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In a world where organisations are always going through some change or another, and where the rate of change is increasing rapidly, it is no longer enough to only talk about managing change, but change maturity too. There is an urgency, driven by internal and external forces such as strategic direction, operational requirements, technological advancements, customer demands, the competition, and economic drivers, looming over organisations to not only focus on Change Management on projects, but more so, to take their Change Management and change maturity to the next level.
We all know the statistic that 70% of all change efforts fail. There are many reasons for a high failure rate, but what we are more interested in is addressing the question ‘what makes the other 30% of change efforts successful?’.
Although Change Management, as a formal discipline, has been around since the 1990s, its origins date to the early 1900’s when academics explored an understanding of how human beings experience, interact with, and react to change. Change Management evolved from theory into concepts and language, and leaders started addressing the idea of supporting people through change. Structure and discipline were introduced to Change Management, where processes and tools, positions and job roles, and organisational functions were being formalised
Similarly, we see the evolution of Change Management within organisations. No organisation can escape change. When faced with a change, leaders decide how to deal with the situation at hand and ‘force’ changes onto their people, expecting them to just accept the change and carry on with business as usual. As the occurrence of change increases, leaders often see and experience the impact of change on their people and start considering how their people deal with waves of changes. They realise the need for preparing their people for change in some way or another. They introduce Change Management concepts, create a language of change, and throw some Change Management activities into the mix – usually communication and training. At first it seems like their idea of managing the change really works, but when people fail to, or refuse to accept the change, they realise the need for a structured Change Management approach. They start formalising change processes, tools and structures to better manage changes and help people accept and adopt the changes.
When the organisation has its Change Management ‘lightbulb moment’ it reaches a level of change maturity in the way that projects are approached and Change Management is applied. Through its change journey, the organisation transforms from not recognising the need for change and applying no Change Management, to establishing a full function like a Change Management Office (CMO) or Centre of Excellence (CoE) to manage change more effectively and efficiently and to deliver continuous improvement of its Change Management practices.
But does it stop there? Processes, tools and structures alone do not make change effective. Neither does a well-oiled Change Management team, CMO or CoE. Let’s face it! Change is only as successful as the impacted group make it. You can have all the bells and whistles in your CMO, but if one person resists the change, it still has the potential to cripple the change.
So, if we say that it is not only up to the Change Management team, CMO or CoE to effect change, who in the organisation is ultimately responsible for the rapid adoption and sustainability of change? And how do some organisations maintain a level of agility, regardless of the types and frequency of change, that gives it a competitive advantage? Why do some organisations thrive off change?
Imagine a time where you introduced a change to your organisation and every individual in the organisation seamlessly understood the need for change, incorporated the change into their daily routines, and continued with their day as if it is an old habit?
Impossible? No!
Leaders can transform their organisations by entrenching Change Management competencies into the DNA of the organisation. This can be achieved by fostering a culture of change, establishing an organisational Change Management competency framework, developing Change Management competence throughout the layers of the organisation and holding every person in your organisation responsible and accountable for Change Management.
Culture is the unique personality of the organisation and becomes a system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that governs and dictates behaviours within the organisation. It influences every aspect of an organisation, how it operates and how work is completed, and becomes a differentiating factor of success.
Your people will not buy into a new way of looking at and thinking about change if they do not believe in it. To believe in it, a culture of change and change maturity must be embedded into the fibre of the organisation.
Collaborate with teams within your organisation to define what a culture of change looks and feels like. What are the values that you want to align to the culture of change? More importantly, what behaviours will demonstrate the values that will depict the culture of change?
Once you have defined a culture of change, it is essential to formalise and embed the set of values and behaviours that will drive the culture. Identify characteristics, skill sets and abilities that are required from individuals to sustain the culture of change. Which characteristics and personal traits align with agility? Are there specific skills and abilities that an individual must possess to “live” the culture of change?
By developing a Change Management competency framework, you will ensure that your people demonstrate change behaviours in their day-to-day tasks. Not only will you be able to recruit the right people with a change mindset, but you will also be able to identify change skills gaps more efficiently, provide accurate Change Management training to address training needs, and evaluate performance more effectively.
Some research has been done on specific Change Management characteristics for leaders and it is important for leaders to have Change Management competence. Leaders lacking this competence often contribute to the failure rate. More recent research has however proved that leaders with high change maturity and competence have a big influence in transferring the change readiness. Leaders provide an idealistic behavioural model for employees which is transmittable and provokes energy amongst subordinates for change.
Establishing a competence for change amongst leaders would be an important step for an organisation to improve an appetite for change within the organisation, however, extending this competence to all levels within the organisation would ensure that it is not only up to the leaders to incite change. By entrenching the change competence throughout the organisation will ensure that the competence exists and is actively driven by all layers of the organisation.
The saying ‘give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to catch a fish and feed him for a lifetime’ takes meaning in the context of Change Management. When we consider how people experience, interact with and react to change, we are better able to understand what it takes to help people through change. Helping people understand how they experience, interact with and react to change, how to proactively identify change opportunities in their respective roles, and act on the change, changes the game.
Change is not sustainable if accountability is not established within the organisation. Kotter identified reasons why change efforts fail and one of these is when a change is not anchored in the corporate culture.
One way of anchoring a culture of change in the fibre of the organisation is to link the values and behaviours that drive the culture of change to organisational goals. Ensure that these values and behaviours are the golden thread between the organisational strategy, team, and individual change performance. Measure and track progress against pre-defined change metrics, and reward and incentivise achievement of goals.
Another way to anchor the culture of change is to empower your people to act on and manage change irrespective of their job title and level in the organisation. Be clear on what you expect each person to do when they identify a change. Stay close to the pulse of change by being approachable. Establish feedback loops and transparency. Give your people the autonomy to make decisions, be accessible, and encourage participation in finding solutions for changes within the organisation.
By integrating Change Management into your organisation’s DNA, linking change related values and behaviours to organisational goals and a Change Management competency framework, you can create an organisation wide accountability for Change Management. Creating change accountability will ensure that this culture of change and change maturity is sustained in perpetuity.
