Leading Change

Now that the holidays are over and the New Year's resolutions are made, it is an appropriate time of year for organizational leaders to consider what needs to be accomplished in 2013.  The relevant question is what needs to be changed for the organization to grow, improve and sustain itself for the long-term. This thoughtful process is essential because organizations eventually atrophy and die unless attended to; when renewal is achieved, the organization can continue. 

As stated in an earlier publication, change is a fundamental component of leadership and the main responsibility of leaders. In fact, in contrast to the important responsibilities of a manager, a leader's purpose is to see to it that the organization remains in constant motion, moving from its current state toward some predetermined future position. Leaders need to enact change in an effective and efficient manner while simultaneously optimizing its outcomes with the people who carry out the transition: the workers.

Planned change means “activities that are intentional and goal oriented.”¹ It represents an organized and carefully considered process designed to assist the organization in maintaining and supporting the future of the organization.

There are three types of changes.² The first is developmental. These changes tend to be small and incremental; some might observe the leader tweaking and tinkering with process, work methods and organization. The second is called transitional. Transitional changes tend to be more disruptive and, as a result, workers feel more threatened. This change is on a larger scale with a wider impact and is more difficult to manage. An example may be the introduction of a new product line with a new service department. The largest and most disruptive change is called transformational. Transformational changes generate adjustments that are felt throughout the enterprise; some transformational changes take the organization in a completely different direction. This change is the most difficult to manage and often causes the most anxiety among the workers. The level of ambiguity is also increased with a proportional increase of worker fear.

There is no clear delineation between the different types of changes. However, regardless of the type, leaders always need to be aware of the impact on the worker. Anything that negatively impacts the key human performance measures (i.e. employee satisfaction, productivity, organizational citizenship behavior, absences, turnover, deviant workplace behavior¹) must be handled in such a way to prevent harmful consequences. Change, which has almost become ubiquitous in organizations, can cause negative trends on each of these measures with a particular stress on satisfaction and turnover. Therefore, leaders must pay attention to the change processes; the goal is to enable the conversion of workers into champions (or least to a state of neutrality) of the changes rather than adversaries.

One issue that leaders need to be aware of is that humans naturally resist change. Change resistance arises from a number of fronts: (1) Change of routine or habit; (2) perceived change in security (psychological); (3) fear of financial or job impact; (4) ambiguity about the future; (4) inclination to filter any messaging provided by management.¹ Leaders need to keep resistance in mind, particularly for the larger transitional and transformational changes. The job of the leader is to transition resistance toward dedication; in other words, leaders need to move workers into acceptance of the change. This is not an easy process, but any movement in the right direction is of value.

Typically, a worker's resistance may bring actions and behaviors that minimize the experienced impact of the change (e.g. filter information so it makes a person more comfortable or resign from the organization to eliminate the pain). In other words, getting back to equilibrium or to stability becomes a priority for the individual when there is destabilizing change. Research confirms that workers have a set of concerns that, if addressed by leaders, can help the individual work through the change process; the objective is to help the individual move beyond the change.⁴

Because workers resist, it is the leader's role to address the workers’ range of worries in order to diminish the impact. One model that can be used as a leadership tool when executing a change process is the Stages of Concerns or the more recently titled Change Abilitator^TM model (and instrument).⁴ It identifies six concerns that, when addressed, can lower the anxiety or tension levels for the change and improve the outcome of the overall change process. The concerns for an individual are identified as⁴:

Concerns and Questions

Information – Sufficient information about the change. (What is happening?)

Personal – Impacts to the individual. (How will it impact me?)

Operational – How the change will be executed. (What implementation steps are planned?)

Impact – Impact to colleagues, unit, department, division and company. (How will my friends and colleagues be impacted?)

Collaboration – Ways an individual can assist. (How can I help?)

Transforming – Inclusion in the process. Participating with ideas on how the change can be implemented. (Can I offer my ideas on how the change is implemented? If I have a good idea, will you listen?)

Change is a foundational leadership function, and leaders need to actively address the concerns of workers to obtain their buy-in. Alternatively, poorly managed change can lead to significant business losses³ and negatively impact employee satisfaction and turnover.¹ In turn, satisfaction influences all of the other performance behaviors described earlier (e.g. organizational citizenship behavior, productivity, absence, etc.).  If handled properly, the natural resistance to change can be transformed to enthusiasm. The use of the Concerns approach can assist leaders in making this happen.

One vital role of the leader is to ready organizational members to move through an upcoming change. I will describe some approaches in the next blog.

Please feel free to comment.

References

¹ Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2011). Organizational Behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

²  Costello, S.J. (1994). Managing Change in the Workplace. Burr Ridge, Ill.: Irwin: Mirror Press.

³ Topchik, G.S. (1998). Attacking the Negativity Virus. Management Review. September 1998. Retrieved on 2-11-01 from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?

⁴ Hall, G.E. and Hord, S.M. (2001). Implementing Change. Patterns, Principles and Potholes. Allyn and Bacon: Massachusetts. Change Abilitator TM by LHE, Inc, 1994, published by HRD Press, 22 Amherst Road, Amherst, Mass. 01002.