Conscious Leadership

Self-Reflect Before Leading Change in the New Year

Leadership matters. And as W. Warner Burke says, "Leadership is personal. The process concerns the use of self, how to be persuasive, how to deal with resistance, and how to be political, in the best sense of the phrase: how to embody the vision of where one wants the organization to go. It is important, therefore, for the leader who is about to begin a significant change effort to take some time at the outset to reflect."

Burke has useful suggestions for leadership reflection in three categories: self-awareness, motives and values. Here are some of his ideas for "self-awareness" in preparation for leading large-scale change or transformation:

There is growing evidence that self-awareness is related to performance; that is, high performers tend to have a greater overlap between how they see themselves and how others see them than do moderate and low performers. It behooves leaders who want to bring about a successful change effort to be as cognizant as possible about themselves in personal domains such as the following:

• Tolerance for ambiguity: The courses that organization change will take are not exactly predictable; being able to live with this kind of ambiguity is important.
• Need for control: It is difficult to be a "control freak" and lead change effectively. Organization change is messy, sometimes chaotic, and seemingly out of control; thus being clear about what you can control and need to control and what you're not likely to be able to control is critical.
• Understanding how feelings affect behavior: What is your typical reaction when others disagree or challenge or resist the change that you, as a leader, feel strongly about? Knowing yourself in these ways help you to manage yourself more effectively, especially in trying circumstances.
• Personal dispositions: Most people know whether their preference is extroversion or introversion, but what about other dimensions, such as the need for closure and intuition compared with sensing? (These are components of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on Carl Jung's personality theory). There is some evidence, for example, that intuition (trusting one's hunches, future orientation, and conceptual tendency) is more related to leader behaviors than is sensing (being fact-based, concrete, and practical).
• Decision making: It is highly valuable to understand the differences between times when as a leader you need to take the reins and decide, and times when you need to loosen control and involve others as a part of self-knowledge.

Our experience is that successful major change or transformation takes both leadership skills (visionary, persuasive communication, tolerance for ambiguity, ability to share power and control, etc.) and management skills (practical, concrete thinking, need to control, etc.) - i.e., leaders who can manage the "status quo" to make sure the trains run on time so to speak, while letting those with true change leadership abilities lead the change.

Cultivating individual (and collective executive team) self-awareness is a key ingredient for making major organization change work. It's all about positioning yourself and your players: with self-awareness, the best leaders properly position each executive in whichever camp best plays to individual and team strengths, mitigating weaknesses so the organization wins.

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

Government Leaders' Opportunity to Improve Organizational Performance

The US federal government lags well behind the private sector in a number of important organizational performance measures, particularly in fostering employee engagement, talent management, and accountability says a recent McKinsey & Company survey. But according to the survey, the federal government enjoys relative strengths in the elements that deal with the heart of the organization. In fact, government managers - more so than their private-sector counterparts - understand and embrace the direction and vision of their organizations and are motivated to make a difference.

We've found similar strengths and opportunities for improvement in state and local government and encourage agency leaders to consider the three areas of focus recommended for federal agencies:

• Engage the workforce to gain their input, earn their commitment, and ensure an open and trusting environment.
• Strengthen talent management practices to attract, develop, and retain human capital.
• Improve accountability measures by introducing more rigorous operating metrics and performance management systems, and by clarifying roles and objectives.

For more information on the McKinsey survey go to: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Improving_worker_performance_in_the_US_government_2471

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

A Tsunami-sized "Guiding Coalition" Won't Overcome an Unaligned Executive Team

It's accepted dogma that successful organizational transformation requires involvement and buy-in of a critical mass of people at all levels of an organization. It's false (and foolhardy) to believe a massive outreach for all-hands participation on a transformation's "guiding coalition" can substitute for the specific work that only top leadership can do.

Transformational change requires inclusive involvement of all employees. However, casting a wide net of  "participation and excitement" by broadening the guiding coalition to include all levels of an organization cannot take the place of first doing the exclusive (and difficult) work of aligning the executive team around the transformation.

People often talk about organizational change resistance as if it doesn't pertain to senior management. In fact, change resistance is a normal response in everyone, executives included. Intense work with the executive team, especially in the beginning but throughout a transformation is crucial.

Organizations don't change - people do - and it starts at the top. Initial stages of transformation may include months of work sessions with top executives not only to sort out what needs to change, why, and how but to learn about personal and organizational change and increase their own self-awareness and change leadership competency.

The most important foundational work for any major change - most certainly transformational change - is getting the executive leadership team to think, act, and feel as a unified body. Work with this team can be intense and conflict must be surfaced and worked through. Political posturing is normal and should be expected as executives try to maximize their own division's or department's gain from the change. This work is not for the faint-hearted, takes tremendous skill and finesse as a consulting team, and it cannot be skipped or avoided.

After the executive team is aligned with the strategic aspects of the change and are prepared to lead the transformation, you can broaden the executives'  reach by careful selection of a change leadership team, followed by the launch of large-system change initiatives to enlist engagement of the entire organization.

Reaching down into the organization and gathering more people into the change effort before aligning the top team creates a false sense of engagement, urgency, and momentum for the change. If the executive team isn't aligned, you will encounter problems in each ensuing step of the transformation - most notably where the rubber meets the road and the planned changes (and difficult decisions) are actually implemented.

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

ROI of Successful Transformation or Large-Scale Change

Calculating projected return on investment (ROI) is common practice in evaluating the cost versus benefit of implementing strategic initiatives of all stripes and scope. But what about major change efforts?

The one critical success factor in any organizational change initiative is how quickly people participate in, accept, and assimilate the transition. Yet how often is this seemingly obvious truth factored into leadership discussions of ROI and risk analysis for large-scale change and transformation?

In essence there are five "people side" factors which contribute to, or limit the value (ROI) a change delivers to an organization. Simply put, anytime a change requires people to do their jobs differently, it's how effectively they master the change that determines the business value the change delivers.

Increase the value (and success) of your transformation by designing, leading, implementing, and sustaining it to deliver high returns in these five "people side" change ROI factors:

1. Acceptance: How many employees believe in the value and benefits of the change, and agree that the change is necessary.

2. Speed of Adoption: How quickly people make the changes required.

3. Utilization: How many people do their work in the new way.

4. Proficiency: How effective each person is once they have adopted the change.

5. Mastery: How effective the organization has become at embedding change leadership and change management competency into the culture, thus making it change-resilient and change-ready. (Change Mastery is the ultimate change ROI - paying dividends well into the future).

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

The Enigma of Organizational Transformation Happening One Person at a Time

Sustainable organizational change and transformation happen one person at a time. This is a challenging concept for executives and managers - anything "one at a time" sounds inefficient at best, incompetent at worst.

No question; transformation or large-scale change is complex particularly in the context of major strategic shifts, reorganizations, mergers, or significant IT implementations.

Paradoxically, this complexity must be paired with a simple (not easy) fact which holds a key to successful change...change happens one person at a time.

What do we mean by this? For any change to take hold - whether it's changing something in your personal or professional life, or changing your company strategy, structure, or technology - the change eventually requires you to do things differently. In order to do things differently, a change in perception is generally necessary, and sometimes you need to learn new skills.

Regardless of what the change entails and what you must do differently to live and sustain it, the new change must appeal to your own motivations or it won't hold. Human beings simply don't do things differently unless personally motivated to do so. Mandated change just doesn't work.

Therefore, leaders of large-scale change or transformation need to:

• plan
• generate buy-in
• implement, and
• reinforce

the change in ways that satisfy peoples' existing motivation.

Since people are motivated by different things successful change requires a systematic way to ascertain individual motivations (yes, this can be done with thousands of employees) and design a change management strategy to play to them - thereby transforming your organization and its culture one person at a time.

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

Define Your Change Before It Defines You

Essentially there are three types of change: developmental, transitional, and transformational.* And there are two ways to approach each one: reactively or proactively (consciously). Thus there are six possible scenarios that could define the scope of your organizational change effort. You know where this blog post is heading...

There are two very common "change scope" mistakes executives make in the planning and design stages of major organizational change. Each mistake contributes to 1) the poor failure rate of major change initiatives (70%), and 2) not achieving the return on investment (ROI) the change was intended to deliver (even if the change effort has been declared a success).

The first mistake is inadequately thinking through and analyzing the people and cultural impacts in a holistic manner regardless of the type of change (developmental, transitional, or transformational). This is a sure shot to turning even the most straightforward change (developmental) from proactive to reactive once you reach implementation.

Preparing for implementation (or in the midst of it) is not where you want to discover people disengaged, unwilling, or not supported to make the transition, and a culture not capable or ready to assimilate the change. Re-work of the change design is now needed and implementation is delayed. Reactive change takes longer and costs more. Period.

The second mistake is a misdiagnosis of the type of change required to achieve the business results the change is supposed to deliver. Most often the change is defined too narrowly (i.e., thinking it is developmental and it's really transitional, or believing it's transitional, and it is transformational).

Like mistake number one, misdiagnosis catapults the change effort from proactive to reactive. Only now with too narrowly defined of a scope, the cultural and people impacts overwhelm the content changes (and timeline and budget), cause major re-work of the change design, and significantly increase the risk of failure.

Each type of change requires a different degree of sophistication in dealing with cultural and people aspects - with transformational being the most challenging. For example, transformation implies a fundamental shift in cultural patterns, beliefs, possibly values, and actions, as well as significant change in individual attitudes, behaviors, and skills to adapt to external forces signaling that the status quo is no longer an option for the organization.

And so a word to the wise - consciously define your change effort before it defines you! Whether you think you are doing developmental, transitional, or transformational change, proactively design it with a comprehensive change management plan that accurately assesses the people and cultural impacts at the beginning, and is absolutely realistic about the type of change required for the ROI needed.

* Three types of change defined by Linda Ackerman Anderson.

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

No Change Management Without Change Leadership

As an executive today, the likelihood that your organization is undergoing significant change is high. So is the likelihood of failure. McKinsey & Company's latest research reveals 70% of major change initiatives fail. Whether the content of your change includes new technology, reorganization, downsizing, restructuring,  merger or acquisition (or a complex mix of changes) we have found that change leadership as a key component of the change management plan significantly increases implementation success.

Moore & Associates helps leaders lead and manage change and transition. Following are a few of the key change leadership deliverables we provide our clients - you may want to include them in your change management plan:

Develop the change leadership competencies of the senior team.

Position senior managers in key roles within the change initiative that play to each person's strengths.

Facilitate the development of a vision and strategy for the change.

Coach senior managers on how to develop followership for the change and buy-in from staff at all levels.

Provide strategic communication coaching to key senior leaders responsible for communicating all aspects of the change internally and externally.

Instill follow-through mechanisms led by senior managers to ensure course corrections are expedient, successes are celebrated, and the changes stick.

Teach the senior team about cultural and individual patterns of change resistance, how to proactively address them, and why resistance is necessary to get the best outcomes in a major change initiative.

Embed the change management process into the culture, creating a change-resilient organization able to lead and manage on-going future change regularly and more easily.

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

10 Pre-Requisites for Successful & Sustainable Change

When planning a reorganization, restructuring, culture change, technology implementation, or any other major performance improvement initiative, incorporate this checklist of Moore & Associates's best change management practices into your change plan:

1.    Committed top leaders

2.    Written description of how the changed organization will function

3.    Conditions that preclude the status quo

4.    Likelihood of a critical mass of support

5.    A medium to long term perspective

6.    Awareness of resistance and the need to honor it

7.    Awareness of the need for education, and new knowledge and skills

8.    Conviction that the change must be tried

9.    Willingness to use resources

10.   Commitment to maintain the flow of multi-way information and communication

If you would like more detail on the 10 Pre-Requisites for Successful & Sustainable Change, just send us an email at info@moore-online.com.

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

Without Good Leadership & Management...

Without good leadership and management working in tandem, an organizational culture can denigrate into a place where all relationships are reduced to transactions; all motivations turn to self-interest; all sense of value is driven by individual choice; and sense of self-worth is primarily attached to personal entitlements.

Do you inspire a higher purpose in your organization? Are you ready to lead and manage to it? Do you have leadership, management, structure, processes, systems and people practices that not only support (and enforce) the day-to-day operations of the company, but also a greater good?

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates

Change Communication Through Example

Regardless of the size and scope of an organization's change initiative, on-going communication (both rational, fact-based, and intuitive, relational-based) is the glue that holds a comprehensive 4-Phase Change Management process together:

 

Creating the Vision for the Change - tied to the organization's strategy and mission.

 

Developing Followership for the Change - and communicating the vision and the details of the change.

 

Implementing the Vision of the Change - while current operations are attended to.

 

Following Through on the Change - and enforcing the change such that the new changes, over time, become the new status quo.

 

If the change required is transformational, that implies changing undesirable and outmoded cultural values, behaviors, and attitudes. In successful change initiatives, executives and senior managers communicate through personal example the new way of operating, and let go of the old; their own example, therefore is the most powerful communication vehicle.

 

2009 Copyright © Moore & Associates