Leading Change
There is no shortage of material written about leadership. This can make it hard to easily find quality material that is relevant. The paragraphs below highlight some evidence based insights into leadership during change. They include some of the work of research authors and the experience of practitioner level work.
In 1995 John Kotter published his article, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Provided a succint summary of his research and highlight important elements of change management addressed by different researchers and practitioners. 1 He followed this with his 1996 book of the same name and has updated his own research and model since then. Today you can find the latest material of his stream of work at his consultancy site: www.kotterinternational.com.
His work has become a starting point for many leaders and scholars dealing with change (in April 2016, Google Scholar showed 7607 works citing the book and 722 citing the original article). Recognising this, we want to highlight some of his themes, including the importance of leaders and their decisions. It might prompt you to read his article and some of his other work to support your own use of BASIC 8.
One important role of leaders in change is to create a sense of urgency regarding the need for change and acting on it. This is not a sense of panic but moving people to the point that they realise they must act. This concept is taken even further by Frederic Nortier. Also publishing in 1995, he asserted that an organisation cannot fully achieve change until each person passes the point of realising they cannot maintain the status quo and must move forward. 2 Later research, such as the work of La Clair and Rao (see the next segment), continues to validate these insights.
Other areas Kotter focused on included building a powerful coalition, which is the importance of gathering together a group with the commitment and influence to lead the change. Leaders also have to create a vision of what the change is creating. This gives direction to the change and a goal to be achieved.
One very important role of the leader is to communicate the change. The importance of this is also taken up by others in the field. At no point should a leader assume that people know and understand everything. They must constantly communicate with people to make sure the change is focused, happening and getting people on board.
Other areas, such as empowering people, building on achivements and locking in the results are also important parts of a broad movement of leadership responsibility.
________________
His work has become a starting point for many leaders and scholars dealing with change (in April 2016, Google Scholar showed 7607 works citing the book and 722 citing the original article). Recognising this, we want to highlight some of his themes, including the importance of leaders and their decisions. It might prompt you to read his article and some of his other work to support your own use of BASIC 8.
One important role of leaders in change is to create a sense of urgency regarding the need for change and acting on it. This is not a sense of panic but moving people to the point that they realise they must act. This concept is taken even further by Frederic Nortier. Also publishing in 1995, he asserted that an organisation cannot fully achieve change until each person passes the point of realising they cannot maintain the status quo and must move forward. 2 Later research, such as the work of La Clair and Rao (see the next segment), continues to validate these insights.
Other areas Kotter focused on included building a powerful coalition, which is the importance of gathering together a group with the commitment and influence to lead the change. Leaders also have to create a vision of what the change is creating. This gives direction to the change and a goal to be achieved.
One very important role of the leader is to communicate the change. The importance of this is also taken up by others in the field. At no point should a leader assume that people know and understand everything. They must constantly communicate with people to make sure the change is focused, happening and getting people on board.
Other areas, such as empowering people, building on achivements and locking in the results are also important parts of a broad movement of leadership responsibility.
________________
- Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59–67. doi:10.1109/EMR.2009.5235501
- Nortier, F. (1995). A new angle on coping with change: Managing transition! Journal of Management Development, 14(4), 32–46.
Jennifer LeClair and Ravi Rao 1 published the results of research where they scanned through the data of companies around the globe to find a data set of change projects that had a business case, observable change activities and measurable results. From the data set they analysed the impact of twelve know change factors on the business results of the change.
In short they found a direct correlation between the quantity of change management action in place the the level of business outcomes. Where there were few or no change management actions the projects came in well under the business target. As the quantity of change actions increased so to did the value of the business outcomes. When all the change actions were present the results greatly exceeded the target outcomes. For people in change management there is no surprise in this evidence.
What adds even greater value to their work is that they looked at these actions at different levels in the organisation. This includes executive leadership roles.
Of the six areas of action responsibility at an executive level, some stand out as reinforcing the findings of Kotter that were discussed in the previous segment. These included senior managers putting the change at the top of their agenda, communicating a single, compelling story about the change and having a strong owner/champion of the change.
When they looked at the manager level on of the stand out responsibilities of managers was to develop their people management skills.
____________
In short they found a direct correlation between the quantity of change management action in place the the level of business outcomes. Where there were few or no change management actions the projects came in well under the business target. As the quantity of change actions increased so to did the value of the business outcomes. When all the change actions were present the results greatly exceeded the target outcomes. For people in change management there is no surprise in this evidence.
What adds even greater value to their work is that they looked at these actions at different levels in the organisation. This includes executive leadership roles.
Of the six areas of action responsibility at an executive level, some stand out as reinforcing the findings of Kotter that were discussed in the previous segment. These included senior managers putting the change at the top of their agenda, communicating a single, compelling story about the change and having a strong owner/champion of the change.
When they looked at the manager level on of the stand out responsibilities of managers was to develop their people management skills.
____________
- LaClair, J. A., & Rao, R. P. (2002). Helping employees embrace change. McKinsey Quarterly, (4), 17–20.
In the work leading to the creation of the BASIC 8 framework, we created what was initially an editorial principle for change communication. It proved over time to be a solid foundation for the relationship between leaders and people during change.
The principle is that the chief role with people during change management is to create certainty. When people have certainty they are more capable of self-managing their situation, which also reduces stress. This translates into three steps:
The original research that inspired these principles was by Appelbaum and others, when they noticed during a merger that stress levels dropped among people once they knew the facts, regardless of whether the organisation was retaining or retrenching them. The ability of people to adapt and adjust is great but only if they know what they are dealing with. This is why creating certainty during change is an important leadership responsibility.
_________________
The principle is that the chief role with people during change management is to create certainty. When people have certainty they are more capable of self-managing their situation, which also reduces stress. This translates into three steps:
- Facts - Give people the facts as soons as practical.
- Process - In the absence of facts, given them the process that will be used to generate the facts.
- Person - When things moving so quickly or are still too new that there is not yet a process, tell them the person responsible for addressing the issues that they can approach with their issues.
The original research that inspired these principles was by Appelbaum and others, when they noticed during a merger that stress levels dropped among people once they knew the facts, regardless of whether the organisation was retaining or retrenching them. The ability of people to adapt and adjust is great but only if they know what they are dealing with. This is why creating certainty during change is an important leadership responsibility.
_________________
- Steven H. Appelbaum, Joy Gandell, Harry Yortis, Shay Proper, Francois Jobin, (2000) "Anatomy of a merger: behavior of organizational factors and processes throughout the pre‐ during‐ post‐stages (part 1)", Management Decision, Vol. 38 Iss: 9, pp.649 - 662