Changing Change Management

Apologies first of all ... this is a long article.

A BIT OF CONTEXT

Once again, ensconced in my fave coffee shop, I was surfing my files and folders to see if there was anything in them that I hadn’t touched on before. I couldn’t find anything so I thought, mmmmmm, there has been a cry out for some while now about Changing Change Management so why don’t I do something on that subject? So off I go and started to create some content and got to a stage where I needed to save it. Using the term Changing Change Management it came back and said “this folder name is already in use”. What? When? Did I? Well, I aborted the save and checked the current folder and there were links to articles by McKinsey (2015), Forbes (2019), KPMG (2022) and Gartner (2019). 

The folder was created in October 2022 so it was obviously my intention to write about this subject then but never got around to it. But at least I now had the basis to write this article. I did debate whether to try and put it into my “storyboard” slide style but decided against it as I hadn't written an article since November last year.

As I have said many times before I have been in the business of change for more years than I care to remember and thinking back to my early days there has always been the mantra that we “changeys” as Mark Green calls us, need to change the way we do things. It matters not whether that was because what we were doing wasn’t working or new technology was suddenly available that would help us with how we did it, the call was still out there.

And guess what it still is today. Why? Because there are those that think Change Management hasn’t and won’t work in the format of the last 20 + years and they also “hang their hat” on that bloody stupid, nonsensical, and much-debunked statistic of 70% (McKinsey & Company you have a lot to answer for). If you are one of those people please extract your head out of the sand, get real, and stop being so damn stupid. Take off the blinkers because Change Management does work and it works well if you practice it as it should be practiced. That is the trick folks.

From a personal perspective, I have been involved in many successful implementations, some not so successful, and yes also some failures but not 70%. Based on an exercise I completed some while ago on 34 projects I was involved in between 1996 and 2019 my rate of success/failure was as shown below:

Anyway, back to the purpose of this article.

The call for changing Change Management has mainly come from some of the big consultancies who, of course, have their own personal agenda which is to gain clients. But I thought it would be a good idea to read through their articles to see what their views were about how Change Management should be changed.

This article will contain extracts from those articles and at the end a bit more of my own thoughts.

So here goes.

CHANGING CHANGE MANAGEMENT

CHANGING CHANGE MANAGEMENT (2015)

The first thing I need to do is get this pile of b/s out of the way … Research tells us that most change efforts fail. Yet change methodologies are stuck in a predigital era. It’s high time to start catching up. Change Management as it is traditionally applied is outdated. We know, for example, that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. We also know that when people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick.

Ahhhh that’s better now what do they say that’s more relevant

Organizations today must simultaneously deliver rapid results and sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive environment. They are being forced to adapt and change to an unprecedented degree: leaders have to make decisions more quickly; managers have to react more rapidly to opportunities and threats; employees on the front line have to be more flexible and collaborative. Mastering the art of changing quickly is now a critical competitive advantage.

Digitizing five areas in particular can help make internal change efforts more effective and enduring.

1. Provide just-in-time feedback … The best feedback processes are designed to offer the right information when the recipient can actually act on it. Just-in-time feedback gives recipients the opportunity to make adjustments to their behavior and to witness the effects of these adjustments on performance.

2. Personalize the experience … Personalization is about filtering information in a way that is uniquely relevant to the user and showing each individual’s role in and contribution to a greater group goal. An easy-to-use system can be an effective motivator and engender positive peer pressure.

3. Sidestep hierarchy … Creating direct connections among people across the organization allows them to sidestep cumbersome hierarchal protocols and shorten the time it takes to get things done. It also fosters more direct and instant connections that allow employees to share important information, find answers quickly, and get help and advice from people they trust.

4. Build empathy, community, and shared purpose … In increasingly global organizations, communities involved in change efforts are often physically distant from one another. Providing an outlet for colleagues to share and see all the information related to a task, including progress updates and informal commentary, can create an important esprit de corps.

5. Demonstrate progress … Organizational change is like turning a ship: the people at the front can see the change but the people at the back may not notice for a while. Digital change tools are helpful in this case to communicate progress so that people can see what is happening in real-time. More sophisticated tools can also show individual contributions toward the common goal.

Thank you @McKinsey … next

CHANGE IS CHANGING – COPING WITH THE DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT (2019)

Traditional Change Management as we know it is obsolete. Even the very notion that change can be managed feels absurd given the reality and pace of business today. The intent of business executives—to deliver results more sustainably and more quickly—remains the same, but the context in which organizations operate today is fundamentally shifting, and so is the way in which we should think about change.

Three critical shifts are fundamentally reshaping corporate change:

1. From point-in-time to all-the-time … Change is no longer a project with a defined start and end. It is continuous, and accelerating. On average, employees now experience three major changes each year, compared with fewer than two in 2012, and nearly three-quarters of organizations expect more change initiatives to come in the next few years. As one executive I recently spoke to put it, “As soon as I’m done with one transformation, the next one begins!”

2. From analog to digital … Advances in technology are reshaping both the challenges and possibilities change offers. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the nature of jobs and is shifting work that humans once did to machines. It necessitates a broader rethinking of the future of work. Yes, many jobs will go away, but many will be created, too, requiring smart management through this period of immense dislocation.

3. From fixed to flexible … The very nature of the workforce is changing. Millennials already account for nearly 50% of the US workforce, and they are reshaping expectations. Over 90% expect to stay in a job for less than 3 years, far lower than historical average of 4.4. At the same time, the so-called gig economy is contributing to a labor market characterized by nontraditional, independent and short-term working relationships.

The scope of these three shifts is massive. It requires that we adjust to a future in which change cannot and should not be “managed.” A new normal, no longer defined by risk, fear and avoidance but rather by possibility, agility and opportunity, mandates that we not just manage change, but rather embrace it.

Thank you Forbes … next

THREE TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT

The “Great Reassessment” reflects a fundamental shift in employee priorities, which can be seen across a range of organizations and industries. Many people have examined their desired lifestyles and values and have seen a disconnect between those ideals and what their employer might be offering. As a result, a significant number have resigned to explore possibilities elsewhere. Companies are being challenged to reconsider the employee experience and the change process itself to help prevent further loss. KPMG professionals worked with clients and were inspired by HR Pathfinders research. The following change management trends have emerged:

1. Change by design … In a world of constant flux, change is not a fixed destination. By the time you get there, “there” has already moved on. Instead, change management is an enduring journey. Because of the impact of pandemic-induced team disbursement, along with the accelerated pace of change that accompanies digital business—the context in which change management should operate has also changed. Change by design is the response to that new landscape.

2. Change by evidence … Lasting change requires systemic intervention. The day-to-day environment should be understood rather than limiting insights to semi-annual performance reviews. This can be achieved by exploring sentiment analytics and feedback in real-time. To help ensure that every employee has a voice and feels heard—and to allow the organization to respond continuously, enhanced employee listening posts are a must. Listening technologies are available to make employee sentiment quantifiable and actionable.

3. Change by leadership … Modern change leadership should act as the organization’s North Star, embracing “the art of the possible.” However, it should go beyond leadership assertion that simply instructs, “Follow me.” Instead, change leadership is about creating the right architecture and culture to enable the change and for employees to understand it in their terms.

The intensity of the pandemic has transformed change management just as much as it has impacted the way many of us work. It’s an understatement to say that the change management process has been tested — it’s been an involuntary experiment of epic proportions. We’ve learned some critical lessons that will likely serve us going forward. That’s fortunate because, for the sake of the planet and the societies we live in, we cannot afford to return to the way things used to be.

Thank you KPMG ... next

CHANGING CHANGE MANAGEMENT – AN OPEN-SOURCE APPROACH

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order,” wrote the famed British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. This observation couldn’t be more applicable in today’s world of constant change. The most successful organizations in the future will be those that can effectively preserve order during major changes, whether through merger or acquisition, leadership transition or even culture change.

1. Co-create change strategy … Leaders recognize the value of employees’ input regarding customer needs and how work is done on the ground. However, while 74% of leaders say they involved employees in creating change strategy, only 42% of employees feel they were truly included. Leaders fear being overwhelmed by opinions when deadlines have to be met, so they typically set change strategies and solicit employee feedback after decisions have been made. But solicitation is not co-creation.

2. Shift implementation planning to employees … To create consistent and fast change, leaders typically decide how to implement changes and then communicate directions to the workforce. But this method no longer works in the current change environment. Seventy-two percent of leaders we surveyed admit they do not know what employees must do differently during change because they are too disconnected from the work, and priorities change too quickly for leaders to catch up.

3. Focus communication on “talking,” not “telling” … Most organizations communicate change from the top down. Leaders frame change as a positive story to get employee buy-in, and they tell it frequently to drive understanding. But telling — or, at times, commanding — employees does not drive understanding or commitment to change. Instead, we found that top-down communication actually reduces employees’ understanding of change down the line and increases employee anger, anxiety and resistance toward the change.

In today’s world of constant change, success requires engaging the entire workforce, not just a handful of leaders. Heads of HR are in the unique position to adopt open-source change management. These shifts will engage employees throughout the change process and lead to better, faster and more sustained outcomes. Still, as with all change management, CHROs can’t do it alone.

Thank you Gartner ... next

Enter stage left ... me

OK I realise these articles are a few years old but have you seen a shift of Change Management in the kind of direction the likes of McKinsey, Forbes, KPMG and Gartner suggested?

Call me a cynic if you like but what I see is stuff we already do just referenced in a different way. I don’t really see any revolutionary new thinking which I was expecting.

Some while ago (2018) I also wrote an article called "Future Change Management". Here's the url ... https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/future-change-management-ron-leeman/?trackingId=aQe0B1WcSLeVsDKpHOSKqA%3D%3D ... because LinkedIn said they don't support url's from this site even though it's LinkedIn ... strange.

In the article I said ...

"My view is that current approaches to Change Management are fine so long as you don't try and religiously follow them to the letter but therein lies the problem. For fear of offending some of you, I am going to say that it is more down to how individuals practice change rather than the approach/methodology being used. I have said this many times before (but I will say it again), no "one size fits all" so it is better to have knowledge and experience of a number of approaches and/or methodologies from which you can adapt or adopt to fit specific circumstances."

The article also contains some links with views from non "mainstream" organisations.

As always I am happy for your reactions, comments and shares

DRIVING CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Finally ... do you want to know more about Change Management?

Yes?

Then my Driving Change Management may just be what you are looking for ... it's a mix of old, current and new ... take a listen to this (but beware it's 25 mins long.