Organisational change initiatives are heavily reliant on the active participation and visible leadership provided by the executive team. In this process the lead sponsor, or key driver of the initiative, on executive management level provides not only strategic direction, but also visible participation in the project, and plays a key role to ensure clear communication flow and the meeting of implementation targets.

In their book: “The Heart of Change”, John Kotter and Dan Cohen, write: ‘change happens, not when people think differently, but when the feel differently’. Further they state, ‘You have to appeal more to the heart than the mind.’ Once you have changed the heart, head and hands will follow suit. In a business environment, as in life, changing feelings is a tall order. Feelings are fluid, shifting from one extreme to the other, a mixed bag of emotions.

In bringing about organisational change, the biggest challenge to make change happen is to enthuse the entire workforce with energy and a willingness to adapt to a new business environment. In this endeavour, numerous obstacles such as uncertainty and a resistance to a “new order” may be rife. People are generally more comfortable when the status quo is maintained, than when they feel pushed to do and act differently. It is here where the role of the sponsor as the key driver of organisational change becomes instrumental.

The sponsor provides visionary leadership both on an executive level as well as downstream in an organisation. Additionally, they work to develop a business’ case for change. In this strategic role, the sponsor provides the pictures and the glue to create a new vision; and the actions to bring it to life. As sponsor, one should live and breathe the change one wants to see. Simply put, the sponsor sets the example.

In ChangeFolio’s experience, successful sponsors have the courage of their convictions and the confidence to share their excitement, nervousness and concerns as the process of change unfolds. They have the ability to bring diverse interest groups along on the journey into a new dispensation.

As Kotter and Cohen put it, it is the project leader who creates the sense of urgency; pulls together a powerful guiding team; creates clear, simple and uplifting strategies; communicates these through heartfelt messages on multiple channels so that people buy into change; assists to remove obstacles towards a new organisational order and empowers people to embrace a new vision and business model.

In leading organisational change initiatives, ChangeFolio, strongly recommends that business leaders identify a key change management driver (or sponsor) who re-imagines the status quo, and then brings energy, vision, project know-how and inspiration to the initiative. It is the sponsor who, through the cycles of change, will drive behavioural change through motivation, communication, implementation, governance and setting of a visionary example. Without an inspirational key driver, an organisational change initiative is doomed to fail. For change to be successful, a proverbial Moses is required to lead the business through the desert to greener pastures.

People buy into a leader before they buy into a vision.

– John C. Maxwell