Tag: Change management

  • 70% of change programs fail to achieve their stated goals. What do we need to do differently?

    70% of change programs fail to achieve their stated goals. What do we need to do differently?

    Time to choose a different approach.

    You are about to implement your company’s new strategy, and this will require you to shift people’s behaviour, change what they do and how they have been working to date. So what approach will you take? A ‘directive’ approach or a ‘collaborative’ approach?

    Analysis from some of the largest consulting companies and academics have demonstrated that around 70% of all transformations fail to achieve their stated goals (McKinsey & Co 2013), usually due to human factors not being skilfully attended to. The biggest variable identified between success and failure came down to the kind of change approach selected.

    The least successful being a ‘Directive’ approach, with instructions on what is to be done and how it is to be done set top down and tightly controlled and the more successful being a ‘Collaborative/Adaptive’ approach where within a common purpose and direction, the organisation is engaged to co-create the change together.

    Question to you: I’m curious to hear from others involved in transformation programs, large or small, your opinions as to why organisations continue, to pursue approaches to change that have proven to fail 70% of the time? What approach do you prefer? What has been your experience?

  • Four truths about people & change

    Four truths about people & change

    In briefing some new leaders involved in transformational change, we entered a great discussion around people and change. It’s sometimes nice to reconnect with some truths. Change can be complex and often engaging and creating space for cooperation can cut through complexity.

    1. People will support what they help to create. (Weisbord, 1987)
    2. People do not resist change; people resist being changed. (Richard Beckhard)
    3. Activating the self-energizing commitment and energy of people around changes they deeply care about has been the key to the many successes that have been achieved. (Senge 1999)
    4. It’s easier to act your way in to a new way of thinking, than to think your way into a new way of acting. (Lisa Kimball)
  • Why the carrot or the stick?

    Why the carrot or the stick?

    It’s an open question to you the reader. Why are we attempting to motivate the 21st century knowledge worker, interacting in increasingly complex environments in the same way since the 19th century?

     

    As business leaders we have more than four decades of scientific research on human motivation available to us, yet there has been very little innovation or connection between what science knows and what business does to motivate employees.

     

    While carrots and sticks worked successfully in the 20th century when work was relatively less complex than today, with the increase in matrix organisations and with the ongoing decline in employee engagement and productivity, experts like Peter Drucker, Daniel Pink and Yves Morieux posit that motivation techniques that favour control are precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges and we should move towards the three main drivers of true motivation; autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

     

    What do you think? I’d love to hear from you if you’ve experimented with self managed teams or innovative ways to engage teams.

  • Finding the edge

    Finding the edge

    In the pursuit of excellence whether in business, sport or my personal life, I like to continuously challenge where my real or perceived limits are. I often find that when I explore a limit, I find an edge. This edge is where I start to explore, understand and challenge the belief that is defining the ‘limit’.

    Exploring where the edge can be uncomfortable. It generally challenges an existing belief, yet my desire to improve, my pursuit of excellence, drives me forward to find, explore and push this limit. I won’t find the limit unless I push the limit, push to find the edge, move with it, learn from it and find a way through it.

    An example is in preparation for the 2019 rowing season, I have challenged the Masters Rowing Squad to train differently to how they have in the past. Together we challenged the belief in the “no pain no gain”  approach to athletic improvement. (Side note; see Seiler’s Hierarchy of Endurance Training Needs 2016) On exploring what the best in the world do to go fast. we identified the key themes that define success and the supporting tactics. Some of these themes challenged general beliefs and concepts, yet instead of going with what everyone else is doing or the dogma of failed strategies, we are focusing on building up the season in a healthy, intelligent and personalised way that has proven to be successful.

    Although the squad knows the approach works, it challenges their beliefs. Together, we need to be consciously aware of what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing. We need to be aware that our approach is challenging our belief systems and the beliefs of others around us. We need to pay attention to our thoughts and fortitude to stay the course. Simple questions like; “whats the purpose of this session”? help to bring the awareness to what we are doing and why.

    Another example may be when challenging an organisation in transformation to examine existing organisational beliefs. The old quote of ‘this is how we do things around here’ or in excusing leadership beliefs and or behaviour that are not working as ‘The Organisation’s DNA‘ need to be consciously put on the table for discussion.

    Leaders need to explore and understand how successful teams have navigated through change. The default norm of ‘telling’ people what to do and being directive simply is not as successful or effective as empowering teams with clear direction, with trust in the organisation to work it out. This may challenge existing beliefs on what it meant to be a leader and may place leaders at the edge of their beliefs and along with the ambiguity, doubt.

    “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

    Albert Einstein

    Like the rowing squad, leaders that acknowledge they need to work differently and consciously pay attention to their behaviour generally do. It feels different, yet when supported, leaders can gain strength in exploring the edge through cooperating and collaborating together.

    So what you say? Well in the pursuit of excellence I’m constantly looking for the edge, understanding what I need to do differently or optimising the ‘same‘ to achieve my personal and professional goals. I’m paying attention to what is making me uncomfortable and why. I’m getting feedback from close counsel on what I may need to do differently or pay attention to. I’m challenging my beliefs. I’m finding the edge…


    Excellence. The quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

    Oxford dictionary, 2019
  • Reading and listening this week

    Reading and listening this week

    Books I’m reading

    Appreciative inquiry for change management; Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore & Stefan Cantore

    Long Lift; Vyacheslav Ivanov

    Swiss democracy in a nutshell

    Podcasts I’m listening to

    This is Akimbo; Seth Godin

    The Cycling Podcast

  • Thoughts on explaining complexity vs. the complicated

    Thoughts on explaining complexity vs. the complicated

    Simple problem

    Baking a cake. To be successful you need a recipe and a belief that the recipe is tried, tested and accurate. No particular expertise is required, however cooking experience probably increases success rate. It’s important that you follow the recipe precisely as it has been tested many times before. If you do so the results are you will end up with a cake.

    Complicated problem

    Sending a rocket to the moon involves multiple recipes, formulae and procedures that are specified and must be followed in an exact order. If you follow procedures, over time there is an increased predictability of success. Each rocket increases the likelihood of the next being just as successful, because there are fewer and fewer variables and less unpredictable events.

    Complex problem

    Raising a child…. a possibility that emerges into something wholly unpredictable. Believe me, I speak from personal experience…

    Raising a child is less predictable, and raising two or more even more so. Following rigid protocols in child rearing may have limited application and may also be counterproductive. Why? Because every child is unique and must be understood as an individual. The environment that they grow up in will be different from the other children (e.g. birth order and environment at school/mix of friends/different teachers/different hobbies…).

    Raising one child provides experience, but provides no guarantees the same approach will work with the next child. As a parent you remain uncertain of the outcome throughout the process because you can’t separate the parts from the whole, the child from its environment. The essence of raising a child may have some ingredients of systems, structures and protocols, but it’s the relationship between people, experiences and moments in time…what this means is the future is unpredictable.

    Complicated & Complex Systems adapted from Tanser 2018 & Zimmerman 1999

    Multiply up the variables to the scale of an organisation, try to codify and control everything that goes on, and your supercomputer brain will start to fail. 

    How would you define your organisation? Simple, complicated or complex? How are you navigating your through your situation? Often the most complex systems utilise the simplest of rules to navigate through complexity.