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Have You Felt The Pain Of A Change Management Program From Hell?
Change Management Sucks
At least, that’s what most employees seem to think. So do a lot of their leaders.
Get your FREE Transcript Now!
Hardly surprising, when 70% of change management efforts fail. And yet, change is happening in every industry so quickly that organizations have to get good at dealing with change if they are to survive. Vik Maraj and Kevin Gangel argued in a blog series a while back that change management is dead. If it is, then how the heck are businesses supposed to cope with all the changes being thrust upon them? In today’s podcast episode Vik and I discuss (and sometimes debate) what he sees as the failings of the traditional process, and a different approach that his company uses.
Brainwashing Doesn’t Work With Employees
Traditional change management is mainly about propaganda argues Vik; about “staying on message” and repeating it so often that people will start to believe what they keep hearing. It is about the “things” we need to change, and training people on how to do things differently. But the fact is, employees aren’t gullible. If anything, all the past failed change management efforts make them especially cynical. You can train them all you want, but if you haven’t given them a reason to care about the change you are after, it won’t work. (Avoiding losing their jobs, surprisingly to some, is not enough of a reason.) So you are starting your process by digging yourself out of a hole.
4 Things To Do Differently To Really Change Your Organization
1. Change Your Thinking
It starts with the senior executive team examining what needs to change in their view of the world. We are all stuck viewing situations from our own frame of reference (or paradigm, or context, depending on whose terminology you want to use). Sometimes it takes an outsider to help you see things through a new lens. Take, for example, Kodak, which I discussed with Kodak’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Jeffrey Hayzlett, a while back. They needed to stop seeing themselves as a company in the business of making and selling film, and instead realize that their true business was about helping people preserve memories. If they had realized that a bit sooner Kodak might still be around today. Unfortunately, in a fast-changing competitive landscape there’s a tendency to hunker down and try to do more of what you’ve been doing, but faster and cheaper. What’s usually needed, though, is a radical shift in what you are doing and how you are doing it.
2. Take Risks
That means taking big, scary risks. One of the best discussions I’ve seen of this comes from Ben Horowitz’s book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. (It’s one of the best business books I’ve read, and I would urge anyone who wants to learn more about business and leadership to read it.) Several times he had to make major changes in direction when an awful lot of money and reputation were at stake, to keep his companies alive.
3. Be Honest
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Change Management Sucks
At least, that’s what most employees seem to think. So do a lot of their leaders.
Get your FREE Transcript Now!
Hardly surprising, when 70% of change management efforts fail. And yet, change is happening in every industry so quickly that organizations have to get good at dealing with change if they are to survive. Vik Maraj and Kevin Gangel argued in a blog series a while back that change management is dead. If it is, then how the heck are businesses supposed to cope with all the changes being thrust upon them? In today’s podcast episode Vik and I discuss (and sometimes debate) what he sees as the failings of the traditional process, and a different approach that his company uses.
Brainwashing Doesn’t Work With Employees
Traditional change management is mainly about propaganda argues Vik; about “staying on message” and repeating it so often that people will start to believe what they keep hearing. It is about the “things” we need to change, and training people on how to do things differently. But the fact is, employees aren’t gullible. If anything, all the past failed change management efforts make them especially cynical. You can train them all you want, but if you haven’t given them a reason to care about the change you are after, it won’t work. (Avoiding losing their jobs, surprisingly to some, is not enough of a reason.) So you are starting your process by digging yourself out of a hole.
4 Things To Do Differently To Really Change Your Organization
1. Change Your Thinking
It starts with the senior executive team examining what needs to change in their view of the world. We are all stuck viewing situations from our own frame of reference (or paradigm, or context, depending on whose terminology you want to use). Sometimes it takes an outsider to help you see things through a new lens. Take, for example, Kodak, which I discussed with Kodak’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Jeffrey Hayzlett, a while back. They needed to stop seeing themselves as a company in the business of making and selling film, and instead realize that their true business was about helping people preserve memories. If they had realized that a bit sooner Kodak might still be around today. Unfortunately, in a fast-changing competitive landscape there’s a tendency to hunker down and try to do more of what you’ve been doing, but faster and cheaper. What’s usually needed, though, is a radical shift in what you are doing and how you are doing it.
2. Take Risks
That means taking big, scary risks. One of the best discussions I’ve seen of this comes from Ben Horowitz’s book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. (It’s one of the best business books I’ve read, and I would urge anyone who wants to learn more about business and leadership to read it.) Several times he had to make major changes in direction when an awful lot of money and reputation were at stake, to keep his companies alive.
3. Be Honest