Emergent Contributors to Change Success: Flexibility and Agility

How can organizations become more agile and adaptable to the ever-growing and changing world around them? On the heels of three years of imposed change and subsequent response, organizations must build the muscle to implement change – whether planned or unplanned – more successfully and with less disruption. 

“What success contributors are emerging and growing in importance?” was one question asked in Prosci’s recent research on Top Contributors to Change Success in a Post Pandemic World. The study examined how the established seven top contributors were impacted by the pandemic and what new contributors sat on the horizon of achieving successful change. Over 1400 change agents from around the world identified numerous variables that will play a bigger role in the calculation of change success in the future which included organizational contributors, initiative contributors, interaction contributors, role contributors, and people contributors. 

I want to share with you the insights derived from their collective perspectives and experiences, so you can decide what these imminent change success variables mean to you. A full analysis of the research is available at Prosci; here I want to offer up some observations on a particular topic from the research. 

In this edition: Flexibility and Agility – Flexibility and agility were the most frequently cited contributors related to the infrastructure of the organization and how it handled change today and in the future. 

Flexibility and Agility 

The key to future change success lies in adaptability, flexibility, and resilience. Following significant change forced by the pandemic, organizations now must navigate new ways of working, a dynamic workforce, and new challenges and expectations from customers and constituents. More agile approaches are needed that enable cross-functional and iterative work that emphasize learning. Change fatigue and burnout must be addressed, and a growth mindset is essential. Leaner approaches to change management that prioritize impact are encouraged, with learning and revision opportunities along the way. The focus should be on human agility and the ability to change continuously.

Top Themes

1. Adaptability: Be able to adapt to changes quickly and effectively. Balance complexity/effort on key deliverables to achieve maximum change impact.

2. Flexibility: Be flexible to meet the demands of the new working environment, take a growth mindset, and use scalable and adaptable CM principles. 

3. Resilience: Build resilience as a work behavior, encourage validation/revision opportunities along the way, and be able to pivot during a project lifecycle. 

4. Agility : Build change capability enterprise-wide, empower change champions throughout the organization, and adopt Agile practices even if not working on an Agile software project.

5. Human-centricity: Listen, create focus groups around change, and recognize the importance of people to the organization, its culture, and change outcomes. Recognize that people are one of the most precarious and precious resources and they need to be supported during change.

6. Alignment: Align change planning with the organization's culture to create consistency in the change model, approach, and language .

7. Mindset: Take a growth mindset, seeking continuous improvement opportunities. Differentiate failing from failure and elevate learning as a key outcome. 

8. Communication : Use effective, open, multi-directional communication to increase transparency, understanding, and speed.

9. Prioritization: Prioritize change initiatives, emphasize alignment, and provide clear and simplified direction. 

In the Voice of Study Participants

The top contributor to success that is emerging and/or growing in importance at the organizational level is:

• “Adaptation, flexibility, clearly defined objectives/measures of success, and a lot of trust in the people and the process.”
• “Becoming more agile and adaptable to the ever growing and changing world around us.”
• “The ability of Change Management Practitioners to shift gears in a timely manner and address the new or enhanced concerns affecting the work force.”
• “The ability to adapt and adjust to circumstances - which is what this pandemic has required of us all.”
• “Flexibility and pragmatic approach to the various aspects of a project and how it applies to change.”
• “Momentum is there. People recognize importance of change in our life. Keep momentum going.”
• “Ability and competence to handle uncertainty; resilience as a work behavior.”

“Stamina and resilience, many are facing change fatigue and burnout. How to take what we have learned through the adversity of the pandemic and emerge stronger than before.”

Flexibility and Agility Discussion Prompt Questions

• How can organizations prioritize and align change initiatives to ensure consistency and effectiveness?
• What are the key skills and mindsets required for successful change management, particularly in the face of uncertainty and rapid change?
• How can change management practitioners balance the need for flexibility and agility with the need for clear objectives and measures of success?
• What lessons can we learn from the pandemic about the potential for rapid and widespread change, and how can we apply these lessons to future change initiatives? 

So What and Now What

You have the “What” – that organizations need to intentionally build flexibility and agility as a critical variable for improving change success going forward. The “So What” (the implications) and “Now What” (the actions) are now up to you. Your unique changes are occurring within the unique context of your organization at this unique moment. How you bring “flexibility and agility” into the frame will also be unique. I am curious, though, and I do believe we all get better together, learning from and sharing with one another. Please consider using the comments section to share one implication or one action you take from the insights shared here or by others. 

#AncoraImparo 

Tim Creasey, Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci, is a researcher and thought leader on managing the people side of change. His work forms the foundation of the largest body of knowledge in the world on change management. He has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, helping them to see how successful change is unlockable when we prepare, equip, and support people through change.

This newsletter - Change Success Insights, Implications, and Actions – presents real data and insights from the change community for you to reflect and act on in your practice. The frame for the newsletter is inspired by Liberating Structure’s W3 framework that organizes thinking into the What (the insights), So What (the implications), and Now What (the actions). Topics include emerging contributors to change success in a post-pandemic world and re-imagining the hybrid workplace of the future, to name a few.