The need for change

There is lots of pressure on companies to be nimble, to innovate, and to change. Yet these directives fail time and again. This has lead to widespread puzzlement and a host of research and articles analysing why:

Changes fail

Giant companies fail

Innovation fails

This analysis offers powerful insights into the reasons for failure. (Julian Birkinshaw’s thoughts on Nokia are a great example.)

Generally speaking though, organisations don’t do that type of analysis. Instead failure to change is often blamed on employees who resist change and won’t keep pace with the new. This creates divisions between managers and employees, further reducing the chances of success.

Organisational change fails for two reasons:

1. The change is driven by an abstract target

Managers identify the need for change in a boardroom looking at a chart and deciding to “move the needle” on a particular metric.

Change can be hard if the metrics are specific and measurable, like sales numbers or production targets. It is often disastrous if the goal is something vague like “employee engagement” or “innovation”.

Target-driven initiatives focus on the particular measurement, rather than changing the system. If a doctor sees a person with a high temperature, the goal of medical treatment isn’t to reduce the temperature; you can do that quickly with an ice bath. The patient’s temperature is an sign of an underlying illness. The doctor treats the illness to reduce the temperature.

2. Change fails because it’s initiative driven.

The C.E.O. read a book and went to a seminar about a Hot New Thing and sees it as an agent for change. Now there is an inferno of activity around the H.N.T.

Frequently companies hire a vice president of the H.N.T. who is going to bring change to the organisation. He issues memos and press releases and holds company meetings to usher in the revolution.

Long-term employees roll their eyes because they have seen more than one H.N.T. in their time.

These groups of people are often labelled with pejorative terms like “the frozen middle” or the “awkward squad”, as if they are simply unwilling to change, and that their resistance is wrong. But that shows a lack of understanding of company culture and human motivation.

Target driven initiatives that address the symptom and not the cause are doomed to fail.

Successful organisational change requires a deep level of motivation and commitment.

To combat these failure points, organisations should reassess their change initiatives:

1. Correctly identify the thing that needs to change.

Measurements and metrics give valuable insights into the operation of an organisation. But measurements tell you what and not why. If analysis reveals a problem then managers must understand why it’s happening to understand how it can be changed.

Broadly speaking, the best source of this information is your own employees. They are your greatest asset in identifying sources of friction and how best to correct them. If front-line employees don’t agree that change is needed, or what should be changed, your efforts are virtually doomed to fail.

The process of change should start by listening to employees to find the areas they find problematic. Then proposed solutions will meet the real need, and not an abstracted measurement.

2. Employ a trusted change agent.

A Hot New Thing (a new technology or process, management philosophy or person) can be a powerful symbol of commitment to change. Several studies have shown the effectiveness of minority influence on organisational change.

However, it will not have the desired result unless it is addressing underlying problems, and the employees trust it. If trust has been eroded by a series of H.N.T.s that didn’t address real problems, if the H.N.T. fails to win the commitment of employees, or if the H.N.T. hasn’t been given the licence to enact deep change, then it just becomes another fad.

Whether the change agent is a person, technology, method or process, the fundamentals remain the same: build trust and seek input.

Start at the beginning

To really change, organisations need to start from the beginning and ask the questions:

Is change actually needed?

Who feels that way, and why?

Is there widespread agreement about it at all levels of the company?

Without that information, you won’t accomplish meaningful, lasting change. Not by any measure.

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Image by Thomas Hawk