Leading Change

When I think about being a change leader, I envision a group of people engaged in their work. Solving problems as they arise, not thinking too much about why they are doing something, but rather about how to complete the task at hand.

We all know that if we do something long enough it becomes easier, even things that were extraordinarily difficult or scary at the beginning. There’s a contemporary commercial that features a young boy learning to tie his shoelaces. Most of us can identify with that. Over, around, under, through… or was it left over right, punch it through, make a bunny ear and do that three times. I don’t know! But we all learned to do it and now there’s no thinking at all, we just tie our shoelaces. Nothing to it. It really doesn’t matter what the job is, we learn it, repeat it, master it, and don’t think about the how or why after mastery.

Now, think about changing the way change leaders try to implement change. They do their very best to explain why it’s necessary to change, but most of the time it’s from the company’s perspective, not the employee’s. I remember, as a frontline worker, someone talking to me about customer satisfaction, shareholder value, ROI, and other esoterica so important to the organization’s leaders. We had to change to increase “our competitive position.” Competitive position? That concept is distant and remote to those of us in the trenches. It didn’t resonate or motivate us. But we acquiesced. Unfortunately, that's how most change initiatives end up.

Later, back on the job, Sally seemed to do things so much faster and better than me. I watched her, but it all seemed so fast and easy. I asked Sally to show me, and she did so graciously. She smiled when I was able to do it by myself. She was happy and so was I. Sally made me more productive and neither of us thought about that. We were both just happy to be good at what we were doing. My friend, Joe, saw what I was doing, and we talked about it. I told him to talk to Sally, she’s the one who figured it out. Soon, Joe was doing the job the way Sally improved it. Eventually, everyone in the plant was doing it Sally’s way.

Now, some 50 years later, I think a lot about the what’s, how’s, and whys. What needs to change and why? How will it make things easier, better, faster, require less resources, eliminate excess waste, improve the product? When I was an employee, I didn’t think about those things. As a supervisor and later as manager, I did. As a consultant who is asked to plan and implement change, I think about it all the time. But not from a boardroom perspective, but from the plant floor, storefront, or factory where the work gets done.

I think about the Sallys and Joes who learn the tricks of the trade and figure out how to make their jobs simpler and more efficient. I know that if I pique their interest, challenge their intellect, respect their expertise, and respectfully ask them and their cohort for help with larger problems, they will pitch in and seek ways to make things better.

Do you want to be a better change leader?

The next OD Chat Group is gathering this coming Monday, August 26 at 9:00 AM Pacific Time. Why not join us and learn how to identify things that need to be changed in organizations. It’s free and we all learn from each other. Send me an email asking to attend, and I will send you login information. [email protected]