Bring on Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister.

The female in me wants Julia to be  great success. I want her to succeed where Kevin wasn’t able to:

• by collaborating with Cabinet and colleagues
• by balancing the varying needs of the many stakeholders she has
• by finding a strong message, and delivering on it
• and by being herself, not a media-trained copy of a perfect politician

Time will tell. By all accounts Kevin was only able to do a part of one of these things.

He had a strong message, although he failed to deliver on the early promises that got him elected. He did not engage people, in fact he disenfranchised his colleagues.  And he had a tendency to announce policy that disturbed key players, including his own party. Worse still, he failed to recognise the consequences that his actions would bring.

 It wasn’t enough for Kevin to “say the right things” to the public when so many of his actions announced a different agenda. And that’s how it is with change and change implementation.

• When the “party rhetoric” doesn’t match other messages that people get, the change initiative will not be successful.
• When there’s not enough collaboration and engagement, or it is perfunctory and superfiical, the change initiative will not be successful
• If too many people are disenfranchised and there’s no apparent rationale about why the change should go ahead (Mining Super Profits tax and Emissions Trading Scheme backflip anyone??), then the change initiative will not be successful.

Change implementations are never successful because one thing gets done well. They are sucessful because many things get done well. As change leaders we need to be able to read the play a lot better than Kevin Rudd did. In fact if we haven’t thought all this through in the planning stages then it’s likely we wouldn’t be successful in our endeavours either.

You only know what you know.

In other words, you can identify all the impacts that cross your sphere of knowledge and understanding. What you need to  find out is whether there are other impacts that you don’t know about.

For example, you may be completely across how changing the sales entry process will affect your sales force and customers.  What you may not know is:

• that it will require changes to the back end systems that feed the database or the proposed functionality will not work
• and that these changes can’t be made before year end or the year to date totals can’t be reported on
• and that there’s been a freeze on IT changes because the company needs to bed down the new operating system for 3 months….
• and so on.

There’s only one solution to knowing what you know. And that is getting people from multiple functions at multiple levels to have a  conversation about the change and it’s potential flow on effects. Many a change program has  had ordinary results because the change impacts were not properly identified, leaving people scrambling to fight fires and create last minute workarounds.

Recognising that you only know what you know will make you a better change leader. Not only wt will force you to enquire broadly about how the change could affect all other parts of the organisation, it’s also a great engagement strategy.

No surprise right? Haven’t we been reading about these numbers for years now? We keep getting feedback that we are “crap” at managing change. And yet not much changes.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. Doing more of what we are already doing will not help us to turn the corner. We still rush to solution, don’t talk to our people enough, don’t connect change with strategy, often underestimate people’s reactions and time-frames to get “comfortable” and so on.

My fundamental belief is that we need to rethink our approach to change and start building awareness of change processes, frameworks and tools at all levels. If change is the big constant, why aren’t we equipping all our people to work in this environment?

When computers changed our world, didn’t everyone have to learn enough to use them?

Here we are in a world where everyone experiences change, some welcome and some not, and yet we provide no context about how change gets implemented, what gets considered as part of a change program, how people respond to change, and how companies “manage” it. We are asking people to operate in a vacuum of knowledge.

Imagine if everyone had a base level of knowledge about these things. Then they could recognise aspects of the change program as  they happened. They could provide feedback if they felt engagement was insufficient. They could contribute to the process from a place of knowledge rather than a place of forced ignorance.

We need to change the game and give our people the information and tools they need to thrive in this ever-changing world.

What do you think?

We have all experienced the boost you get from simply contemplating something new.  From this point our thoughts can take us in two directions (both familiar to me…)

Direction 1 – We can talk ourselves out of it, thinking things like

“that sounds great but would be really hard”,

I wouldn’t know where to start

if I did that then xxx might happen, so I’d better not

Sound familiar?

Direction 2. We continue to drive forwards with our ideas

That will be a challenge but I’m up for it

Nothing ventured nothing gained

I’m scared as hell so I’d better just do it

It’s my future and I choose to give it a go

Depending on what else is going on in our lives, we might take Direction 1 or 2.  Often we hover in the grey area, trying to make up our minds if the risk is worth it.

Changing our thought patterns and underlying beliefs is hard work.  Often too hard.  This shouldn’t deter us from behaving differently. Often changing our actions or behaviour can lead to the changes in thought patterns we seek.

Taking the action and having it turn out well when we don’t expect it to is a wonderful validator and self-esteem builder.

Feeling fear over a career change doesn’t mean we have to do nothing. We can take the action to explore other careers, and see where that leads us. Forwards motion is rarely a negative experience.

The point is (and it’s a long-winded one today, sorry) that the very act of acting increases motivation.  ACTION trumps APATHY as it were.

That’s why getting people involved in change programs is such a good idea. Just being involved can help people to get across the change more quickly, help them see the benefits and increase their engagement with the process. Hoorah.

Published by Stanford Business Books,  2008

This book goes beyond the steps required to implement change and asks us to think more wholistically about the context for change as well. The authors propose a change framework that encompasses several additional elements:

1. Our personal agendas – recognising that our experiences and motivations might cause us to adopt one change path over another
2. Examining who should lead – who is the right person for the job, nder what circumstances should there be more than one person
3. Who is expected to follow – what are the charactersitcs , skill level, motivations, leadership and interest of this group in the proposed change
4. What is the internal context of the change – what BAU activities are going on, what other changes are planned, or have ovccurred, what has been the success of prioir change efforts, are resources available etc
5. And finally, what is the external context for the change – economic, social and regulatory environment, state of labour market and impact on retention and recruitment, state of third party organisations who will need to be involved (eg suppliers, vendors)

I found this book an excellent read, both in terms of the content – which was highly valuable – and readability. Sometimes change books can be on the academic side, but not this one.

If you are in the change field I highly recommend this one.

Sadly, the people implementing the system were not very computer literate. They didn’t realise, and failed to consider, that our hardware was not powerful enough to run the reports (I was using Wordstar at the time, which will give you an indication of how long ago it was-if you’re even old enough to remember!). I spent literally hours attempting to run these reports for my boss. The system with its 16 kb of RAM just kept on crashing.

This is an example of the people leading the change failing to consider the organisational context of their clients. Failing to realise they couldn’t run the software adequately. Failing to ask the simple question about what kinds of PC’s they had.

It’s always these simple questions we forget.

The context for change is just as important as the process used to implement the change.  Change leaders need to understand what’s going on for the receivers.

• Are they already aware of the need for change?
• Will they buy in to your story or will they shrug their shoulders and say “here we go again”.
• Who are the influential followers that you should engage early?
• What is the organistional context forthe “receivers” – what else do they have on their plates?
• What is the quality of leadership within the group – will this help or hinder the change initiative?
• What are their current skills? Will skills need upgrading?
• How much support are they likely to need, and what should it look like?

These are just a few of the questions you could ask. Getting your head around their motivations, drivers, skills and current context will help you design a better implementation approach.

Never forget to ask what kinds of PC’s they have.

According to the Harvard Business Review (Feb, 2007), self-awareness has been recognized as the most important capability for leaders to develop. As part of their study, researchers interviewed hundreds of managers looking for common traits that drive success.

What they did find was that leaders who understood themselves, and could use their experience to reflect and grow, were most successful.

When the 75 members of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: self-awareness.

Our perception of ourselves is often coloured by our experiences, attitudes and self-esteem. Looking at yourself through others’ eyes provides information often missing in the self-development process. What do others see as your strengths – and how does that compare to your own view.

How do we go about getting a realistic picture of our capability? There’s really only 1 way:

Feedback, feedback, feedback. There are many ways we can get feedback from others – here are 5.

5 ways to get feedback

1. Informally ask peers and trusted others
2. Ask  your manager and/or team
3. Self observation and reflection (on past and current experiences, look for themes)
4. Complete a leadership assessment on yourself
5. Complete a leadership  assessment that gets confidential feedback from 5-7 others, so you can compare your views to theirs

You may not always agree with feedback – but that’s really the point. If you don’t agree, the questions to ask include:

• Why does that person have such a different view from me?
• What have I done that may have caused that view?
• How would I like that person to think of me?
• What do I need to do to make that change happen?

“setting clear aspirational targets,  creating a clear structure, maintaining energy and involvement throughout the organization, and exercising strong leadership.”

The theme of  building capabilities, particularly leadership capabilities,  came out as a strong driver of success. The success factors were closely interrelated:

• strong leadership enabled collaboration and engagement of people throughout the process;
• the ability to break the the change program down into manageable smaller initiatives that people could understand;
• getting employees involved at planning stage was highly engaging,
• identifying the critical mindset shifts very early on assisted with planning and change activities

The critical role of leaders in change is reinforced:

“strong leadership and maintining energy for change among employees are two principles of success that reinforce each other when executed well.”

I am gathering my thoughts around what change leadership is…..

Being a change leader means understanding how to create this energy for change, sometimes in environments where people are tired or experiencing change fatigue. 

Being a change leader means understanding shifts required in mindsets and attitudes, and focusing on this early on.

Being a change leader means understanding that behaviour and mindset changes are considered inputs to change planning, not outcomes of process change

Being a change leader means  finding ways for people to take ownership of parts of the change through delivery, rather than have them feeling things are being “done to them” and are not within their control

Change leaders find ways to achieve these things regardless of their role,  level, or leadership status. It’s an approach - a value set – that underpins how they think and plan.

I believe that supporting people (leaders or otherwise) to become strong change leaders must be a component of successful change.

What are your thoughts on capabilities of change leaders?

(The full McKinsey article from March 2010  ”What Successful Transformations have in Common” – is found here (www.mckinseyquarterly.com,  but it requires premium membership to view)

They may be customers affected by the change, they may be key influencers in the business, they could be leaders who are critical to success, or even external parties. Whoever they are, how do you make sure they really are on board with what you are proposing, not just making the right noises?

5 ways to work out if your stakeholders are on board

1. Listen carefully – what sort of language do they use? If you hear lots of “buts” and reasons why things will be difficult, that’s a good sign they haven’t completely bought in yet
2. Watch them carefully – their body langauge will convey more than their words. Enough said
3. Ask them to present the change and its benefits to another group with you – reluctance could be a signal
4. Ask them what they would do differently if they were you
5. Ask them how their teams feel about the change, and how you both can turn that around.

Firstly she said:

In yoga, the changes are slow and deep. You may notice nothing today, but 3 months from now your mind and body will be in a different place.

How often do we expect people to change their minds or agree with us immediately. We provide a rational reason with a few bullet points for context and think they will come around. Experience tells us otherwise. For one thing, our brains aren’t physically wired that way. A rational approach is not effective in getting people to change long held beliefs – we need to engage people’s emotional brains. And for another thing (terrible English I know), the evidence suggests that deeply held beliefs change slowly, over time, often without us being aware. Slow and deep – like yoga.

The second thing she said was:

You can choose what you want your mind to focus on. Focus on the heat, and the class will be challenging. Focus on the way the warmth lets you stretch more deeply, and the class becomes an opportunity to heal.

You are what you think.  In my first three or four classes, all I could think about was the heat. How draining it was. How much I wanted to get out. When would it be over. You get the picture.These days I never focus on the heat. The heat is warm and welcome – it helps me undo the tensions of the years before.

What we think about hugely affects our mind, our focus, and our behaviour. What’s the parallel in organisations?

Framing conversations in terms of opportunities is more effective than framing them as problems to be solved. Asking people to build on their strengths rather than fix their weaknesses (who can be bothered really?) allows them to open up possibilities rather than close down options. We are what we think.

Okay, so my mind was obviously wandering at times during this yoga class – I need to work on my own focus. But I never focus on the heat in the class.