When change gets stuck

The absolute majority of leaders have to deal with change management at some point in their careers. In fact, the majority of people do that. Change is a given, the question is only how much and how intense it is.

Mental popcorn

Personally, my life became so much easier once I accepted it. Instead of trying to fight it or stress over trying to understand it (which is impossible as usually change is caused by and impacted by so many different forces that nobody has the full picture), I started using the method of “mental popcorn”. The method is pretty simple: try to imagine that instead of being part of the drama and chaos of change, you are simply watching a good and interesting drama, while munching tasty popcorn. More specifically, instead of stressing over what you cannot change, try to see the change as interesting.

It became a bit more difficult when my role changed (pun intended) to a team leader, which meant from accepting the change to promoting the change. The thing is that leaders simply must take the role of implementing something new with their team from time to time, even when they are not fully sure of the benefits of the change.

Utter failures?

While change initiatives are common and expected everywhere, they do not seem to succeed that often. Some argue that 70% or even more than 90% of change initiatives fail. These numbers are often quoted. They seem impressive and shocking, but there seems to not be any valid empirical evidence for either of them. In any case, most change initiators have a feeling that their change projects did not really get where they have hoped for. John P. Kotter, whom I would call the change management guru, summarises:

“A few of these corporate change efforts have been very successful. A few have been utter failures. Most fall somewhere in between, with a distinct tilt toward the lower end of the scale.” – John P. Kotter

Lesson number one? Change is hard. Leading your team through change is hard. Initiating change is hard. It will not go as planned in the rosy optimistic plan. It will actually go worse than in the most pessimistic version of the plan. Just prepare for it and expect it.

Back to comfort

I happen to love change initiatives now and no longer find it miserable to lead others through them. Do I love it when it is hard and goes wrong? Not at all. But I found some ways that make it more predictable, and give back the control (well, at least some of it):

1. Clear measures

You get what you measure, right? In my experience, that is exactly what happens. The focus goes on the things that are shown. But there is more to it. Translating a chaotic, messy vision of the transformation into concrete, measurable parts means a large chunk of the change is done!

“In recent years, many change management gurus have focused on soft issues, such as culture, leadership, and motivation. Such elements are important for success, but managing these aspects alone isn’t sufficient to implement transformation projects. Soft factors don’t directly influence the outcomes of many change programs.” –HBR

I could not agree more. Change is the state that is too soft in itself. Full of fluffy visions, wishes, interpretations, and misinterpretations. Flushed with feelings, beliefs, and a dose of fear. It does not need more of that. What it needs is structure, hard sense-making. Concrete measures provide precisely that.

2. Communication

I am still amazed that despite years and years of experience, tons of research, and basically every change management book and article stressing this, it is still not done. I am talking about a sufficient amount of communication.

As John P.Kotter states, one of the typical mistakes is under communicating – by a factor of ten. According to him, communication is not just the standard corporate communication (presentations, intranet articles, townhalls): it is also behaviors, body language, everyday language, everything is not said. Leading your team through change requires mastering all of that.

I particularly recall one of the large transformations I was part of, which meant that most of the teams would have to be split apart and get new managers and new role definitions. The change was centrally managed by a group of external consultants, which of course had an official communication plan. Feeling proactive, I supplemented this with many additional communication activities: discussing the effects of transformation in 1to1s, special Q&A meetings, etc. It was not enough. I finally learned that leading change basically means leading the communication about it: communicating through every single movement, word, touch.

This might seem a bit simplistic. Is that really all it takes? Transformations are much more complex. However, what leaders need is to simplify this complexity. Get to its core and rely on consistency. Doing a couple of basics right is already an enormous step ahead, compared to the majority of transformation projects.