Leading a change Program! Take time to ponder & reflect on Ukraine war- Perestroika & Glasnost - institutions, organisations & Nations!

The Ukraine war has continued well beyond one year and the political equation is no more an aggressor attacking a small country. Unplanned and sudden breaking of the Soviet Union allowed NATO to expand its base and the current Ukraine war has its roots within that. Imbalance in world power structure has implications for the globe as the war has the danger of going in uncontrolled territories. The loss of lives, damaged to environment and lives of ordinary people are however irreversible consequences of madness so far. The war has continued well beyond one year and the equation is no more an aggressor attacking a small country.

The Policies of glasnost and perestroika that changed the Soviet Union in a big way has deep connections with script running today. There was nothing wrong with the fact that it allowed citizens to ask for better living conditions, more freedoms, and an end to?Communism. However, the seeds such failure of Change management has sown for world order are taking shape today.

?Why perestroika & Glasnost failed has same reasons as any Change Management Process Fails and change leaders can draw lessons:

??? Lack of Strategic Depth understanding and alignment

?? Lack of preparation & not understanding and processing requirements of all segments

?? Underestimating Scale and Scope of change, not understanding all of the key components.

?? Neglecting & underestimating all Stakeholders & external factors

?? Poor Communication & Lack of Buy-in

?? Incomplete or Lack of Vision and personal agendas of those part of the change management process.

?? Failure to manage Active Resistance & create buy in within carefully selected segments

?? Inadequately equipped leadership

?? Failure to manage inertia in general & that of specific groups

?? Inability to deal with lack of Endurance

?

Perestroika translates to "Restructuring," Made famous by Gorbachev's program to restructure the Soviet economy and strengthen it. It involved decentralising the controls over the economy, reducing Government's role in the decision making & improve the lives of people including giving them more freedom of choice & way of life & thought. The overall perception of change was from corruption to honesty, from slacking to hard work.

?Glasnost, which translates to "openness” was Gorbachev's policy for a new, open policy in the USSR where people could freely express their opinions. With glasnost, citizens no longer had to worry about acquaintances turning them in for saying something that could be taken as criticism of the government. They no longer had to worry about consequences before freely expressing the opinions. Glasnost allowed the people to re-evaluate past, voice their opinions freely on governmental policies & receive uncensored information.

?

Failure of Perestroika & Glasnost

Even if Perestroika & Glasnost were implemented in an ideal environment, it failed on many accounts. Despite much talk about renewal and restructuring, the economy was worse off, and the Soviet Union no longer existed as one political entity.

As a program of economic restructuring, Perestroika is regarded as an utter failure. Glasnost surely produced a political and cultural awakening of sorts unknown during the long Communist rule, but Perestroika failed to deliver the economic & other goals.

?

Lack of structure & planning

One of the main reasons perestroika failed was because it wasn’t using tried & tested models & drivers. During his six years in power, Gorbachev introduced about 10 programs for the big restructuring of the Soviet economy, not a one of which was successfully implemented. Economic reform was limited to inconsistent and half-measures.

Economic Reality was not understood and well addressed:

Even though the ruling elite fought economic reform at every step, they could not repudiate economic reality. The Soviet economy had exhausted its accumulated surplus in terms of natural resources and Western technology and was unable to continue to develop. The economic situation grew worse and the political turmoil followed.

?

External Factors not considered:

?Glasnost, in addition to the events of 1989 from Tiananmen Square to the falling of Berlin Wall, mobilized the intellectual and cultural elite. As a Russian saying went, “We are still on the leash and the dog dish is still too far away, but now we can bark as loud as we want.”

?Dynamics of the groups & segments not understood:

?The displacement of dominant interest groups is a prerequisite for a systemic political and economic reform. The failed August 1991 coup was the last gasp of the main beneficiaries of Soviet rule: the privileged and ruling elite. But the coup was a precondition for the beginning of real reform of the system. Otherwise, the party bureaucracy would still have held a degree of legitimacy and power that no longer exists.

?A strong leadership & structure to support & carry the reform:

?A workable constitution and political structure must be created to protect against unwarranted political intrusions (even in the name of democracy in this case) into the operation of executive power & economic forces. The law must establish rules that protect the economic freedom of the people. The catalyst for the revolution was Gorbachev, but He was no human rights activist and never understood the full implications of the grand promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Lack of Buy-in from key stakeholders:

?Persistence of hope and gradual prosperity could come to a people who have been abundantly blessed with natural resources, but who have unfortunately lived with the strain the political whims of the ruling elite for a long time since Czars and then communists. Almost a quarter-century on, only very remnants are left of that era where freedom of expression was real. Few still publishing bold work are seen as entities of non-independent motivated work & are therefore under threat. Last 15 years the leadership had compulsions to dismantle such media and rolled up press freedoms as it did make the situation unmanageable & chaotic from a particular perspective.

?Change must be backed up by empowered structure:

A workable structural framework must first empower the institution of governance with the ability to govern its citizens, and then force it to govern itself.

Sincere intentions are not enough for economic & structural change & reforms:

Structural economic reform promised short-term and identifiable costs to be borne mainly by the state and long-term and hidden benefits in terms of increased economic efficiency and consumer well-being. The logic of reform was not aligned with the political logic and that led to chaos.

?

Summing up & lessons learnt

?- A change Program cannot ignore the realities of its politics both internal and external in order to achieve its objectives in a sustainable way. ?

- Politics leadership & organisational leaderships have to plan & do phase wise implementation of Change in order to balance various stakeholder interest and ensure reducing of hurdles.

- A change program has to tune itself to the feedback coming from various stakeholders and do frequent course corrections.

?- A good vision & sincere leadership is useless unless it is backed by sound strategy and adequate planning & understanding of the complexity of change.

The danger of is that the story of the failure of Change Program, rise and fall of the USSR, subsequent rise of Nationalistic fervour and irresponsible actions by other world leaders leaves the globe in a great disarray & danger. It is unfortunate that wars are still seen as an opportunity for some elements to create wealth, and gain power and relevance for would be irrelevant structures, like NATO in the new world order!