Leadership Systems

By Donna Butchko

While watching the controversy around health care reform, I noticed a classic change management issue that many leaders face.  Without getting into any of the details, the main dichotomy is between the side that favors change and the side that favors maintaining the status quo.  This is like virtually every change management issue that any business leader faces.  What can you do when faced with this challenge in your business?  You can make the case for change.

Frequently, not changing feels safer than change.  Change is a risk; staying the course feels less risky.  Many of our performance management systems are inadvertently designed to support this belief.  The punishment for taking a risk that does not work out is frequently greater than that punishment for doing what we’ve always done.  Can you think of situations in your work place where people were punished (smaller raises or bonuses than average) for doing their job the same way they did it last year?  It’s rarely the case.

So what can you do when you want to see your company/department embrace change?  Lay the groundwork.  Before you start convincing people of the merits of your change, you need to convince them that a change is needed.  This is sometimes called the “burning platform” speech.  Why isn’t the status quo good enough anymore?  What has changed that we must react to?  This is a critical part of getting a change adopted.  If you don’t do this successfully, people may go through the motions of change, but as soon as the pressure is off (as soon as you stop paying close attention to what they are doing), they will start to go back to the old way where ever possible.

Why do leaders frequently miss this step?  Because by the time they are ready to roll out the change, they have learned so much about the situation that they believe that the need for change is intuitively obvious.  They expect everyone else to see it intuitively, forgetting that it is their research that made it so obvious to them.  It’s crystal clear to them that something different must be done, and they begin to assume that everyone else must see it the same way that they do.  Unfortunately that is rarely the case with the people that will be impacted by the change.  They are not looking at it the same way that you are.  They haven’t done the research that you have, and this change may catch them by surprise – or even if it doesn’t surprise them, it doesn’t seem necessary to them. 

On the other hand, if you successfully convince them that a change is needed, they will be committed to making a change.  You will still have to convince them that your change is the best change or empower them to propose different change ideas.  In any case, you have the majority of people on board with leaving the safety of the status quo behind.  Now you can start to move forward and craft a new future with greater opportunities for your business to succeed.