Nine Mantras For Effecting Change - When Previous Attempts Have Failed
By Shaju Nair, India
Change is always for the better. And I enjoy effecting change in organizations. It gives me a great amount of satisfaction to see the machinery - that includes people and processes - change to achieve a better level of operational excellence.
I have had considerable success in the numerous change management initiatives that I have led, however they have come with their own dose of challenges and associated learnings. As I reflect upon my past triumphs, there are 9 key steps - I call them mantras - that have ensured my success in all change management initiatives. The proof of the pudding lies in the fact that I have used these mantras successfully in managing and effecting change where such attempts had miserably failed. These are shared below for you to learn, adopt and adapt to your own unique environments & situations.
Mantra 1: Do not advocate the change from day one.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER walk into an organization and proclaim that you are there to make a change. Do that and your efforts would be shown the door. Always position yourself as a facilitator who is there to work with them to see if there is a more effective way to do things.
Mantra 2: Understand why the previous attempts had failed.
To succeed, learn from previous mistakes. More importantly, understand why the previous attempts had failed. Dissect the cause to a great extent to get to the root cause of the failure. Get inputs from all quarters and people across the hierarchy to get about their views of why the previous attempts had failed. Now dissect the cause and arrive at your version of why the failure happened. This is what you will avoid at all costs.
Mantra 3: Core team of key influencers.
Identify the groups that will be affected by the change that you are going to bring in. Now go into each affected group and find out who are the key influencers within them. This is the step that will define your success/failure. Create a core team with these people in it. Build a deep and trusting professional relationship with your core team. Get a view from everyone of how the team should approach this challenge.
Mantra 4: Least Common Denominator.
Never try to force a process/model onto your core team. Rather, use your core team to first identify a least common denominator (LCD) i.e. the minimum that is acceptable to all affected parties. Thereafter evolve an elaborate model out of your LCD and bring it to the final state that you have envisoned but not shared (remember, you are not supposed to impose but rather extract and evolve). Your role during this stage would be that of a listener and a facilitator.
Mantra 5: Sell change to Sr. Management.
Now that you have a blueprint for implementation, go ahead, show it to the Sr. Mgmt. Do remember to include the names of people who have contributed to this and whose inputs have been taken into consideration. This will greatly increase your chances of getting a buy-in from the Sr. Mgmt. More importantly, listen and watch to the facial expressions and body language of the Sr. Mgmt team as you are presenting your case. Listen and understand their questions and answer to the point - there is no room for beating around the bush when it comes to the Sr. Mgmt. Own up for anything that you would have missed out and give a plan of action to incorporate their recommendations. NEVER leave the room without getting an in-principle agreement to your recommendations. If their suggestions warrant a major change, then schedule a follow-on session there and then and set expectations that that session would be to go over the suggestions and sign off on the approach. Do this and you have struck gold. And now you move on to rolling out the change.
Mantra 6: Before rollout, identify noise-makers and address them.
These are the people who could topple your applecart. Its easy to identify such people - there are 2 types. Ones have a loud voice, sly smiles, have been in the system for a long time, have an opinion about everything and have the ability to influence their teams through brute force. The second type are passively destructive in the sense that they won't speak up at meetings, have a closed body-language and believe in working 1:1 with people and influencing them - to not subscribe to your recommendations. A two-pronged strategy to deal with such people includes 1)Selecting influencers as part of your core team and 2)Working individually with these people and pre-empting their concerns during such 1:1 sessions.
Mantra 7: Roll out the change phase-wise.
Slow and steady wins the race - this applies to change management more than anything else. Look for quick-wins. Traget the most pro-change entities within the organization to effect the change first. This will help boost the morale of your core team. After the first success, take the most difficult customer as your next target. You will need full support from your core team and might have to get in the big guns at times. Succeed here and the rest of your work becomes a cake-walk.
Mantra 8: Be lavish in your appreciation of other's contributions
Remember, this is not the first and the last change management initiative that you would be heading. So be generous in showing appreciation of other's contributions. They will return the favour the next time they team up with you.
Mantra 9: Enjoy what you are doing
This is the most important thing to do. Your enthusiasm about the change should be contagious. It should not only trickle down to the team but also bubble up to the Sr. Management because they would be the influencers who would give you the required fire-power to effect the change.
My experience tells me that mantras these can be applied to any change management initiative - particularly if previous attempts have failed - with slight adjustments to cater to the uniqueness of the environment / situation.
CAUTION: Once you succeed in a major change management initiative, you will be called in again and again. So be prepared. But believe me, each is a challenge in its own and you will enjoy it - in fact, it might get addictive.
Hope this helps you. God luck with leading change!!!
About the Author:
Shaju Nair is heading the Technology Competence and Consulting Division at a leading software products company in India. He has focused on the use of emerging technologies to differentiate products, processes and services and continuously seeks out opportunities for improvement.
Shaju has proactively acquired cross-industry, multi-geography experience with large multinational companies as well as silicon valley startups. His educational background includes institutions like Berkeley (International Business Management and International Finance), San Jose State University (Executive Business Programme - Executive MBA equivalent), University of California, Santa Cruz (Honors in Project and Program Management) and Gujarat University (Masters in Computer Applications). Additionally, he has written and published papers on various topics around technology, business management and brand building.
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