How (People) Change Management is a Necessary Glue for Strategic Coherence

Agile, Scrum, Lean, Design Thinking, Gamification, Continuous Improvement and Change Mangement are all 21st Century change-enabling systems created to do a very "simple" (in concept) thing: remove f-r-i-c-t-i-o-n by making it even possible, and then easier, for people to adopt and use new technology, systems, behaviors, and processes in a faster, deeper, longer-lasting, and more impacting manner. They belong woven together as complementary change-enabling systems. They are capabilities. They are mindsets. They are behaviors. They have methodologies to help achieve what they fundamentally are, but those processes are not "them" - those methods are just a path to achieve the desired outcome: the mindsets and skills which influence every single day-to-day decision on what to focus time, effort, communications and capital on and for - and I do mean each decision by each person, for every group, and at all levels of the enterprise on a fundamental, in-your-skin, in your speech, in your thoughts way.

Which pile of noise needs a root-cause analysis and fix first? How many decisions do you make in a day? Which decisions should you make, and which should others make? Where do you focus your time, effort, money? These are answered by understanding the fundamental concepts and methodologies offered in a woven-cohesive mental context spawn out of these disciplines. These methodologies have in common a fundamental useful principle: Remove friction and noise so you can actually see through the complexity and at the simplicity which provides the next-steps answer towards improved Operational Effectiveness.

Coherence focuses strategic investment on what matters. Each of these change-enabling systems are coherent together and are coherency-makers within a company. Thus, weaving in (People) Change Management into the DNA and skill set of existing employees for their own product or service delivery is a vital step to bringing out a strategic coherence for any company as it addresses why and how people decide and are enabled to make any type of changes in themselves and others - personally and professionally.

Coherent companies direct capital, time, and talent to those activities, products, and businesses that will extend their lead (HBR, The Coherence Premium, 2010). Coherence is what Enterprise Change Management's vision is all about. ECM is a coherence glue that creates alignment between strategic intent and day-today decision making. Once it is understood how and why each individual, including yourself, change on a fundamental level, you can create deeper, faster, more impacting changes anywhere in the company. The lost capital opportunity shrinks. The profits rise. The efficiencies increase. The friction, stress and non-productive politics dissipates.

Want to attack those politics, silos and sandboxes? It will require a mindset change first before behavior can and will change. Mindset changes require motivation, and motivation is a feelings word (Kotter). Granted, you'll need those metrics and statistics to get the attention of C-suite, regulatory, financial and engineering type-minds, but you won't create the mindset shift without folks first understanding how they and others can and do shift from current frameworks into new frameworks. The ADKAR methodology is one effective system.

Companies that focus on their capabilities, day in and day out, continually improve them. Employees becomes more skilled and systems grow more adept, enabling companies to consistently out-execute their rivals and capture the top-line growth in their industries (HBR, The Coherence Premium 2010).

Groups that focus on Enterprise Change Management as an enabling system are going in the right direction. Best yet, is creating those Transformation Offices that apply a blend of the change enabling systems: Lean, CM, CI, Agile and agile, Design Thinking, and Gamification into their very DNA and way of executing enterprise-wide changes.

Dana Houston Jackson - Lead Change Management Advisor at 1898 & Co. - Consulting Arm for Burns & McDonnell

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