Leading Change & Change Management

• Transformation means changing behaviour• Changing behaviour means changing feelings• Emotion is more compelling than logic and rationality

we see,

we feel,

we change…

analysis-think-changesee-feel-change

Leading Change

SeeSee

FeelFeel

ChangeChange

The logic from the analysis feeds into

the creation of compelling situations

The logic from the analysis feeds into

the creation of compelling situations

LogicLogic

Seeing something new hits the

emotions

Help people see

Emotionally charged ideas change behaviour and

reinforce changed behaviour

Leading Change

Communicate for Buy-in

Empower Action

Create Short-term Wins

6644 55

Don’t Let Up

Make it Stick

77 88

Increase Urgency

Build the Guiding Team

Get the Right Vision

22 3311

“Eight Steps of Change”

Engaging and enablingthe whole organisation

Creating aclimate for change

Implementingand sustaining

change

Leading Change

1. INCREASE URGENCY• Core Challenge: Get the people outof the bunker and ready to move.• What Works: Create dynamicpresentations with compellingobjects that people can actually see,touch and feel; provide evidencefrom outside the organisation thatchange is required; find cheap andeasy ways to avoid complacency.• Desired New Behaviour: Peoplestart telling each other, “Let’s go, weneed to change things!”

Leading Change

2. BUILDING THE GUIDINGTEAM• Core Challenge: Get the right people inplace with trust, emotional commitment,and teamwork to guide a very difficultchange process.• What Works: Attract key team membersby showing enthusiasm andCommitment. Engender the trust andteamwork needed within the group. Structuremeeting formats that minimise frustrationand increase trust.• Desired New Behaviour: A grouppowerful enough to guide a big change isformed and they start to work togetherwell.

Leading Change

Leading Change3. GETTING THE VISION RIGHT• Core Challenge: Get the guiding team tocreate the right vision and strategies to guideaction in all of the remaining stages ofchange. This requires moving beyondnumber-crunching to address the creativeand emotional components of vision.• What Works: Literally seeing/visualisingpossible futures, visions that are moving,visions that are so clear they can bearticulated in one minute or written up on onepage; bold strategies that can be executedquickly enough to make the vision a reality.• Desired New Behaviour: The guiding teamdevelops the right vision and strategy for thechange effort.

Leading Change4. COMMUNICATINGTHE BUY-IN• Core Challenge: Get as many peopleas possible acting to make the vision areality.• What Works: Keep communicationsimple and heartfelt; find out whatpeople are really feeling and answeranxieties, confusion, anger, and distrust;rid communication channels of junk soimportant messages can get through;If possible use new technologies to help

peoplesee the vision.• Desired New Behaviour: People beginto buy-into the change; and this showsin their behaviour.

Leading Change5. EMPOWER ACTION• Core Challenge: Remove key obstaclesthat stop people from acting on thevision.• What Works: Bring in experiencedleaders to bolster confidencethat the job can be done. Createrecognition and reward systems thatinspires, promotes optimism, and build self-

confidence.Give constructive feedback;help disempowering managers topowerfully experience the need forchange.• Desired New Behaviour: More peoplefeel able to act, and do act, on the vision.

Leading Change

6. CREATE SHORT-TERM WINS• Core Challenge: Produce enough short-

termwins fast enough to energise theteam members, enlighten thepessimists, defuse the cynics, and buildmomentum for the effort.• What Works: “Cheap and easy” winsthat are visible, timely, unambiguous,and meaningful to others.• Desired New Behaviour: Momentumbuilds as people try to fulfil the vision,while fewer and fewer resist change.

Leading Change

7. DON’T LET UP• Core Challenge: Continue with waveafter wave of change, not stoppinguntil the vision is a reality – no matterhow big the obstacles.• What Works: “Cheap and easy” winsthat are visible, timely, unambiguous,and meaningful to others.• Desired New Behaviour:Momentum builds as people try tofulfil the vision, while fewer and fewerresist change.

Leading Change

8. MAKE CHANGE STICK• Core Challenge: Create a supportingstructure that provides roots for the newways of operating.• What Works: Refuse to declare victorytoo soon; use new employee orientation,the promotion process, and vivid stories tovisibly and compelling reinforce the vision.• Desired New Behaviour: New andwinning behaviour continues despite thepull of tradition, turnover of changeleaders, etc,

ExamplesStep 1: Push the Urgency Up• Gloves on the boardroomtable: A procurement manageridentifies a major problem withthe company’s purchasingprocess. He chose a singleitem – gloves – that all thecompany’s plants use, andfound that there were 424types of gloves beingpurchased at widely varyingcosts and from differentsuppliers.

ExamplesSee: The Manager invites all the company’sdivision presidents into the boardroom andinstead of giving them a report on gloves, hestacks the 424 pairs of gloves on the table,each tagged with the price and the factory it isbeing used in.

• Feel: First people were shocked. Mouthsdropped, people were speechless. Then theirgut-level sense of complacency begins toshrink, and urgency begins to grow. They mustdo something now!

• Change: The gloves becomes a travelling road show. The purchasing process was radically changed.

Examples

STEP 2: Build the Guiding Team

• General Mollo: An army

officer is charged with building

a team to develop a vision,

strategy and implementation

plan for merging the seven

armies – formerly enemies –

into one National Defence

Force in South Africa after the

collapse of the Apartheid

regime.

See: At their first meeting, the officer shocks the soldiersby taking a risk. He openly admits that many of those in charge do not want to merge the armies as they all believetheir way is the best. He vows that he has no intentionof letting this happen.• Feel: The officer’s fiery promise (“This is wrong and I’llnot let it happen!”) hits the soldiers directly and emotionally. Hishonesty invites others to share their feelings in turn, andan environment of trust is born. Later, the officerarranges regular camping trips in which he encouragesthe soldiers to share emotion-packed war stories aroundan open fire. Members slowly get to know each other ata personal level, and trust begins to grow.• Change: The members began to pull together, peoplebegan to believe and feel that change is possible, and agroup of former enemies begins to act as an effectiveteam.

Examples

STEP 3: Create the Vision and

Strategies

• The plane will not

move!: An aircraft

plant manager must

get his people to

develop ambitious

strategies to carry out

an ambitious quality

vision.

Examples

See: Foregoing the standard “quality speech” themanager instead takes dramatic action. He brings thenormal production process to a complete halt – forcingeveryone to stare all day long at a gigantic plane stuck inthe production line. At the same time he expresses arock solid confidence in his people’s ability to do the job.• Feel: People are shocked – but also strongly motivatedby their boss’ complete conviction that the “impossible”can be done. Pride in the work increases as employeesbecome determined that they will not be the reason thata plane is delayed in position. As they see otherssucceeding – and succeed themselves – their faithincreases.• Change: Employees begin all sorts of new strategies forleaping ahead in procurement, logistics, and qualitycontrol. Enthusiasm, excitement and pride spur positiveaction. The company is transformed; quality goes up andaircraft are on time – even early!

Examples

Examples

STEP 4: Communicate for Buy-in

• Nuking the ExecutiveFloor: An executive teampresents a new vision ofbecoming a low-costproducer – yet behind thescenes the employeesgroan about the irony ofthe company’s poshexecutive offices in anage of cutbacks.

See: Even though it would cost more to change thearchitecture and decor of the executive floor to make itlook less excessive, the new CEO wants to showemployees that executives are serious about “walkingthe talk”. He “nukes” the entire floor – the personalbathrooms, the mahogany furniture, the expensive art.In its place is built a more functional, far less showyworkspace.

• Feel: The initial announcement shocks employees in apositive way. Cynicism goes down, faith in topmanagement goes up.

• Change: People begin to embrace the vision. When thenew offices are complete, employees are given aconstant reminder that the executive team believes inthe vision – and employees too.

Examples

Examples

STEP 5: Empower Action

• Retooling the Boss: An

“old school” manager is

converted from an

obstacle to an

invaluable change

leader.

See: Rather than firing, demoting, or“retraining” the manager, he is “loaned” to acustomer for 6 months, where he is dramaticallyconfronted each day with the quality problemsthe customer is having with his products.

• Feel: Pushed into the job, the man is at firstangry and even afraid. But after a few days inhis new position, he is surprised by what hefinds and is convinced that things must change.

• Change: He returns to his employer a managerreborn. Approaching his job in a whole newway, he helps the firm make changes thatbenefits customers, employees and owners

Examples

Examples

STEP 6: Short-term Wins

• The M.P owned the

company:

A manager addresses an issue that the M.P/Owner cares deeply about in order to win the politician's support for a larger change project.

See: Instead of presenting the M.P withgraphs and charts on the change effort’sprogress, the managers sets out to reduce thenumber of cumbersome bureaucratic forms theM.P must fill out to run her trucking company.The manager’s team spends a monthredesigning the licensing process – anddramatically reduces the required paperworkfrom 15 forms to 1.

• Feel: When the M.P sees the results, she issurprised in the most positive sense. Her faith inthe larger change effort increases.

• Change: The M.P becomes one of theeffort’s biggest supporters.

Examples

Examples

STEP 7: Don’t Let Up

• The Merchant of Fear: Atask force is charged withfixing the company’s brokenCapital investment planning process– and top management’sbehaviour is slowing downthe change process.

See: Instead of ducking the political barriers or sugar-coating theissue, they find a light-hearted way of getting a serious messageacross. They created a hilarious video with actors spoofing howpeople behave when they put the budget together – complete withcharacters like The Merchant of Fear, who increase his budget byworking-off people’s fears; the Glory Hunter who chases only thoseinitiatives that might make him look good; and the People Protector,who cares only about getting projects for his staff.

• Feel: Because the spoof hits the issues – and the people’semotions – directly, the amusing, non-confrontational video givesthe change leaders a much-needed tool for legitimising new topmanagement behaviour. People try to guess who the charactersare portraying – and start wondering if it may in fact be them.

• Change: By exposing the types of behaviour that go against thecompany’s new, more shareholder-oriented vision, and the oldinvestment game is stopped in its tracks. The video is burned – butthe message lives on.

Examples

STEP 8: Make Change Stick• The Home Mortgage: After 6years of explosive growth, acompany decides it mustrevisit its company values so that all 40,000 employees believedeeply in – and continue to acton – the vision.

Examples

Pride

PeoplePerformance

See: The company hosts a 4 hour event on a Saturdaymorning in which employees from around the world arehooked together via satellite. Beyond executivespeeches and handouts touting company values,employees are also shown videos of customers tellingstories of how the company has treated them fairly andcompassionately through difficult situations. One mantells a moving story about his personal situation.

• Feel: Employees sit up, listen more closely, andbecome visibly moved by the stories customers tell.Some were in tears.

• Change: The inspirational first-person tales vividly showthe consequence of living the company’s values – andemployees become energised to continue a powerfuland meaningful tradition of making a difference in thelives of others.

Examples

Thank you for Listening