Overview
Introduction
There are 2 parts to change management:
i) science involves the technical side, such as technology, frameworks, techniques, etc
ii) art involves the human side such as neuroscience, ie how the brain works (rational/irrational, conscious/unconscious thinking, etc), emotions/feelings, intuition/experience, etc.
NB Science is the relatively easy part of change as the human side has many unknowns.
The context of change programs can be broadly divided into 2
i) hardware, ie consisting of
- formal organisation (structures, systems, processes, etc)
- work (tasks, workflow, inter-dependencies, etc)
ii) software, ie consisting of
- people (skills, knowledge, experience, expertise, creativity, etc)
- culture (values, beliefs, behaviours, relationships, influence, power, control, mindsets, etc)
(main source: Cyrus Rebello, 2011)
The approach used in this knowledge base is guided by this statement.
"...In complex non-linear, dynamic systems, order emerges out of chaos, and the details are unpredictable. You have to set the initial conditions for change and create the context. But then you provide minimum specifications - just a few hard rules, which people can figure out how they are going to follow..."
Richard Koppel, 2004
This is especially true for large organisations as they
"...are far too complex, interactive and autocatalytic to be designed from the top down..."
Michael Shermer, 2008
In an established organization,
"...we have to revisit what made us strong in the past and what lessons we can use to rebuild in the future, but you can't be a prisoner of your history..."
Rod Eddington as quoted by Tony Walker, 2011
"...The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new..."
Socrates as quoted by Seph Fontane Pennock, 2022
Furthermore,
"...in today's modern world, change has become ubiquitous, requiring more and more of organisations, leaders and employees to reinvent, transform at a exponentially increasing rate......The phenomenon of change is a pervasive concept, ranging from the micro level of personal growth to the macro level of globalisation, permeating all levels and functions of society. In terms of ` time and space...... change is......inescapable......nowadays the norm for change arises from simultaneous, unpredictable and turbulent pressures..."
Ryk Croukamp, 2018
"...Think of 'change' as a wave that begins with a person's decision to act and ripples outwards like those wave patterns in the ocean. Or consider it as a transfer of energy that creates momentum and ultimately a positive impact. This may be a small decision or act at first but it gathers force like the Mexican wave at a stadium that starts with just one person deciding to act and that spreads. Some waves happen inside organisations, while others sweep over a large community or marketplace..."
Wayne Mansfield, 2022
Whether people can change is a hotly debated issue. Are we like 'plastic or plaster'; with plastic referring to our capacity to change and plaster suggesting that we are set in our ways. Generally, we are more like plastic, ie
"...people of all ages have the ability to change..."
Al Lee-Bourke, 2022
Change is personal, ie What's In It For Me!! (for more detail, see elsewhere in the Knowledge Base)
However, organisational change is the summation of individual decisions and resultant actions made around change.
"...individuals tend to act rationally pursuing personal goals without fully considering that they might be disadvantageous to the system at the collective level......in change management, this means that although organisational goals may be laudable and desirable, not everyone will subscribe to them and change how they work for the common good..."
Al Lee-Bourke, 2022
NB
"... Ultimately, our perception of any experience, good or bad, is based on what happens at its peak and what happens at its end. The rest of the experience is generally discarded......No matter how rocky the road is in the change journey, we can go a long way to mitigate negative perceptions by ensuring a strong peak and a strong end of the project..."
Al Lee-Bourke, 2022
"...feeling uncomfortable with an aspect of our behaviour is a necessary step on the journey to improving it..."
Kurt Lewin as quoted by Katherine Shonk, 2013
"...periods when you feel the most uncomfortable generally turn out to be moments in which you learns the most..."
Bryanna McDermot as quoted by Euan Black, 2022
NB Personal change precedes organisational change
"...Way too often, change is initiated......in promises of improved profits, or increased shareholder value, etc that ends up with a significant failure rate to the detriment of employees' engagement levels and the organisation's sustainability......(yet) profit could become a consequence of creating engaging and meaningful workplaces, where highly engaged employees experience higher levels of joy and happiness that results in higher performance sustainability and increased profits..."
Ryk Croukamp, 2018
Traditional management approach increases chances of failure as it is based on an over-exaggerated focus on self-interest (greed) and financial success, like profit, shareholder value, efficiency and effectiveness, etc rather than purpose (community/society focus), meaning (a higher calling than self; what life is expecting from us, rather than what you can expect from life; become a giver, not a taker; see challenges as opportunities, etc ), consciousness (making the right choices and doing the right thing), responsibleness (people are responsible, accountable, etc for their own actions, choices, words, etc; don't have victim mentality; be positive rather than negative, etc), etc.
On the other hand,
"...participation gives people control of their work, profit sharing gives them a reason to do better, information tells them what's working and what isn't..."
Ricardo Semler as quoted by Ryk Croukamp, 2018
The key to this is believing in the worthiness and dignity of staff.
NB Everyone's experience of change is unique and different.
Need to learn to 'change with' rather than 'change to'
"...what motivates change, it is pleasure, power, greed or purpose/meaning..."
Ryk Croukamp, 2018
As Margaret Wheatley (2009) observes, chaos and destruction are part of life. The traditional ways to try to control these 2 factors are more rules, regulations, procedures, structures, etc. But this approach does not work!!!!!
Remember:
"...Getting people to acknowledge the need for change is much more a political challenge than a technical one..."
Michael Watkins, 2009
"...you change because you want to stay contemporary and win. But you don't have to declare everything as being stupid that went before you..."
Jeff Immelt as quoted by Peter Roberts, 2010
At a personal level, Margaret Wheatley (2009) observes that for change to be effective, you have to be willing to feel insecure and challenged!!!!!!
Change will push you out of your zone of comfort by challenging your attitudes, behaviours, practices, mindsets, paradigms, beliefs, values, perceptions, assumptions, prejudices, biases (conscious and unconscious; cognitive; emotional and irrational), etc.
Research continually shows that there is an expanding gap between the capacity of organisations to adapt and the intensity of change they are now facing. One example is an IBM study (2008) that states: only 2 out of 3 Australian projects failed to live up to what was expected, plus around 50% failed to meet goals of timeliness, budget or quality. The main obstacles to successful implementation are
"...changing mindsets and attitudes, corporate culture and underestimating project complexity and the skills and knowledge needed. People-related factors were more important than resource restraints and even technology..."
Narelle Hooper, 2009a
The 7 ingredients described in the recommended framework are designed to create the initial conditions and context with minimal specifications for a successful organisational transition.
One of the biggest challenges is how to handle the unexpected/highly improbable/uncertainty; these are linked with randomness. An unexpected event is usually rare, has a major impact and is, retrospectively, predictable (not prospectively predictable). Remember:
"...almost no discoveries, no technologies of note came from design and planning......a strategy for the discoverers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top-down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities when they present themselves..."
Nassim Taleb, 2007
You need to keep watching for changes in circumstances (situations, context, etc), and to understand when and why organisational changes need to be made.
"...only 3 things in life are certain: death, taxes and the fact that today's strategy won't work tomorrow......today's success will be tomorrow's old news. The question is not if, but when......To adapt successfully, you must constantly monitor the uncertainties that could invalidate the assumption underpinning your current strategy...?
Robert Simons, 2010
Even though planning can be hard in a changing environment, it is still important.Remember:
"...Really nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise..."
Anon as quoted by Dennis Hall, 2006a
"...a flawed understanding of what created the firm's problems inevitably leads to flawed solutions in fixing them..."
John Kotter et al, 2021
Furthermore, we live in a time of constant flux and vast change, ie Churn of Change; with handling change being hard work
"...The prime requirement in business today is the ability to manage constant organisational change, and this demands finely tuned interpersonal and intuitive skills..."
Luke Slattery, 2007
"...few goals are more challenging to achieve than significant, lasting change in adult human beings......Our minds are changed either because we ourselves want to change or because something happened in our mental life that warrants change......change can occur in any sphere: our political beliefs, our scientific beliefs, our personal credo, and our views about ourselves. Sometimes, the change of mind can be smooth and congenial, but it is especially poignant when a change of mind alters......in a fundamental way......whatever the cause or prompt, we must ultimately be in charge of our own mind changing. At times of such powerful mind changes, the ability of the person to be aware of what is going on in his or her mind is crucial..."
Howard Gardner, 2006
"...changing behaviour is hard, even for individuals, and even when new habits can mean the difference between life and death. In many studies of patients who have under-gone coronary bypass surgery, only one in nine people, on average, adopts healthier day-to-day habits..."
David Rock et al, 2006
"...getting people to change is becoming increasingly important in our rapidly changing world environment. The dominant view of organisational leaders is that getting people to change just requires information and the right motivation: the need to know what has to be changed, and then use incentives to inspire people to behave differently. This is a reductionist perspective, which works well in any linear system: if a machine breaks down, we work out logically where the source of the problem is, and simply replace the part. However, if the 'thing broken' is someone's communication style, finding this out and trying to ' replace the parts' is not realistic..."
David Rock et al, 2006a
"...there aren't any key theories in managing change - only different competing theories. These are to do with strategic planning at one end, right through to theories of participation and involvement at the other. One deals with conceptualising the project, dividing it up into stages, working out strategies, and the other deals with ways and means to get people to buy in..."
Margaret Patrickson as quoted by Jodie McLeod, 2004
"...Niccolo Machiavelli. In his treatise on power, The Prince, the 16th- century Florentine wrote that there is "nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things". Machiavelli went on to warn that those who pursue change made enemies of all those who profit from the old conditions but had only "lukewarm defenders" in those who could do well out of the new order. Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile have the opportunities to attack, they do it like partisans, whilst the others defend lukewarmly..."
Sophie Morris, 2011
"...the principle that fundamental change happens because people decide to make it happen, and organisations can inhibit or enable that change..."
Peter Senge as quoted by Mike Hanley, 2005
"...Change is complex. Change is a dynamic non-linear unfolding odyssey - not part of set stages". Managing change is difficult - is often about keeping many things up in the air at the same time..."
Patrick Dawson, 2005
"...responsibility assumption......It is possible to change other people's behaviour by changing one's reaction to them..."
Wikipedia on Dale Carnegie as quoted by Catherine Fox, 2005a
"...models of "planned change" typically involve three stages: gather information, follow due diligence procedures; decide what you want to do, making decisions and enrolling people in the decision; and follow through, monitoring and adjusting as you go.....Most change processes are superficial because they don't generate the depth of understanding and commitment that is required for sustaining change in truly demanding circumstances. Planning, deciding and monitoring and controlling the ensuring process may be all that are needed in situations where change is essentially about reacting to new circumstances but.....When you're facing very difficult issues or dilemmas, when very different people need to be aligned in very complex settings, and when the future might really be very different from the past, a different process is required..."
Peter Senge et al, 2005
The simplicity of frameworks can make them unsuitable for handling a complex and complicated, ever-changing world.
"...Change is actually a process like a lot of other processes. It needs to be planned and measured and reviewed and reported on and challenged"research shows that in successful change projects 20% of the effort goes into planning "some people say it is better to be inspirational leader driven ... trust people to deliver. Yes, you need to do these things as well, but if you do that without planning and process it is likely to fail..."
Les Owen as quoted by Susan Heron, 2006
"...you need to focus primarily on getting the initial condition right. If you start from a good place, then the choices that lead to success will look like the right choices..."
Clayton Christensen et al, 2003
Ideally aiming for what is called the residual results. It is defined as putting in the effort once and reaping continual benefits. This is the basis for effective change management, ie building something into the organisational DNA. Change management is built on workability and experimentation. It also involves concepts around business acumen, behavioural economics, science (physics, mathematics, neuroscience, psychology, etc), philosophy, emotional intelligence, etc.
Remember;
"...Our only security is our ability to change..."
John Lilly as quoted by Therese Moulton, 2021
"...when you are finished changing, you are finished..."
Benjamin Franklin as quoted by John Kotter et al, 2021
"...If you're the smartest person in the room then you're in the wrong room..."
Joe Polish as quoted by Greg Layton, 2021
"...change management has become one of the most important factors for success in the organisational paradigm in the modern world..."
ntaskmanager, 2021
"...technology doesn't want to be good. It doesn't want to be bad, it's neutral...... technology only works if it has people's trust..."
Tim Cook as quoted by Matthew Drummond, 2021
Computers and privacy
"...An interconnected ecosystem of companies and data brokers, of purveyors of fake news and peddlers of division, of trackers and hucksters looking to make a quick buck is more present in our lives than it has ever been. At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of tech that says all engagement is good engagement - the longer the better - and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible..."
Tim Cook as quoted by Matthew Drummond, 2021
"...blindly copying the best practices of successful companies without the guidance of circumstance-contingency theory is akin to fabricating feathered wings and flapping hard. Replicating their success is not about duplicating the attributes; it's about understanding how to generate lift. Good theories are circumstance-based. They describe how managers need to employ different strategies as circumstances change in order to achieve the needed results. The use of one-size-fits-all processes and values historically have made the creation of growth torturous..."
Clayton Christensen et al, 2003
"...a lot of organisational change goes wrong because people lose their nerve halfway through, once you have invested in change......keep your nerve and see it through..."
Glyn Davis as quoted by Ben Potter 2016
"...you need people who can adapt and change - who are not purpose built...?
Richard White as quoted by Julian Bajkowski, 2009
NB Behind the organisational theory is the enquiry into human purpose and meaning. This can be linked with major religious frameworks, ie
"...every major religious framework that still operates.......can be traced back to a specific period: from 1800 to 200 BC - the Axial Age. The sixth century BC......was the most fertile interlude, when not only Pythagoras, Buddha, Confucius, Lao-tzu and several Hebrew prophets including Ezekiel lived and worked. From Greece emerged Western secular philosophy, which brought reasoned argument to bear on human predicament and the reflections it inspired. These reflections, no less urgent now than they were then, can be roughly summed up by this way:
Untold multitudes have come before us who have brought all the same passions living their lives as we do, and yet nothing of them remains to show that they'd ever been. We know, each one of us, or iat least fear, the same will happen to us. The oceans of time will cover us over, like waves closing over the head sailor, leaving not a ripple..."
Karl Jasper as quoted by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 2017
What difference do we ultimately make? Yet we remain driven by our single-minded passion to make a difference.
"...We aren't born into lives that matter but have had to achieve them. Such an endeavour demands a great deal of individual striving because what counts is nothing less than outstanding accomplishment..."
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 2017
Remember
"...There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come..."
Anne T Lawrence as quoted by Rebecca Newton, 2019
You need to remember that most change initiatives are not successful, ie
"...only 25% of change management initiatives are successful over the long term..."
Willis Towers Watson as quoted by Catherine Corich, 2021
Ideally change should spread through an organisation like a virus, eg Covid-19!!!
Implementing change involves the alignment of the
- brain (rational thought, etc)
- heart (emotional thought, etc)
- gut (intuition, experience, professional instinct, etc).
These 3 need to be aligned for change to occur; if one is not aligned, the implementation of change can be ineffective or hard work.
https://naturalfactors.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/3-brains.png
Change is like a 3 legged stool, ie need to align the mind (rational), the heart (emotional) and the gut (instinct, experience, etc).
If one or more of the legs is not aligned, then you will balance for a while but eventually you will lose balance and, like the stool you, will
In fact these 3 can be expanded to 8, ie Head, Heart, Gut, Eyes, Ears, Hand, Mouth & Feet
These 8 need to be aligned with change to be effective, ie head (conscious thoughts; rational & cognitive thinking; left & right brain thinking), heart (feelings & emotions), gut (visceral feeling, intuition & unconscious thought), eyes (vision & observing), ears (listening), hand (management - direction), mouth (verbalise why, how, what & when) & feet (rest of staff - action, implementation, etc). This is the essential change challenge.
"...we come out on the other side with a new understanding that the world works differently than we had imagined, that we are still safe - and even experience more expansive benefits - doing things we never thought possible before. We discover not only that we can survive, but thrive..."
Robert Kegan et al, 2009
i) Head (conscious thoughts; rational & cognitive thinking; left & right brain thinking)
While rational and conscious thought, logical analysis, etc are important, they are not enough, on their own, to make people change. Yet this is where most of the effort is concentrated when going through the change process.
ii) Heart (feelings & emotions)
This can involve tampering with your belief systems, ie challenging assumptions, identity, mindsets, etc.
"...If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart..."
Nelson Mandela as quoted by Prosci, 2022a
iii) Gut (visceral feeling like instinct, 'gut feeling", experience, intuition, unconscious thought, etc)
It is the vital source of motivation to change
"...our gut is the source of what moves us - our deepest appetites give us the motivation and energy - to take on adaptive change challenges..."
Robert Kegan et al, 2009
Even though the change makes sense, ie there are compelling, logical reasons to support it, this is not enough. We need to have a visceral feeling (desire and want) for the change to be effective, ie to handle the unpleasantness and hardness of changing, the chance of failure, etc. It has to be the feeling that relenting, or giving in, is not a viable option.
You need to have the 'fire in the belly' or 'gut level urgency'
"...so gut feeling can prepare us to take action either because the cost of the status quo (to ourselves or others) has become intolerably high, or because we have experienced a burst of hope from seeing a way forward that was never clear before. A third source of gut motivation can be the personal experience of deep discrepancy......people feel the need to resolve a glaring gap they see themselves. The gap can be cognitive, affective, and/or behavioural..."
Robert Kegan et al, 2009
An example of the power of the unconscious thought is when a radar operator in a US battleship observes a blip on his radar screen that shows something is heading towards the battleship. He does not know if it is friendly or not. He has a couple of seconds to make a decision about how to handle this. He decides to send a missile to destroy it. This turns out to be the right decision as it was an enemy missile. When they analysed his actions afterwards they found that owing to his experience as a radar operator, his unconscious thought had recognised a subtle difference in sound emitted on the radar detector that identified the object heading towards the battleship as unfriendly.
iv) Eyes (vision, ie see where we are going; observing, etc)
v) Ears (listening, understanding, recording, remembering, etc)
vi) Mouth (words; verbalise why you are changing, what you are changing, how you are changing, when you are changing, etc)
vii) Hand (guidance, know the direction to go, inviting other to join, etc)
viii) Feet (action, doing, movement, behaviours, doing, etc)
The 'hand' is important to management, ie direction; while the 'feet' are important to staff, ie doers
This involves perception, conception and inception.
Success follows from taking intentional, specific actions.
NB An additional one is the 'funny bone' which refers to the importance of keeping your sense of humour during change!!!!!!
(source: https://www.slideshare.net/EdelmanInsights/the-anatomy-of-a-great-candidate)
Change's Impact on a Person's Job
(source: Tim Creasey, 2023c)
(source: CMI, 2022)
Impact of change can consist of several phases
i) preparation (linked with psychological readiness immediately after the change event)
ii) encounter (starting with psychological defensive mechanisms such as denial, withdrawal; followed by simulating integrating the change)
iii) adjustment (after the initial shock and surprise, a new set of priorities emerge, eg adjusting to new colleagues, new work roles (usually more responsibility as jobs are rationalised), cultural changes in the new environment, etc
iv) stabilising (staff strive to maintain valued elements of the current roles or making minor adjustments)
Generally, humans don't dislike change; rather, they hate the surprises that change can bring!!!!
Summary
How do you help
"...a group of people think through their past and present, explore their future, discern at systematic contradiction, and then decide and act on their resulting commitments..."
Larry Philbrook as quoted by Bill Staples, 2013
Need to unify perspectives by:
" - bringing together a wide range of perspectives, resulting in a comprehensive strategic plan
- accomplishing in a short time what would take weeks or even months using traditional planning methods
- producing action plans to get work done
- generate commitment and team spirit, resulting in quick, effective implementation
- following-up strategic reviews and keeping plans on track as circumstances change..."
Bill Staples, 2013
"...There has to be a dissatisfaction for today, expectation for tomorrow, and help for them to change...?
Vineet Nayar as quoted by Fiona Smith, 2011a
At the same time, remember
"Change cannot be imported like a commodity; nor hatched as a secret plot; nor be like a bullet shot through a barrel of a gun. It is a state of mind, a feeling, a disposition that comes from the staff themselves. It involves changing perceptions, especially of power, and radically rethinking traditional approaches to running an organisation"
adapted by Bill Synnot, 2012 from a quote on representative democracy by Mexican democrat, Francisco Madero, (1873 ? 1913) in John Keane, 2011
The change process can be summarised as below
It aims to provide a readily-accessible resource for anyone (in particular, practitioners) willing to address the issue of change in the workplace. The content is applicable to large and small enterprises, and is relevant to the private, co-operative, public and not-for-profit sectors, from the local situation to the global context.
While a cover-to-cover reading would reveal a certain amount of overlap and repetition, it is anticipated that most readers will dip into this publication from time to time and will not necessarily follow the sequence presented.
Change Management Masterclass started in 1996 as a workshop with an accompanying reference book; the content has been continually updated, expanded and refined to ensure that this resource remains at the cutting edge of current management and leadership discourse.
It is hoped that all users of this Knowledge Base find it stimulating and useful in their endeavours to generate positive outcomes from the on-going evolution required by all successful enterprises, and that the package enhances understandings and strategic options.
I can be contacted to discuss any aspect of the Masterclass and volumes:
Bill Synnot
International - (+61) 418 196 707
Australia - 0418 196 707 or E mail:
NB Most professions develop jargon that is only understood by other people in the same professional group. This can be seen as a barrier to entry, because it is hard for outsiders to penetrate the profession or industry. Unfortunately, change management is no exception to this situation!!!!
Thus except for commonly-recognised acronyms, such as
- AFR (Australian Financial Review), AHRI (Australian Human Resources Institute), AIM (Australian Institute of Management)
- b (billion), B2B (Business-to-Business)
- CMI (Change Management Institute), CMR (Change Management Review), CYA (cover your arse)
- F2F (Face-to-Face)
- GFC (Global Financial Crisis)
- HBR (Harvard Business Review)
- IP (intellectual property)
- k (thousands)
- MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), m (millions)
- Online (delivering something through the Internet)
- PC (personal computer)
- RCL (Real Change Leaders)
- SAAS (Software as a Service), SEBCC (South East Brisbane Chamber of Commerce), SBS (Special Broadcasting Service - Australia)
every attempt has been made to keep professional jargon, acronyms, "gobbledegook" and "psychobabble" to a minimum!!!!!!!
Some Definitions
Framework (structure around or over which something is built; like scaffolding when building a house or an architect's blueprint)
Methodology (a system of ways of doing, teaching or starting something; like the building specifications and building code)
Technique (a way of doing an activity that needs skill; like trade skills such as electrical, plumbing and roofing in building a house)
Tool (something that helps you do a particular activity; like power tools or any tool used by tradespeople)
(source: CMI, 2022)
Acknowledgements
As I have drawn on many sources of information and opinion that are in the public arena, I thank and acknowledge the people involved for their thoughts and contribution; all care has been taken to accurately represent and acknowledge others' views, work or research.
In particular, the contributions of Rosie Fitzgerald plus Jeremy, Odile & Xavier Williams were pivotal in the development of this Knowledge Base.