Recently, someone asked me what it took to be a successful change consultant. Admittedly, I had a hard time summing up the role. It's so expansive and complex. However, over the years, I've concluded that it's often the right mix of personal characteristics, the design of change factors, the relationship with the employees, and psychological knowledge of change.
Thinking this might be of interest to my readers, I thought I'd start a series on change. Incidently, it really doesn't matter whether you have the formal title of change agent or leader or employee for that matter - if you find yourself in the position of influencing others to shift their thinking or belief systems to a new position, you are, to a greater or lesser degree, a change agent. So here's what I've listed so far; eight factors (which by the way are supported by good research) characteristic of PDG (pretty darn good) change agents.
The factors of:
Openness - the extent of willingness to divulge information as well as the willingness to hear information and be influenced
Reward - the degree to which positive outcomes acrue for employees; this increases motivation to continue
Psychological Capacity - the amount of mental effort and attention to change, the agent and the employees are willing and able to expend (in the moment and long-term)
Proximity - this is the extent of physical and psychological closeness the change agent and employees have; the greater the proximity of the change agent to employees, the more successful the change will be; proximity also makes it easier to develop empathy between both the change agent and employees
Structure - the ability to clearly develop the change plans, as the employees are more likely to understand and implement the change when its clear what to do
Empathy - the ability of the change agent to understand the feelings of others; this increases communication and understanding between both
Collaboration - the degree to which the change agent and employees are tied together in collaborative activities; the tighter the linkage the more successful the change
Similarity - the more alike the change agent is to the audience, the more likely the change will be successful; people like people who are like themselves
With these factors in mind, you can design and structure a change initiative that can be successful. Remember, the success of any change effort relies heavily on the relationship and workability between the change agent and those going through the change.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Four Determinants in Successful Strategic Implementations
When it comes to strategic implementation, organizations that make a conscious decision to examine who supports or is against the implementation and subsequent changes, will increase the likelihood of success. Of course, the top level of management needs to be involved, but to enlist the support of key people is critical to your success.
Who are those key people in your organization? They are the formal and informal leaders who have gained the respect of others, have technical know-how, have reasonable access to vital resources, and have consistently been the ones who are the early adopters. What might their response be to the implementation process? Michael Tushman and Charles O'Reilly offer several suggestions. I thought I would list these and add an explanation along with my experiences after each one:
1.) Determine who has power to make or break the strategic goals - those whose influence is so strong that unless you have their buy-in, things can go terribly wrong. In my experience, these are the individuals whom you want to engage in the design of the roll-out of the strategic plan. They could even be your opponents whom you can convert through the design process itself. For example, I knew of a group leader who had been at the company for 30+ years. He was going to have substantial influence as to whether or not the organization achieved it's goal of reducing waste in operations. Luckily he was a supporter.
2.) Determine who has access to critical resources or information - those who have the knowledge, experience, capacity and capability to sustain the process throughout the normal operations of the business. These people are typically drivers of the strategic efforts and will be valuable to implementation and project teams. I started a strategic implementation process in a small company and discovered that most of the information was in the heads of the people rather than in documents. I engaged several long-timers to sit down with me and pass along their insights to the design process.
3.) Determine who has something to gain or lose if the strategy is implemented - those who will benefit in power, status, or title or who will lose their current span-of-control or experience reduced budgets for example. My experience shines a light on a manager of a department who kept insisting that his employees needed more training before he could implement his part of the strategy - he was destined to lose several employees in that process.
4.) Determine which groups of individuals are likely to mobilize for or against the implementation - these groups are powerful and comprise both internal and external constituents. For example, suppliers who resist keeping inventory at their company can have a huge influence on the accomplishment of the organization's goals down stream.
Gaining support means that you have to build effective teams throughout the process. Consider them your internal change agents who can work together with you to achieve the organization's goals.
Who are those key people in your organization? They are the formal and informal leaders who have gained the respect of others, have technical know-how, have reasonable access to vital resources, and have consistently been the ones who are the early adopters. What might their response be to the implementation process? Michael Tushman and Charles O'Reilly offer several suggestions. I thought I would list these and add an explanation along with my experiences after each one:
1.) Determine who has power to make or break the strategic goals - those whose influence is so strong that unless you have their buy-in, things can go terribly wrong. In my experience, these are the individuals whom you want to engage in the design of the roll-out of the strategic plan. They could even be your opponents whom you can convert through the design process itself. For example, I knew of a group leader who had been at the company for 30+ years. He was going to have substantial influence as to whether or not the organization achieved it's goal of reducing waste in operations. Luckily he was a supporter.
2.) Determine who has access to critical resources or information - those who have the knowledge, experience, capacity and capability to sustain the process throughout the normal operations of the business. These people are typically drivers of the strategic efforts and will be valuable to implementation and project teams. I started a strategic implementation process in a small company and discovered that most of the information was in the heads of the people rather than in documents. I engaged several long-timers to sit down with me and pass along their insights to the design process.
3.) Determine who has something to gain or lose if the strategy is implemented - those who will benefit in power, status, or title or who will lose their current span-of-control or experience reduced budgets for example. My experience shines a light on a manager of a department who kept insisting that his employees needed more training before he could implement his part of the strategy - he was destined to lose several employees in that process.
4.) Determine which groups of individuals are likely to mobilize for or against the implementation - these groups are powerful and comprise both internal and external constituents. For example, suppliers who resist keeping inventory at their company can have a huge influence on the accomplishment of the organization's goals down stream.
Gaining support means that you have to build effective teams throughout the process. Consider them your internal change agents who can work together with you to achieve the organization's goals.
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