Culture and Change Management

In week 5, Rosabeth Moss Kanter provided great insight on leading positive change. She starts by asking, what’s your goal? Getting things done and improving them, maybe starting my own business. It is never too early to start something that you are passionate about it. There are six keys to leading a positive change in life. The first is showing up. If you don’t show up, nothing happens. Deciding that your presence makes a difference is the key factor in making positive change. The second key for change is using the power of voice, because no one knows what we are thinking unless we express it. I believe this goes back to Melissa Hunt’s presentation on shared and non-shared information. There are always those one or two employees that talk 80% of the time until they hit upon something that they actually have to say. The power of voice is more about shaping the agenda, framing the issues for others, helping them think about it in a different way. Third; looking up at bigger vision and values. It is always important to remember the principles. We must remember as a leader what we stand for and remind ourselves what our mission and purpose is. The fourth skill is teaming up. Everything worth doing happens better with partners.  The best ventures are those partnerships from the beginning of the projects. The fifth key change is never give up. Everything can look like a failure in the middle. There is nothing we start that doesn't hit an obstacle or roadblock causing us to take longer than we ever imagined. Lastly, Lift others up. Sharing success creates an environment for giving support.

While most companies believe change happens by making people think differently, John Kotter suggests that change happens when we make people feel differently. In a change process of any kind, we have to win over the hearts and minds of people. People change what they do because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings. This would help make a difference with how we deal with people and the result. The way our brain has been constructed, one side emotional and one side thinking, the emotional side has a longer memory than the thinking side. If we want to make someone change to a significant degree, working on the emotional side of their brain will help with change. The emotional to emotional connection helps to change your feelings and outcome.

In some cases, Hard Facts, Dangerous Truths and Total Nonsense, explains that organizations are surprisingly adaptive to change and organizations can change quickly and easily. Change occurs when:

• ·        People are dissatisfied with the status quo
• ·        The direction they need to go is clear and they stay focused on that direction
• ·        There is confidence conveyed to others that it will succeed
• ·        They accept that change is a messy process marked by episodes of confusion and anxiety that people must endure

John Kotter’s Resistance to Change, on the other hand speaks that there are people in the workforce that are resistance to change and as people, we have a tendency to try and pull the people who are resistance to change into to the process and try to change their mind. There has yet to be a major change in an organization where there hasn't been a new strategy. Organizations are warned that the change may not go their particular way and programs or initiatives may have unintended effects, both positive and negative. People in hierarchy positions will be upfront with the organizations about their concerns; however, there are others that will keep quiet during the process. Companies should get those people who are resistant out of the way because they can cause the process to slow down. 

Glenn Llopis, the author, has led several change management strategies throughout his career and says that it is very imperative that organization leaders have clarity. The organization’s leaders should also be in alignment with their responses to the following questions:

• ·        What does success look like operationally and financially – and how does this benefit our employees and customers?
• ·        What is our mission trying to solve for the industry we serve  and how can we improve our ability to accomplish more than in the past –  so that the organization  can remain competitive, become more profitable and/or achieve market leadership?
• ·        What resources and relationships are mandatory to accomplish our goals, achieve sustainable success and be significant in our industry?

Within organizations, it is easy for them to say that need to improve in doing things better; however without strategy, change is simply a substitution. Organizations can have an idea, but without the right strategy and execution of the idea, little process will be made. This article is not considered to be evidence-based. Glenn Llopis could have provided a sample of facts showing the percentage of organizations that has tested his strategies to help support his argument.

In an organization, the opportunity for a change application will take place at some point in time. The question is, will I be the one able to effect change by helping people feel emotionally different? Every week, the concepts of organization behavior gets deeper and deeper as we break down different things that help us to manage people and organizations. I am looking forward to next week’s materials on human resources.


Sources:

            Llopis, G., & Llopis, G. (2014, June 30). Change Management Requires Leadership Clarity and   
            Alignment. Retrieved August 6, 2014, from
            http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/06/30/change-management-requires-leadership-clarity-and-alignment/