8 Fundamental Errors that Undermine Transformational Efforts

Have you ever attempted to implement a change which failed, or not understood why there was so much resistance within the workgroup? Even despite the changes making logical sense to the stakeholders, the significant time and effort you put into the planning and the clear benefits that it would produce for the company.

Well, there is likely one or more of 8 key reasons why planned changes fail, or significant resistance is observed from the organisation members. John Kotter’s change model which built upon the early work of Kurt Lewin focused on addressing in order the 8 fundamental errors that undermine transformational efforts, noting that skipping any of these steps will result in increased resistance. Below are some of the key concepts from Kotter’s publication Leading Change. ?

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Step 1: Create: Establish a sense of urgency or increase urgency

The initial step is to identify an opportunity that is open today, communicate this in turn create a sense of emergency around it to support buy-in. Assuming a Top-Down intervention (One initiated from the senior team members) some of the strategies to implement would include.

You should be able to answer the following questions

• What is the big opportunity that could ignite the hearts and minds of your people?
• Are you able to connect an external change factor with a special capability of your organisation?

Hold Key Stakeholder Meetings

• Examine the market, competitive realities and identify and discuss crises, potential crises or major opportunities
• This should be an opportunity that appeals to the organisations head + hearts by focussing on the "opportunity" that is open today.
• Once identified key stakeholders should clearly discuss, understand and document the change proposed.
• All members should be able to clearly describe the issue/opportunity, work on articulating it clearly, document the methods of communication of the issue and be able to communicate the stakes if you succeed and the consequences if you fail?
• In general, this step is about creating buy in from key stakeholders and preparing for the following steps. In essence this step ensures the need for change in preference to just needlessly jumping in.

Step 2: Build: Create the guiding coalition

Essentially this step commences building a supportive team. Key attributes to the coalition selection should include.

• Individuals who have enough power to lead the change.
• Coalition members should consist of multiple hierarchy layers across many functions and receive information about the organisation from all levels and ranks.
• Teams should be diverse, geographic location, tenure, ideas and all members should have a commitment to the change initiative.

Strategies to implement

• Team building to assist in getting the group to work together like a team.
• As the key leader you should be modelling the appropriate behaviours.
• Meetings - To ensure the coalition are as well versed and understand the changes, and what they mean.

Step 3: Form: Developing a vision and a strategy

To be able to communicate the changes certain things must be in place to assist in the communication. This vision should be.

• Vision should be: Communicable, desirable, creates a verbal picture, flexible, feasible, imaginable, simple.
• The vision should motivate people to act and coordinate/align their actions. (This should tie directly to a big opportunity).

Strategies to implement

Develop a vision to help and direct the change effort.

• Meetings: Either individually or as part of the coalition this vision will be an important part of the proceeding communication plan.
• Should identify how is the future going to be different

Developing a stepped plan for achieving that vision

• It should be clear how is that future going to become a reality??

Step 4: Enlist: Communicating the change vision

Quite possibly the most important step and one of the most underutilised to the failure of planned changes. Every vehicle possible should be used to communicate the new vision and strategies.

Strategies to implement.

• Have the guiding coalition role model the behaviour expected of employees
• Identify more change agents, however, understand although it's possible to find many change agents they will only be effective if members are given a choice and feel they have an opportunity to step forward and act (perceived value).
• "Wants to" verses "has to" (Give people a reason - and recognise the effort of existing volunteers)
• Hold and provide as many methods as possible to communicate the changes and expectations. Including but not limited to townhalls, meetings, website, blogs, posters, discussions, emails.

NOTE: Lack of communication will be interpreted as abandonment

Step 5: Enable: Empowering broad-based action

Effectively this is creating an army through the leverage of the previous successful steps. Utilise the previous enlistment of change agents, and the coalition to support the empowerment of individuals to act.

Strategies to implement.

Conduct meetings, townhalls and provide methods of communicating in order to identify and understand barriers / obstacles to the success of the planned change at the front-line level, and subsequently.

• Get rid of obstacles (Inefficient barriers, archaic norms)
• Change systems or structures that undermine the change vision
• Encourage risk taking and non-traditional ideas, activities and actions.

Meetings with senior members key to identify why past initiatives failed.

• Why did past initiatives fail?
• At what stage did they fail.
• Did they get off the ground at all (stall mid-way, or get completed then abandoned)
• Identify Common Barriers (For example: Silos, parochialism, pressure to hit numbers, complacency, legacy rules or procedures and limited access to stakeholders)

Step 6: Generate: Generate short term wins

Short term wins are important, but they need to be planned and part of the planning process.

• Stakeholders must plan for visible improvements in performance or "wins"
• NOTE: A win is anything that helps you move toward your opportunity (Actions, lessons learned, improved process, new behaviour)

How to Recognise a win?

• Wins should be relevant to the opportunity before you
• Wins should be meaningful to others (people beyond the winner or winners - care)

Strategies to implement.

• Wins must be collected, categorised and communicated - early and often.
• Track progress and energise your volunteers
• Visibly recognise and reward people who made the wins possible.

Step 7: Sustain: Consolidate gains and producing more change

Momentum is a wonderful thing! Leaders and key stakeholders should take advantage of this

• The increased credibility should be harnessed to change all systems, structures and policies that don’t fit together, and don’t fit the transformation vision.
• Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality.
• Revisit step 1 (urgency) after generating a few wins.
• With more volunteers you will find more barriers that need knocking down.

Strategies to implement.

• Hiring, promoting, and developing people who can implement the change vision
• If the change process needs more energy: Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes and change agents.

Step 8: Institute: Anchoring new approaches in the culture

It's important that once implemented the changes remain. By continuously creating better performance through customer and productivity orientated behaviour, more and better leadership, and more effective management.

Strategies

• Communicate and articulate the connections between new behaviours and organisational success to all members of the team.
• Training: Continuously develop means to ensure leadership development and succession.?

Change is not a new phenomenon, however the frequency and size of change is continuously increasing. One could say that,

"change itself is changing".

Reduced barriers to entry, increased business competition, globalisation, changing social and cultural diversity, QWL balance shift amongst a myriad of other reasons mean that todays leaders will struggle to be successful without the ability to manage change moving forward.

Cheers, JT