INTRODUCING CHANGE THINKING—A community of advanced practitioners pursuing mastery in the field of change implementation

Despite all the business change knowledge uncovered during the last 50 years, many seasoned change management professionals still aren’t adequately prepared to serve those trying to navigate their way through today’s turbulence. Change Thinking is an effort to have an exchange with, and be part of, a community of practitioners committed to raising the level of their game and that of the field of change execution.

The challenges are great, and time is of the essence, so I will be direct: Anyone is welcome to read this blog but my comments will be aimed at advanced practitioners who have a broad understanding of the dynamics of change implementation and deep experience facing the challenges of executing large-scale initiatives. In addition, this blog is for those seeking mastery in this field—change professionals who relate to this aspiration as a journey, not a destination, and who are constantly improving their competencies while continually going deeper into themselves. They want to grow from being a change specialist to an artist, from knowledge to wisdom, and from doing to being.

I’m reaching out to practitioners who understand the importance individual and societal changes have on institutional transformation, but who want to participate in a forum where the organizational level of change is the focal point. Finally, this blog is for those who want to exchange views on strategic change implementation rather than on strategy formation or on the continuous improvement necessary once strategies are in place.

Such a description clearly limits the intended readership, but if it appeals to you, I hope you’ll join in the discussion and invite others so we can band together in a collective effort to raise our game.

People who will be attracted to this community are easy to spot:

• They are looked to as well-respected change experts but sometimes feel they lack the level of credibility needed to achieve the degree of influence their role calls for.
• They enjoy solid working relationships with those they serve but feel they need greater access to more senior leaders who view them as trusted advisors in order to accomplish what is needed
• They are highly skilled but are more uncomfortable with how little they know than impressed by how much they have accomplished.
• They have much to say, but are eager to be part of a community where the collective wisdom is too powerful not to listen to.
• They have a great deal to offer about expanding the boundaries of our craft but don’t think anyone (including themselves) has found the Holy Grail that others should just absorb without question.
• They are confident they create value, but know deep down there is much more to learn about transformational change as well as how to provide greater benefits to their clients—and they are committed to exploring this gap as humble students of the craft.
• They feel there is more at stake in this pursuit than satisfying intellectual curiosity or participating in a little enjoyable bantering. They believe we have been entrusted with important but incomplete knowledge and we have a deep responsibility to advance it as far as we possibly can.

Change Thinking is for you, the seasoned internal agent or external consultant who is more attracted to the remaining questions than the unquestioned answers. It is for you, the experienced change professional who is anxious to deepen the conversation about the current state of the art (change thinking) and who is willing to shift your point of view if new information warrants it (change thinking).

LET’S GET STARTED

No one of us has all the answers, yet, as a profession, we change practitioners tend to work in rather isolated pockets (individual practice, in-house teams, external consulting firms). Yes, we’ll occasionally attend conferences and even present to our colleagues but generally speaking, what is shared doesn’t represent our latest thinking, concerns, vulnerabilities, innovations, etc. (at least that’s the case for many professionals in our field).

What we need to do is engage in much more open exchanges about what’s being learned. The challenges are now too complex and the stakes too high if we fail to push our craft and ourselves to the next level. It’s time to share more openly with each other so we can stand on each other’s shoulders and collectively raise the bar.

In this blog, my pledge is to come forward with as many specifics as I can about what I see working (and share the related principles, frameworks, and conceptual tools we use at Conner Partners) as well as what shortfalls I fall prey to that others may relate to. I invite other advanced practitioners to do the same.

In this light, let me say just a little about myself. I have been engaged professionally in the domain of personal change as far back as 1965 and have been exclusively in the organizational change consulting business since 1974. After more than 35 years of helping organizations all over the world execute transformational change initiatives, I have certainly formed some strong perspectives on what our profession could explore to accelerate its evolution. I’ll offer these in the form of personal experiences, observations/conclusions, points of view, and questions I’m pondering.

The impressions I’ll share on the challenges of strategic change are no more than my own interpretations, but I’ll happily share them to stimulate thinking and dialogue within the community. Just know that I don’t confuse them with objective, verifiable truth. And, by the way—you shouldn’t confuse passion with rigid, close-minded thinking. To borrow a phrase from biology, differentiation precedes integration. We should explore our different views before we try to merge them synergistically into new thinking. It is my hope that together we’ll build a community of strongly held opinions that are eager to be tested.

Please consider joining this community and investing in and drawing from what we can collectively do to advance our craft and our individual capabilities.

I look forward to your participation and the subsequent exchanges we’ll generate.

HOLD ON—CHANGE ITSELF IS UNSTABLE

The volume, momentum, and complexity of change are all accelerating as never before, and we run the risk that the challenges brought to us will outstrip our ability to keep up. (Maybe this is already happening for some.) At one point or another, we’ve probably all told our clients (those we serve, whether we are an internal or external resource) that “change is changing,” but are we as practitioners changing at a commensurate speed (evolving ourselves as well as the state of the art)?

The good news is that we are being relied on more than ever. Yes, we still have to convince some leaders that attending to the execution of critical initiatives is as important as ensuring that the right solutions are being implemented, but more and more leaders are turning to us and asking, “What do I do now?” In addition, we are better equipped to address these requests than ever before.

The bad news is that, even with these gains, many of us are simply not as prepared as we need to be to do what we have been asked to do. There are too many times we guide clients through territory we are not so familiar with ourselves. This results in too many situations where we lack the deep credibility with senior leaders we need in order to serve them as true trusted advisors (rather than change-related SMEs).

Because the advances in volume, momentum, and complexity feed on each other’s dynamics, the overall scale of change today has generated demands that often call for more than we have in our experience base. Moreover, we all know that these demands are only going to grow, possibly exponentially, during our careers and beyond. These are the “good old days” some of us will look back on and say, ”If only the challenges my clients face today could be as manageable as they were back in 2009.”

I’m not questioning whether an experienced practitioner can provide value to his or her client. The issue isn’t, “Can we be useful and provide a degree of benefit?” Instead, it’s, “Can we make a truly meaningful difference, given how sophisticated and interconnected everything associated with major strategic change has become?” To what extent do our skills and knowledge match the actual demands the people we serve deal with day to day?

Let’s face it—we can give a project everything we have, and receive thanks for helping the people involved, yet still recognize that there was more to be done. Surgeons who performed operations before anesthesia was available were well-meaning, hard-working professionals and their patients were often grateful for the excruciatingly painful procedures they performed, but none of us would accept that standard today. And who carried the burden for advancing the state of their field? The doctor, not the patients. Patients assumed that if a doctor told them the leg had to be amputated, the agonizing torture was non-negotiable. It was up to the physicians themselves to know there had to be a better way.

It’s no different for us. We can’t afford to become complacent just because our profession has gained credibility in recent years and we enjoy the ego strokes when clients recognize the value we provide. Respectability and satisfaction are wonderful experiences, and they are no doubt well deserved, but we must push ourselves and our craft to new horizons. This isn’t just an opportunity for learning—it’s a responsibility we carry because we’re the ones who know where the edge of our profession is and what is left to be explored…what is possible but not yet realized.

As change practitioners, we are not accountable for figuring out what should be executed. We are accountable for the how part…guiding the implementation process so the desired results of critically important changes actually materialize. In any change initiative, what we bring to the table is fully half of the prognosis for success. Sound decisions about what needs to change, without the ability to fully realize their intentions, puts the future of the people and organizations we serve in jeopardy.