what they do is shit, and putting a plan in place and expecting teams to follow. Needless to say these strategies generally result in people feeling threatened and becoming defensive. Trust is also eroded which is key to any successful change initiative. Mandates may have a place in a ‘there is nothing more to lose’ environment e.g., the situation requires immediate action and any loses are not as risky as maintaining the status quo. Change management is also often associated with restructuring or job losses which is why I choose not to refer to myself as a change manager. If restructuring and job loses are happening the organisation/business has waited to long to take action on change and has to resort to making urgent savings to ensure survival. Ideally change should be an ongoing process that is part of the culture of your organisation/business.

Achieving sustainable change is not work one person can do.

Everyone in your organisation/business needs to become a change leader. Bringing someone in to make change over a short period of time does not achieve sustainable change. Teams should be encouraged and supported to be at the forefront of championing change on an ongoing basis. This means that all team members need to have a clear sense of the purpose of your organisation/business and the part they play in its growth and success. All team members also need to be provided with professional development opportunities that assist them to become change leaders e.g., the maintenance of currency around shifting customer/stakeholder needs. I often encounter environments where teams have become disconnected from the purpose of the organisation/business because they have not been engaged in its practical implementation. The purpose has become something written somewhere on the website, teams have not been involved in its evolution and therefore it has become meaningless to the day to day work of the organisation/business. In numerous contexts I encounter teams who do not have a clear understanding of their organisation’s purpose, have limited understanding of the business model that sustains their employment, and are not engaged in activities to maintain currency in their understanding of the trends and challenges impacting their sector.

Teams (or the people on the ground of the business) have to champion the change.

If your consultation with the people on the ground of the business is not meaningful then your change initiative is unlikely to get any buy in and without buy in, there will be no change. I am not a great fan of the word ‘consultation’ as my experience of consultation processes have often not met my expectations e.g., I expect these processes to be meaningful and responsive. I have, like many others I suspect, become skeptical that there is any intention to actually listen and utilise consultation processes to determine the direction an initiative should take. Of course, this leads to apathy and unwillingness to engage - why would anyone put effort into a process where their voice is not valued. While a change leader can seed a direction, start the dialogue, propose an idea, ask key questions etc, ultimately the direction has to be determined by those who are key to its practical implementation. You can use as many change management tools or methodologies to develop work/action plans as you like, but at the end of the day if you have not put your teams in the driver’s seat, valued their input, supported them to connect with the organisation’s purpose and business model, and encouraged their engagement with the needs of your customers and stakeholders then you are likely wasting your time.

The greatest barrier to change is fear.

I think it is pretty universally understood that the ‘frictions’ that prevent change are fear-based. If you are able to hear and understand the fears people have about change then you have an opportunity to address them. So, what are the fears? I think this is something we can all ask ourselves and get an ‘on the mark’ response as we have all at some time in a lives been subject to change that has caused us to be fearful. With respect to levels of fear, losing your job factors high on the list, closely followed by lose of positive relationships (e.g., changes to reporting lines), lose of responsibilities, and lose of autonomy. Unsurprisingly people fear being marginalised, disrespected, ignored and undervalued. If these are things we all generally have an understanding of then we all have the potential to be, and create more change leaders. The people in your organisation/business have a diversity of experience and expertise that can be activated to drive change. It is not a change manager you employ who makes change happen in your organisation/business, it is the collective will of your people.

 Beware the large institution/business that has been designed to resist change.

There are still opportunities in this context, but you should have your eyes wide open if this is something you decide to tackle. There are plenty of large institutions/businesses out there that have been designed to resist change. How do you identify them? Well as we know, this way of operating leads, over time to significant financial decline, and culture is also often damaged as a result e.g., people become tired of making the effort to champion change and become disenfranchised. There is also a very evident loss of currency e.g., the core business whether it is a product, or a service is no longer relevant and therefore if you choose to take on this challenge then you will likely be dealing day to day with the consequences of this resistance to change. If the management structure remains the same e.g., the gate keepers who have resistance to change as part of their ‘business as usual’ roles continue to be empowered then it is unlikely that your change initiatives will be successful, just like all those before you who tried. Even worse, you may be identified as a threat to the status quo and find that you are undermined by those above you rather than supported.

Focus on what you can change.

I am not the most patient person when it comes to large institutions/businesses that self-destruct because they actively resist change, but nonetheless there are things that you can still do providing there is not a restructuring that sees significant job losses including your own. In my experience teams ‘on the ground’ want to see the business grow and succeed. They want to be happy in their jobs which means they want to be listened to (actually, not just via a survey), supported, provided with training and opportunities to progress in their careers - no brainer right? So, this is where the opportunity lies in this environment. This is often something you can change. Listen to your teams (who have often been through some tough times in the business/institution). Support them and establish an environment of trust where team members can start to think about what change might look like and how they can lead it in small ways incrementally. Creative people are often great at looking for alternative ways that change can be lead so provide these people with opportunities to do this work. Work at re-engaging them with the purpose of the institution/business that they once had a passion for. Your teams are your best change agents even when this has to happen slowly and quietly.