Creating Lasting Change

Lasting organizational change is difficult (some might say impossible). The typical approach goes something like this: management determines a "new strategic direction" is required, tiger teams and task groups are formed to "ideate" the initiative (often comprised of talented folks filled with process expertise but who have little front-line experience), programs are designed, and eventually these programs are rolled out to the organization. 

This is a "big bang" method of forcing down change. Executives determine a new direction and then like a course change being passed from a ship's captain to helmsman through a series of repeated commands by intermediaries. While that approach may work in moving an aircraft carrie from point A to point B, in business the results are not as assured. Sometimes it works, more often it has moderate intermediate impact, and typically the impact fades with time until replaced by the next big idea.

Lasting organizational change requires more than top-down directives. Rather, it requires a teach/learn/model/repeat approach. Companies successful at instituting real change infiltrate the entire organization - from senior executives to newly-minted first-line managers - with across-the-board discipline every leader follows and models.

This approach most often involves four steps:

• Instruction, where the most senior leaders "teach" the change rather than simply communicate it
• Demonstration, where leaders practice what they are teaching for their teams to directly see and witness
• Experience, where leaders push their teams to put the instruction into action themselves
• Assessment, where leaders assess the results of their teams and teams provide feedback to their leadership on the effectiveness of the training

There are no guarantees this approach will be 100% successful. That said, leaders who model the change they seek, creating and empowering leaders of leaders throughout the organization, are dramatically more effective at achieving their long-term goals and results than those who lead from behind or at a distance.

Lead well.