Seven Essential Ingredients for Selecting a Framework in the Human Journey of Change
When organisational transition is effective, it looks like this:
Continuous and Self-sustaining Process
The first 4 ingredients help defrost the status quo; ingredients 5 and 6 introduce new practices; the last ingredient grounds the changes in the organisation's behaviours and culture and helps them stick.
General Comments
The implementation of the 7 ingredients will result in changed behaviour, so that there will be a change in attitude, ie use the change in behaviour to nibble away at attitudes, values and beliefs. For example,
Ingredient 1 - Laying a Foundation for New Ways
New desired behaviours include respecting the past but being prepared to move on; initiating emotional buy-in to new ways
Ingredient 2 - Establishing a Sense of Urgency
New desired behaviours include staff awareness that business as usual is not a viable option, ie we need to change things
Ingredient 3 - Forming a Transitional Team
New desired behaviours include forming a team that involves the important staff (formal and informal) who represent a cross-section of the organisation and who
- have the correct leadership behaviours (including trust, emotional commitment and teamwork)
- actively support the change process
- will have a positive influence on the rest of the organisation, ie credibility
Ingredient 4 - Creating Alignment
New desired behaviours include staff sharing the focus/purpose of the change process with more staff having creative and emotional buy-in to the process
Ingredient 5 - Maximising Connectedness
New desired behaviours include more staff feeling part of, and empowered to implement, the change process; key obstacles removed.
Ingredient 6 - Creating Short-Term Wins
New desired behaviours revolve around enough short-wins being produced quickly enough so that change helpers are re-energised, pessimists are enlightened, cynics are defused, and most staff are motivated to push forward with the change process
Ingredient 7 - Consolidating Performance Improvement
New desired behaviours demonstrate that this is the way we do business around here! New and winning behaviours continue despite the pull of tradition, status quo, turnover of change leaders, etc
NB See Volumes 3, 4 & 5 for techniques that will maximize the effectiveness of each Ingredient
General Lessons About the 7 Ingredients
The ingredients provide a set of selection criteria with the degrees of emphasis changing in each situation
There is overlap between the ingredients
To complete all the ingredients takes considerable time and involves overcoming inertia
Skipping through and/or missing ingredients limits the chance of success
A critical mistake in any of the ingredients can have devastating impact
Focus on communications - there's never too much
Importance of simplicity, ie KISS
Using a multi-projects approach can be messy and uncontrollable, ie too many projects
Urgency!- maintain a sense of urgency
Customer focus - concentrate on what the customer really wants, ie add value for customers
Just as weight loss requires a change in lifestyle and no drifting back to bad habits, organisational transition requires a permanent alteration to the organisational operations
More than 'straight line' thinking is required, ie more than gathering information, gathering data, identifying options, analysing and choosing. It involves making the organisation adaptive and flexible to handle the continually changing circumstances
Change can be stalled because of
- inwardly-focused cultures
- paralysing bureaucracy
- parochial politics
- low trust level
- lack of teamwork
- arrogant attitude
- a lack of leadership in middle management
- general human fear of the unknown, etc
Need for high quality leadership - and not just excellent management - to unfold strategies that are effectively translated into changed behaviour directed to maximising added value in the chain of daily activities leading to the consumer
Ownership, buy-in, responsibility and involvement by staff results in more rapid development and implementation of the strategy from dealing directly with customers, ie faster response to changes in consumers' needs
Importance of maximising leverage, ie focus on where you can have the maximum benefit
Change takes time. It is like having 2 jobs: there are your daily operational activities plus what is involved in the change.