Change as Replacement

I keep hearing about transition periods for change, the need for buy-in, the difficulty of altering status quo and I think of all the times that one thing can just replace another. Wait long enough to upgrade some technology and you can start from scratch. Get irritated enough with your processes and technology within your company and bringing in all new stuff is not much of a stretch.

As a leader decide if you, or your change practitioners, are spending too much time highlighting the thing, process, structure, even people that do not fit in to the end state. If you have a new picture in mind that does not include those things why keep calling them out? It gets to be a bad habit in the change timeline.

As a practitioner, craft that end state through your interactions with the owner, leaders and stakeholders without the present as baggage. Take the time for that. You may see that this is replacement rather than transitional change.

As a stakeholder maybe stop spending so much time trying to figure out how this new thing compares to what you have. Maybe they are really two different things? Maybe making them unconnected in time would make it easier to get to your end state version?

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
~ Richard Buckminster Fuller, American visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, and inventor

Look at the titles given Fuller:

Visionary to imagine.

Designer to craft.

Architect to build.

Poet to message.

Author to record.

Inventor to create.

Good skill set for replacement change!

Technorati Tags: change excercise, Executive, leader, resistance to change, stakeholders, vision, vision to work

When was the last time you snacked on a Twinkie?

The company that makes Twinkies has announced it is in bankruptcy proceedings (again).

Sometimes change is sad.

Really what would the world be like without Twinkie’s to snack on?

Then again… when was the last time you actually ate a Twinkie?

This is a great example of something that we want to hold on to because, well, it is important. Twinkies represent a softer, smoother, sweet past (for me they tie to childhood with no worries- the thought of what a Twinkie might do to my system now is worrisome). Think about it though. If no one buys Twinkies (or HO HO’s or those nasty fruit pie things from Hostess- or white bread or that matter) then what is the point of making them?

Corporate change often has elements like this. Customizations and adaptations made in the past that no one uses yet no one will get rid of (even when they are shown to be expensive and have alternatives).

And look at the comments for my link. Change tends to bring out the nastiness in people. Blaming unions for the demise of the Twinkie? Really? Twinkie’s have no competition that I know of. A Twinkie is part of a monopoly in a way. You could charge whatever you want (you know like cable). Problem is Twinkies are inherently unhealthy. So people will not buy them. No sales equals no viability.

Therein might be the lesson: Is your change viable? Or is it just a Twinkie scenario?

Technorati Tags: Big Picture

Overdue Change

Honestly, when was the last time you let your fingers do the walking?

(and, if you are young do you have any idea what that reference means?).

My family arrived home late from a dinner with friends and there on the porch was the new phone book. It made me think of the Steve Martin line, “The new phone book’s here, the new phone book’s here. Do you realize what this means? Now I can BE somebody!”. I knew, like the phone book the line would have zero meaning for my kids.

They would think it quaint to look someone up in that silly yellow book. (although, admittedly they do use their school directory). Why do we still have phone books? I have thrown away at least the last 7 or 8 years worth without even opening the cover. Even my wife, the ultimate Luddite, says recycle it the instant she sees it.

Again why do we still have phone books?

My daughter got a net book from Santa. The first thing she wanted to do was load a CD she got from an older relative. A music CD. People still use those things?

I heard the other day that you cannot bring a camera that uses tapes through security. It has to have a hard drive or a small GB drive.

I taught my mom how to drive with her fingers on the freeway- each tap up or down makes the car move a mph. She loves it. Who would have thought you could ever do that? And what happened to all the crashes we were going to have when we changed to cruise control?

There are a lot of things that change for the better- I cannot imagine a drive without cruise control. And there are lot of things that just refuse to go away (change)- think phone books.

As an English major I would never wish books away, but my most well read friends are packing Kindles this year.

I think there is a lesson here. In your own life look at the things around you that have changed. Take a stroll back through your change journey. Why did you switch? What do you miss? Anything? What changes have been helpful? What would you like to bring back (real stuff not the pretend past of politics that never existed)?

Things have their place in time. Sometimes they lose their place to something else. Corporate change can be a lot like that. Savor the new, but don’t pine for the past. After all those phone books seem to keep arriving- something from the past to cling to.

Technorati Tags: Change, resistance to change

Questions to Ask for Horizontal Change Strategy- Part 1 Consultant to Client

“Questions to ask for Horizontal Change Management Strategy” was a search to our site. Intriguing it is, and the seed for multiple blog posts.

What is the organizations change history?
How “visible” is the CEO?
What does your performance management system measure?
What does your org. chart look like and do you understand its significance?
To what extent has your organization devolved into organic interaction?

What is the organizations change history?

History is the foundation for change.

In the positive sense it is a series of successes and mistakes that made the organization profitable and successful. Less positive it is a pattern, or set of patterns, that does not work for the future. A horizontal change strategy must be malleable. If that is not in the organizations history lots of questions will have to turn into dialogue and plans to change patterns.

A subset question here would be, “What is your (client) change history?”. How this client (I am assuming for this post that the client is the owner of the change) has dealt with change on their own and with this company is an absolutely crucial element for horizontal change.

How “visible” is the CEO?

How visible in terms of people actually seeing them or reading things from them and visibility connected to work efforts. Is this a founder CEO who has his/her mitts on everything that happens in the organization? Is this a new CEO? Is this a CEO that came from an acquiring company (that now has the grand vision of togetherness and cross functional collaboration)?

The visibility of the CEO may have to adapt as part of the horizontal change strategy. The range will be from more visibility less hands on to more hands on less visibility depending on where the organization is in its history and how this CEO fits into that picture (and of course what the end state might look like).

What does your performance management system measure?

The first question is really, “Do you have a performance management system?”. The answer is always yes which is too bad.

Do you measure deliverables? Do you measure short term (not good for horizontal strategy- not good for any strategy really)? Do you measure individually? Are your measures subjective? Do you measure to retain or cull?

Your PM system is the most crucial element for horizontal change. Not addressing and revamping it is almost a no-go for horizontal alignment.

What does your org. chart look like and do you understand its significance?

Yes you have an org. chart even if it is not printed or posted.

You have the formal version and you have the informal version(s). If you are lucky the informal is more horizontal than you expected. I often find a lot of organic bartering and exchange in the middle of those informal charts.

The significance of these two types of people maps is important to horizontal change.

Are you calling our your silo-ed nature with the placement of the boxes? Is there anything in that chart that shows cross collaborative connections?

Don’t think that you have to somehow switch to a lovely flat line of boxes because everyone is going to work together in a matrix (the matrix does not exist- anywhere except in a garage with a startup and even that is short lived to the point where the garage door must open). Functions are IMPORTANT. It is within the functional structure that talent, competency and skill shine- especially at the individual level.

You can keep a functional hierarchy with horizontal strategy. It just takes some crafting and messaging to have that work effectively.

To what extent has your organization devolved into organic interaction?

See the second question. Go back to the first. Has the middle of your company taken on a life of its own? Are things scaling up? (scaling up is the process of getting permission from leaders through “executive presentations”- lots of patterns, most detrimental, follow this adaptation by middle managers).

Devolved in this question will likely raise feathers (not with the owner client but with those middle managers). When an organization has a lot of organic change it is a signal. It is also a light shining on the ways in which people are working around the status quo. Some of those ways will be beneficial for your horizontal change strategy, some will not. All of them will be revealing.

There are many many more questions. With consultants the questions never end.

In order to design a horizontal strategy that will actually work, questions must dig into root causes of problems and start a pattern of asking why. Why questions are a specific kind of question to elicit perspective, reasoning and feedback. They also help pull out actual fact versus subjective opinion. Many of the questions will have to do with history, the owner of the change, the CEO and individuals working to accomplish.

Technorati Tags: Buyer, C level, CCM, CEO, Change Design, Change Strategy, corporate change management, External Consultant, Garrett Gitchell, horizontal change management, vision to work

The Change Management Arena

The Change Management Arena is filling up with quite the mix of gladiators, observers, ringmasters and cheering crowds (or is that yelling?).

The Gladiators

These are the firmly entrenched, practiced and experienced consultants. These are the executives and leaders charging bravely (and blindly?) into the ring.

There is a small group of consultants (my measure is many hours spent online in Forums, discussion posts and blog threads) who have weathered CM’s transition from an HR thing, to OD, to change management to behavioral change management to the current and upcoming trend toward a mix of behavior and efficient business practices. These are the people who came before and lived through prescriptive approaches, change as a battle with death, false urgency and a stack of tools (most laughed at by the lions [and the gladiators themselves] in the ring for their ineffectiveness).

This small group makes themselves heard anytime comments, approaches and perspectives get prescriptive. They know full well most of those models were created more for revenue and less for effect (in consulting you are always forced to some extent to cater to client wants- change is strange since clients are usually unaware of what they need versus what they want). This small group knows how change plays out. They have seen all the combinations. Throw lions (and tigers and bears) at them and they can give you creative approaches to tackling the problem.

I have been impressed that this group, unlike the original OD gurus who are touchy-feely to the extreme, has a business sense and a holistic viewpoint that encompasses many stakeholder perspectives to get to solutions and approaches. This group trained in the trenches (although most have Masters or PhD degrees). No certifications for them (unless clients request it, then it is just a deliverable).

There is another group of gladiators, the executives. I almost said the visionaries. That is not always the case. The people who pay for the arena, get the animals shipped in, orchestrate the event and speak to those that will be the cheering throngs stop short of ACTUALLY dealing with the lions. Many are more like Halloween gladiators (not you though senior leader, right?). The actual gladiators internally are the “buck-passed-to” mid level implementers. (They are, unfortunately, swayed by the siren songs of the prescriptive marketers).

The Observers

These are the people searching for “Change Management Career Paths”. They are curious about this career that is all about people (if only it was that simple). They are intrigued by cheese, icebergs and “Making it Stick” stories. They hear the siren call of high compensation and an adoring crowd (the best are making more, yes, the bottom is dropping thanks to a flood of converted observers, created by revenue focused certification machines).

These observers bounce back and forth into discussions, or bravely start their own (sometimes with strange requests for information from the established pros) to find out what this change management thing is. I think they leave a little confused. The prescriptive marketing forces and their evangelistic followers drown out the sensible voices in the crowd.

There is a voice of reason spreading lately that is getting louder and louder and it comes from the gladiators. It is a voice for end state focus, reasonable energy and push (urgency is not the first choice of words). It is voices for change that makes sense that is easy to participate in and that has a positive future oriented perspective (with an understanding that some things do move into the end state- history is part of the change timeline).

The Ringmasters

Are everywhere.

It seems everyone wants a piece of orchestrating change. While most are focusing their attention on the gladiators and the danger in the ring others are behind the scenes supporting the show, working the political intrigue in the catacombs and rigging the event in their favor.

Our word for them today might be gatekeeper.

They are either protecting the gladiator, the executive version- no one protects the CM, or working internal politics in a way that will favor them.

Another version is the individual who sees an opportunity and creates a model or approach or, the cringe worthy word system, catered to the client (whims) and imminently sellable. Because there is a new demand for change management this version of a ringmaster is ubiquitous.

Cheering (?) Crowds

Change is everywhere and is not going away anytime soon.

There are crowds cheering it on. (They are not necessarily cheering for success- see Ringmasters above). They like to watch the gladiators perform. They snicker at the constant attempts by the ringmasters to control the show. They listen patiently to the observers with their naïve curiosity.

They cheer, they boo, they jeer.

Deep down they want the event to end with a satisfying result.

If they do not see that after a couple of visits they are unlikely to return.

A staged, prescriptive event will be much the same the next time. Without the ability to be flexible the show is boring, the best gladiators will likely be eliminated and the ringmasters will have won with the crowd, obviously,losing.

Technorati Tags: Buyer, C level, CEO, change awareness, change failure, change management consultant, End State

How can you possibly have 400 of anything? 400 Change Management Topics

100. was not that difficult and a lot of fun.

200. I cheated and just put up popular posts.

300. back to the lists.

I was told today there is no way you can come up with 400 things about change management… Even I will admit that change management must pull and carry from the past and the present so I have an idea:

400. Change Management is complicated with lots of nooks and crannies (see 399 linked by the numbers examples below). I actually passed 400 posts the other day without even knowing it. 500 is right around the corner!

399. Why have a Change Management Consultant?

398. Teaching strategic thinking

357. If I were 24- getting started in change management

396. Patience and Speed coexisting

395. The Helicopter View of change management

394. How we work

393. Levels of participation

392. Predicting attrition with LinkedIn

391. A Change and Politics comparison

390. Transitions in the change process?

389. Those little things that make difference

388. What if the change consultants are not open to change?

387. The economy creates a musical chair environment

386. The “sign-off”’ quagmire

385. A lay off is an individual transformational initiative

384. Workin’ that Crystal Ball

383. The Blamer Type

382. Change Management for the project team

381. Mind Reading the Change

380. Social Media and Change Management

379. What is a Change Plan for?

378. Do you need a Stakeholder Analysis?

377. External Change Consultants can be excellent mentors

376. Impact is a business word

375. Importance for stakeholders

374. Unasked (and unanswered) questions

373. What is behind a Change Management Plan

372. Impact on an IT initiative

371. Organizational adaptation potential road blockers

370. Do not use words

369. Can you manage change?

368. Big firm repurposes same old same old

367. Middle Managers tips

366. Balancing strategy and tactics

365. Succession Planning

364. Big change little change

363. The why of change

362. A story for change management

361. Benefits to using an independent consultant

360. Control and change failure

359. Shortening communications

358. Change Management within the actual change

357. An audio version of how to create pull toward the end state

356. Translating ideas

354. Change Management pinch hitter

353. Individual connection to change

352. Just try

351. Even sailing is changing

350. Labels and change

349. Housekeeping change

348. Change management dancing

347. Change Management tactics

346. When is it complaining?

345. Is change management a threat?

344. Change management marginalized

343. Human adventure and change management

342. Formal and informal communications

341. Change Leadership

340. Who says change means you have to give something up

339. Some more change leadership

338. Seeing change

337. Setting your change management consultant up for success

336. Filtering of change management

335. Cost cutting change

334. Change management competency ladder

333. WIFM- What’s in it for me?

332. The hidden meanings of change management words

331. Garrett’s five factual stages of happiness

330. First graders teach us some principles for change

329. First graders teach us integrity

328. Repairing damage

327. Is an external consultant a stakeholder?

326. Change management first steps

325. Middle of the organization change

324. More middle of the organization change

323. The tiniest of changes list

322. Change Management- What do you actually DO?

321. Things that surprise me about change

320. Two change management outfits

319. Sample change management plan?

318. Change management before initiatives

317. Change catalysts

316. Outsourcing change management

315. Transformation without change management?

314. Big consulting firms for a crutch and scapegoat

313. Change management players

312. Symptoms vs. root causes

311. Never too late for change management

310. Simplest version of change management

309. The project focus stranglehold

308. End state focus

307. End state of future state?

306. Executive ownership or sponsorship?

305. Can change management get in the way

304. The meeting during the meeting

303. Organic change (this warrants four separate posts, Dandelions, the sequel, the triquel-likely many more to come in the next 100)

302. Consultants as symbols

301. Where’s the love?

300. 300 change tidbits

299. Change and hindsight

298. The broken cog and external consultants

297. Half full or half empty?

296. The busy bees

295. Post change reinforcement

294. Deliverables?

293. If only…

292. Empathy

291. The silliness of methodology

290. and the silliness of models

289. Outward change management

288. Engaging change management- 4 ways

287. Driving change

286. Growth change management

285. The only tip you will ever need for change

284. Corporate Change Entities

283. Action (buzz word)

282. Career path secrets

281. Change in 2011

280. Second chances

279. What if?

278. Change Management for 2011

277. Fun with 1/11/11 and 10 tips

276. Fresh perspective

275. An example

274. Persistence change management

273. Received truths, mental models and groupthink

272. Give change a chance

271. Celebrated naysayers (adult bullies)

270. Explaining change management

269. 10 posts to get you started and my thoughts

268. An enlightening change statistic

267. Change participation

266. Change leadership (again)

265. Change communication- an explanation

264. We do not need change management

263. Gail Severini’s 8 answers to- What exactly is Change Management?

262. Whack-a-mole and stakeholders

261. What consultants look for in a client

260. What clients look for in a consultant Round 2

259. What clients look for in a consultant

258. The importance of questions

257. Toxicity- true resistance

256. Change management supplements

255. Are you sure this is really transformational change?

254. Understanding the change process

253. Inclusion because of expertise

252. Guiding vs. managing change

251. Just imagine

250. Preparing your organization to resist change

249. A generation gap example

248. Buy-in makes it on to the rarely use list

247. The hard side of change management

246. Patterns, trends and subtle shifts

245. Lists, to do’s and time

244. A stream of change management thoughts

243. Ideas, vision and end states (a Starbucks example)

242. Engaging a consultant (a contract example)

241. Organic change- the triquel

240. Internal Change Management Director roles- Fair Warning!

239. Recession, cost cutting and short term fixes

238. The Garrett Gitchell change management wonder wheel

237. Business communication flatness

236. Effective communication in 4 steps

235. Communication skills

234. At risk employees

233. Recession backlash

232. Rates, Fees, Time and Value

231. Before the change

230. The Power of One

229. Status Quo

228. A not so effective trend

227. Do it yourself change management… or not

226. Your organizational change management meter

225. Benchmarking- comparing status quo

224. Questions or PowerPoint- engaging senior leaders

223. Some things truly are seminal

222. Do not kid yourself you likely are RANKING

221. Tomorrow’s leaders- where were they yesterday? Poking fun at “gurus”

220. Performance management downfalls

219. Performance management thoughts

218. More lone penguin

217. Consultants- The Lone Voice

216. The most important ingredient for change management

215. Social media and kindergarten- pick me! pick me! PICK ME!

214. Time to separate “compelling vision” into two sentences

213. Big change in small steps

212. A list! 5 structural elements that ALWAYS effect change management

211. Little Change Practitioner Successes

210. Stakeholder Screeners

209. Why it is so hard for change to make sense

208. Change, color and creativity

207. Go ahead and toot your own horn

206. Trust, perspective and behavior

205. Consulting is not horse racing (no one owns a client)

204. “Easy” change and some tips

203. False assumptions

202. The Adult bad word

201. Change addiction

200. 200th Blog Post

199. People are people- stakeholder types

198. Whose fault is PowerPoint?

197. C level leadership

196. Our tools and toys have changed

195. Covert organizational development

194. External resources are an excellent option, but fair warning too

193. On your mark, get set, change

192. Change management false starts

191. Managing change

190. The importance of time

189. Deliverables- Who are they for?

188. The importance of directions

187. The good, the bad and the ugly

186. Consultants can be a threat

185. Change management scope creep

184. Looping in leaders (uphill change management)

183. Root causes

182. Images of change

181. More change communication

180. Restarting change

179. First things first

178. “In my day we never had change management…”

177. Creativity

176. Change or transition

175. CM and the project manager

174. Self Interest

173. Who is in charge of motivation?

172. Change management- layered or separate?

171. Cultural loyalty

170. Loyalty

169. Celebrations’ tie to culture

168. Everybody loves a parade

167. Trusted advisor or gatekeeper?

166. C level primer (this one is still my favorite post)

165. Organic change or What to do about the dandelions ( a year later this is still one of my most visited posts)

164. Stuck mindsets

163. Get ready for apathy

162. CM without a dedicated resource

161. Overlooked positives

160. 8 steps to failure

159. CM in the middle

158. Two exercises- why and work style

157. What are we not thinking of?

156. More on the Monkeys

155. Upside down banana peeling

154. Executives are stakeholders too

153. Metrics or not?

152. The muddy messy part

151. From the stakeholders perspective

150. Promises- This time it will be different

149. Change naivety

148. Change Management untarnished

147. The missing organizational wrapper

146. Tools for change

145. Languaging

144. Change management is not about implementation

143. Beware third parties

142. What is IT?

141. What is change management… becoming?

140. Repeatable change

139. Windows of opportunity

138. Tribal mentality

137. Fortifications

136. Going native

135. The CEO and the change management consultant

134. A quick injection of change management

133. Just a little change list (actually huge for me 20 items)

132. Change management timing

131. Listening to the wind of change

130. Do not let time be a measure

129. Surprise value from consultants

128. The Vision to Work version of urgency

127. Consultant engagement phases

126. The consultant dimmer switch

125. Operational change management

124. CM and a grain of salt

123. Grass roots change management

122. Training + communications = change management?

121. Favorite client question

120. Front loading change

119. Quick Wins (this one jumped to the front for most reads)

118. Survey says…

117. Obsolescence before the end state

116. The Change Web (the most popular with practitioners/peers)

115. Chasing symptoms

114. Change that flows like water

113. Canada kudos

112. Parachuting in

111. Change takes time

110. Funding gaps

109. A room full of change agents

108. Past, present and into the future

107. A little more leverage with CM

106. Leveraging change management

105. M & A change management

104. Best practices?

103. Assumptions

102. Industry experience?

101. The reason for change and the reason to change

100. 100 things about change management (100th blog post)

99. Economic Effects

98. Change Management for free?

97. Smiles and laughter

96. Sometimes authority is OK

95. Stripping away authority

94. The people side of change?

93. Linear work through spatial eyes

92. Mini-detente

91. Change design

90. Hearing and listening, same thing?

89. Why CM communication is not like selling a Coke (or Pepsi)

88. When one step back is one step forward (I think this post should be more popular)

87. CM and the status quo

86. The owner of the change is who?

85. The lure of the fix

84. Beware the change management scientists

83. From the outside in

82. The people side of change

81. Quantum change

80. Reinvention

79. The elephant in the room- an invited guest?

78. The buzz of employee engagement

77. The search for the owner

76. Silos

75. Preparing for the next great idea

74. Looping assumptions

73. 3 middle of the organization mistakes

72. What is change management?

71. CM from the sidelines

70. A piece of the Vision to Work model

69. Communication phases

68. Where are we and how do I fit in?

67. Fast growth change

66. Trends

65. Change Managements’ most important word

64. The path of least resistance

63. End states- the pot of gold (fast moving up in popularity- yes- maybe people are beginning to get this)

62. C level leverage of your change management trusted advisor (of course one of my favorites- readers too)

61. End state back

60. Turning the frog into a prince

59. Honoring the status quo- or not…

58. Another CM trend

57. A future trend- Horizontal Change Management (I was right on this one- except it is being played out vertically- go figure)

56. Skim savings or eliminate to keep things intact?

55. The change management energy account

54. Waves of change start with a single drop

53. Can a consultant be coached?

52. Energy

51. St. Peter and the gatekeepers

50. Choosing a new start

49. Is it partly cloudy or mostly sunny?

48. Impromptu parties

47. Looking back from the end state

46. It’s OK to dream

45. Waves of change

44. Organic Change Management design

43. What is good change management?

42. Learning styles

41. Formal communication

40. Your coffee persona

39. Solo or big firm

38. An argument for up front payment

37. Time, place and context

36. The Knight in Shining Armor

35. a disturbing trend

34. Design versus method

33. Corporate strategic change

32. What is successful change management?

31. Whole organization change

30. Intuition

29. Transformational change roles

28. Horizontal Change Management (HCM)

27. The knowledgeable executive

26. Stakeholder perspectives

25. Project beginning- thing or act?

24. Responsibility and accountability

23. RESISTANCE

22. The five W’s of change

21. What about the people?

20. Strategic semantics

19. Throwing initiatives into functions

18. Translators

17. Assumptions, assumptions

16. McKinsey follows status quo

15. Overzealous change management

14. Context to big picture

13. Internal or external?

12. Change is here to stay

11. Collaboration that doesn’t work

10. Choose your change states carefully

9. Kotter false assumptions

8. CCM- Corporate Change Management

7. All the acronyms are taken

6. The ball goes over the fence

5. Glossary

4. Make Sense motivation

3. Change management simplified

2. Kubler-Ross, the “Change Curve”… setting yourself up for failure?

1. My promises… it seems so long ago… maybe time for some new ones

My 400th Blog Post.

Technorati Tags: Garrett Gitchell, vision to work

When the stakeholders get it

Organizations that have a track record of some form of change management (at Chevron my current client they call it Behavioral Change Management so IT can have change management) are enjoyable to work with. Perhaps this is a window into the future?

Here is what happens when average stakeholders “get it” (multiplied in effect when this is the case with leaders too):

They will say, “this is a change element” and then ask how to address it.
They will anticipate things that might slow down a project path
Risk is both a people and a business measure
In general, the consultant feels valued
People, in my case, come to me before I get to them
They ask tough questions, the kind that can only come from someone who knows what to ask
They have higher expectations of leaders
They have higher expectations of each other
Project tasks can be done concurrently, because there is a comfort level around success
They ask why more than normal
They feed the change management consultant with benefits and positive data
They interact through social media to wrap their arms around the “makes sense” equation
They assume change is possible before they question it
Which, again, makes their questions effective and to the point
If they were on a “change curve” it would look like a line

There are many more. The point is they see the end state and work toward it, knowing they have a right to question and ask for important information.

Technorati Tags: End State, engagement, External Consultant, resistance to change, stakeholders

5 Factual Stages of Happiness- Kubler-Ross life giving replacements

I spend half my time as a change management practitioner working around the negative effects of the Kubler-Ross five stages of grief model and the trough-of-doom- I mean change curve. Both appeared as quickly as a toddlers Sharpie design on the wall- all are equally hard to remove. With the same amount of empirical (oops guess it is anecdotal, same as the first model, thank you- George Bonanno) evidence as the emotional stages of change I give you the:

Garrett Gitchell’s Five Factual Stages of Happiness Model:

(feel free to use it virally just like the other one)

(feel free to use it for change even though it may have nothing to do with that- just like the other one)

Hear it
Assimilate it
Interpret it
Place it
Act on it (or not)

That would be HAIPA if you are cutting and pasting (find and replace for DABDA)

Hear it

“I hear your explanation”. “This is clearly happening in the here and now”.

Hearing the explanation, in our case about the change, is the first step.

Assimilate it

“Wow. OK.” “That seems to make sense to you”. “I have to check to see what my reaction is to that”.

This may be an emotional reaction and/or it may signal thinking and pondering. In fact Kubler-Ross’s five steps might have just passed with the first ponderence…

Interpret it

“Just let me figure this out”. “I know I can’t do anything until I think about it a little”.

This third step is understanding the change (and the explanation) from ones own perspective.

Place it

“I see where this fits compared to me”. “That makes me curious and raises a lot of questions”.

Placing it has the most potential for emotion. Asking questions can turn emotion into factual answers.

Act on it (or not)

“Well that is pretty awesome how do I sign up?”. “I am not sure there is a place for me, I need to do something”. “I am going to play the waiting game until I am needed or feel the need to say or do something”.

The final stage is the decision about whether and, if so, when, to participate.

I like to give stakeholders credit for awareness and assume the Five stages of Fact before any change explanation, end state description or change communication is distributed or delivered. Change Management can even preempt these stages with a clear understanding of the change, the strategy behind it, what that might mean for individuals and what that might mean for business. Then you can have make sense change and energetic and appropriate participation.

Life giving.

I hereby give you, to be used in any viral fashion you choose, Garrett Gitchell’s Five Factual Stages of Happiness Model. You are welcome to cut and paste it anywhere you have used the Kubler-Ross Grief Model.

Technorati Tags: change awareness, change communications, Change Design, change failure, resistance to change

Repairing Damage- A Change Management Competency

There is a new competency on the list for Change Management practitioners, both external and internal- the ability to repair previous damage. If you are a leader or a consultant charged with change and the management thereof you might want to hone your skills in these repair areas:

Structure
Culture
Leadership
Change Management approaches

Structure

The best ideas for change have a markedly different skeleton when implemented. For the big stuff, transformational change, structure (which will also feed process) changes. Often the need for structural change is a core reason the idea is good. You can follow my end state back approach and say that this is all about defining a new end state which will have a different structure. Nice on paper.

What usually needs to happen is a repairing of core structural faults. As an example- IT initiatives often must replace multiple legacy systems. How is it the structure of the organization was allowed to develop that to cause redundancy, lack of scalability and expense?

Odds are there is a root cause somewhere which will have an effect on the current desire for new structure.

Culture

It is likely a cultural issue as much as the result of business decisions.

Without a collaborative and shared view of the organizations future- this is different than business strategy-silo’s develop and structure follows the needs of functions. Those needs often conflict with that organizational future view. At the time that they conflict no one notices and no one addresses it- so there is repair work to be done later.

As those silos develop, as functional culture(s) grow, it gets more and more difficult to do something that is transformational. A good CM practitioner must know how to both illustrate the benefit of end states and creatively break down the previous cultural norms that might be in the way. Since many times stakeholders are aware of needed repairs, but do not have the power, leverage or capacity to do anything about them including the fixes within a change process can actually make things happen.

There is a “repair competency” needed to dance this dance though.

Leadership

That competency calls for further refinement and experience when it must deal with the effects of leadership from the past. Change has a host of examples where this finesse is needed:

A CEO who externally (they may have been thinking about this for a long time inside their own heads) signals they believe in empowerment. With no track record of this, or worse, the opposite, some repair work will be needed. And don’t snicker, I have had this scenario multiple times with the leader genuinely converted (but not yet behaviorally, so enter the repair competency and some others).
Brand new leadership from a merger or new CEO or team rebuild with all of the same stakeholders. The culture has not changed. It just has a new component. There is repair work to be done in transitioning to a new approach. There are many times where a change initiative is built on this leadership rotation. It is, frankly, a change initiative in and of itself. Yet it is typically part of the use of the repair competency within the broader transformational change.
Buck passing cultures that get stripped in the middle with RIF (reduction in force). The culture is to have middle management do everything. Now they are gone. Who fills the vacuum? (hint a huge consulting firm is NOT the answer). The repair competency here must also include others that have to do with mentoring, development and leadership training.

Change Management

Step up on the soap box Garrett.

There might be a separate “repairing change management mistakes competency”. So many CM methods and approaches were designed from the middle of the organization perspective in order to push through task and project that this competency is an integral part of all change I help with. That kind of CM reinforces all of the solution fighting and plants the root cause in stone.

The damage here is a thin warm blanket (having the extra hands of CM) on a day that promises to get much colder. It will work for awhile and feel nice, soft and comforting until the cold front of transformational change comes along.

The ability to repair damage is now in the list of competencies for Change Management practitioners. Structure, culture and leadership all show signs of damage if transformational change is on the horizon. Because transformational change is often as much a fix of root causes as it is a movement toward that new end state. Good ideas sprout from the damaging effects from the past.

Technorati Tags: change failure, change management, resistance to change, strategy, vision

if only…organizational change management (or not) history

Faith Fuqua-Pervis threw “if only” out on LinkedIn. I responded with my coulda, woulda, shoulda synonym phrase.

Right up next to “What if” this falls.

I use my version and Faith’s version early on in engagements to gather a whole lot of perspective. The responses?

If only

If only… we had spent more time on the front end figuring that last change out to its end state. Think of the time we would have saved.

If only…we had spent less time with intermediaries (third parties) and more time with the principals who helped guide us.

If only…we had raised that change to a higher level of visibility- both communication and in where the dollars came from.

If only…we had done something to establish CM in our organization the last time. We would not have to go back to go forward.

If only…we had spent more time developing our internal people, even if that meant using externals to provide the guidance.

If only…our changes had been intertwined somehow, either cross functionally or strategically or by shared task.

If only…we had made our approach our own rather than forcing in the heavily marketed cookie cutter approach we chose.

If only… fill in your own.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

This is refined version of the above. Having dug for responses to “if only” I can then guide them through that change adjusted with hindsight. It will give them a second chance. It will provide me with an understanding of how they do things- the explanation will have lots of names and lots of perspectives attached to it. It will quickly place this particular person in the hierarchy and reveal their internal power level. It will illustrate internal versus external focus- some individuals/functions (and therefore companies) are so intense about dealing with the exact spot they stand and the next task to get to a slightly different spot that they cannot see more than one task ahead.

Use this version of if only. And use it for decision made in the present. Are we going to get any coulda, woulda, shoulda’s from this choice?

Search for Change

Recent Posts

Archives

My Favorite Web Places