Change toolkit - ACES

Louis Aylward
Business Change Manager
OD & Change team
Creating
successful change
engaging people with change
in the workplace

Personal responses to change
How change fails – a story
ACES model
Building on today

“The vast majority of large scale change efforts fail…
John Kotter

“The vast majority of large scale change efforts fail. Which means that the
probability that you have actually experienced a failure, and your people
know that and are pessimistic, therefore, about trying something again, is
very high.”
John Kotter

People don’t like change.People don’t like change which is done to them.

Kolb’s learning dip
Time
Performance
Doing no
change
management
Doing good
change
management

People like change.People can handle change which they can learn.

Concrete
experience
Reflective
observation
Abstract
conceptualisation
Active
experimentation

Proposition
It helps to see change as a learning
process

How change fails – a short story
ACES model
Building on today

So if change is a learning process what happens when lots of
people (each with a personal response) go through change in the
workplace?

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Portfolio management
Project & Programme management
General management
Delivery
focus
People
focus

Portfolio management
Project & Programme management
Project management
Delivery
focus
People
focus

“We occasionally do change
well but it isn't consistent -
there isn't a culture of doing
it well.”
“Programmes come and go. Very little sticks
and for staff who have been here a while it all
adds to a sense of cynicism.”
“Our approach is mixed. At times we do it
well and at times badly. There is no
consistent approach.”
“We are good at talking about
change. Bad at actually doing it.”
“It's a mixed bag. We've basically got
a disparate array of small
businesses. Some of them do
change a lot more effectively than
others.”
“We design procedures but don’t embed
them or bring people through.”
“We are good at driving
projects but forget that
our staff are the ones
who actually make it
happen.”

14
31
6
24
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2013 2014
My managers are equipped to identify when change is necessary
My managers are equipped to manage change effectively
Average survey score for managers
competencies over period

We trained hard. But it seemed that every time we were beginning
to form into teams, we would be reorganised.
I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation
by reorganising. And what a wonderful method it can be for
creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion,
inefficiency and demoralisation.
Gaius Petronius Arbiter, The Satyricon
1st century AD

People
focus
How can we
start thinking
about this?

David Kolb
Psychologist
Studied how we learn
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Psychiatrist
Studied how we grieve

People
focus
Great, but
what can I do
with that?

What should a good change model do?
People-centred
Scalable but easy to remember
With common understanding about how we do change
Empowering managers with a range of usable “tools”

Installing a new phone system
Installing a ready-made IT system
Office move
Restructuring programmes
Cultural change initiatives
Outsourcing
Mergers
Strategic-led change
Quite complex Extremely complex

Awareness – developing system understanding
Concept – creating a concept through a broad coalition
Engagement – landing the concept in the organisation
Sustain – reinforcing and supporting all aspects of the change

Awareness
Concept
Engagement
Sustain
Pre–project
change ready
In–project
emergent
change
In–project
project
thinking time
In–project
planned
change
No
Decision
to change
made?
Yes

Awareness
What happens:
• Flow of information is expanded across management boundaries
• Normal barriers to “awkward” questions are lowered
• Things are baselined
• A picture of the real issues is built up through whole system
engagement
Challenges you should expect:
• “I don’t have time for this. I’m
busy with real work.”
• Cynicism about management
exercises
• Venting
Responses to consider:
• Free up time – e.g. team
meeting slots
• Actions not words / Dispersed
leadership
• Allow it to happen & consider a
facilitator
Don’t forget:
• You don’t need to plan too far ahead at this point – in fact you probably
shouldn’t.

Awareness
Tools:
• Dialogue
• Graffiti boards
• Charlas
• Open Space Technology events
Simple tools
Complex tools
Tailored support based on
nature, size and speed of
change

Awareness
Tools:
• Dialogue
• Graffiti boards
• Charlas
• Open Space Technology events
Delivery side:
• Sharing management information
• Portfolio information / advice
• Process mapping (CI team)

Dialogue is about thinking together rather than thinking
alone
Dialogue demands that we both let go of our own
invested positions for a while
Dialogue

William Isaacs
A key choice point in a conversation
that involves some deliberation is
whether to either defend your own
view or position, or suspend it and
therefore listen without resistance.
Suspending is more likely to lead to
an exploration of the deeper
questions, a new framing of key
issues and the possibility of reaching
collective, refreshing new insights.

What resources would you need to put William Isaacs’ ideas
about dialogue into practice?

Doing graffiti boards online…

What resources would you need to use Graffiti boards where
you work?

Everyone is right – no debating
Record each point and move on
Get the gripes out of the system - get down to the real issues

What resources would you need to run a Charla?

Harrison Owen
The Rule of Two Feet
When you are no longer
listening or contributing, move
on to somewhere more to your
liking

What resources would you need to run an Open Space
Technology event?

Awareness – develop system understanding

Concept
What happens:
• New ideas are put forward by a wide variety of stakeholders
• A core desire for change is established (ok for motivations to vary)
• Leaders of change are identified at all levels of the organisation
• Things are benchmarked
• A guiding vision emerges - including what doesn’t need to change
• “Not my job to decide strategy”
• Unconscious assumptions and
ingrained attitudes
• Executive leaders setting vision
without listening
• Why not? Revisit previous stage
• Exercises to break mental
models
• Revisit awareness stage and
emphasise dispersed leadership
Don’t forget:
• A strong vision will have a wide base – have you respected the opinions
of operational staff, management leaders and subject matter experts?

Awareness
Tools:
• Concept questions
• C=[DVF] > R
• A pilot project
• De Bono’s hats and Walt’s strategy
Simple tools
Complex tools

What are we most proud of about what we do
now?

now?
What’s the one thing we’d like to change
around here?

now?
What’s the one thing we’d like to change
around here?
If someone arrived here in three years time what
would we want it to feel like for them?

What resources would you need to ask concept questions?

C=[DVF]>R
Change Dissatisfaction
with status
quo
Vision of what
is possible
First concrete
steps towards
vision
Resistance to
change

How could you use the change equation?

What resources would you need to a pilot project?

De Bono’s hats and Walt’s strategy

What resources would you need to do one of these creative exercises?

Concept – creating a change concept through a broad coalition

Engagement
What happens:
• Change “coalition” establishes itself
• Senior leadership publicly back the concept
• Staff are empowered to learn the change and develop personal
resilience
• Short-term wins are achieved
• The change is designed and implemented by a change team
• “Hold on. I didn’t know about this!”
• Resistance to implementation
• Human aversion to complexity
• Revisit previous stages
• Force Field Analysis
• Start small and be comfortable
with complexity
Don’t forget:
• This is where you actually start to change things – study the change
curve and don’t expect it to go smoothly

Awareness
Tools:
• A leaders’ call to action
• Psychological contracts
• Force field analysis
• Personal transition plans
Simple tools
Complex tools

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that
goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and
skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one
we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win… And it
will be done before the end of this decade.”
Leader’s call to action

September 12, 1962 July 20, 1969

What do you need for an effective call to action?

Competence
Recognition
Friendships
Status
Work–life balance
Mobility
Location
and more…
Contract of employment
Job description

Force Field Analysis (Lewin)
Desired state
(awareness
raised & concept
defined)
Driving Force
Driving Force
Driving Force
Resisting Force
Resisting Force
Resisting Force

Purchase of new
ERP software
Reduced down-time
24/7 support available
Business disruption issues
Fear of redundancies
Guaranteed costs in short-term
Possible savings in long-term
Desire for HR/Finance integration Fear of competency loss
Time-consuming training
No local experts available

Purchase of new
ERP software
Reduced down-time
24/7 support available
Business disruption issues
Fear of redundancies
Guaranteed costs in short-term
Highly probable savings in long-
term
Desire for HR/Finance integration
Time-consuming training
Incorporating best practice

Kurt Lewin
Pioneer of social psychology
Coined the term “homeostasis”

Using a Force Field Analysis to structure
project work

Engagement – landing the concept in the organisation

Sustain
What happens:
• Changes are embedded – e.g. new procedures and processes are
recorded
• People are allowed to “grieve” the old reality
• Success is celebrated
• Business transition is managed and people transition is addressed
• “Phew! Now that’s over, let’s
change it back!”
• Learning dip
• Re-visit previous stages + write
down new procedures
• See change as a learning process
+ extra support and training
Don’t forget:
• Good changes can get easily get lost in this stage. Revisit the change
concept as often as you can, remember that you’re actually in the
middle and everything can look like a failure in the middle… persevere!

Awareness
Tools:
• Reward and recognition
• Tuckman’s team stages
• Congruence
• Holding a wake
Simple tools
Complex tools

Now say thank you
Reward and recognition

There is no limit to how much
recognition you can provide,
and it is often free. Recognition
brings the change cycle to its
logical conclusion, but it also
motivates people to attempt to
change again.Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Tuckman’s team stages
Dialogue mindset
Team charlas
Values and
behaviours
Workshops
Process
reviews
Training
Personal transition plans

Congruence (Nadler & Tushman)
Formal organisationInformal organisation
WorkPeople

Formal
organisation
Work
Informal
organisation
People
INPUT
Strategy
Resources
Environment
OUTPUT
Individual,
team and
organisation
performance
Process mapping
Org. culture – disruptive?
nudges?
Org charts
Written procedures
Contracts and JDs…
FTE analysis – the
right number of
people doing the
right things?
Training and
development?
Tasks we do
Org. vision &
purpose

Holding a wake
Time
Managementlevel
William Bridges

Sustain – reinforcing and supporting all aspects of the change

How change fails – a story
ACES model
Taking it further

Re-imagining change
Before After
F F F F F F F F F
F F F F F F F F F F
F F F F F F F F
F F F F F F F F F
F F F F F F F F F F
F F F F F F F F

Training: CI
Training:
Intelligent
Manager
Training:
Leading
successful
change
Network:
Staying in
touch
1-2-1: your
date
Website: OD &
Change site
Coaching:
Participating in
change
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
Support:
working with
you
Taking it further

Training: CI
Training:
Intelligent
Manager
Training:
Leading
successful
change
Network:
Staying in
touch
1-2-1: your
date
Website: OD &
Change site
Coaching:
Participating in
change
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
Support:
working with
you

Training: CI
Training:
Intelligent
Manager
Training:
Leading
successful
change
Network:
Staying in
touch
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
Website: OD &
Change site
Coaching:
Participating in
change
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
Support:
working with
you

Training: CI
Training:
Intelligent
Manager
Training:
Leading
successful
change
Network:
Staying in
touch
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
SharePoint:
OD & Change
site
Coaching:
Participating in
change
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
Support:
working with
you

Training: CI
Training:
Intelligent
Manager
Training:
Leading
successful
change
Network:
Staying in
touch
Network:
Brown bag
lunches
Sharepoint:
OD & Change
site
1-2-1: your
date

OD and Change Team
Louis Aylward –
aylwardl@parliament.uk
More information on the OD and
Change intranet pages
Andy Vallins (Head of OD and
Change) – vallinsa@parliament.uk
Thank you

Change toolkit - ACES

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