Stategic Change Management and Leadership

8/8/2019 Stategic Change Management and Leadership

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STRATEGIC CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Kamal Kapoor

Strategic Change Management is a deliberate system of changing people,

processes and tools to achieve organizational goals which align well with the

aspirations of the team members.

Basics of Change Management

The Conceptual Construct Change management is based on accepting the

vitality of the first 15% of effort in identify what needs to be changed in people,

processes and tools in any organization. If this aspect does not have a wideacceptability and the ownership of ideas is not transferred to people, the processes

will never get refined whatever tools we use.

This underscores the dynamic, participative and vibrant energisation of people to

challenge the status quo as a tool to excite the processes. Once suitable energy is

transmitted to the environment, out of the box solutions appear from nowhere to

augment the staid thinking in an organization. The key word is excitement of the

widest cross section possible to accept change as a continuous and inevitable

process.

If enough energy and time is not spent with a wide base of participants in this 15%profile, the 85% of strategy executives would be a self defeating process in trying to

follow a muddled thinking along confused road ma ps by a group of motley and

uncommitted lot.

People, especially committed people, throw up ideas that CEO, may not be able to

originate. This wider participation by the base throws up multipurpose options to

energies the organization as per perceptions of the people who run the

organization.

The Four Es

Enabling, exciting, educating and empowering the organization are thus the basic

tools that get the people aligned to the objectives of the organization by collaborative

change management processes. You dont have to conjure pictures of grand ideas

to change - change happens one baby step at a time by the entire organization

remaining committed to helping the baby take those stops.


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people, products and the markets. This, without courting populist gimmicks, can

transmit the intent, integrity and honesty of purpose of the leader to the environment.

It will make him approachable and spur dialogue for change a change for the better.

The 15% theory energizes the people in an organization and challenges them to

outperform themselves, not for self promotion (which the leaders must do

automatically) but for the larger organizational good.

The nature of the change is secondary to the perceptions that employees haveregarding the ability, competence, and credibility of the leaders

Change follows a cycle of preparing for the change, getting your hands dirty in the

change process and management of the spinoffs after change. The role of the leaderremains supreme and cannot be debated. What can be is the quality of leadership,

its vision, perseverance and ability to carry the teams through the change with a

song on their lips. Leaders energy is contagious both ways.

The Leadership

Organisations look up to the leadership for a large number of things. The foremost isthe leaders supportive role in providing the overarching vision, coherence and

capacity to operate seamlessly through the chaos of the work and market place. Thistranslates into leaderships extreme tolerance for ambiguity and capacity to absorb

Ristakes (Risk plus Mistakes) in the environment around them both in and out of theorganization. That develops faith which simplifies the leader led equation whereteams continue to surprise the leaders by their initiative and proactive adaptation to

change.

Poor leadership runs counter to this and produces archaic and staid organizations

incapable of following the routine, leave aside manage change. Trust and faith in

leadership is therefore essential in a team but what is more important is a trustworthy

and faithful leaders who have the temerity to carry their teams through thick and thin

of change

Leadership before, during and after change implementation is THE key to getting

through the change. Unfortunately, if you haven't established a track record ofeffective leadership, by the time you have to deal with difficult changes, it may be too

late.

The Organisation

Much like healthy people, who are better able to cope with infection or disease than

unhealthy people, organization that are healthy in the first place are better able to

deal with change. This warrants deliberation as all bad organizations also wish tochange for the better and create an environment conducive to change. But as

unhealthy people need doctors it is often wiser for leadership of these organizations

to get a professional third person management of the change cycle.


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As a leader you need to establish credibility and a track record of effective decisionmaking, so that there is trust in your ability to figure out what is necessary to bring

the organization through. If the organization does not have such leaders there is a

need for an overhaul at the top

The Slog

Leaders play a critical role during change implementation, the period from theannouncement of change through the installation of the change. During this middle

period the organization is the most unstable, characterized by con fusion, fear, loss of

direction, reduced productivity, and lack of clarity about direction and mandate. It can

be a period of emotionalism, with employees grieving for what is lost, and initiallyunable to look to the future.

As per experts, during this period, effective leaders need to focus on two things.

First, the feelings and confusion of employees must be acknowledged and validated.

Second, the leader must work with employees to begin creating a new vision of the

altered workplace, and helping employees to understand the direction of the future.Focusing only on feelings, may result in wallowing. The leadership has to play therole of an orchestra conductor at such times. Being able to identify each discordant

or out of sync activity and apply hands on corrections. He has to lead from the front

balancing the vision and employee concerns constantly. In any case if the leaderfollows the 15% rule the team would be on board and there would be willing

participation by the team to see the change through smoothly. More often than notgood change initiatives lose out to ego battles in the board rooms. Good leaders

introduce the change after taking everyone on board.

After Effects

Once people begin to see positive results of the change it is far easier to see t hesechanges materialize. The leadership and the team having committed to the change

must approach it with a vigor and intensity matching that of the leader. If these fears

and initial change side effects are not managed cohesively, the team is more likely tospin back into cynicism and status quo complicating the task of the leaders.

Defining Roles

Taking a cue from Three Idiots, the leadership has to develop a capability to

coherently define the role of each member of the team. Having identified the rightman with the right attitude for the right job, the leader must provide him adequate

latitude in his sphere of influence to excel. Most important the leaders MUST NOTplay favorites during the process of change, more than at any other time, lest itsabotages the change process.


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Conclusion

No leadership formula can work effect ively if the leadership dimensions do not

account for the employees interests on the foremost. It is best articulated in the

Chetwood motto placed at IMA and followed by the Armed Forces.

The Safety, Honour and Welfare of your country comes first - Always and

every time.

The Honour, Welfare and Comfort of the men you command comes next.

Your own ease, comfort and safety comes last, always and every time.

Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode

Often all change management cycles fail when leaders invert this pyramid.

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Stategic Change Management and Leadership