The future of change is human centric

The last 24 months have forced upon us more change than what we would have normally experienced in many years. This has been heavy for people, organizations and societies to carry. Some are handling the changes well and many are struggling in one way or another.

This article will explore how the changes brought about by recent events have been addressed, how to thrive through change in general and why we may get stuck in the process of transformation.?

I have been working in the area of organizational change and transformation for more years than I can remember. Through my experience in the field I have sadly seen many recurring challenges and unsuccessful change initiatives.

When we say unsuccessful, I measure this by so many yard sticks which include:

1. The people impacted by the changes were often left worse off than they were found.?This is an issue that I get very emotional about, as I have seen many people left stressed by changes that were imposed on them or were not well thought out, often without support. Many people have their reputations tarnished for being deemed ‘resistors’ or ‘trouble makers’ because they didn’t acquiesce or ‘get on board’ with the change. This to me cannot be deemed a success when we force change on people and figuratively leave a trail of casualties behind and tell people that the change is done.?
2. The organization never really had a clear reason or vision as to why they were embarking on this change?and therefore could not align leaders or team members to the desired outcome. This lack of clarity and alignment has in my experience led to half-done projects that keep getting altered as people cannot agree on what it was supposed to be in the first place. When you don’t know why you are doing something and do not have a clear vision of where you are headed, it becomes difficult to say that you have reached your destination.
3. Changes that may have seen a ‘go-live’ date yet had no engagement or enthusiasm behind them, ended up dying?within months of a so-called successful implementation. Real transformation happens as an ongoing process of adaptation, adoption and integration into the DNA of the organization.
4. The change advantaged a small group within the organization yet caused a lot of heartache and problems for other segments of the organization.?Changes that are not systemic in nature in my experience are rarely successful. When we treat organizations as completely siloed entities (despite how they may be drawn on the organigram), we are not being realistic, as organizations truly are living systems of interconnected parts.

?Although these above noted points are not new or completely revolutionary, what this past year has exposed to all of us is the fact that, like it or not, we are all connected. What happens in one part of the world has ripple effects in all parts of the globe.?

This principle of connectivity is true in organizations as well, a reality which the pandemic has exposed. As we had to adapt most of our work to a virtual setting and navigate our way through many unknowns, we saw people working hand in hand to figure it all out. We have seen people who never really collaborated before working together to make things happen; whether it was to create ways in which to keep people connected, create shared virtual work spaces, research best technologies to use, etc.?

People started to really understand how much we truly do depend on each other. When one discovers something new it is good for all of us to learn, and if one of us fails it is up to all of us to help to lift that person/project/team up. We learned that if one department wasn’t succeeding it would impact all of us as we are ONE ORGANIZATION. These same lessons hopefully will be carried into how we bring long term change into our organizations.

The other thing that Covid has exposed to us is that we are now looking at not simply making changes in our organizations, but undergoing transformations. I define a change as moving from being a red apple to a green apple; an example of this would be changing one software for another that has different features. In contrast, I define a transformation as moving from being an apple to becoming an orange. A transformation is a true shift in the essence of either who you are, what you do, or why you do it. An example of this is a company that goes from being hierarchical and top-down to one that is flatter in structure with more self-managed teams.

As a result of what we have been experiencing, many organizations are currently thinking about what their future work model will look like. Will they adopt a hybrid model of work, will they go back to status quo, will they have a flex model? All of these questions will not only change an organization but will transform it at many levels as it will require more than simply adopting a policy and sending some communications to ‘inform’ people of what is happening.

This is a transformation, as it may require different values, new team agreements/norms, a shift in leadership mindsets, or a re-design of work, amongst many other things that will need to transform.?

Now is the time to break the molds of the many old and outdated models and beliefs we have around change and transformation in particular.

We have been developing and testing a framework that has allowed us to blend not only the components we believe are needed for successful transformation (the WHAT), but also the way in which we implement the components of the framework (the HOW).

For us, the HOW refers to using?human-centric principles?that allow for authentic and heart-centric leadership as well as full engagement and co-creation by the stakeholders impacted by the transformation.

We have concluded over time that a holistic process of transformation is really built on some core principles:

1. Organizations need to look at transformation as a holistic process because when we ‘push one button’ it almost immediately triggers other parts to shift as well.
2. Not only is transformation about people, it has to be co-created and designed with people.
3. Organizations are living systems which need to have alignment within all ‘parts’ for the whole to function optimally.

?We called the framework?Organizational Transformation and Alignment (OTA)?as we believe that for acceleration, adoption and long term sustainability to occur, we need alignment in 4 key areas:

Strategy and Culture:?Strategy encompasses the organization’s mission, its vision of the future and the goals it sets to achieve them. Culture represents the values, beliefs and behaviours shared by all members of an organization.

Leadership?refers to how capable and aligned an organization’s leaders are of leading their organization through a process of transformation in a way that is consistent with the organization’s vision and values.

Organizational Practices?include aligning the processes, structure and tools that are put in place to support the desired transformation.

Employee Engagement:?Employees are integral to a successful transformation. This pillar incorporates factors that promote employee engagement and processes for collaborative input into the transformation.

The interplay and alignment between these 4 areas is critical as we know that systems are interconnected and real transformation cannot occur if we have misalignment in one or more of the four areas.

Let’s take the example of an organization re-imagining what it’s future work model will look and walk it through the OTA framework:

?Strategy and Culture:

• Are we able to clearly articulate who we are as a company??
• Do we have clear values that are translated into actionable behaviours??
• Has our vision changed??
• Are our goals and intentions still the same? Will we need to change any products/services, etc.??

?These questions not only need to be answered, you need to have alignment amongst your leadership team and all team members. This is foundational to help you move forward in your thinking and determine which work model will best serve your organization rather than try to ‘pick a model’ and then try to retrofit it to who you are as a company.?One size will not fit all and each process should be customized to who you are and what you are trying to accomplish as a company.

Leadership:?

• Are your leaders aligned to the same vision of the transformation??
• Do your leaders have the skills/mindset/behaviours needed to navigate through the desired future reality??

If your leaders do not align, then the messaging that is sent throughout the organization becomes distorted, confusing and chaos provoking. For example, if the organization decides that based on strategy and culture you are going to provide a complete flexible choice model allowing people to work from anywhere they want, yet have leaders who do not buy into this and send different messaging to their people, you are in for trouble and chaos between teams.

Organizational Practices:?

• Are your tools/processes/resources etc. aligned to support the desired transformation??

If you go with the example of allowing for full flexibility yet don’t provide people with the technology and software needed for virtual collaboration, then your transformation will not succeed fully if at all.

Employee Engagement and Alignment:?

• Are people involved in the process in a meaningful way??

This means not just simply sending a survey asking people what they would prefer but truly engaging people in meaningful conversations about the possibilities, what they would need, how they would like it to happen, etc. This means that they get to not only fill in a survey but actually engage in the design and implementation of the new reality. It also means that we equip people with meaningful development opportunities and support to learn how to thrive in the new reality.

This framework is not linear and will flow back and forth as organizations are organic, living systems. Nothing stays static for too long and new variables arise all the time. Therefore, just because you feel like you aligned on any one (or more) of the pillars does not mean that you do not check back in to see if anything needs adjusting.?

The OTA Framework requires that leaders come into the process with a mindset of humility, meaning that they understand that they do not hold all the answers and that they must harvest the collective wisdom of their people in order for their organization to not only adapt to on-going changes and transformation but to really allow for accelerated and sustainable results.?

This process also requires that everyone within the system believe that they are leaders and act accordingly. This means that we adopt a mindset of collaboration and true co-creation rather than waiting for someone else to take a first step, try something new or simply get involved.?

For people to feel capable to jump in and contribute they must have psychological safety, as well as the tools and space to do so. This may seem easier said than done, yet it is necessary and critical to creating successful transformation.

This article was first published on The Pillars Blog

The Pillars envision a future where organizations adopt human centric practices that create alignment for sustained and successful transformation.