{ Change Management – Making the most of your change champions }
11.10.11
When it comes to change management, can you identify your change champions or your saboteurs? We have just moved offices here at u&u (just up two floors) but as always, it was a significant undertaking. However, I am thrilled to say we did not have a single saboteur amongst us. When it comes to change, most people fall into one of four categories: innovators, early adopters, followers or saboteurs. Identifying who takes on what roles, will assist greatly in the change process. What category do you fall into?According to author, Tony Lendrum, most employees will happily follow a change process if efforts are made to engage them, but organisations should be on the lookout for change “saboteurs”.
In Building High Performance Business Relationships, Lendrum describes a relationship management model, in which one of the key principles is “having the right people doing the right things, the right way, at the right time for the right reasons”.
This “rightness principle, where effectiveness and efficiency are constantly being balanced, recalibrated and re-engineered”, will deliver the best results, he says.
The principle is also directly linked to change and change management, he says.
Lendrum, who is the founder and director of management consulting firm Strategic Partnering Ltd, points out that people differ in their ability to cope with and manage change, and fall into four categories: innovators, early adopters, followers and saboteurs.
One of the objectives of all good businesses and organisations must be “to encourage and lead the change profile towards the innovators”, he says.
“Adaptability will be one of the essential factors in achieving high-performance relationship management. Encouraged and empowered, innovators will provide the activation, energy and ideas to overcome many of the hurdles and explore many of the opportunities.”
Innovators, he says: are the “change champions” – provocateurs and leaders for the relationship improvement process.
“They will not only imagine the future but also play a critical part in creating it. They have strong intuitive judgment. That is, they have the ability to make good decisions based on little or no information – they often work on the basis of ‘it just feels right’.”
The next group, early adaptors, “keep the momentum going”.
“They are usually the first group of non-innovators to commit themselves to the change process. They are not above questioning, challenging, modifying and improving the change as required in order to accommodate the greater majority of people into the process more effectively. In this way early adaptors genuinely add value to the innovation or change process.”
Early adaptors, however, do not automatically adopt whatever it is that the innovators want to implement. “Often acting as a bridge, they will stop the followers from losing sight of the innovators… This group needs to be encouraged, coached and led. The earlier they catch on, the quicker the pull-through effect and the faster your organisation’s progress will be.”
Followers make up the vast majority of an organisation, Lendrum says. “They know a good thing when they see it, but their enthusiasm to support change will depend directly on the quality of the argument and the delivery of results. In most organisations they are highly skilled and committed individuals doing a good job, but they are not early adaptors or innovators of change. One of the real tests of how well a relationship is going is to what degree the followers are on side: how engaged, empowered and committed are the followers, and to what extent are they involved and participating in the relationship improvement process?”
The last group, saboteurs, are “different people altogether”.
“This label creatively describes those individuals who overtly, or covertly, oppose or deliberately undermine the change process. They are the gatekeepers, road blockers and filters in the business context; in terms of high-performance relationship management, they will ignore the principles and reject the process. At best this presents as passive resistance. Typically there is some degree of deliberate and active resistance. In other words they are continually fouling things up and sabotaging the efforts of more fair-minded and reasonable people. Saboteurs can reside anywhere inside or outside the organisation and range from senior management to the shopfloor, in any department or any function, from operators to sales and marketing.”
Because saboteurs have the potential to stall or impede progress, they need to be managed up or out, Lendrum says, “or at the very least be working in a position where they can do little harm”.
“The first and best strategy for dealing with saboteurs is to engage them in a positive, open manner. Listen to their viewpoints and opinions. Harness their emotions and energy, and identify and agree on common goals for mutual benefit.
“The similarity between innovators and saboteurs is that both groups are made up of stubborn, passionate and unreasonable people. It is these qualities or attributes, focused in the right – or wrong – direction, up the front or down the back of the ‘bus of change’, that allow them to have a constructive or destructive impact on the change process. Don’t be fooled, saboteurs are not stupid people. They are, however, often misaligned with the strategy and direction of the change initiative and display the wrong attitudes, behaviours and approach. There is nothing worse for an organisation’s performance than smart people coming to work with a bad attitude.”
The five-step change process
To garner support for workplace change (which Lendrum says generally starts with a “Let’s go…” statement, such as “Let’s go and change the way we do things”, or “Let’s go and restructure”), HR professionals should ensure they can answer five “W” response questions: Where are we going; Why are we going; What do we have to do to get there; Who is involved; and When do we start and finish, and when are the milestones?
He says the five process steps involved in managing a change process are:•Plan – Where are we now, where are we going; and why is the journey important?
“Document the strategy and compelling value propositions for change. Is there a sense of urgency, a burning platform, catalysts for change, a clear vision and visible leadership to manage the change?”
•Prepare – “How ready is the organisation for change? Who is impacted? How will you engage, enable and empower people to gain their commitment and develop ownership for the change process? What are barriers to implementation? Who are the change champions who will support the leaders and the change initiative?”
•Implement – “Lead, manage and monitor the steps involved in transition and startup. Secure quick wins and consolidate on early success. Engage open, accurate and timely communication and information sharing. Empower and support the change champions. Celebrate success, both stretch and breakthrough improvement.”
•Review – “Measure progress and performance. Have leading and lagging, financial and non-financial measures in place. Celebrate success and implement the lessons learnt into the next phase of change consolidation. What has changed? What is different? How have people accepted the change?”
•Improve – “Implement continuous improvement processes. Continue to engage, enable and empower people on the improvement journey. As appropriate, re-engage and/or revitalise the plan, prepare, implement and review steps. How well has the change been anchored?”
To read this article go to HR Daily http://www.hrdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&nav=1&selkey=1962
