The Paradox of Change Management

Save time and Resources: Build Readiness

(excerpt from Launch Lead Live: The Executive’s Guide to Preventing Resistance and Succeeding with Organizational Change)

By: Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner

Time is an issue in every organization. Initially, if you are used to working from a resistance perspective, it can feel like it takes longer to get people ready. It doesn’t. Consider the time and energy you must spend trying to enforce compliance when you use the traditional “resistance” approach.

By focusing on building readiness instead of managing resistance, and emphasizing the needs of the change-recipients, you can actually make better use of your time and resources. You can also get a greater return on your investment.

The traditional approach to organizational change (figure 1) looks to move quickly to training and implementation.

Figure 1 Common Approach to Organizational Change
Turner Change Management Inc.

It tries to minimize the amount of time spent in the early period; the majority of the effort is at the back end of the change. This approach gives the appearance of saving time, but it top loads issues so that they emerge right around the time of implementation– when time and resources are at a premium.

You expend more energy and resources, but the return on that energy decreases as people move through the Whitespace. It’s like heating your house in the winter while leaving the all the windows open.

This kind of back-end approach forces you to manage the resistance created when the change-recipients are pushed into taking action before they are ready. The approach gives the perception of speed, while actually taking more time. I call this the paradox of change management.

Figure 2 Change-Recipient Readiness Approach

Figure 2 Change-Recipient Readiness Approach

Building readiness shifts the effort to the front end of the Event. Time is allocated to ensure the change-recipients can internalize the need, raise perceived capability, prepare, and support people through the transition. The change is built on a stable foundation. This results in a more sustainable change (Figure 2).

Launch Lead Live: The Executive’s Guide to Preventing Resistance and Succeeding with Organizational Change p. 88-90

 

 

Book Club-No One Understands You

Communication is one of the most challenging—and essential—elements of enabling organizational change. Every leader must determine what to communicate, to whom, and when. Yet even when those decisions are made, there is still another challenge: ensuring the intended message is actually received and interpreted as intended. If you've ever said: "He knew precisely what I meant." "I was perfectly clear when I told her." "I'm an open book." …only to discover your message was misunderstood, you've experienced what social psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson calls the transparency illusion.

Four Key Elements of an Effective Change Communication Strategy

What makes communication during change effective? When I ask that question, employees and leaders consistently respond with the same qualities: consistency, accuracy, relevance, clarity, timeliness, and transparency. The foundation for building that level of communication is your change communication strategy. Communicating to create healthy and sustainable change involves much more than simply giving and receiving information. It is the way we interact and engage with people, interpret data, make meaning, develop understanding, and build—or, in the case of poor communication, destroy—relationships. Communication is the thread that weaves through every aspect of your change efforts and your organization. It is reflected in what you say, what you do, and even what you don't say or do. It is an essential element of every change. Although communication serves many purposes throughout the change process, it has one overarching purpose:

3 Necessary Things Needed to Build a Powerful Change Toolkit

The value of any toolkit isn’t in the tools themselves—it’s in the knowledge and judgment of the person using them. That idea came to mind as I flipped through our new The Readiness Mindset® workbook. It’s filled with fresh insights, tools, and techniques designed to support healthy and sustainable organizational change. I’m excited to put it into the hands of our clients as we explore these approaches together. One question we’re often asked is: Why can’t the workbook be purchased on its own? The answer is simple. A toolkit, by itself, is not enough to help you develop and adopt a Readiness Mindset. In fact, relying too heavily on tools alone can introduce real risks to your change efforts. Let’s explore those risks, and more importantly, what you need to build an effective organizational change toolkit.

Want To Be More Change Ready? Avoid Labeling Change As Good or Bad

Labeling Change Is Risky Business

One of the most powerful things you can do to help yourself cope more effectively with change is to take the labels off. Too often, I hear people talk about change as either negative or positive. What they may not realize is that the label they have applied predetermines their reaction to the change. Read more