DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP FOR DIFFERENT PHASES OF CHANGE

In this section we examine the different phases of the change process, to identify the need for a leader to perform different skills or activities during each phase. We do this by using three different but complimentary models of the change process.

Cameron and Green: inner and outer leadership

In our own experience of working with leaders on change processes, it is important to establish phases of change so that plans can be made and achievements recognized. This phasing also enables a leader to see the need for flexibility in leadership style, as the change moves from one phase into another phase. We have identified both the outer leadership and inner leadership requirements of a leader of change for each phase. See Table 4.6.

Kotter: the importance of getting the early steps right

Kotter’s eight steps to transforming your organization (see Chapter 3) form a comprehensive guide to tackling the process of change. Kotter says that good leaders must get all eight steps right. However, he predicts that the process will be a great deal easier if groundwork is done well.

In Leading Change (1996), Kotter describes some of the actions a leader needs to take during all eight steps. In Table 4.7 we give some of Kotter’s suggestions for the first four steps, as they seem to necessitate the most direct action from the leader.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter: learning how to persevere

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (2002) highlights the need for keeping going in the change process, even when it gets tough. She says that too often executives announce a plan, launch a task force and then simply hope that people find the answers. Kanter’s emphasis is different from Kotter’s. She says the difficulties will come after the change is begun.

Kanter says that leaders need to employ the following strategies to ensure that a change process is sustained beyond the first flourish:

1. Tune into the environment. Create a network of listening posts to listen and learn from customers.

2. Challenge the prevailing organizational wisdom. Promote kaleidoscopic thinking. Send people far afield, rotate jobs and create interdisciplinary project teams to get people to question their assumptions.

3. Communicate a compelling aspiration. This is not just about communicating a picture of what could be, it is an appeal to better ourselves and become something more. The aspiration needs to be compelling as there are so many sources of resistance to overcome .

4. Build coalitions. Kanter says that the coalition-building step, though obvious, is one of the most neglected steps in the change process. She says that change leaders need the involvement of people who have the resources, the knowledge and the political clout to make things happen.

5. Transfer ownership to a working team. Once a coalition is formed , others should be brought on board to focus on implementation. Leaders need to stay involved to guarantee time and resources for implementers. The implementation team can then build its own identity and concentrate on the task.

6. Learn to persevere. Kanter says that everything can look like a failure in the middle. If you stick with the process through the difficult times (see box), good things may emerge. The beginning is exciting and the end satisfying . It is the hard work in the middle that necessitates the leader’s perseverance .

7. Make everyone a hero. Leaders need to remember to reward and recognize achievements. This skill is often underused in organizations, and it is often free! This part of the cycle is important to motivate people to give them the energy to tackle the next change process.

• Forecasts fall short. Change leaders must be prepared to accept serious departures from plans, especially when they are doing something new and different.

• Roads curve. Expect the unexpected. Do not panic when the path of change takes a twist or a turn .

• Momentum slows. When the going gets tough it is important to review what has been achieved and what remains – and to revisit the mission.

• Critics emerge. Critics will emerge in the middle when they begin to realize the impact of proposed changes. Change leaders should respond to this, remove obstacles and move forward.

Source: Kanter (2002)

Bridges: leading people through transition

William Bridges (1991) has very clear ideas about what leaders need to do to make change work. Bridges says that what often stops people from making new beginnings in a change process is that they have not yet let go of the past. He sees the leader as the person who helps to manage that transition. We see this as a particularly useful frame of thinking when an inevitable change such as a merger, acquisition, reorganization or site closure is underway.

In Chapter 3 we referred to his three phases of transition:

• ending;

• neutral zone;

• new beginning.

Leadership for the ending

Here is Bridges’ advice for how to manage the ending phase (or how to get them to let go):

• Study the change carefully and identify who is likely to lose what.

• Acknowledge these losses openly – it is not stirring up trouble. Sweeping losses under the carpet stirs up trouble.

• Allow people to grieve and publicly express your own sense of loss.

• Compensate people for their losses. This does not mean handouts! Compensate losses of status with a new type of status. Compensate loss of core competence with training in new areas.

• Give people accurate information again and again.

• Define what is over and what is not.

• Find ways to ‘mark the ending’ (see box).

• Honour rather than denigrate the past.

When a large public owned utility company in the UK split up into a myriad of small privatized units, there was a great sense of loss. Old teams and old friendships were breaking up. It was the end of an era. The organization held a wake, at which everyone moaned and complained and generally got things off their chest. There was much talk late into the night. The transition moved more smoothly after that event as people began to accept the reality and inevitability of the ending.

Leadership for the neutral zone

The neutral zone is an uncomfortable place to be. This is the time when for instance, the reorganization has been announced, but the new organization is not in place, or understood , or working. Anxiety levels go up and motivation goes down, and discord amongst the team can rise. This phase needs to be managed well, or it can lead to chaos. A selection of Bridges’ tips for this phase are listed below (he itemizes 21 in his book):

• Explain the neutral zone as an uncomfortable time which with careful attention can be turned to everyone’s advantage.

• Choose a new and more affirmative metaphor with which to describe it.

• Reinforce the metaphor with training programmes, policy changes and financial rewards for people to keep doing their jobs during the neutral zone.

• Create temporary policies, procedures, roles and reporting relationships to get you through the neutral zone.

• Set short-range goals and checkpoints.

• Set up a transition monitoring team to keep realistic feedback flowing upward during the time in the neutral zone.

• Encourage experimentation and risk taking. Be careful not to punish all failures.

• Encourage people to brainstorm many answers to the old problems – the ones that people say you just have to live with. Do this for your own problems too.

Leadership for the new beginning

Here are some of Bridges’ ideas for this phase:

• Distinguish in your own mind the difference between the start, which can happen on a planned schedule, and the beginning, which will not.

• Communicate the purpose of the change.

• Create an effective picture of the change and communicate it effectively.

• Create a plan for bringing people through the three phases of transition, and distinguish it from the change management plan.

• Help people to discover the part they will play in the new system.

• Build some occasions for quick success.

• Celebrate the new beginning and the conclusion of the time of transition.

STOP AND THINK!