10 Reasons Organizational Change is Like a Marathon

This Sunday, in Winnipeg, thousands of people will participate in the Manitoba Marathon. Congratulations to everyone who will be running. It takes determination, courage, and commitment to run a marathon. Organizational change can be like running a marathon. 

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My top ten reasons why organizational change is like a marathon:

  1. You are doubtful in the beginning, excited at the start line, exhausted in the middle, and really (and I mean really) proud when you cross the finish line.
  2. It can destroy you if you haven’t prepared properly, but when you are prepared it can build your capacity for even greater accomplishments.
  3. It is as much a mental and emotional endeavor as it is physical.
  4. It requires involvement; no one can run the race for someone else and have them receive the benefits.
  5. You need the commitment to persevere. Buy-in isn’t enough to get you through race.
  6. How quickly you recover after the race depends on how well you prepared before the race.
  7. Celebrating your success is part of the process.
  8. You can only complete the race at the speed of your own readiness and ability.
  9. Support and encouragement along the route can make the difference between quitting or completing.
  10. You can only successfully complete one race at a time.

Regards,

Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner

Helping you launch, lead and live change more successfully.

Organizational Change at Rosings Park

Every summer I make time to read at least one novel. This summer I chose Diane Morris’s Rosings Park.

In the interest of full disclosure, Diane Morris has been my dearest friend for over 20 years. She is an accomplished technical writer and has published two university textbooks and numerous articles and other papers on nutrition. I was thrilled when I received a copy of her first novel, Rosings Park. I just knew it was going to be a great story. What I didn’t expect was to get a lesson in organizational change. Read more

Getting Leaders Ready: One key to successful organizational change

Summer is almost over and already you can see early signs that fall is on its way. The days are getting shorter, there is an evening chill that lingers a little longer in the morning and maybe the surest sign – the stores have begun to advertise their back to school specials.

As fall approaches and you get back into a more regular routine you may be thinking about rebooting and re-initiating work that you put off to let staff enjoy the summer or because you weren’t ready to get started. If any of that work involves change—whether it’s a software implementation, a new product launch, business expansion, new business process or any other type of change—it’s never too early to ensure your leaders and managers have the knowledge and skills to implement and sustain the changes your organization needs to be successful. Read more

Are your employees ready for change?

Organizational Versus People Readiness Excerpt from DM Turner Launch Lead Live: The executive’s guide to preventing resistance and succeeding with organizational change  “We’re ready. All the hardware and software is installed and the employees have been trained.”  That was a comment from a manager who was implementing a large system change in his organization. It […]

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3 Ways an Intended Outcome Story Will Help Your Change

Every Change Needs an Intended Outcome 

The lack of a clear vision is one of the major reasons organizational change initiatives fail. I agree that every organization should have a vision, but every organizational change needs more than a vision, it needs an intended outcome story.

An intended outcome story is more than a high-level vision statement. It is a clear, concrete, and concise description of your destination.  It guides your actions because it describes, the look, feel, behaviours, and activities of your organization/department after the change has been successfully adopted.

foundation of houseUnlike your organization’s vision that you continually strive toward, an intended outcome represents an end state. It is the new steady-state after the change has been successfully adopted. It is also specific to your change initiative. Once your organization has successfully adopted the change, and the new state is the normal state, your story is complete.

Your intended outcome puts the end result of the change in clear focus for all the people affected. Every organizational change regardless of its size requires a clearly defined outcome. Without a clearly stated and shared intended outcome you are taking your organization on a journey of uncertainty and discomfort with no apparent end.

Picture This

Imagine for a moment that I ask you to take a trip with me. I don’t tell you where we are going, but the trip will involve a very uncomfortable bus ride. The seats are lumpy. The road is unpaved, full of twists and turns, and steep drop off points. The trip will involve lots of starts and stops, you will get little rest and most of the time you will not recognize the landscape.

When you ask where we will be at the end, I tell you I’m not certain, but we need to go. I shouldn’t be surprised when you say an unequivocal no thanks to my invitation.  Yet many leaders are surprised. Even worse, they label the people who refuse to take the trip as resistant.

A clear and internalized intended outcome is what gets people on the bus. Having an intended outcome may not make the trip more pleasant. But without one, most people won’t even get on the bus.

Creating an Outcome is Taking Action

Creating a meaningful, concrete outcome story that will help build commitment is more than a word exercise. It is challenging work that takes strong leadership, time and conversation. If you are a leader used to taking quick decisive action you may be tempted to just write something down and send out an email, or skip the process altogether on the assumption that everyone knows the goal. Resist this temptation.Take the time to allow your leaders and employees to engage in the conversations, consider the meaning of the words and understand the impact of the outcome defined. It will be worth effort.

Having a clear outcome helps build trust, support, and commitment for the change. Without a clear outcome, that your employees understand, every decision becomes a debate, creates conflict and insignificant tactical choices dominate discussion and waste time.[i]  This is why in our QuickStart program the first step is to define, clarify and confirm participants’ commitment toward an intended outcome. An outcome that is meaningful to each person who will lead and participate in the change.

Three Steps for Defining a Useful Outcome Story

Defining an outcome story for your change is not an isolated activity. It requires the active involvement of those that will facilitate and lead the change. Engage them actively in the conversation. Here are three things you can do to help create a useful outcome story for your change initiatives.

  1. Confirm the need for the change
  2. Identify the people that will lead the change and engage them in the conversations needed to understand the new environment
  3. Document and communicate your intended outcome is clear and concrete language

An intended outcome helps everyone make better decisions. It also helps you plan and keep the change initiative on course. It expands your organization’s intellectual capability – you move beyond just solving a problem to creating a new reality, and a new level of consciousness. It is an essential element for healthy and sustainable organizational change.

Regards,

Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner

Helping you launch, lead and live change more successfully.

This post was updated on August 25, 2017, and was originally published as “Moving beyond vision to outcome”

[i] Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.