De-scarifying Change

The first major change program Australian Red Cross CIO Warren Don became involved in was a 1995 outsourcing effort for an Australian crop science company.

To IT management it all seemed so simple: BHP-IT would just walk in and take over both the ERP system and the people running it, and everything would work fine from there. Only trouble is, there were a “whole lot of people” working for Don at the time who didn’t want to work for BHP-IT. They were happy as they were, operating as a kind of “cottage IT industry where they could do many diverse things without being stuck with a single function”.

But challenges are opportunities too, and the lessons Don learnt were valuable ones, such as the fact that believing that any implementation in a change environment will be simple is almost certain to prove a fatal mistake.

So too, the assumption that those most resistant to that change can be brought to heel by logic — a weakness CIOs from an IT background, trained to move in logical steps, are particularly prone to — when it is human emotion, pure and simple, driving their resistance.

“You might be presenting a value proposition to them about what happens after the change: this is going to make your job easier, it’s going to make your life happier, it’s going to make things more straightforward for you,” Don says. “People don’t think that way; they think that there is some hidden agenda in it or it’s going to be worse for them somehow. People don’t think logically when you’re trying to present them with a change scenario and trying to create a sense of urgency that ensures it really happens.”

The remedy to that, Don says, is to start by finding out what people are really thinking and build enough confidence to ensure they will confess their real concerns, without fearing they will be condemned for them.

But the third major error, Don says, lies in imagining that the vision is shared by the rest of the organisation, and that the elevator pitch that effectively sold the vision to you is going to similarly sway or inspire others.

“And that is a fatal mistake,” Don says, “because it doesn’t work on all; messages have to be tailored and they have to be individualised for the individual situations and the key players in the organisation that are going to make that change happen. Now they may be executives in the organisation, or they may be the specialist who owns a business process, or they may be that person in the back room that is the glue that holds the organisation together and who is overlooked and often is not recognised for the value that they bring the organisation, but they are there, they’re the people that make it all work. Somehow you have got to get to them too.”

Or as Gartner says: “Customise communication. Each person, group and role expects to hear an answer to the question, ‘What’s in it for me?’ Ignore that question if you want to jeopardise success.”

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Ready for Change

A company where frequent staff cuts were mandated from on high found it had to let a store supervisor go. Here was a guy who had lost his left hand in an accident when he was in his 20s, but was now in his 40s. Everyone agonised for him, but within three weeks he had another job, with a 50 per cent higher salary and greater responsibilities.

“He would never have looked for the job if he hadn’t been forced to do so,” says International Business Improvements proprietor John Cunningham.

There is a popular misconception that people automatically resist change, and tend to be poor adaptors when changes occur, Cunningham says. “Wrong, wrong and wrong again. In fact we are natural adaptors, and therefore constantly ready for and in many ways happy to embrace change,” he says.

“Consider the major changes that we bring upon ourselves: we leave home (where we’ve been nurtured and protected for a couple of decades); we enter into long-term commitments (marriage, business relationships, and families); we change jobs (much more often these days). These all have major impacts on us, yet we seem to be able to move through them with some degree of aplomb,” Cunningham says.

“So what is the problem with change? The problem is we don’t like being forced to change when we don’t understand the reasons for, and the value of, the change itself. Importantly, if we trust the harbinger of change, we much more readily accept it. So here are two key factors in change management, participation and trust, both of which are boosted by communication — very open communication.”

Change is here to stay, and we had better get used to it, Cunningham says. The trap for CIOs and other executives lies in the “insidious lag” between technological change and the outcomes of that change — the way we exploit technology and provide solutions to business — which happens much more slowly.

Getting Personal

Executives often fail to notice things aren’t working quite as well as they used to until a fairly major piece of organisational resuscitation is required — a BIG change, perhaps a transformation.

When that time comes no-one finds leading change easy, but as a senior leader in the organisation everyone turns to the CIO for support, guidance and direction, notes Adrian Cropley, owner of Melbourne-based Change Management Consultancy Cropley Communications.

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At the same time, as the cause of the change, particularly if it is a difficult change that impacts on people’s jobs or ways of working, you can expect to see a wave of emotion directed at you.

“The challenge here is to be able to understand what your people need of you throughout the change and be able to support their needs,” Cropley says. “This takes time and just when the workload heats up for you during change, so does the need to spend more time with your people. The trap I often see senior leaders falling into is throwing a few additional resources in to help manage the change without fully realising how much they are actually required to be active in managing the change.”

Cropley says that when it comes to developing the skills to manage change, a good place to start is to firstly observe your own reactions during a major change. How did you feel at the time? What need did you have from your leader? Research peers and find out how they have handled change before. Also ensure you get in a good change communications practitioner to help you manage the change.

Cropley says the senior leader’s role includes firstly setting context for change: Why this change? Why now? “Ensure there is a clear line of sight for your staff between the change and direction of the business,” he says.

But it also involves understanding the emotions people go through during change. “Equip yourself with the knowledge around the emotional journey people travel during change and be active throughout the change process responding with the right strategy at the right time,” Cropley says.

“This includes things like just being able to listen early in the change when staff are going through shock. Giving clear direction and being able to respond to questions staff have, and encouraging and rewarding as people start making progress towards the new.”

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First Know Yourself

There are some CIOs who are natural leaders — whose grasp of change and its imperatives is already embedded in their way of working — and there are some for whom this level of understanding and capability will remain forever a mystery, Cunningham says. The very first thing a CIO had better understand is which type of person they are — and there’s absolutely no room for error, he says.

“If they recognise they are not the change agent they need [to be], they must find one — someone who can operate as the trusted party, the knowledgeable and effective agent for the transformation that is required — who can work closely with the CIO and indeed have a completely trusted relationship.

“At the same time, the very real skill the change agent needs is to avoid taking over the CIO’s authority during the change. Because the change agent will necessarily have a position of trust, that can lead to information and requirements coming to them that were not visible to (and would never have been revealed to) the CIO personally. This situation needs to be addressed very carefully.

“The change agent will from time to time have a different position from the CIO. For example, the CIO may decide that certain elements of professional services should be incented in a particular way. A skilled change agent will more than likely understand the impact of incentive schemes on behaviour better than the CIO, and may suggest changes to such a scheme, which are outside the CIO’s experience. This is again, a very tricky situation, as the effectiveness of the change may well hinge on such a detail. Therefore, a clear set of policies about how the change agent and the CIO will work together is a must — right at the start.”

Regardless of who manages the change program, Cunningham says, some degree of understanding of change management must be imparted to the CIO and the management team. A series of workshops on the elements of change are very useful, preferably held over several months. Organisational change can come only if there is personal change in the management team, so part of the focus of these workshops should be in getting the management team to accept a degree of change themselves, before it can begin with the rest of the organisation.

“When you get into the CIO chair, you’ve already accepted that you are technically obsolete at a detail level,” Don from Red Cross notes. “It’s the softer skills then that matter. It’s the influencing skills, it’s the negotiation skills you need in order to achieve something. I had a boss once who described it as less like negotiation and more like romance. But again I think it is just tailoring the value proposition to each individual.”

Don says he has worked with numbers of CIOs who simply weren’t people people — instead they were systems people or infrastructure people. He says CIOs looking at transformation of the whole business by leveraging some kind of technology, or even at change in the whole business through specifically not using technology, must know the business processes.

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“I know early in my career working in a manufacturing and distribution organisation, I went out and worked in the warehouse for a week. I wasn’t allowed to drive a forklift but I could fill pallets, I could mark them off, I could print out delivery dockets, I could help stock shelves. You have to do the job to get the confidence. And now sitting in an office with a suit and a tie on, I’m divorced from that and really do recognise that I have got to be prepared to roll up my sleeves and get out there and make sure I know the processes completely.”

Luddites and Converts

As everyone knows — or should — by now, communication is the key to change. That means communication on several fronts, Cunningham says:

• Clear and simple communication about goals, and about how we will achieve the goals (strategy). This is best conducted in as collaborative a manner as possible, since people are more likely to chase goals they had a part in deciding.

• Clear and simple lines of communication during the change. Hotlines, help pages, FAQs, team meetings, divisional meetings, workshops and so on. Leave no stone unturned to find out and address people’s concerns — this is crucial to any transformation.

• Clear and simple communication about successes, progress, contributions, ideas and so on. Once people see the change is actually progressing, largely according to plan, they will get on the bandwagon.

What do about those those who are having difficulty with the change? “There will always be a few who cannot accept or adapt to the change being asked of them,” ” Cunningham says. “They will show up in the early processes — the workshops and the communication sessions. It is important to identify them, and to know that they will fall into two broad categories: the luddites and the converts.

The converts are important, because they will change eventually, and like most converts, will become ardent supporters of the change. They will help the luddites through the process. Organisations need to pay very special attention to this group, as they will subvert the process needlessly if they are not turned into converts as quickly as possible. They will require special sessions, additional workshops, and greater opportunity to participate and discuss issues.

The luddites, on the other hand, may never accept the change. They must be treated specially too, but as nicely as possible, isolated from their subversive colleagues. If there are already converts about, team them up with a luddite each to keep them under control — a sort of buddy system. If there are insufficient converts, find enthusiastic and unflappable people to do this instead.

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“Eventually though, they will need to face facts,” he says. “The change is going to happen, and perhaps the best thing for them to weigh up is whether they wish to stay on in an organisation that is moving past them. Full counselling and outplacement services must be provided for the group that selects this choice, because they are likely to be longer-term employees, and they will need support if they are to find another job. This support should be available to them and their families for a significant period — months, but perhaps not years — they need some incentive to move on.

“There is plenty of encouraging literature for people in this category. One such book is We Got Fired. . . And It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us by Harvey MacKay, [Ballantine Books, 2004]. Often, having to change — when there is no option — means we find the way to change within us.”

Understanding the psychology of the fear of change is the easiest way of helping people cope with change, Cropley says. “If you understand how people react then you can empathise not only with their feelings, but with their needs as they move through the change.”

When it comes to reacting to change, Cropley believes most people slot into one of four groups:

• Champions: Are the ones who just get it. Far from being phased by the change, this group displays both willingness and the ability to make the change. “These people you can keep communicating to clearly and empower them to help you,” Cropley says.

• Fence sitters: These are the ones who have the ability to make the change, but really just have no willingness to do so. Helping this group adapt to change may require counselling them and helping them see the new possibilities. “As they get it, find them a role,” Cropley says.

• Loose cannons: These people have a real willingness to change, but lack understanding or ability and therefore tend to go off in all directions and quite often with wrong information. You need to educate and coach these people before giving them a role.

• Active aggressors: Sometimes known as a problem child. These people neither want to change or nor have the ability to change. More than that they will actively enlist others to oppose change. “The reality is we have to get these people to understand that change is going to happen with or without them. In communicating, we simply need to tell them that it is important we get their acceptance — whether they like it or not,” Cropley says.

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Best Change Mechanisms

When going through major transformation it is important to simplify the effort as much as possible, Cropley says. Just like eating an elephant, the required change may look enormous, but is best handled by tackling the task one bite at a time.

The simple fact is, Cropley says, that most people cannot get their heads around too many variables in change. They look for clarity and a well signposted path forward. That makes developing a good change communication plan essential, not to mention a good stakeholder analysis and as many opportunities to engage people as possible.

“Transformations appear to produce the best results when executives mobilise organisational energy and communicate their objectives in a clear, comprehensive, and engaging way,” Cropley says.

“I also find that communication varies depending on the phase of the change. Early in the change, communication is more about listening and acknowledging. Then it is more about vision and direction and simple messages repeated to ensure understanding. As you move through change then it becomes more about comprehensive communication and ways to involve people. Finally, you need to celebrate and reward success,” he says.

Gartner points out low confidence in their organisations’ ability to drive and manage change puts pressure on business and IT leaders as they strive to meet enterprise objectives.

When the research group polled attendees at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008 Emerging Trends in April in Las Vegas, more than two thirds disagreed with the statement: “My company is well-positioned to anticipate and manage the changes accompanying business transformation.” Only 30 per cent agreed with the statement “I am confident that we have successfully designed our roles, workforce competencies and skills to support the future state.”

And when asked: “If you were to grade your communication program as you prepare for large-scale change, how would you grade it?”, only 9 per cent graded their communication program A for excellent. In contrast, 30 per cent graded their communication B for OK, 32 per cent C for weak, 25 per cent D for poor, and four per cent F for failure.

The research organisation believes it’s not enough to cultivate competence in strategic change management only in individuals; rather it must be institutionalised in order for it to be integrated into business initiatives consistently and reliably. It offers four recommendations:

• Identify the people, programs and templates that represent the best people and tools for enterprise change management.

• Consolidate accountability for widespread organisational change in a team of seasoned program managers who represent excellence in organisational change.

• Map out the elements, objectives and interdependencies of change by process, workflow, information flow, roles and skills. Look especially for people and processes that will facilitate change (and conversely, those that will impede it).

• Prepare to devote 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the time, attention and budgets accorded to large-scale business initiatives to strategic change leadership and management.

As Gartner says, change is personal, so engaging people directly in change can make the difference between success and failure.