Leading Change
How Did You Do With Last Year’s Plans, Commitments, and Resolutions?
It is that time of year again. As we approach the end of December, we reflect on our year and look to future changes, both personal and business, that we want to undertake in the new year. We all know the story; we are going to lose weight, get in shape, start that new project, and read more. We enter the new year optimistic that this time, we will be successful. Then, by the end of January, or maybe mid-February, matters more urgent, or the boss’ changed agenda have distracted us from the changes we desired when we were optimistic in December.
This is nothing to be ashamed of—it’s natural and human. We are genetically programmed to focus on the threats and needs that are immediately in front of us, this is how we survived predators, enemies—and today, competition and regulation. Unfortunately, the outcome of this predictable pattern is that by reacting to immediate threats, we sacrifice the changes that would at least give us a better set of challenges. One way to avoid this trap is to understand what is required to navigate change—any change.
Change happens in a very specific way. More to the point, changes fail to happen in a very specific way. So this month I am sharing a way of thinking about and planning for change that will help you avoid the main traps and challenges to making your vision a reality. The graphic here will help guide you through the cycle:
To move from any current reality to any new reality, your project must get through 4 phases. Most change projects die early simply because they almost always all but skip the first phase of the cycle.
Vision First—Then Planning
The most common and perhaps most lethal (to change projects anyway) misstep is to move through the vision process too quickly. We are anxious to get started, so we want to join the gym or put a project plan together. Stay in the visioning process to build a clear, inspirational, and compelling picture of what will be different when the change is successfully navigated. Be very clear in the details of what you want to be happening differently. Remember, you’re creating a Vision here, not planning a project. For a boost in this process, write paragraphs or lists about the new reality as if it was already done. Here are some examples from previous client projects:
The field sales organization has immediate access to current inventory and can configure a project and process an order with a customer in real-time during the sales call.
I will attend my son’s wedding in a newly tailored tuxedo with a waist measuring 32”.
Orders will be processed each Friday across all departments to replenish inventory based on adjustable sell-through time frames and seasonal demand within 3 days of receipt of the order.
I will stand on the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, having walked the entire trail in under 6 hours, and return safely.
Be clear about the outcome you are trying to create. It should be compelling, and measurable. One of the most famous of these outcome statements was JFK’s charter to NASA (from a speech to Congress). Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that the US: "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." The outcome he was setting for NASA was clear: send a human to the moon and return them safely before the end of the decade. All planning that NASA had to do worked backward from that statement. You can bet that it was not something JFK made up that afternoon. Much work went into defining the outcome to make the announcement compelling, measurable, clear, and time-bound.
Do not Rush Out of the Vision Stage.
We have an idea and very naturally want to get the ball rolling immediately: join a gym, call a marketing team meeting, plan a trip—our bias is to get into action. It feels good, and it is publicly observable. The bad news is that we may not be clear yet about what will be needed to sustain the effort. Spend that immediate energy on strengthening your vision of what life will be like and the benefits of being 20 pounds lighter or having the accounting department outsourced. Get clear about the internal and external forces that will align to stop you from completing your project and allow the vision of the completed work to strengthen your resolve. Better yet, invite those external naysayers to join you in the refining of your vision. Their critiques are gold in terms of understanding what will kill your project.
With the power of a clear vision, you can move to the planning stage to give your new idea form and function—the practical matters that are often the difference between success and failure in a change initiative. Budget, staffing, support systems, and project plans are the bricks and mortar here. While this is familiar territory, you will navigate the inevitable negotiations about resources and timelines in a more informed manner. Your clear work in the visioning stage above will help you be better prepared for what awaits as you move into implementation.
Whether implementation means getting up early to go to the gym, changing key processes for large parts of an organization, or facing down an organizational revolt, when we get into action, all the forces of the status quo will gang up to smother the project when you begin to actually change how people will do their work. It is rare that any system embraces a change that it did not initiate. This is easy to see in any corporate change project—where over 80% still fail to deliver the results promised in the plan. It happens because people do not love a change they did not initiate or sincerely want to happen.
That same pattern is true for the part of you that prefers to sleep in and can usually convince you to skip the gym. If we get to this project stage unprepared and not sufficiently armed for the conflict, the resistance to change that is part of almost any organization will kill a change project every time. If we are more resilient than this resistance, we will be through the significant gauntlet, and our change will likely become the new reality.
This is only an overview—a strategy map more than a user’s guide to change. Most change projects fail—and unfortunately, they often do so after the money is spent on software, gym memberships, and other supporting tools. Stay in the Vision step until you are clear about WHY the outcome is essential and what will be required to get over the goal line. Get stakeholders aligned with your vision and committed to the outcome. If you cannot get those in place, do yourself or your organization a favour and take the project off your plan.
A new habit or new process that survives to become the new reality generally begins the change process anew as we are inspired with new ideas about how to improve, sustain, smooth, or recast it to provide more benefit, starting the cycle all over again. Begin ideating ways to improve on your change all the way through implementation— beginning again with the next level of vision work.