We’ve been talking about lenses that practitioners can use to identify patterns, and to help sponsors deal with change. I’m sure there are lenses you pay most attention to, and I encourage you to share them here. I’ll tell you about five I often rely on:

• The importance placed on matching challenge and commitment to change
• The importance placed on the intent of the change
• The importance placed on sponsors
• The importance leaders place on agents
• Leaders’ understanding of the nature of organizational change success

Each of these lenses reveals a series of mindset and behavior patterns.

Here are a few representative examples of the success mindset patterns that these lenses reveal. At the end of my next post, you will be able to download a complete explanation of the mindset patterns, along with examples of what success and failure behavior patterns look like for each.

Lens: The Importance of Matching Challenge and Commitment to Change

Mindset Pattern: Attention and resource allocation is dictated by a change’s “degree of difficulty” to execute.

A change is difficult when it is neither easy nor impossible. In this context, difficulty reflects the degree of challenge inherent in realizing the intended outcomes of the change. It is a measure of the realization risk that exists for both the initiative and the leader.

The degree of difficulty of a change is determined by answering three questions:

• How much change does the initiative represent? (Will the change result in incremental shifts, or will it or transform certain fundamental aspects of the way things operate?)
• What kind of fulfillment must be achieved to deliver on the promises made? (Will the change be merely installed, or must it be realized?)
• How critical is the success of this initiative to the health of the overall business? (Is it just a “good idea” or should it be considered a business imperative?)

Mindset Pattern: Don’t leave commitment to chance.

Succeeding at major organizational change requires that people believe the price for the status quo significantly exceeds the cost of transition. Commitment can and should be orchestrated to support achievement of the desired outcome.

Lens: The Importance Placed on Intent

Mindset Pattern: Intent is not strategy.

Important changes are typically defined at a level too high to guide execution, or even to determine if the change is, in fact, feasible. Ultimately, the leadership team must move beyond just talking about the strategy to understanding exactly what the outcome should be. Once that is established, they must do four things:

• Believe in the possibility the change creates
• Align as a team
• Allocate resources and fund the change
• Stake their reputation on delivering the true intent

Mindset Pattern: Intent comes after struggle.

The leadership team must share an understanding of and have a commitment to the true intent of major change before they can effectively enroll others, but this kind of alignment is never easy. They must ensure that all of their perspectives are heard and valued, and that they understand the tradeoffs and choices associated with the final view of the desired future.

Mindset Pattern: Intent integrity is imperative.

As the new change initiative begins to unfold, persistent attention must be directed toward ensuring decisions and actions are consistent with and support the new direction.

Lens: The Importance Placed on Sponsors

Mindset Pattern: Significant transformations can only succeed if led by deeply committed sponsors.

Leaders must provide sustained guidance, resources, support, consequences, and unrelenting tenacity. They have to understand their role and be willing and able to apply it toward any obstacles that appear. Most risks to success can be addressed when the sponsors’ motivation and skills keep pace with challenges as they unfold.

Although a high resolve for change at senior leadership levels is necessary for success, that same sense of urgency and criticality must be cascaded down throughout the organization and demonstrated among the sustaining sponsors as well.

Mindset Pattern: Paradigms[1] are not replaced by consensus.

True transformative change is not the result of a democratic vote, negotiated settlements, or the application of consensus management techniques. Sponsors of successful organizational change demonstrate strong, definitive leadership that seeks out, values, and is influenced by various viewpoints. However, those sponsors are ultimately the key decision makers.

Paradigms are transformed by a balance of power—leaders who have the unquestioned authority to make the critical decisions, and followers who have the unquestioned capability to help the sponsor use her or his authority wisely and effectively.

Mindset Pattern: Methodology is not a substitute for courage and discipline.

While implementation tools, procedures, and skilled agents are important facilitating mechanisms, they are only enablers in support of change success. The real secret to fundamental transformation is the degree of courage and discipline sponsors display.

• Can sponsors acknowledge to themselves and others the resources and tough decisions required to achieve success?
• Can they take the appropriate actions to pursue success despite any fears, obstacles, and adversity they encounter?
• Do sponsors have the discipline to do what must be done each and every time they need to be courageous? (Courageous, disciplined sponsors allow “no time-outs and no substitutions” from themselves and others.)

Next, we’ll talk about the fourth and fifth lenses I often use.

Go to the beginning of this series.

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[1] “Paradigm” used here means the perceptions shared by people concerning what their organization‘s purpose is and how it is to be achieved (i.e., what the key goals are and how work is to be accomplished).