In the first episode of our new podcast, ‘Impactful Conversations’, we explore the topic of this blog in more detail and discuss the nuances that leaders are navigating. You can listen to ‘How to minimise the risks of organisational transformation’ here or wherever you get your podcasts.
We know that organisational transformation is complex. The key to its success is the importance of leadership, culture and purpose.
To enhance the likelihood of successful outcomes when navigating change, the role of leaders is to foster adaptability, and to understand the significance of the human element in change management.
Navigating Change: Understanding Transformation Risks
Everyone’s responsible for transformation landing successfully. Initiatives might be sponsored by HR but they touch everyone and, if everyone’s not on board, they are sadly all too likely to fail.
Senior leaders can often be working with change for months before it cascades further down the organisation – when we carried out research with 72 CTOs, COOs and CPOs last year, one leader described it like the first carriage of a train arriving at a platform before the rest of the train.
It’s easy to make assumptions that everyone’s on the same page, and fall into the trap of thinking that everyone understands the change the organisation is trying to make as much as the top executives do.
Culture plays a huge part too, especially when companies are merging, and people can have very different mindsets depending on how long they’ve been with an organisation.
And the process of change can take a lot longer than estimated, be energy draining and costly.
So, getting it right is incredibly important.
Sidebar: I’d recommend John Kotter’s 8-step model framework as a useful guide for leading change.
The Role of Leadership in Change Management
All roads lead to leadership. Whether we’re talking about successful change or a change that went off the rails, the impact will have been driven by leadership. And, by leadership, we don’t just mean the Executive Board, we mean every leader at every level.
So, leadership capability is absolutely fundamental. Leaders need to be able to be very clear on the outcomes they’re required to deliver, and to know how to utilise their teams to drive that effectively.
Focusing on systems and processes can cause you to forget that it’s the people who are ultimately going to deliver change. ‘Through whom’ we’re going to achieve change is more important than ‘how’ we’re going to do it.
The Importance of Purpose in Transformation
Purpose is all about the ‘why’. Leaders need to be clear about why they’re taking this journey of change, why the outcome is important and what they’re looking to deliver.
It’s easy for the message to get lost in middle management, where the ownership of the purposeful vision can get diluted.
And teams will take cues from their leader, so leaders need to demonstrate their belief in the change through their actions.
Leaders at this middle level need to personally do the work to internalise the why and make it their own. By doing this, your authenticity and conviction that the change is a good thing will shine through and make a positive difference to their teams’ buy in.
It’s helpful for leaders to look inside themselves and challenge their own attitudes to change and understand their own patterns of behaviour. This way, you can connect with the purpose and make it your own, which your teams will pick up on and be inspired by.
Building a Culture of Adaptability
How effective is your culture? If you’ve got a static culture where people aren’t flexible, adaptable and aren’t particularly ‘self-starter’ types, landing transformational change can be difficult.
Look at how you’re preparing your culture ahead of time, so that when you’re meeting large scale changes you can adapt effectively, rather than have to try and force that change through people who aren’t in the right space.
Many organisations now have change embedded into their culture; they’re equipped to embrace change regularly which has the benefit that they hit the ground running when the next change comes.
This acceptance and openness around change is really helpful, but we need to also always be mindful that culture comes down to many different factors. Every individual is a net contributor to a culture and every individual has a different set of values or mindsets, and will each think differently about their selves and their position within their environment.
Sensing and Responding to Turning Points
Turning points are a crucial part of the transformation process. EY has done some valuable work on this, that you can read up on here. It’s about urging leaders to sense when those turning points are coming up, which takes a lot of skill.
We all know that change can be tough and people can be resistant to it. Being able to identify, ahead of time, when it’s likely to be at its net lowest, so that you can focus on that and change the trajectory, can be really impactful.
Leaders can build in habits or rituals into their working week to make sure they’re sensitive to, and engaging with, the people most affected by the change – checking in, understanding where they’re at, laying the groundwork and softening the thinking to minimise blockers.
Identifying the potentially low points of the change process doesn’t just have to be playing defence either; successful leaders can turn those moments from slowing down into acceleration.
And building in reflection time can be really impactful throughout the change process.
In summary
- Transformation is a shared responsibility among all leaders.
- Understanding the human element is crucial in change management.
- Cultural adaptability can significantly impact the success of transformation.
- Leaders should build reflective practices to gauge team sentiment.
- Purposeful vision is essential for guiding teams through change.
- Sensing turning points can help leaders navigate challenges effectively.
- Leadership capability is critical in managing transformation risks.
Where are your risks?
We have designed a free Organisational Change Scorecard to help you identify where your risks are, and to provide instant, actionable steps on how you can reduce these risks.
Click here to take this 5 minute questionnaire and receive customised results instantly.
A reminder; in the first episode of our new podcast, ‘Impactful Conversations’, we explore this topic in more detail and discuss the nuances that leaders are navigating. You can listen to ‘How to minimise the risks of organisational transformation’ here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Exigence provides a full suite of evidence-based business coaching solutions, driven by a desire to help individuals and teams to achieve their performance potential. Find out more here or contact us to talk through how we can support you.
