Finding the Balance Between Logic and Creativity
BREAKING NEWS: Daryl will speak on bridging the gap between project management and change management on Peter de Jager’s webinar program this Thursday, July 29 at noon. To learn more and register please visit https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/676031683.
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There are clear signature patterns that indicate whether an initiative will succeed or fail. An experienced change agent who recognizes and properly addresses them can greatly influence a project’s outcome:
- The characteristics of success can be infused into the implementation process from the beginning and encouraged throughout execution.
- The dynamics and behaviors associated with failure can be avoided altogether—or at least anticipated, detected, and mitigated as much as possible when signs begin to surface.
Change agents who practice their craft with the proper balance of art and science foster success patterns and minimize failure patterns. In doing so, they bring to bear a powerful competitive advantage for their clients.
However, finding that balance is a challenge.
Professional change facilitation resides on a continuum, with “art” and “science” at the poles. Our “craft” is represented by a sliding point that can reside at any position between the two extremes. Movement toward or away from either end of the continuum shouldn’t be based on more
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Our Craft Is a Blend of Art and Science
“Art and science have their meeting point in method.” ~Earl Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Fundamental organizational shifts are partly chaotic and partly predictable. We have to be able to plan for and address the known aspects of change and at the same time acknowledge and deal with the inevitable puzzles, contradictions, and conundrums that arise.
Think of the execution of organizational change as a continuum. At one extreme, it is a stable process where we manage events by applying set rules and formulas. Here, a “paint by numbers” or cookbook solution would be acceptable. At the other end, it is a more
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How to Get Unstuck
(1) Comment“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.” ~Edwin Louis Cole
In my last post, I wrote about what happens when initiatives become “stuck.” Challenges and obstacles to implementation are a regular and expected occurrence in any change initiative. They become problematic, however, when the attending change agent doesn’t have a plan he or she believes in, or even an idea, of how to solve the problem.
There is a framework practitioners can use to determine how to get unstuck, regardless of the nature of the desired outcome, or the implementation approach used (Kotter, Bridges, Anderson, Prosci, Conner, etc.), or the specific actions they call into play. This post provides a way to look at a generic intervention process and how to apply it to any change or execution methodology. more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Patterns Aren’t Created, They Are Revealed
We don’t own patterns, yet we are all responsible for them.
Some of us might be fortunate enough to be the first to observe and document a pattern, but we didn’t invent it, we uncovered it. Adjusting to the unfamiliar has been part of the human experience since the beginning of time. Any change-related pattern we use was in play long before any of us started practicing this craft. And even though some of us have fashioned our own particular way of articulating transition dynamics (nomenclature, principles, guidelines, axioms) the basic patterns can’t be commandeered by any of us.
So, we can’t take credit for conceiving the patterns of change, but because we did discover them, we have a responsibility more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Use Mindset and Behavior Patterns to Your Advantage
(2) Comments
Once you understand that a specific mindset and its associated behaviors can either facilitate or impede success, you have a level of insight that can be truly invaluable to a sponsor who is less familiar with these kinds of change dynamics.
Mindsets are made up of frames of reference (the ways individuals make sense of situations) that lead to the formation of priorities (the relative importance of various options). Shared mindsets within an organization serve as the foundations of culture and ultimately lead to common patterns of behavior.
Successful change requires a specific mindset that is shared among key players as they perform their respective roles. This “success mindset” reflects the more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
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Use These Principles to Set Expectations and Build Relationships With Sponsors Early in the Process
In my last post, I described the differences between partner and vendor relationships.
Although most of us prefer partnerships with our sponsors, this is not always possible. Sometimes, all the sponsor wants is a vendor-type transaction in order to accomplish a narrow change objective. What is most important is to avoid a rapport breakdown (i.e., operating as a partner when the client wants a vendor, or the reverse). You can accomplish this by establishing a clear “line-of-sight” understanding with your sponsor regarding what you should expect from each other.
Establishing clear expectations with sponsors about the nature of our working relationship (partner/vendor) is not, however, always an easy thing to accomplish. Part of the challenge is that sometimes either we or the sponsor lack a proper grasp of what is involved.
As change practitioners, we’ve probably all developed guidelines to help our clients understand what’s involved when establishing expectations of each other. The following is a list of principles I use more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
The Best Way to Help a Sponsor Deal With Change
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi
If we are to be effective at helping clients understand and manage complex change, we must not only have the ability to educate and facilitate—we must also model the behavior we need to see in those we serve.
Who we are particularly affects our relationships with senior sponsors. Many practitioners haven’t come to terms with that fact. I’ve heard internal agents say, “I like being assigned to high-level leaders, but I can’t be a role model for people that high up in our organization. Anyone at that level won’t relate to me in that way anyway, but I don’t really see myself as someone a senior officer should imitate.”
This kind of self-image limits the practitioner to tactical influence at best. We have to see ourselves as not only change specialists, but also exemplars for the sponsors we serve. Yes, it’s challenging, but without this aspect to the relationship, our guidance will seem more theoretical than practical (it may sound good but doesn’t translate to real life). Even worse, we can appear to the sponsor as providing questionable, if not bogus, guidance. more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
