Change Leadership

Developing a Change-Adept Organization

Martin Orridge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138460928
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351952729
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

It is all too easy to discuss organizational change in abstraction, particularly when you are dealing with large corporations with wide product ranges across global markets. But somewhere within these structures there are people, and it is often the human aspects of change that are the most difficult to manage. Martin Orridge's guide explores these aspects and explains how we, as leaders, can help everyone cope with change and in turn ensure our organization's long-term survival. The main parts of Change Leadership are based on the author's research and include models, advice and exercises for understanding and enabling personal and organizational change. To further assist you, Chapter 3 contains 75 actions and activities to sustain transformation in your organization. Successful organizational change also requires discipline and the application of good management techniques. Good planning, checking on progress and capturing the learning are key to introducing successful change and developing an organization's capabilities, therefore Chapter 4 will assist the change leader to appreciate the main aspects of managing successful change projects. This concise guide is an engaging but rigorous read for change leaders. Whether this is your primary role or whether you need to reflect on and manage the human factors of a business project for which you are responsible, Change Leadership will help you better understand the nature of change and, in doing so, develop a Change-Adept organization.

1
A Little Theory Concerning Personal and Organizational Change

This chapter of the book examines how change affects both the individual and the whole organization. We commence with an examination of how we are still conditioned by our forefathers’ survival behaviours. And, having looked at the individual level we will move on to study how groups of individuals, who comprise an organization, have an effect on its ability to change.

Note: There are a number of exercises throughout the book. Please have a pen and paper available before you start to read and having recorded your answers keep them available for when you read the subsequent chapters.

Personal Change

Our Ancestors’ Influence

Imagine, if you will, a grassy plain with a few bushes and trees dotted on it. Coming along a track on the plain is a man dressed in animal skins, carrying a spear and the carcase of a small, deer-like creature slung over his shoulders. The sun has just set making the sky a shade of pale coral behind him. He is silhouetted against the pink canvas as he moves as fast as he can towards an escarpment, which is about two kilometres away. Peering into the distance he can just make out the flickering light of a fire at a cave entrance, a fire on which to cook his kill, a very important kill because the family group has been without fresh meat for several days, he can almost taste the cooked flesh when suddenly there appears a sabre-toothed tiger ahead of him.

What do you think could happen next?

There are a number of possible outcomes, which fall into three categories:

Figure 1.1 The Frozen Caveman

Figure 1.2 The Caveman in Flight

Figure 1.3 The Fighting Caveman

It is, of course, possible that all three may occur, whereby the caveman is initially immobile, then fights, because the need for food is urgent, and finally flees if he is liable to lose his life. But, whatever the outcome of this particular scene, it is these typical responses that have contributed to our survival on this planet.

What is our Body Doing?

Our brain

Before reading on, spend a few moments thinking about the times you were really surprised or shocked by something totally unexpected. How did you feel immediately and how did you feel and/or react a short while later?

When something completely unexpected occurs we are shocked and when we are in shock we are temporarily immobilized as our brain attempts to understand what has occurred. Often we will react instinctively, for example, by leaping out of the way of an oncoming motor vehicle or, if our self-preservation behaviours have not engaged, we may become rooted to the spot and be run over.

When a sudden surprise or shock happens to us it may take up to ten seconds or so, before we can behave rationally – rather than just instinctively.

It is for this very reason that disaster scenarios, like an oil rig supply helicopter coming down in the sea, are rehearsed with both crew and rig workers. In this life-threatening circumstance you do not want passengers and crew to be either immobilized or reacting instinctively to preserve their own life.

How many times have you looked back at an unexpected event and regretted saying the first thing that came into your head or how you immediately reacted to a situation. A good rule in non life-threatening situations is to count to ten before saying or doing anything. Watching how politicians handle the unexpected question is a good example of how we might wish to behave when surprised. Next time you listen to the news, or watch a current affairs programme and there is a politician being pressed by an eager commentator, watch how they start their reply without answering the question. It may be along the line of: “That is a very good question, only the other day when I was in my constituency I was asked something quite similar ... and so on.” These well rehearsed lines are delivered using their autopilot and as they trot out these prepared lines, they can start thinking about how they might answer the posed question, if they choose to answer it at all!

So to summarize, as the old saying goes, “Always engage brain before putting mouth into gear.”

The rest of our body

Once the initial shock has passed we move to the fight or flight phase. Although these are outwardly entirely different outcomes, our body is behaving in very similar ways. Adrenalin starts to flow, heart rate and respiration increases and blood is pumped at an increased rate to the major muscle groups, whilst being reduced for organs that are not immediately required for fighting or fleeing. In the flight (fearing for life) situation the body may also attempt to reduce weight by defecation and urination. These automatic responses helped our forefathers survive sabre-toothed tigers and any other daily life-threatening crisis they may have faced.

Our 21st-century sabre-toothed tigers may be the report that has to be completed by yesterday, the departmental re-organization, or an irate customer, and in these situations our bodies behave in just the same way as the caveman carrying the deer. However, in today’s business world we do not run away or punch our customer/boss/supplier on the nose (well not usually). Instead we suffer from stress, insomnia and ulcers as we suppress our natural tendencies for dealing with these modern-day threats.

Stress and illness

Since the 1950s a great deal of research has been undertaken exploring the relationship between stress and illness. One example of research being The Social Readjustment Rating Scale¹ developed by Holmes and Rahe. In this work individuals were asked to mark all the events, from a list of 43, which have occurred in their lives over the previous 12 months. Each event was weighed according to life change units ranging from 11, a minor violation of the law, for example, a speeding ticket, to 100, the death of a partner; with other events such as being promoted, getting married and taking out a mortgage lying between the two extremes.

Holmes and Rahe suggested that individuals reporting life change units totalling less than 150 points should be in generally good health the following year. If the total exceeded 150, but is less than 300, the individual has about a 50 per cent chance of developing a serious illness the following year. Among individuals with scores above 300 units, the chance of developing a serious illness rises to 70 per cent.

It can be no wonder, as the rate of change in our lives increases, that over the past 15 years stress management has become such a lucrative business. Open any health magazine, or even many business journals and you will find stress counsellors and gurus offering a whole range of relaxation and/or physical exercise activities to help provide a release for the body’s natural threat coping tendencies.

The Kübler-Ross Transition Curve

Whenever a life event happens we are undergoing some sort of a change. It does not matter whether it is a pleasant one, like being promoted, or an unpleasant one, like divorce, our feelings and our ability to cope will go through the same cycle or transition phases. These transition phases can be thought of as a curve (Figure 1.4) which passes through seven stages. It is known as the Kübler-Ross Transition Curve which is based on studies of personal bereavement. This work was then used as a basis to explore people’s feelings during business and organizational change.

Figure 1.4 The Personal Dip Curve

Stage 1 – Shock or immobilization

This aspect, which was also discussed earlier in fight or flight, is where we have the feeling of being overwhelmed, or being unable to make plans, unable to reason and unable to understand. Many people experience this as a feeling of being frozen by indecision.

Note: There is often a phase prior to Stage 1. I call this the Anticipation or Rumour Phase, where we expect something to happen or be announced. During this phase we may oscillate between feeling elated or despondent when we hear the latest rumour or are waiting for something to happen. It is like going through a complete transition cycle both quickly and frequently. This can be very debilitating for an organization if a lot of its people’s energy is used up in response to rumours.

Mini exercise

As leaders, though not just as leaders, there will be times when we are surprised perhaps during difficult and complex negotiations with business associates, trade union leaders or even the press or media. When this occurs there are two possible outcomes:

• we say the first thing that springs to mind, or
• stand there, looking like a goldfish, whilst we come up with an answer.

As you can see both may have undesirable outcomes. We need to give ourselves time to think but not at the expense of looking foolish. One executive I knew always took a plastic cup containing a small amount of water which he would knock over if his adversary used shock tactics in an attempt to gain an advantage. Whilst the spill was being mopped up he had created some time to think of his response.

What you are required to do in this exercise is to prepare a form of words to create the mop up time that enables you prepare the response you would wish to give and thereby appear in total control of the situation. Politicians are masters at doing this. When posed the difficult question they may well respond, “Well Brian, that is an interesting question, only the other day I was asked something similar by a constituent when I was running my weekly surgery, I believe that ...and so on, and so on.” The response has been learnt verbatim and provides time for you to think about what you wish to say. Obviously we cannot keep using the same set of words as it will soon be obvious to all what we are doing. Repeating the question may also be an approach or you may adopt the Harold Wilson² strategy of either drawing thoughtfully on your pipe or tamping some tobacco down into the pipe bowl. He was a man in control of the situation but rather more difficult in these days of tougher smoking restrictions. But I guess you have got the point. Your exercise, therefore, is to prepare a set of words that can buy you a vital ten seconds and then learn them by heart. It is a lot less messy than knocking over the proverbial cup of water and may be used anywhere in just about any situation.

Stage 2 – Denial or minimization

This is the way of getting out of the first stage. Minimize the change. See it as trivial. Very often we will deny that a change even exists. We may continue following our old routines or tell ourselves: “I’m not affected by this” or “The information I received must be wrong.” Denial provides time for temporary retreat from reality while we build up our internal strength.

Stage 3 – Incompetence or depression

As we become aware that we must make some change in the way we are doing our job or living, and become more aware of the new realities, we begin to recognize that we may find it difficult to cope in the new situation or j...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• List of Figures
• Preface
• 1 A Little Theory Concerning Personal and Organizational Change
• 2 Moving the Organization
• 3 75 Ways to Help Sustain Organizational Transformation
• 4 Implementation: Successfully Managing the Change Project
• Appendix: Organizational Types
• References and Suggested Further Reading
• About the Book
• About the Author
• ChangeGame®
• Index