Change Is Inevitable, Failure is Optional - PART I
Last week I was visiting with the CEO of a landmark area company. The CEO was lamenting the challenges of moving away from the "status quo." He said, "I know we need to change, but I'm scared to death that if I make changes, I'll screw up the business I have today." Then, in the next breath he said: "But if I don't make changes now, what will I have in 5 years? Things are pretty good today, but if I don't look to where I want to take this organization, we may never again enjoy the same growth, revenue, profit, or lifestyle we have today."
An interesting dilemma, indeed! This CEO's biggest fear was that the changes he was considering might actually be upsetting to his leadership team. This might, in turn, cause them to retire early, resign - or worse - stay on and become naysayers, dragging the company down with them. In some cases, however, their departure may actual benefit the organization. Strong leaders make tough choices; that's why they're called strong leaders.
People and organizations have only two alternatives: get better (improve) or get worse (decay). And it's a constant battle. Our only choice is to manage this ongoing process and improve the things that can be improved, or ignore the process and decay. This principle is just as important in life-long learning as it is in organizational change.
The challenge for us as individuals and organizations is how to keep on the "upward vector" of growth, innovation, improvement and continual learning. It can be done, but it takes positive, continuous energy and communication.
But first, we need to understand the dynamics of change.
Which Comes First: Process or Behavior?
Many leaders address the change challenge in a very clinical fashion. They begin by attacking the process, the policy or the procedure, instead of addressing the tougher challenge: people's behaviors.
Effective execution of strategy ultimately requires change in the behaviors and attitudes of leadership and of all employees first -- before processes can be effectively changed.
A common failure of most business improvement approaches is the tendency to develop new or ideal processes on paper, without addressing elements of human behavior and human nature.
Perhaps it's an over-reliance on highly data-driven methodologies like Six Sigma or lean. In these scenarios the expectation is if we can use quantifiable data to demonstrate that a process change will result in an improvement, then people will automatically change their behaviors.
On the contrary, our experience and research tells us that behavior change requires time, effort, measurement - and most importantly - discipline.
For any enduring change to take place, behaviors (habits and attitudes) need to change before processes can successfully be changed. Sounds simple, but the complexity of managing change grows exponentially as the organization's size increases.
The often-used blanket comment; "I don't like change" is untrue. We generally like changes that affect us positively, but tend to resist changes that affect us in a negative way.
For example, initially it will take an employee more time to complete an old task in a new way. While they were once the expert, they're now required to learn a new process - slowing them down in the short run - but increasing their productivity in the long run. These new changes require acclamation or acceptance time. In other words, "We don't resist change, we resist being changed." That said, what people want and need is a new perspective on change, and how it will benefit them.
In Part I of this column, I've highlighted one of the CEO's biggest challenges - the inevitability of change. This challenge has many layers and levels, and since it involves many individuals and teams, it's much more complex than it appears. Fortunately, there are proven best practices to address the challenge of organizational change. In Part II, I'll address both the additional complexity - and how to deal with it.
Eric Kurjan is the President of Six Disciplines Northwest Ohio. Six Disciplines brings "big company" process improvement to organization looking to break beyond the status quo. For more information visit www.SixDisciplines.com/Toledo, or call 419-581-2823.
