Avoiding Change for Change’s Sake

By: Charity Boyette, COO?

I haven’t undertaken a scientific study, but I’m guessing that “change” is one of the words most used in today’s organizations and for a good reason: change is a fundamental part of life. Organizations and its members experience change all the time: members come and go and move up the organizational ladder; products or services are added, removed, or improved upon; customer segments expand and contract; and the external environment exists in a constant state of flux.??

At the same time, many (most?) of us find change uncomfortable – we don’t like the uncertainty it brings or the disruption to our routines or that it forces us to learn new things and new ways of operating. Others, however, love change for those very factors, finding it exciting, energizing, and full of possibilities. Historically, of course, organizations have often struggled with change, whether they wanted it, or it was forced upon them by circumstances. In recent decades, many influential voices in business have touted the importance of embracing change for its ubiquity and the possibilities it can bring. And, as a result, many organizational leaders have shifted their attitude towards change, sparking an entire movement celebrating “changemakers,” “change agents,” and “transformational leadership.”?

This is all great, right? Yes, but…while change is a constant variable in organizations, not all change is beneficial for them, especially when it’s undertaken for the wrong reasons or with the wrong goals in mind. And with so much shouting about the importance of change from all the proverbial rooftops, it can be easy to become overwhelmed or confused. So, let’s examine this a bit and see where even the most well-intentioned leaders can stumble when it comes to change.?

1. Understand why change is necessary. We understand – you are sensing that something is off in the organization. Maybe turnover is becoming a little too frequent among your team members or sales have slumped over the past quarter or two. Have customer complaints increased lately? Or perhaps your overhead rate is unsustainably high, or a new project management approach has your team nervous. Diagnosing the issues at play takes more than reviewing key performance indicators; you have to dig into what has changed to get to why it has changed. As a leader, this can be difficult to do because the drivers of change can show up in odd ways and often employees are unwilling to be candid with the boss (assuming they know themselves what is at the root of issues).??

Effective leaders can combat these by:?

• Taking the temperature of the organization frequently, not just when you suspect there is a problem. The more you are curious about your team’s opinions on operations, the more you normalize asking probing questions and increase their comfort with answering frankly – or even volunteering their thoughts! If you only show an interest when there are signs of trouble, you risk others thinking you are more interested in finding scapegoats instead of root causes.?
• Having a trusted insider (or two) who works more at the operational level of the organization. To get the best insights into what’s going on with your team, it’s imperative that you empower your insiders to speak the truth to you – and that you mean it when you say you really want to know what’s happening. It’s also important to place your trust in someone who has the best interests of the organization at heart rather than leveraging their insider status to move up the ladder. Often, those with the best insider view are the ones we don’t consider but have tremendous access to others: the senior member of the project team, the administrative assistant, even the intern (for an outsider’s perspective).?
• Soliciting input from everyone and actually reading it. One of the most powerful examples that I experienced of this was when a new senior leader was brought in to lead our division from an outside partner. His first act was to administer a stop-start-continue survey to the 200+ members of our division and then read every single response. When he brought the team together to brief on next steps, he referenced a range of comments and ideas from all levels of the team…without referring to notes. He won major goodwill from his team AND was inspired to address some long-standing issues within the department.?

2. Find the right kind of change to meet your issues head-on. The change industry has become just that – an entire industry with books, programs, certifications, and consultants of every stripe. On one hand, this is great news for leaders who need guidance in how to undertake change. On the other hand, i can be completely overwhelming for those same leaders as more and more experts weigh in with the latest-and-greatest, foolproof method of approaching organizational change. Are they wrong? Not exactly, but different circumstances call for different ways of creating and sustaining changes in your organization. This is where understanding why you need change is critical because what you’re really aiming for is to address the underlying cause(s) of what you observe in your organization. And those underlying causes can be dramatically different.??

Is turnover increasing because your business has exploded recently (hooray!) and your team members are burnt out? Or do you have a toxic middle manager whose behavior makes their employees miserable but who you think is doing a great job at meeting targets? Or has your industry shifted, and competitors are poaching your best workers by offering higher pay and more attractive benefits? Each of these needs a response involving change, but what needs to be changed and the scope of the effort is very different for each. To avoid burn out, you may need to restructure entire divisions and undertake right-sizing efforts. But, in the toxic manager scenario, there are multiple issues, including your own blind spots, but a complete HR redesign is likely unnecessary. And so on…?

3. Be realistic in your expectations for what it will take to accomplish the change you need. This is where even the most astute, attuned leaders can fall short. Change is hard, and it takes the dedication of resources over time to accomplish, especially when the scope is broad. We almost always underestimate how much it will cost – in time, lost productivity, and labor – to make progress on our change goals. As a result, we can fail to build and maintain sufficient buy-in among key stakeholders. It’s also imperative that you – the leader – articulate what successful change will “look like.” Much like establishing a vision for your organization, your team needs to “see” what you “see,” including understanding why the change is necessary and valuable for the organization…and for them. You may not convert them all, but by taking the time to be explicit and realistic in your expectations and goals, you can help others get on board, which can go a long way towards making the change process a success.?

4. Seek second opinions. An outsider’s perspective can help tremendously in identifying root causes and determining what kind of change your organization needs. Why? First is objectivity. As the leader, you are connected in every possible way to the organization and how it currently operates, which can put blinders on even the most diligent among us. Second is the outsider’s willingness to question what they encounter in the organization. Why? is a powerful question that, too often, we fail to use because we believe we already know the answer. We get to the truth by questioning assumptions and challenging the status quo. Finally, outsiders can bring expertise that is critical to successful transitions. There is a reason why change has become its own industry – there are competencies, techniques, and time-tested processes that can eliminate much of the guesswork that can hamper efforts at organizational change and improve the likelihood of achieving your change goals.?

5. Be wary of change for change’s sake. A final thought on change, and it has to do with our increasing willingness to undertake it for its own sake. In a previous career, my ability to move up in the organization was predicated on demonstrating repeatedly what I had done to change, improve, or otherwise better whatever organizational environment in which I found myself. It was exhausting. Sometimes maintaining a solid and steady state is the best course but in too many organizations we equate “leading” with “instituting change.” The two are not synonymous, but we often conflate them because change is so much a part of our professional worlds. So, be cautious about linking evaluations of leader performance to a constant demonstration of their adeptness at change whether your organization needs it or not.?