T02) Strategic Change Management - NHRMA Conference

Change Management

Frank Jeffries

Our Roadmap

What’s the Big Deal Anyway?

Change and our reactions

Mental Models and Organizational Identity

Change acceptance and process

Kotter’s Eight Steps to Successful Change

Let’s Roll the DICE

Change is Big Business

Google “Change Management” and you get: 836,000,000

hits

There are:

Change management consultants

Change management journals

Change management departments of organizations

Change management models Hundreds of ‘em

There is even an Association of Change Management

Professionals

Change is Life

Change is driven by:

Technology

Competition

Scarce resources

The Economy

New Generations

Fill in the blank _______________

The Big Deal is that to Survive in Business

we need to Deal With Change Effectively

It is not a matter if if, but when change will come

It is unpredictable in many cases

We need to adapt and survive

Typical employee reaction to change

Why is Change so Challenging?

Routines give us security

Change involves risk

Change requires (additional) work

Change leads us into the unknown

Change is scary

The Role of Mental Models

We view change through our existing mental models

Change requires a different mindset

This challenges our assumptions about the organization

Mental Models and Organizational Identity

Part of the culture

“How we do things around here”

What members think is vital to the essential character of

the organization

Can limit what an organization can do

Barriers to Fundamental Change

Barrier One: Passive Resistance

Passive resistance due to failure to comprehend the

change

Fundamental change is foreign to the members

If it is not linked to some current aspects of identity, risk

of failure is greater

Barrier Two: Active Resistance

Change is perceived to be in basic conflict with valued

elements of the current organizational identity

Triggers strong negative emotional responses like anger

and fear

Failures result because change is not framed well, WIIFM

is not understood

Organizational Identity as a Tool for Change

The current identity is the base for resistance

Creating an ideal identity can help overcome this

resistance

Who do we want to be?

Creating a shared vision

The Identity Gap

To be meaningful the gap between who we are and who

we want to be needs to be significant

Too small of a gap results in the perception there is no

need for change, creating inertia

Too large a gap will result in perceptions that the change

is unattainable, creating stress

A significant gap will create positive organizational stress

to close the gap

The Change Acceptance Zone

The change must be large enough to cause members to

have a strong desire to close the gap

It has to be enough to motivate fundamental change

without looking impossible

This will be an on-going process to be effective

Incremental change is not seen as necessary

Revolutionary change is too scary (and expensive)

Effective Change Process

“Selling” change can come back to haunt you

Rather, have a dialogue and get those affected to

understand the change, accept it, and support it

You are revising the Psychological Contract

Face-to-face is best

People many times don’t like the change, but if they

understand it they will support it

Be Clear About Whose Responsibility

Change is

The manager is responsible for change

Facilitation

Managing

The employee is responsible for doing their best

Change Involves People, it is not Imposed on

Them

Participation, involvement, communication

Feedback from employees is critical

Empathy and empowerment from management

Reinforce and reward behaviors that advance the cause

Let’s Roll the DICE

Up to now we have focused on the touchy-feely side

There is a set of hard factors that are important too (Sirkin, Keenan, and Jackson (2005) The Hard Side of Change Management. HBR October, pp.109-118)

Paying attention to the “soft side” of change is necessary, but not sufficient for success

There is a correlation between the success (or failure) of change efforts and four factors:

Duration

Integrity

Commitment

Effort

Duration

There is no correlation between the length of time an

initiative takes and its success or failure

What matters if how it is reviewed

Long projects reviewed frequently more often succeed

Transformation projects that are reviewed every two months

are more likely to succeed

If reviews happen less that every 8 weeks they lose momentum

Milestones are important and should be marked and

celebrated when accomplished

Integrity

The reliability of the team managers and leaders in

championing, managing, and leading the change

Having the right people on the teams from executive

management to staff

Employees go the extra mile to ensure that their normal

work gets done in addition to the change program

Clear roles, expectations, and commitment is required as

well as a reward system for performance

Members of the team are carefully selected

Commitment

Commitment from two groups is a must:

Visible backing from the most influential executives

Enthusiasm of the people who need to deal with the new

systems, processes, or ways of working

If you are the champion of a change initiative, You need to be

talking up the change initiative at least three times more than

you think you need to

There needs to be a single company line regarding the initiative

(“layoffs will not occur” and “layoffs are not expected to

occur”)

Do not underestimate your ability to build staff support

Effort

Those doing the work of change have jobs to do in

addition to the change effort

No one should experience more than a 10% increase in

workload

Exceeding that limit invites trouble

Low morale

Conflict

Look for lower priority work that can be delayed or find

help with handling routine priorities

Does DICE help?

Why, yes it does

It was predictive of the success of change efforts in a

study of 225 firms

It has been used effectively in many others

So, to Wrap it All up….

We cannot avoid change

No one particularly likes it

The natural response is to resist it

We Don’t Want to be Here

Successful Change in a Nutshell

To be successful we need to pay attention to

the DICE

Explain WIIFM

Involve those impacted

Lead from the front – show commitment

Make it worth their while, reward them for

taking the risk and performing