The Emotional Side to Facilitating Change
(1) CommentTo the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” —Arnold Bennett
A great deal of emotional investment is necessary to achieve the desired outcome of strategic initiatives, yet most change endeavors lean heavily toward the intellectual components (data reviews, critical activities and milestones, logical presentations, rational decision-making, etc.). Several factors contribute to this, one being that intellectual commitment typically precedes emotional commitment and thus, in some ways, is easier to come by. That is, people may quickly grasp the implications of a change at a rational level but then find that they need more time and effort to make the necessary emotional adjustments.
When emotional accommodation is too far behind the logical acceptance of change, dual—often contradictory—signals are sent by the person facing the transition. This kind of split-level commitment can produce confusion, mixed signals, and ambiguous communication for all involved. People may think that they have accepted a recent approach or policy shift only to find more
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©2012 Conner Partners, Inc.
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What Role Does Culture Play During Change?
(2) CommentsCulture—“the way things are around here”—is often beneficial to organizations during periods of relative stability. After all, culture reinforces itself. It operates in ways that ensure its own continuity, which is a good thing when all is well. When we introduce change (a disruption to or intrusion on what people expect), however, the culture works hard to defeat it, and to maintain the status quo. Bigger change means more disruption and even more intrusion, and the culture will work even harder to defeat it. more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
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Guest Interview—Dean Anderson
I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Dean Anderson, a thought leader in the field of organization transformation. I have known Dean for more than 20 years, and greatly respect his work. His unique understanding of mindset, culture, and process gives him a deep strategic perspective, but he also has a depth and strength of character that very few people in the industry offer.
Dean’s current passion is helping senior executives become more “co-creative,” and less “command and control” so they can lead and build co-creative organizations. He is currently writing a book on co-creating and personal transformation.
Dean and his wife and partner, Linda Ackerman Anderson, are two of the pioneers of change management. They co-founded Being First, a leader development and transformational change consulting firm in Durango, Colorado. Their books, Beyond Change Management and The Change Leader’s Roadmap, are key resources for practitioners.
In our first segment, Dean describes the components of transformational change, and how he helps clients identify the type of change they’re dealing with and, in the case of transformational change, commit to breakthrough results that will achieve something extraordinary. more
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The Eight Stages of Building Commitment
(2) CommentsIn the early ’80s, while involved in research to identify patterns of change-related success and failure, I learned that the winners and losers in this arena demonstrated very different levels of resolve. As a result, I developed the following model, which describes how and when people become committed to major new organizational requirements. (Click here to download a printable worksheet of the Commitment Model to help you identify a person’s or group’s level of commitment.) more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Momentum and Critical Mass
In my last post, I talked about redirecting energy during a transformational change from protecting “the way things are” toward addressing the ambiguities and confusion that occur in the shift. In this context, momentum refers to the forward motion of energy through the role sequence (advocate to initiating sponsor to primary sustaining sponsors to local sustaining sponsors to targets) toward realization of the change. Regardless of which roles are involved in the energy transfer at any given time, the presence of strong momentum dramatically increases the chances for realization results. Alternatively, transfers that produce no more than moderate momentum can stall initiatives or compromise installation outcomes.
Energy transfers can result in a strong, moderate, or weak momentum exchange, which means that merely passing energy through the role sequence is not enough. Momentum must reach a certain magnitude within each person in the chain to provide the level of energy needed to ultimately achieve true realization results. When we achieve this degree of energy strength, it means the person on the receiving end of the transfer has become fully committed to the endeavor’s success. more
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©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
The Characteristics of Nimble Execution
In a previous post, I defined a nimble organization as one that has a sustained ability to quickly and effectively respond to the demands of change while continually delivering high performance. Gaining and sustaining nimbleness is not easily or casually achieved. To fully leverage its potential requires commitment and tenacity from the very top of an organization. This begins when members of the Board (or equivalent strategic sanctioning body) and senior leadership declare their deeply held belief that nimble execution is a vital strategic advantage. This conviction must then be translated into two levels of intention: more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
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The Intent Architect—Guardian of Outcomes
To avoid the symptoms of intent mismanagement (see my last post) and keep the intent’s line of sight in place (clarity, expression, and integrity), critically important initiatives must be supported by an intent architect.
The intent architect is responsible for helping the initiating sponsor maintain the integrity of the intent as the transformation is executed. He or she is the guardian of the desired end state. The role includes facilitating intent clarity with the leadership team, helping to communicate it to others, and interpreting it for the various individuals and groups involved in implementation, as well as for the leadership team itself. more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Manage Intent to Deliver on Promises and Minimize Disappointment
(3) CommentsIf we want to be successful at executing major organizational change, it’s important to understand how to translate aspiration into reality. Aspiration is a vision of what must be—the intended outcome. Reality is the value that accrues from putting it in place and sustaining its impact. “Translation,” as used here, is not a metaphor—a conversion must literally take place that turns concepts and ideas into actions and results.
Moving from intentions to results is neither a hit-or-miss process nor a risk-free slam dunk. Regardless of the discipline, any time there is a transition from one state to another, there is a probability that something will be lost in the process. more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Are You Stuck?
“Most obstacles are imaginary; the rest are only temporary.” ~Scott Sorrel
We all get stuck sometimes…it’s part of the human experience. We know what we want to achieve and have a plan for doing it, but suddenly we’re faced with a challenge that mystifies us. The situation may involve a problem or opportunity, but the fact is, we don’t know how to resolve it given the present circumstances (or aren’t willing to because of certain implications). In other words, becoming unstuck isn’t about problems/opportunities—it’s about problems/opportunities with no clear way to address them.
There are as many ways to be stuck as there are aspects to our lives. We can become stuck with our spouse or kids, our friends, our careers or boss, our physical well-being, our spiritual development, etc. Anything of significance that we set out to accomplish can, and most likely will, become stuck at one time or another.
Professional change facilitators are not immune to being stuck. From time to time, even the most accomplished practitioners, applying the most capable execution methodologies, are unable to find a viable resolution to a particular more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Five Lenses for Viewing Patterns of Change
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 more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
