Changing the Way You Change

Managing change is difficult.

American corporations spent more than $165 billion last year on training, and much of it was targeted to developing leaders and managers. 

The messages to leaders and managers? Be authentic. Be bold. Be courageous. Be decisive. Be empathic. Be forward-thinking. Think globally. Be humble. Be an innovator. Don’t be a jerk. Be knowledgeable. Be a learner. Be a motivator. You get the picture -- a long list of expectations.

Underlying these noble attributes, behaviors, and values is the competency of managing change. Organizations are successful to the extent that managers are skilled in adapting, planning, orchestrating, and executing organizational change.

Experts estimate that between 50% and 70% of substantive organizational change efforts fail, resulting in the tandem reduction of engagement and financial performance. However, with increasing energy and resources focused on developing people to lead change successfully, why does so much failure exist? To understand the scope of change management failure, we need to account for circumstances beyond managerial control. 

For many, the increasing pace and complexity of change is overwhelming. Change arrives unexpectedly — the result of perhaps months of hushed conversations in boardrooms and organizational hallways — and managers are unprepared to act. In addition, globalization and diversity contribute to increased attention in developing change-aware and change-ready managers. Information related to change often sits somewhere between too much and too little, leaving managers and employees speculating as to what comes next. 

In addition, collaborative work approaches and flattening organizational hierarchies benefit productivity when business runs as usual, but challenge managerial ability to efficiently direct change and to integrate business efforts. Finally, technology and increasing advances in artificial intelligence continue to disrupt everyday actions and processes, often changing the availability and nature of work.

Context will always matter to successful change leaders and to those desiring to maximize organizational results.

When executives increase performance accountability for change, competitive advantage grows. Change and improvement will require managers to lean into discomfort and consider alternative approaches to integrating and aligning change efforts. Healthy doses of guilt and anxiety, emotions natural to development and growth, often go hand-in-hand with change. The best organizations will be those that tackle problems directly and with fleetness. 

There are five typical cases that stall effective organizational change and managerial effectiveness. These examples provide a framework to understanding elements that inhibit transformation and managerial success. 

Fail to “See” the Individual and the Big Picture: Change is often accompanied by some form of shock, denial, and anger that eventually gives way to the anticipation and excitement that begins with a new order. In change efforts, managers should not release the desire for excellence and extraordinary achievement, just hoping to “get through it” until the next change, but rather consider organizational change in its broadest context. Both the individual and the larger system demand managerial focus.

Organizational change produces responses as unique as the individuals that comprise the organization, but typically, the concerns arise from perceived loss. People worry about status, turf, income, routines, reporting relationships, among various factors. Successful change managers don’t give up on individuals in transition and change. The best remain available and accessible, not only to listen but to provide up-to-date information and to continue to assist individuals in deploying strengths to tasks.

At times, managers engage in convincing self-talk that if they could only get one or two employees to change (leave, transfer, or modify a behavior), then problems would be reduced or eliminated. Great managers extend their focus not only to the individual but to the organizational system and its many stakeholders. Change leadership is facilitated when managers focus on both the individual and the broader organization. Resilience develops when managers see beyond personal boundaries.

Fix Behaviors with Policies: Ineffective managers replace conversation and discussion with rules and policies. These are often the same managers who are one-channel communicators, routinely relying on email or instant messaging, to convey ideas and to direct performance. Additional policies during organizational change serve to limit and to polarize managers and employees.

In the 2016 Robert Half Management Resources survey, 81% ranked frequent communication and managing expectations as the two factors most critical to managerial success in leading change. Clear and regular communication avoids needs for more rules enforced ever-more rigidly. Compassion and equitable treatment approaches engender performance and build commitment, even to an uncertain future.

Foster Ignorance: When managers face an uncertain future, one reaction is to turn inward. Some interrupt the flow of one-on-one discussions or cancel team meetings. Managers fear that they do not have any more to communicate and adopt a why-bother attitude. Change requires a manager to be increasingly efficient and effective with time management. Regular interaction assists managers and teams to stay close and to stay updated on barriers and progress to change. Ignoring others contributes to lost time and diminished performance. Employee indifference is a product of managerial inaction.

Rather than turn inward, effective managers will redesign and reshape events that make the most of the circumstances. Active managers set the pace for and climate for involvement and outcomes. Maya Angelou, the American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist provides an important reminder: “At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”

Search for Scapegoats and Assign Blame: When dealing with uncomfortable feelings arising from change and transition — anger, confusion, and numbness, as examples — unskilled managers can displace their emotions onto others. A scapegoat becomes the target, not only for the manager’s uncomfortable feelings but also a vehicle for comforting managerial ego. Scapegoating not only dehumanizes, but it also serves to reinforce the status quo. Exemplary change managers direct concerns to fixing systems and eliminating problems that prevent the full expression of talent.

Don’t Recognize Progress and Accomplishment: Change presents an opportunity to prioritize work, and to acknowledge activities that should stop, continue, or start. During the midst of change, the human condition for acknowledgment and recognition remains. Effective managers adjust recognition practices to acknowledge contribution and progress.

During change, organizational executives often focus their attention and retention efforts on top talent. The focus on retaining high-performing individuals is important and short-sighted. It’s important to identify and develop recognition and retention approaches tailored to all needs and levels of the organization. 

Charting Next Steps

In the face of accelerating and unprecedented organizational change, effective leaders are stalwart in their desire to achieve important organizational outcomes. Leading change successfully, often in the face of adversity, demands emotionally intelligent leaders and managers. Successful managers use change as an opportunity to deepen connections with employees and to help others through uncertainty and stress. Success is less about mastering technical and structural aspects of change and more about the authentic and genuine expression of leadership that creates followers.

Change is difficult. By understanding and reconsidering your current practices, you can make profound differences in the lives of others, for your career, and for the success of your organization.

What are you doing to improve the ways you manage and lead organizational change? Join the conversation when you share a comment, insight, observation, or question!

Mike Horne is a people and culture leader guiding organizations to exceptional growth and achievement.