Change notes
From PLN
Change notes
A variety of brief commentaries on change-related issues.
Beyond the library
What you need to know about change
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest October 2006
From Harvard Business Review:
- Most change tools don't work. Before choosing a change tool, managers need to know their staff’s attitudes toward change (where resistance is coming from).
- “Transformation doesn't come from the top. Top-down change tactics are useless without grassroots enthusiasm from the people who must do the changing.” Managers need to “identify, support, and reward people who are already doing things differently--and better”.
(HBR’s Onpoint Collection on change)
From Prosci Research:
- The #1 contributor to project success is active, strong and visible sponsorship throughout the project.
- The top obstacles to successful change are employee resistance at all levels: front-line, middle managers, and senior managers and inadequate senior management sponsorship.
- Employees want to hear messages about change from two people: the CEO and their immediate supervisor--the message they want to hear from each individual is very different.
- When asked what they would do differently next time, most teams would dedicate resources to change management.
- The top reason for employee resistance is a lack of awareness about the change.
(2005 Best Practices in Change Management)
Use roleplaying to drive frontline change
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest June 2008
How do you get buy-in from frontline employees who are wedded to old processes and resist change? One of the most effective techniques is to use roleplaying. According to Elaine Weinstein, consultant and former HR executive, here's how to win them over:
- Have staff perform skits that contrast the old with the new. Change initiatives can seem like empty abstractions to many frontline staff. Choose staff who are already on board to act out scenarios for their colleagues. The scenarios will demonstrate that new processes can make employees' work easier and more interesting. Roleplaying can also serve "as a quality check on the change initiative’s goals."
- Use roleplaying to prepare "trust figures" to be change agents. Change makes people fearful, and when people are fearful, they're "less likely to trust." Identify “'trust figures'--well-liked, well-respected middle managers and individual performers"--and recruit them as change agents.
This exercise can help "persuade resisters to suspend disbelief and consider that the change might be positive."
(Christina Bielaszka-Duvernay, "Use role-play to drive frontline change", Harvard Management Update, Jun. 2008.)
Why change management is critical to Web 2.0 success
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest May 2008
As organizations gear up to implement Web 2.0 technologies, they need to be aware of the importance of change management.
A certain amount of "organizational readiness" is necessary "to successfully deploy and absorb the changes associated with implementing social software." Many organizations haven't been aware of the amount of change management needed to precede Web 2.0 strategies. A 2007 McKinsey survey of 1800 executives revealed that while 20 % of them were implementing Web 2.0 technologies, 42% wished they had "strengthened their internal capabilities" first.
Similar studies have shown that the biggest hurdle to Web 2.0 isn't the technology. One such study revealed that "'lack of understanding/appreciation' was a barrier to adoption..."
What's needed to ensure successful implementation of Web 2.0 technologies?
- Change corporate culture. Make a conscious decision to dismantle organizational hierarchies. Democratize decision making (crowd sourcing). Examine your current environment to see how collaborative it is. Provide a structure that'll let staff be comfortable approaching new technologies; models and examples will help, but rules won't!
- Identify skill sets and staff needed. In the interest of successful networking, it's better to train existing staff who know the organization. One expert suggests you identify your best networkers by conducting "social networking analysis, drawing a map of all the conversations that take place within the organisation through email," etc.
- Change at the top. Some of the most significant change management may need to occur at the most senior levels. There may be "confusion and a lack of appreciation for Web 2.0" at the top, which could result in lack of support.
"The McKinsey survey indicates that grass-roots level social networking initiatives should be encouraged... After they demonstrate value, the projects can then be taken up by their 'natural' owners within the organisation who can invest and develop them."
(Neil Davey, "Why change management is critical to Web 2.0 success," MYCUSTOMER.com, May 16, 2008.)
The four principles of enduring success
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest July 2007
A team of researchers studied some of Europe’s oldest and best companies for four years to try to understand why some companies have performed at a very high level over very long periods of time and what can be learned from them. Although the organizations studied were European companies, the results of the study have implications for all organizations, including libraries.
The project yielded four main findings, which the researchers call the “four principles of enduring success”:
- Exploit before you explore. Throughout their history, great companies have emphasized exploiting their existing assets and capabilities over exploring for new ones.
- Diversify your business portfolio. Good companies tend to stick to their knitting, but the great companies know when to diversify. They are careful also to maintain a wide range of suppliers and a broad base of customers.
- Remember your mistakes. Great companies tell and retell stories of past failures to make sure they don’t repeat them.
- Be conservative about change. Great companies very seldom make radical changes--and take great care in their planning and implementation.
These four principles have helped the companies endure and even prevail during times of amazing upheaval and turbulence. “There is no reason why we should not be able to use the same chart to navigate the stormy seas of global competition and disruptive information technologies today.”
(Christian Stadler, “The four principles of enduring success,” Harvard Business Review, July/August 2007.)
Leading change when there's no crisis
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest June 2007
How do you create change when things are good and there’s no emergency? This article suggests four things to do:
- Communicate and educate constantly. Make the case for your initiative in irrefutable terms and communicate it repeatedly.
- Set boundary conditions. You can dictate the requirements that need to be met, but let employees decide how they’ll fulfill them.
- Acknowledge difficulties and admit your mistakes. Probe for difficulties that may be hampering the transition. Acknowledge your own errors and be willing to make midcourse corrections.
- Adjust your leadership style. Know when to dictate and when to use a more collaborative approach.
(”Leading change without a burning platform,” Harvard Management Update, June 2007. Available on EBSCOhost.)
Why change management fails
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest June 2007
A recent email alert from Sales & Marketing Management led me to a great post by change-management expert Mary Donato on S&MM’s SoundOff blog.
A 2004 Gartner study identified the ten most common reasons why change management projects often fail to achieve the desired results:
- Management has little involvement
- Rewards and incentives are tied to old objectives
- Limited or no input from the customer
- Staff culture resists change
- The organization thinks that technology is the solution
- Lack of specifically designed, mutually reinforcing processes
- Poor-quality customer data and information
- Little coordination of multiple departmental initiatives and projects
- Creation of team happens last and does not include business users
- No measures or monitoring of benefits
Ms. Donato suggests that for your next project that requires change, think through this list of factors. (Sales & Marketing Management, Management Advisor, May 22, 2007.)
CEOs battle to keep up with pace of change
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest May 2008
A recent IBM study of CEOs reports that the vast majority of business leaders see major changes ahead and “highlights how the ability to absorb and manage change is widening the gap between winners and losers in the global economy.” Eighty-three percent of CEOs anticipate change, an increase of 26 percent in the last two years, but they see their ability to manage change as far below their expectations.
“The enterprise of the future accepts change as a permanent state... CEOs who demonstrate the capacity to manage major change know they can beat the competition by reaching new classes of customers, and making bold moves to shift business design around principles of global integration,”
("IBM global CEO study: CEOs battle to keep up with the pace of change", CNNMoney.com, May 6, 2008 via Change Management News, May 9, 2008.)
Change and the bunker mentality
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest May 2007
Instead of becoming old hands at change, employees are becoming “change-weary.” Employers need to take note of that weariness and address it head-on because the success of any organizational change “ultimately lies with the employees.” They can “make or break an initiative.” In fact, employee resistance was ranked as the major obstacle to change initiatives in a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Leadership assessment research has found that executives at the vice president level and above are lacking in the skills necessary to oversee major shifts.
One factor that helps employees accept change is seeing the boss “demonstrate a genuine caring for staffers.” Executives need to acknowledge the discomfort that comes with change, even as they make the case for its necessity. But if they don’t share with their “staff the decision-making process, industry dynamics and business needs, they’ve missed a valuable opportunity. Providing such context...can be a factor in helping employees appreciate the bigger picture.”
Effective leaders can create an energy that can be contagious. Organizations need to get “those people out and about as much as possible, so they can carry the message to forums large and small.”
Organizations should also involve employees who are seen as opinion leaders by their peers. “Get these potential evangelists involved in visible projects.”
(Patricia Kitchen, “Change and the bunker mentality,” Newsday.com, May 13, 2007.)
Library notes
Managing organizational change in the library
- by Leslie Dillon from Leader's Digest May 2007
At a session on organizational change at the recent LOEX conference, facilitators Wendy Holliday (University of Southern Utah) and Kristen Bullard (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) used a conflicting values assessment tool to evaluate their organizational cultures. This Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (free here!) measures organizations according to four quadrants or characteristics:
- Clan Culture: very friendly place like an extended family where teamwork, participation and consensus are the dominant modes of decision-making.
- Adhocracy Culture: places an emphasis on entrepreneurship and creativity. People are encouraged to stick their necks out and take risks. The organization encourages individual initiative and freedom.
- Market Culture: the focus is on results and getting the job done. Leaders are drivers, tough and demanding. The organizational style is hard-driving competitiveness.
- Hierarchy Culture: formal and structured, this culture emphasizes procedures and managers are good organizers who focus on efficiency.
Members of each organization responded to the questions twice: first assessing the organization's culture and second saying what they would like the culture to be. Both organizations leaned heavily toward the clan or adhocracy culture.
The real value of this tool isn't the picture of the current culture or the preferred culture; instead, it's the conversation that takes place about the organization's culture. "So the value is not in where the lines get drawn, but in the conversation about why the lines are drawn." (Texas Forums, May 6, 2007.)
Related articles
- We got trouble... - an overview for articles on internal difficulties.
- Organizational change: How transformational leadership makes it work - Herding cats and changing organizations.
- Change management - the LLN Peer Panel comments on change management, citing their personal experience.
- Leading technology-driven change: Theory and practice - notes on a LAMA/LOMS program at ALA Annual 2007.
