The ABC’s of Organizational Change

Please read the following article. Below each suggestion you will find a table with two rankings. Please grade your organization on how well you think you are doing with each dimension of organizational change by indicating with an “X” in the appropriate box under “Importance” and “Performance Rating.” 

Nothing had happened since their final planning sessions, except a few unsatisfying “town-hall meetings,” trying to get people to buy-in to their firm's new direction. Their brilliant thinking, which had been turned into beautiful graphs and charts by the consultants, proved more difficult to turn into useful changes in behavior. Just a few months before, the executive team was confident that the months of consultant intervention and the long hours of customer and executive interviewing had paid off. They knew the logic behind the numbers was sound, and that the new strategies contained the seeds of competitive advantage. Now the plan sat nicely packaged on the shelf, and nothing had really changed! What had gone wrong? The strategic planning firm they used had done a great job, but here they were; left with great ideas that none of them knew how to lead into the organization. None of them had ever changed human behavior in large scale. Rather, like most leaders of long-established organizations, they had been handed a legacy--hired to continue the success of the founders. Most were technically or administratively oriented: great at budgets, monthly reports, setting goals, and delivering on the skills with which their high quality management training had equipped them. In the past they hadn’t taken interest in, or time for, learning much about human behavior. That “touchy feely” stuff was outside their area of interest, except when they felt compelled to go to mandatory HR training events in order to get their tickets punched on the way up the corporate ladder.

They knew intellectually that human behavior is patterned and predictable and would not have thought it was rocket science to say that changing an organization is about changing yesterday’s “good habits” for the new “good habits” that fit today’s changed conditions. However, what they didn’t know was that changing human behavior is not a mechanistic process, as most “change management” gurus would have you believe. Rather, it is a process requiring skills that are largely neglected in the development of most of today’s managers, skills needed for aligning the motivations of employees with the new goals and direction of the organization. To do this well requires subtle perception, a requirement which becomes more obvious once you understand the logic of people. The more perceptive of human behavior a leader becomes, the easier achieving such alignment becomes. Without a combination of a strengthened capacity for such perception, solid knowledge of human nature, and good values, managers are likely to become frustrated with the lack of successful change and wind up resorting to something that looks more like a mugging than realignment, forcing people to “conform.” While this might all be done with the best of intentions, without a proper understanding of what it takes to get people to want to change, failure is the most likely outcome. There are seldom good outcomes when leaders focus on the more familiar and tangible change of systems and processes instead of changing minds (Farr, 1994)…the basis of all habit, thinking, action and results.  

As I have pointed out numerous times before in my previous articles, and contrary to popular opinion, human beings are quite logical, operating by a certain type of thinking which we call “psycho-logic.” The fundamental rule of this particular logics is, given a similar set of circumstances or situation, (like doing one’s job, or kissing a spouse); people will think, act and respond in the same ways over and over and over again. Once “learned” through repetition (and it doesn’t take long) human beings habituate and then automate—coming to hold a “belief” that drives their behavior. It is changing these automated beliefs that changes the subsequent behavior and culture, and therein lays the key to the challenge leaders face in changing organizations.

Things to Keep in Mind When Changing Beliefs to Change an Organization

A. Some ideas are better than others

Competitive advantage can be won through improved work ethic, through training to work harder. However, most order-of-magnitude improvements, the kinds that lead organizations to go through “good to great” breakthroughs, require the development of a smarter way of working. That is, you have to skin the cat in a new, better and “differentiating” way from your competition. Millions of dollars are spent annually by corporations hiring outside consulting and marketing firms to help find a “secret sauce” to achieve this kind of result. The best consulting firms do a great job of facilitating the planning for this kind of process. Most often the failure to realize corporate potential results from a managerial inability to execute what was figured out, a failure to get people to demonstrate new behaviors in alignment with the better idea. Change for the sake of change is ridiculous, and to put people through the discomfort of misguided (or not guided) change is wasteful and foolish. However, this is often the outcome when senior management teams don’t take the time to figure out a better strategy.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

B. Communicate a compelling reason for change

It’s hard enough to convince people that they need to change, even when the ship is sinking. Even harder is a “good to great” change when there appears to be no immediate reason to change--everything still looks rosy. Essential to success in such a circumstance is a “compelling and logical reason” for change. What is needed is a pragmatic vision, a picture of a future state that will positively affect the people you are asking to change. It needs to be personally meaningful to followers in their own terms. This picture must also point out to the employees the pitfalls of not changing soon enough. An additional critical element often missed by executives at this stage is to maintain people’s confidence through demonstrating a full understanding of the risks associated with the positive changes. You must show clear thinking and sound plans to manage those risks as much as possible, if you are to maintain people’s trust and confidence in such an environment.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

C. Create a change action map

The people who you are asking to change must be able to easily see the connection between the behaviors and processes you are asking them to change and the bigger strategic picture. If you don’t do this they may see your requests as arbitrary, particularly if it causes them any pain. The translation of strategy into focused objectives and then into behavior and process change is an essential task of Senior Management in initiating change. A few years ago my firm developed a process we call “Competitive Path Mapping™.” It helps our clients to logically align change actions with the strategy and to communicate new expectations more clearly and rationally to those who are expected to change. It has been truly amazing how many clients this simple (but not simplistic) tool has helped over the years. The map becomes the record of actions you are taking to achieve objectives, strategies, goals and your vision. The CEO uses this tool on a regular basis to get updates, to create reports and to keep track of changes going on. Following each years strategic or business planning cycle it is updated as priorities change and change projects are completed.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

D. Set leadership structure early

Excellent stable state managers often find it difficult to provide leadership for organizational change. The questions one should ask in evaluating a leadership team for this task are: do they have the time in addition to their regular duties, and do they have the stomach to make the tough decisions inevitably associated with changes of systems, processes and people? If it is decided that the Sr. team cannot succeed at the task, it is important to establish an organizational structure that can get the job done. Oftentimes this takes the form of developing a “diagonal slice” steering committee (we call it a stewardship team) that reports directly to the CEO and then through the CEO to the executive leadership team. This group should never be larger than 12 people, and ideally 6-9 people including the CEO. Their primary purpose, in addition to taking a load off the stable state managers, is to keep tabs on all change initiatives going on down-in the organization. It is critically important that the CEO or COO and President be part of this team. By doing so they can provide direct support and guidance and get fresh and unfiltered information about the changes and resistance to change going on down in their organization.

That is not the only way. If you have decided to move the ball forward with the existing leadership team (and not a steering committee) there can be some really good associated outcomes if you manage the risks mentioned earlier. For example, while the senior team is busy with the change initiatives, those managers that report to them must now step up and assume greater responsibilities formerly outside of their domain, thus growing your firm’s leadership capacity. Furthermore, if through the experience of changing an organization an executive can learn to provide both change leadership and stable state management as needed he/she is a much more valuable asset to the organization.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

E. Changes in structure alters authority demand

Years ago I worked with a company that had grown through acquisition to become one of the larger companies in their industry. Post-acquisition these successful and autonomous companies were run by CEOs who had never really reported to anyone except a portfolio management team. After ten years, competitive advantage required that they shift to a strategy of providing coordinated and unified service to its customers across all their business units. This transition proved difficult because the executive’s new roles were not openly discussed and contrasted early enough. These experienced managers eventually made the shift and the strategies paid off, but if you talk to one of them today they will tell you they wished they had the foresight to address the change-inrole issue sooner and more directly.

A big challenge for executive leadership teams is letting go of their embedded thinking habits. Learning to think globally while acting locally, and acting locally while thinking globally is not normal for managers trained to defend their turf and budgets against all others. Do not underestimate the difficulty some people will have in becoming fluent in this new way of “walking and chewing gum at the same time.” This view is an essential ingredient for successful leadership of change across affiliated companies, business systems, functions and platforms.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

F. Covey got it right!

Stephen Covey’s most famous axiom states “Start with the end in mind.” In my terms: “you can’t really start the organizational behavior change process until you get the new idea (expectations) into the mind of your management team and then into the minds of their employees.” Loads of unnecessary resistance results when management doesn’t take the time to first come into real alignment with each other, and then effectively communicate their new direction to followers. Can a human being be expected to change well if they don’t know what is expected of them? Can a management team coordinate and then execute if they aren’t clear on the new “playbook?” Of course not, but how many management teams take the time to do this well? Most are too busy with their management duties, and thereby treat their employees and their peers as if they were soothsayers able to read the corporate tealeaves. Communication needs to be management’s greatest time investment during change; if it is, it will certainly provide a huge return. Companies that take the time and money to overcommunicate through newsletters, announcements and special events are really helping themselves, but this is not enough. A deeper level of employee commitment, caring and energy is what management seeks. Slogans and the written word are necessary, but will seldom get the job done oftentimes leaving Sr. management frustrated. What they don’t understand is that communication is what the follower hears, not what you are telling them. Aware leaders understand that people always filter the information offered to them and that they are motivated by what helps or hurts their current situation and experience.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

G. Remember effort to change = perceived gain/perceived cost

The effort required to change is most freely given by employees who can see that the perceived gain outweighs the perceived cost. A simple formula I learned from Dr. Farr, which I have adapted over the years and that we use in our Leadership JumpStart® workshop expresses the point quite clearly: Human Effort to Change=Perceived Gain/Perceived Cost. This axiom of motivation and leadership must remain at the forefront of management thinking. Properly and truthfully positioning the change in the minds of followers is very important. How management frames and sequences changes can in many ways comfort employees or at least “make the distasteful tasteful, or at a minimum, palatable.” Management must look for as many gains or “what’s in it for the employees” as they can if the troops are to quickly rally around the changes. Make sure that the distasteful or “cost” part of the equation has meaning, is clearly purposeful, and will result in a better experience for the company and the employees at the end of the day.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

H. Covey got it right, again!

You must “first seek to understand before being understood.” In other words, you must listen to your key people’s perceptions and needs. You must take your follower’s world-view and needs into consideration if you want them to fully understand and motivate themselves with new behavior. As followers feel that you understand their concerns, needs, interests and ideas, they will more willingly trust and try new behaviors. Although taking the time to do this is often perceived as inefficient, this step is critical to achieving Followership. Your leadership in this process can be improved by involving an outside behavioral science firm that knows how to teach this skill. Once you have the skills to understand your people’s needs, then you must, to the best of your ability, align those needs with the actions necessary to achieve the new strategy and goals.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

I. Reduce anxiety and uncertainty by involving those affected by the changes

Quickly getting ideas into action reduces anxieties. Fear is expected, and not a bad thing during organizational change. However, extended periods of anxiety without a clear picture of where the organization is headed and clear expectations for new ways of working is detrimental to personal and organizational health. At the beneficial level, I call it “purposeful fear,” or the “creative tension” Peter Senge talks about in this landmark book “The Fifth Discipline.” (Senge, 1989)

Executive management has usually been involved in the plans for change from the beginning. This early involvement, in and of itself, has reduced their anxiety by the time the plans are rolled out. Thus, they might easily forget to empathize with the level of angst felt by the lower levels. Amidst the uncertainty of change, and with a lack of information, people tend to exaggerate the scope of change in their minds to match the discomfort they are feeling. Seldom is change wholesale change. Changing organizations is most often a refining and tweaking – a “cutting the edges off the square to make a circle.” People need to be reminded of this fact. Furthermore, that which people can shape and control themselves is usually perceived as less threatening. That is, after you help them get clear on what the new idea involves, get your key people involved in helping you figure out how to implement the changes smartly. Most people don’t really understand what you are asking of them until they taste, touch, feel and work on it.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

J. Change is an opportunity to build a leadership culture

Even if executive leadership is on board and able to make change happen it can still be difficult to get alignment down into the organization underneath them. A good approach is to provide focused leadership development to the “up and comers” or “high potentials.” Effective leadership development processes for this purpose are not like most. They are targeted behavioral interventions designed to build the leadership capacity of an organization using changing process and systems as the anvil against which to forge new leadership capacity and aligned cultural behaviors. Creating the proper psychological and social platform for success here is subtle, and doesn’t resemble what most managers consider as talent development. You must build, regularly attend to and nurture a “Petri dish” of new talent with desired behaviors or your initiative may get picked off.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

K. Assess and deal with the resistant early

If you have done a thorough job of translating strategy into a clear map, that map into a few key objectives, involved key personnel down-in the organization numerous times to “handle the information” and take new action in one form or another, then resistance must be met directly, ethically and responsibly. The new is resisted. Regardless of how much it makes sense, people will first view change with a skeptical eye. In what I think is his best article “Changing Minds,” (Farr, 1994) points out the different types of resistance. Some of these are: mis-understanding, laziness, sub-optimal fear, not taking executive direction seriously (after years of empty threat, and repeated change initiatives that didn’t work), and incompetence. Most of these can be reduced by effective leadership.

In general terms, people undergoing change in an organization can be broken out into three distinct categories. First there are about 20% of your people that are probably “leading the leaders.” That is, they are the ones who are already operating with new behavior in-line with the new vision and strategies. Executive management has gotten some of the new ideas by observing their behavior. Often forgotten because executive management is so busy putting out fires, these people need to be regularly stroked and recognized both socially and financially. Reward, recognition and celebration are essential to fuel the long steady road of organizational change. On the other end of the continuum is the stubbornly-resistant that represent roughly about 20% of your workforce. A common error among managers undergoing the change process is to over-indulge the resistant. Resistance can come in many forms, e.g. fear of change, laziness, not knowing what to do, fear of failure and blind loyalty to the incompetent (Farr, 1994) etc.

Roughly 60% of your people are willing but not yet capable because they don’t know what you want yet. Sometimes they know but haven’t been trained to perform or a cultural taboo on negative feedback has limited their ability to change as quickly as you have planned (Grinnell 2003). This is the gold mine. This group is where executives and their staff must spend most of their effort and time. With the “solid citizens” which no organization can do without and competitive advantage is most often won.

Compassion is a wonderful thing and quite often a useful approach. However, when dealing with the truly resistant, helpful attention from management actually reinforces off purpose behavior and even though filled with good intention is akin to telling a Team to jump while placing your foot on their shoe. Focusing here only asserts executive “attention” on delinquency. By focusing on the resistant you inadvertently dis-empower the rest of the team and reinforce the old bad behavior. A much better approach is to focus on the larger 60% solid citizen group, especially the eager or scared or mis-informed who can’t quite yet demonstrate the new behaviors. Help them to better understand what you want and give them regular feedback, both positive and when they are off-purpose negative feedback.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

L. Ventilation is not resistance

It is important to remember that ventilation is not resistance, and many people need to voice their discomfort in the form of strong opinions before they can move on. Much like an unused faucet that flows rusty water at first, people must be listened to before their steady stream of crystal clear and on-purpose behavior can come through. On the other hand, if you continue to get rust, this is often an indication that a stronger and more focused approach is likely needed. If this isn’t done, then there is great likelihood that old habits of employees will regress to the mean.

During change it is important that leadership is unified, but this does not mean it shouldn’t entertain and access feedback and divergent opinions. Changing an organization is not about fostering sub-optimized “group-think.” Divergence and creativity helps, but at the end of the day all must “get on board” with full support after discussion and deliberation. Consensus, which most managers seek, may not be possible as too much thinking can become “analysis paralysis,” stall the initiative; and put the ship at risk. Furthermore, too many changes can serve as a distraction causing eventual failure. Executive management must earn their keep by using good judgment, and followers must, at the end of the day or discussion-- trust their lead.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

M. Passive resistance

Leadership of change is often similar to a “blowout” in the construction industry, where a concrete form is not strong enough to withstand the weight of new wet concrete. When the concrete is poured in the forms they buckle, releasing the concrete to flow into a shape that is unwanted and worse than useless. To avoid management “blowouts,” executive management, and then subsequent leadership by key people down-in the organization, must demonstrate the new way, especially in politically and emotionally difficult situations. For one leader to speak even occasionally “behind the scenes” against the team’s plan or “not hold people accountable for their new behaviors” will slow the process of change, not only that executive’s area, but for the whole organization, since discipline is lost. Again, such weaker leaders are “good people with old habits.” To prevent them from creating a blowout, they must be given feedback when they break ranks and taught to stay the course, even when it is uncomfortable to do so. If they can’t learn this, they need to be let go quickly. One important thing executive management can do to manage this is to make sure leaders at each level have “peer teams” to ventilate and reinforce each other regularly. Change is emotionally difficult, and it is easy to forget we are all human.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

N. Dealing with the question marks?

How much time do you have to work with the incapable or unwilling people in the organization? This is a critical question management must ask itself, and answer well. Dealing with the people issues is the most difficult part of change yet it must be handled well or all else is lost. After you have done your job of effective communication, feedback and involvement, failing to directly address those “not on board” is the greatest risk facing most change initiatives. To avoid this hazard, it is important early in the process to have an in-depth philosophical discussion among executives to determine the limits of tolerance that can be afforded to offpurpose behavior. It is important to determine whether or not your organization must err on the side losing a few good people for the sake of moving the ship quickly or not. Often the variable in this determination is a balance between the obvious value of the individuals and the latitude that business constraints impose on the time line of the change; for example, turnarounds are one extreme, since cash flow must be restored and the time available for persuasion is highly limited. However, other types of change can tolerate slower action of those having a difficult time with change. What situation are you in? One form of executive resistance is fear of addressing directly these tough questions.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

O. Letting people go

Over the years I have seen that competent employees with good attitudes who find themselves misplaced within the new organizational strategies find themselves back in a new and oftentimes better seat on the bus. However, some can’t and making the hard choices is oftentimes heartbreaking work; some loyal people will not be able to make the necessary changes in behavior in time, or the organization doesn’t need their particular talent going forward. These difficult situations require a clear philosophy that is supported unanimously by executive management. In a very real sense each corporation must forge what it considers its “ethic” of how they treat not only the employees that stay; but, maybe even more importantly, how they treat the ones that must leave. This is not an easy decision as financial issues often prevent management from doing what it would want to do. It is amazing how many executive management teams and boards of directors never have this discussion early on. Creative and thoughtful solutions can be found if planning takes place early on. One company created a pool of out-placed employees that could be “adopted” by other areas for a certain period of time before they were let go. But more importantly, management must remember that the future “character” of you company is born by wrestling with such difficult issues in a prescribed way. Ultimately it is the CEO and Board of Directors call as to what this will look like, but the final decision should come only after much input and discussion with Executive management.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

P. Stay focused

Bite off only a few objectives at a time (no more than 3 to 5) so you can keep track of what’s going on. Executive attention to what’s going on is very rewarding and motivating to those you select to lead. Make “symbolic field promotions” by acknowledging them and involving them in key discussions and actions. And remember, once is not enough. Remain attentive to those who are early and new adopters for the long haul; it’s your new job–reinforcing the new success model. Early and sustained involvement is critical. To give your people a sense security that “the pilot is at the wheel,” make sure that most key final decisions on direction are top-down, followed by encouraging and facilitating suggestions for change action upwards from employees. It is a leadership function to create the direction, to communicate, and then to ask followers to help figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be.

IMPORTANCE	HIGH	MEDIUM	LOW
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____
PERFORMANCE RATING	2 = Done Well	1 = Good Enough	0 = Not Good Enough
Please indicate with X:	_____	_____	_____

Q. Keep on keep'n on (smartly)

Most large-scale change, depending on the size of the organization takes three to five years to achieve. Forgetting the staying power needed for success explains why many initiatives and executive careers end in the “doldrums of implementation.” Furthermore, don’t make perfection your goal, success lies with “80% is good enough for now,” with lots of on-going tweaking with feedback, with cheerleading and encouragement. Get those key people in your organization who will be affected involved in figuring out the tactics of change. Make sure there is continual feedback to all key leaders on their personal behavior and that of their units. Information is the jackhammer of organizational change, keep if flowing. Leadership is the force that reshapes behavior into the proper form for success. Most of all, remember that most successful change has more than occasional setbacks. One executive I know called it “fits and starts but never quits.” Expect the unexpected and enjoy solving these problems. As I saw in the window of a storefront church, “Faith is the Victory,” So keep it. You never know when the breakthrough will happen.

1. Find a better way…a difference that makes a difference and commit!

2. Articulate the new direction; contrast it against what you have been doing.

3. Make sure your top team is clear and in true agreement with the new direction.

4. Over-communicate the new direction, invite your key people into helping you figure out how to get there (close the gap). Make sure you involve the ones that are most impacted by the changes.

5. Translate the new strategies and tactics into key objectives, over-communicate again, and assign stakeholders in achieving the objectives. Make sure there is a top management “champion” that helps the work teams succeed.

6. Stay focused for 18 months to 3 years, intensely. Follow-up regularly, don’t die in the doldrums of implementation. Hold regular “accountability meetings” to ensure that people stay focused. Use group peer-pressure reporting tactics. Embarrassment for non-performance is a good thing. It means you are getting ready to get better (or fired if you don’t get your act together).

7. Remember the opportunity. Make the change experience a “leadership development” experience. Tie the changes to some development activities for you high potentials. See who steps up and leads quickly. They will be the ones who are smarter or have more emotional intelligence and leadership talent, and they will be a key to your future.

8. Never get mad or show frustration when people bring problems too you.

9. Never, never, never get so busy that you forget to Celebrate Success!

10. Make it a norm to quickly give feedback and coach the “good people with old habits.”

11. Quickly change processes and people that aren’t going to work. Since no change has unlimited time, you must err on the side of making a mistake getting rid of a good person once in awhile.

12. Get the vision down to the people three or four levels down. Build the new culture there. Align them with the direction and with Sr. management. Middle management will follow.

13. The senior team must support each other--change is not easy work. Don’t look down for support. And what of our friends on the Executive Team, with whose story we began? Their eventual willingness to think in new ways about organizational change, to accept new beliefs about human beings (including themselves) and to act upon those new beliefs by following these steps did indeed lead them to the outcomes they sought. They saw that the application of subtle human leadership awareness is not only “touchy feely” but interesting and essential for success.

And what of our friends on the Executive Team, with whose story we began? Their eventual willingness to think in new ways about organizational change, to accept new beliefs about human beings (including themselves) and to act upon those new beliefs by following these steps, did indeed lead them to the outcomes they sought. They saw that the application of subtle human leadership awareness is not only “touchy feely,” but interesting and essential for success.

References

Farr, James N. 1994. “Changing Minds.” Executive Excellence.

Grinnell, John. 2003. “Southern Business Niceness.” Business Leader - July.

Grinnell, John. 2005. “Ride the Dragon.” Business Leader - January.

Senge, Peter. 1989. “The Fifth Discipline.”

To learn how Dr. John Grinnell can become an integral part of your leadership plan through his Leadership JumpStart® program, please contact him at jgrinnell@grinnellleadership.com or call 919-929-2500.  Visit Dr. Grinnell’s web site at http://www.grinnellleadership.com for more information on the company’s services and philosophy. 

© 2007 Dr. John R. Grinnell, All Rights Reserved

 
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