Why Your Change Initiatives Fail According To This L&D Leader

This One Tip From Roche's L&D Leader Can Make All The Difference Between a Successful or Failed Change Initiative!

We can all agree that we live in extremely volatile times. The term VUCA, a military term to describe how volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous any given situation is, has recently become a highly used term in business management because the world is going through such rapid transformations. As the world is changing rapidly, many companies are struggling to keep up and find their rhythm. With such dynamic changes, it would be difficult to find any organization today that has not undergone at least one transformational change initiative in recent history.?

Interestingly, organizational change initiatives have an abysmal success record, according to research by McKinsey & Company. Traditional organizational transformations are led by a CEO type of figurehead and often involve a top-down approach of “major structural change (acquisitions, disposals, partnerships, and organization redesign), widespread deployment of new technologies, considerable effort, and cultural change” as defined by this Harvard Business Review article.

However, we are learning that our new world is calling for something different since “successful business transformations are rare.” We’re starting to realize that the main piece behind successful transformation is people’s behavior. In Particular, the ability to“Create space to observe people’s behavior,” says Roche's learning and development leader. The tough blend is finding the perfect intersection between taking a coaching approach, in which we focus entirely on the person’s experience, and a leadership approach, in which we’re required to guide and give directions. So, how do we make that work?

The tough part about transformation is that there’s no formula. There isn’t a “set way” of doing things. At least not with this new approach, yet. The reason is that in order to show up in that intersection between coach and leader requires us to focus on the person we’re interacting with. Since everyone is different, our approach must also be different for each individual. Instead of having a formula, it’s more like having a toolbox and knowing which tools to grab based on the situation at hand.?

Ariel Hu summed up employees’ experiences well during a recent LinkedIn Live episode of Live with Marcel and Kilani. Hu, an evolution coach who uses coaching as a learning and development leader, has focused her training on people empowerment rather than processes-enablement within transformations. During our Livestream Show, Ariel explained that Roche has a high success rate in leading transformational change because the organization invests heavily in nurturing a leadership coaching culture.

Reminiscing on past transformations, Ariel shared an experience she had where she observed one of the employees saying in fear, “You guys are moving forward? Are you taking my job away from me?” This is a common example of the kinds of fears that come up for employees during times of change, and it also shows just how important it is to have the right type of conversations. “When we know how our people feel, we have the opportunity to explore and collaborate with them,” says Hu.

A lot of people turn away from the idea of transformation because they don’t feel secure. Often, people still see themselves as individuals in a team rather than a member of a greater whole. In other words, there’s still this underlying feeling of competition, the need to protect their job and themselves, over security and collaboration towards a shared goal, making buy-in towards transformation difficult. This is where the coaching piece comes in. The new age of transformational change is about having open conversations with the members of our organization to create psychological safety and buy-in. The big question to ask before making any change is “Are my people ready?” If not, how can you prepare them?

The answer to that question is through exploration instead of direction. It’s about understanding what’s happening in your employees’ worlds, especially where there may be resistance. When we take the time to explore how our employees feel, you will understand them better and be more willing to buy into the changes you’re implementing when they feel heard, secure, and secure confident. What we’re essentially doing here is creating a people-first approach to a typically process-first system. We want to equip our employees to create space, culturally align with the vision, and then move forward with the transformation rather than the other way around.?

Learning this new approach is a lot for leaders to manage too. In a time of change, leaders are required to wear many hats. One person’s story shared by Harvard Business Review 'described his role as being ‘on top of the business, and in the business.’ This means being detached and able to take a wider perspective while being immersed in the details when required.”

With that being said, here are some tools that all leaders need to be more efficient during times of transformation:

1. Be less reactive and more creative. Being able to move from a place of reactivity to creativity opens up the space for almost all of the essential leadership practices like authenticity, caring about people, system awareness, etc.?
2. Be willing to make a mindset shift and, with that, a behavioral one too
3. Wear your many hats proudly! Be the visionary, the architect, and the coach. Yes, all of them.?

While the above tools are all extremely effective, we’re left with the question, "How do I actually change and, with that, stay authentic?” While the answer to this question often lies in practice, we’ve found that the benchmarks for this come from a model we like to call CARE, which stands for connecting with empathy, anticipating needs through deep listening, relentlessly helping people grow, and empowering and encouraging people. When you stick to that, you’ll often find yourself in that intersection between being a coach and a leader, which is right where you need to be in times of transformational change.?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this week’s newsletter. If you enjoyed the article, I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway summed up in one word in the comment section. What was one thing that resonated with you?

Level V Partners Ltd?is a boutique Management Consulting and Executive Coaching firm by?Marcel Daane?and?Kilani Daane, a Father-Daughter Coaching Duo. We partner with leaders to help them streamline how their people work and perform together so they can do more in less time while being happier and healthier in the process.

Using a full suite of psychometric assessments, leadership and culture surveys, customized workshops, and coaching programs, you can find comfort in knowing that Level V Partners has a solution for every level of your organization that helps your people work even more effectively together no matter where they are based in the world.

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