Leading Change

Welcome to . . .

Leading Change for
Project Managers
Strategies for Introducing New Ideas
and for Dealing with the “Push-Back”
“Push-

Jeff Russell, Co-Director
Co-
© 2007, Photograph by Jeff Russell

The
Th major advances in
j d i
civilization are processes
which all but wreck the society
in which they occur.
– Alfred North Whitehead
British mathematician and
philosopher (1861 - 1947)


People don’t resist
change as much as they
resist being changed!

People CRAVE Change!
Change is an extraordinarily natural
and normal practice that people
routinely embrace . . . on their own
y
terms!
When people are in the driver’s seat of
p p
change, seeking out learning,
opportunity, and growth, they usually
view change as th i ally to and a
i h their ll t d
wellspring of their personal success.

Photograph, © 2005, Jeffrey Russell

Imagine a world without change . . .
You live in the same house with the same family next to
the same annoying neighbors
You never read another book
Your children never grow up — or (worse) they never leave
home!
You eat the same meal at the same restaurant with the
same rude waiter for the rest of your life
You d th same work every d at a j b th t i f
Y do the k day t job that is forever th
the
same for a boss who is always cross
You never visit a foreign country
You never marry . . . or never divorce
You never see a blazing scarlet sunset
You never experience awe, wonder, or joy!

It’s usually not change that
It s
people resist, but how
organizations manage it!


The Origins of Resistance . . .
1. Some people fear loss.
loss.

2. Some people mistrust those
who lead.
h l d

3.
. Some people disagree on
p p g
the change.

4.
4 Some people don’t tolerate
change well.

Russell Consulting, Inc. — Helping You Build and Sustain a Great Organization

The Possible Losses of Change
Social Status
Job Independence
Security
Social
Future Connections
Opportunities

Psychological
Competence
Territory Comfort

Control over
Trust in Purpose/Meaning
p g
the Future
F t re
Others

The Four Levels of Infrastructure
Short-Term

Physical
(Processes,

ange
Tools, &
Structures))

Durability of the Cha
Infrastructure
(Management Systems,
Measurements & Rewards)

y
Behavioral
(What Groups & Individuals Do)

Cultural
(Values, Beliefs, & Norms)
Long-Term
g


Leading Change
g g

Create a Stabilize &
Felt Need Sustain the
for Change Change
Ch g

Revise
R i &
Introduce Finalize the
the Change
Change Plan


What Actions Can We Take to . . .
Create a felt need . . . . And what are the
consequences if we cry wolf?
Introduce the change . . . And what are the
consequences if we don’t create a shared
vision?
Finalize the change plan . . . And the
consequences if we aren’t able to reconcile
differences?
Stabilize and reinforce . . . And how
build/sustain employee commitment to and
ownership of the change?


Create a Felt Need
Identify what needs to change.
y g
Identify why it must change — identify the problem
that needs to be solved.
Immerse them in the data from the customer, from
other stakeholders, from the organization’s
performance successes and failures
failures.
Identify the consequences for the organization of not
solving the problem or not responding to the
g p p g
challenge.
Get their attention — give people a reason to move
out of comfort and complacency.
f f d l


It i not th strongest of th species th t
is t the t t f the i that
survive, nor the most intelligent, but the
most responsive t change.
t i to h
— Charles Darwin
British naturalist
c. 1809-1882
1809-

Photograph © 2005, Jeffrey Russell

Introduce the Change
Ask people to solve the “problem.”
Offer your own possible solutions and strategies.
Work with others to co-create a shared change vision.
co-
Guide people in exploring the positive outcomes.
Listen to people’s objections, concerns, fears, and
perceived losses.
Acknowledge their fears and perceived losses.
Invite people to offer ideas to offset the losses and realize
the benefits.
Integrate their concerns about and ideas for improving
change.


The problems that exist in
the world today cannot be
solved by the level of
thinking that created them
— Albert Einstein

Photograph © 2008, Jeffrey Russell

Revise and Finalize the Change
Help people to . . .
identify/explore the hidden opportunities
define the future of the change on their
terms — and those of the organization
invent creative solutions to the challenges
Continue to identify obstacles to change acceptance that
must b overcome — explore the hidd opportunities.
t be l th hidden t iti
Encourage people to find creative answers to their
questions about the change.
Adjust the change vision, strategy, and plan in response
to the ideas and answers offered by stakeholders.


Stabilize and Sustain the Change
Develop action steps for stabilizing, reinforcing, and sustaining
the change
h h
Give people time to mourn their actual losses
provide skill and knowledge training
revise job descriptions
develop new reward systems
strengthen social connections and relationships
recognize and celebrate accomplishments
Develop performance measures to evaluate the results from the
change.
Make dj t
M k adjustments t th change vision and strategy t reflect
t to the h i i d t t to fl t
new learning and insights.
Challenge people to be open to new challenges, forces, and
pressures for the next change
change.


The art of progress is to preserve
change amid order and preserve
order amid change.
g
― Alfred North Whitehead
British mathematician and philosopher
(1861 - 1947)


Force Field
Analysis . . .
The The
Present Ideal

(+) Driving Forces Restraining Forces (-)

Feel better I’m just too old

Look better It’s cold out there!

Sick less often
I don’t have the
right clothes
Wear clothes longer
Requires too much time
Attend H.S. reunion
with pride . . .
ith I really could
Status hurt myself
Quo

The Journey
Through Change Stability

Learning,
Comfort Acceptance, and
and Control Commitment

Looking Looking
Back Forward

Inquiry,
Fear, Anger,
Fear Anger Experimentation,
E i t ti
and Resistance and Discovery

Chaos


Characteristics of
Comfort and Control
Comfortable
C f t bl
Safe
Everything s
Everything’s fine
Happy
People feel comfortable,
Satisfied safe, and in control. They
f , y
No problems are working hard ― but
Positive often on the wrong things.
Rewarding
In control
I’m okay, you’re okay!


Characteristics of Fear,
Anger, and R i t
A g d Resistance

Frustration Hostility
Anger Anxiety
Fearful Self-
Self-doubt
Betrayed Lost
Upset Dazed
Confused
People f l f t t d angry,
P l feel frustrated,
Challenged and fearful about the change.
Performance deteriorates.


Characteristics of Inquiry,
Experimentation, and Discovery
E i t ti d Di
Confused Going in all directions at
Questioning once!
Hopeful Searching for solutions
Opportunity Exciting!
Frustrated Innovation/creativity
Disappointed
Challenged People want to make the change
Half-
Half-way there! work ― on their terms as well as
Making progress those of the organization ― but
they don’t have clear answers.
y


Characteristics of Learning,
Acceptance, and Commitment
A dC i
Now I k
N know!!
Energized
Success!
We made it!
Relief
Wow!
Self-
Self-confidence
Satisfied People are f
P l focused upon and excited
d n nd it d
Comfortable about the future. They begin
What’s next? working together to accomplish the
change vision.
h i i


Actions for Comfort and Control
Acknowledge their successful past.
g p
Get people’s attention!
Sell the need for change . . . sell the pain and
the consequences of not changing.
Immerse people in information about the
change . . . customer complaints budget data,
complaints, data
increasing costs, competitive pressures.
Let people know it will happen — one way or
another!
Give people time to let the ideas sink in.
Don’t sell th solutions . . . sell th problem!
D ’t ll the l ti ll the problem!
bl


Actions for Fear, Anger, and
Resistance
R i
Co-
Co-create the vision.
Listen, listen, listen.
Acknowledge people’s pain, perceived losses, and
anger.
Strive to address their perceived losses.
Tell people what you know — and what you don’tdon t
know.
Don’t try to talk people out of their feelings.
Discuss ways to solve the problems people see with
the change.
Encourage discussion, dissent, disagreement, debate
. . . keep people talking.
talking.

Actions for Inquiry,
Experimentation, and Discovery
E i i d Di
Give people freedom and direction
direction.
Give people permission to find their own
solutions.
Encourage people to take risks.
Affirm and refine the vision — make room for
others
others’ ideas.
Tell people as much as you know.
Encourage teamwork and collaboration.
Encourage personal reflection and learning.
Provide people training and support.
Set short-term goals
short- goals.


Actions for Learning, Acceptance,
and C
d Commitment
i
Acknowledge their hard work.
Celebrate successes and accomplishments.
Reaffirm the vision.
Bring people together toward the vision
vision.
Acknowledge what people have left behind.
Develop long-term goals and plans.
long-
Provide tools and training to reinforce new
behaviors.
Reinforce and reward the new behaviors.
Create systems and structures that reinforce new
behaviors.
Prepare people for the next change
change.


An Integrative Model . . .
g
Stability

Learning,
Comfort Acceptance, and
and Control Commitment
Create a Stabilize
Felt Need and Sustain
for Change the Change
Looking Looking
g
Leader Actions
Back Forward
Introduce Revise and
the Change Finalize the
Change
Plan
Inquiry,
Inquiry
Fear, Anger, Experimentation,
and Resistance and Discovery

Chaos

There is nothing more delicate to take in
hand, nor more dangerous to conduct, nor
more doubtful of success, than to step up as
a l d in the introduction of changes.
leader h d f h

For he who innovates will have for his
enemies all those who are well off under the
existing order of things, and only lukewarm
supporters in those who might be better off
under the new.

Niccolò Machiavelli
The Prince, 1527


We Value Resisters Because . . .
1. They clarify the problem.
2. They identify problems that need to
be solved first.
3. They force change leaders to think
before they implement the change.
4. Their tough questions can strengthen
and improve the change
change.
5. They let us know who opposes the
change.
6. They slow down the change.
7. They may be right, it is a dumb idea!


The Crisis of Change . . .

Danger!

Hidden Opportunity


What is “Readiness”
Readiness
A cognitive/emotional state that occurs
when employees have positive
attitudes, beliefs, and intentions
attitudes beliefs
toward a change.
When readiness exists . . .
Greater openness to new ideas
Lower resistance to learning/growth
Earlier acceptance of the change


Moving Toward Change . . .
g g

Readiness — being cognitively and emotionally receptive to
change; evident in openness toward the change in
attitudes/beliefs/intentions.

Acceptance — a deepening belief in the change and a willingness
p p g g g
to work with the change on one’s own terms.
terms.

Integration — having attitudes/beliefs/intentions that wholly
reflect the change . . . The change is difficult to separate from the
individual’s routine thoughts and actions. Integration is evident
when new ways of thinking and acting are deeply engrained in the
attitudes, b li f and actions.
ttit d beliefs, d ti


Why Assess Readiness?
As a small group . . .
Why might be important to assess
y g p
change readiness of a group?
How might th results f
H i ht the lt from a
readiness assessment be used to help
lead
l d a change initiative?
h i iti ti ?


Components of Change Readiness

Organizational Support . . .
g pp
Clarity of the vision
Centralized vs. distributed decision making
History of employee involvement in decision
making, goal setting, and past change initiatives
Strength of t i i and d
St th f training d development
l t
Extent to which the employees’ voices are
heard/responded to
Quality of organizational communications
Performance accountability



Organizational Culture . . .
Cultural receptivity to new ideas/innovation
Level of teamwork/collaboration
Level of trust
What people do under stress
Past active participation levels
Whether people feel responsible for their
own success



The Change Environment
Awareness of the forces driving change
Clarity of the change and its effects
Quality of the measures to gauge the success of
the change (we’ll know if we’re getting there)
The organization’s track record with change
The number of changes occurring simultaneously
(Change overload! At the breaking point!)
Cost/benefit analysis — advantages outweigh the
p
perceived disadvantages
g



Employee Attitudes and Behaviors
People feel a sense of “urgency”
“urgency”
Level of job engagement
Level of employee autonomy/independence
The presence of innovators and risk takers
p
Employee-
Employee-perceived ability to influence the
change
Degree of employee receptivity to change
Confidence in the managers’ and supervisors’
ability to guide people through the change


Compute Your OCRA Score
Complete your self-assessment
self-
Tabulate the results
Read the “interpretations” section
R d th “i t t ti ” ti
at the bottom of the second page
Discuss your reactions to the OCRA
with your table partners . . .


#1: A Lack of a Urgency

Many change efforts fail because they have
failed to create a “felt need” or a sense of
“felt need”
urgency throughout the organization.
g y g g
Before selling people on the opportunities
and benefits of a change people must first
change,
experience the need to change.
change.


#2: A Lack of a Shared Vision

Without a truly shared vision of the
destination of the change stakeholders
may remain in the dark as to the
purpose and intention of a change and
they will find it much harder to bring
h ll d hh d b
their positive energy to help drive the
change.
h


Where there is no vision, the
people perish.
l perish.
i h

— Proverbs 29:18


#3: An Absence of
Measurable O
M bl Outcomes

Change efforts often fail because they
neglect to define and focus on specific and
measurable outcomes.
outcomes.
Every change effort must have clear metrics
y g
that enable everyone from those in the
boardroom to those on the frontline to know
if and when progress is b i made on th
d h i being d the
change objectives.


#4: A Failure to
Communicate the Vision
It’s not enough to have a vision of the change
and effective measures of the change
outcomes.
Stakeholders must understand and share this
vision, they must understand the “whys” of
the change, and they need to know the
change,
organizational and personal benefits resulting
from a change.


#5: Being Surprised at the “Push-
g p “Push-
Back”
Back” from a Change

Every change, no matter how positively it is
viewed by change leaders and others
throughout the organization, will create
emotional stress for some.

If not anticipated or understood, this
emotional stress i lik l t result i hi h
ti l t is likely to lt in higher
levels of change resistance.
resistance.


#6: A Failure to Integrate Dissident
g
Perspectives into the Vision

The questions, issues, and concerns of the dissidents
and other resisters who lead the “push back” on the
“push back”
change can help improve and strengthen any change
effort — but only if they are encouraged to offer up
their concerns.
concerns.
Successful change leaders pay attention to what the
change nay-sayers are concerned about — and then
nay-
do their best to integrate these dissident
perspectives into the change vision.
vision.


#7: Failing to Anticipate and Confront
Obstacles to the Change
All organizational change initiatives
experience more than a few bumps in the
p p
road.
One characteristic of successful efforts is that
the change leaders proactively anticipate,
identify, and directly confront systemic and
y, y y
structural obstacles to the change vision and
plan.


#8: A Failure to Integrate What
Works or Doesn’t Into the Vision

Successful change initiatives benefit most
when change leaders have a high level of self-
g g self-
awareness that results from a critical
assessment of the successes, missteps, and
inevitable setbacks that they experience
throughout the change implementation
process.
Then, based upon this self-assessment, change
self-
leaders change what they do next.


You
Y can count on th A
t the American
i
people to do the right thing . . .
After exhausting all the other
p
possibilities.
– Winston Churchill


#9: An Ignorance of the
Organization’s C l
O i i ’ Culture

Culture plays a powerful and often underestimated
role in the success or failure of a change initiative.
Successful changes are guided by leaders who have a
deep respect for and understanding of the
organization’s culture and its role in the change
g g
process.
Culture is a central contributor to the success or
failure of every change.


#10: Failing to Establish Interim
Benchmarks of Success
B h k fS

The failure to establish interim benchmarks
to measure the progress of the change can
diminish t k h ld buy in.
di i i h stakeholder b -i
buy-
Interim measures bring the added benefit of
helping people see and feel progress —
something that may be especially important
for
f maintaining stakeholder motivation d i g
i t i i g t k h ld ti ti during
a long-term change initiative.
long-


#11:
#11: The Lack of Structural
Reinforcers S
i f Sustaining the Change
i i h Ch

The most significant cause leading to the failure of
change initiatives is the failure to create
organizational infrastructure to help stabilize the
change and reinforce the new ways of thinking and
acting.
Without structural reinforcements, change leaders,
those on the front line, and everyone in between will
, y
tend to drift back into old mindsets and behaviors.


Implications for the Top-eleven
Top-
Reasons for Failure?
R f F il ?
Which of these 11 factors poses the
most risk for your project and its
change efforts?

What actions can you take, given these
factors, to prevent these factors from
jeopardizing your project?


Change is inevitable,
g ,
growth is optional


Blessed are the flexible for
flexible,
they shall not be bent out of
shape.
h
— Dr Michael McGriffy
Dr.


The master doesn’t talk, he acts.
When his work is done, the
people say “Amazing! We did it
all by ourselves.”
y
– Lao-Tzu
Lao-
Chinese poet &
Chi
philosopher

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask,
"Where have I gone wrong?“ Then a voice
g g
says to me . . .
"This is going to take more than one
This
night.”
— Charles M. Schulz
Charlie Brown in "Peanuts“
American Cartoonist
b. 1922 d
b 1922, d. 2000


Somebody has to do something . . .
and it's just incredibly pathetic that
it has to be us
us.
— the late Jerry Garcia
(of the Grateful Dead)
b. 1942, d. 1995


Thank You!!

Good luck with your
projects . . . And with
d h
introducing change your
company!!

Leading Change

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