Understanding the Key Roles in Significant Change
(1) CommentI hope you had a chance to read the series I just finished on the characteristics of resilient people and teams. Resilience is crucial for individuals and groups dealing with the stresses of change.
Now I’m going to pick up again with the sponsor-agent relationship, building on two previous series, sponsorship and agents. First, though, more
ChangeThinking.net
©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
Identifying and Developing Change Agents
Selecting the appropriate people to function as change agents on a major project is critical to realizing the full benefits of the initiative. At Conner Partners, we use the Change Agent Selection Form to help sponsors and potential agents do four things:
- Choose the most qualified change agents to work on a specific change
- Help the candidates understand the sponsors’ rationale for selecting or nominating them
- Provide a framework for the continued development of the prospective or selected agent(s)
- Facilitate discussion between the agent and sponsor, and clarify expectations for the agent’s performance during a specific change project more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Guidelines for Dealing with Top Change Agent Challenges
Whether change agents are internal or external, they often have to operate in an environment where sponsors are less than prepared to perform their role. Here are some guidelines for addressing common challenges agents face when in service to sponsors.
Aim for realization, not installation.
Many sponsors focus on installing critical changes—putting solutions in place—rather than realizing the intended business benefits. Be sure you and your sponsor are clear on whether you are working toward full realization of the initiative’s objectives or some degree of installation with reduced expectations.
Make strong sponsorship your top priority.
Realization of change is impossible without sufficient sponsor commitment and the capacity to follow through with his or her intentions. Successful agents foster the necessary sponsor behaviors to build and maintain three critical elements: more
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©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Do You Recognize These Characteristics of Successful Change Practitioners?
(3) CommentsSponsors who aren’t adequately prepared for their role need our help. Even sponsors who have plenty of change experience and all the right “instincts” for orchestrating difficult transitions need help. They should be supported and guided by skilled change practitioners. So, what are the requirements for playing the change agent role, and how can we get better at it?
I’m going to focus on practitioners assigned to senior sponsors. Don’t get me wrong, change agents at all levels play important roles. It’s just that those who serve leaders in key positions (initiating and primary sustaining sponsors) are particularly important to the change success. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2010 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
When You Need to Confront a Sponsor
So here we are with all this knowledge (see my three previous posts) about what sponsorship is, its crucial role in realizing change objectives, and how it can be effectively applied and yet we find ourselves sometimes not utilizing what we know.
How is it possible that seasoned practitioners, well versed in the theory of sponsorship and its practical application, are reluctant to leverage this information?
Here are some examples of situations when sponsors (or agents and advocates) need to be confronted by us as change practitioners: more
ChangeThinking.net
©2009 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
How to Spot (and Help) a Good Sponsor
In the last two posts, we’ve examined things about sponsorship that many of us believe to be true. We’re also looking into why we sometimes stray from these axioms when we design interventions and/or interact with sponsors.
In my work, I’ve found that the most effective sponsors display a common set of characteristics. Of course, they’re expressed differently depending on the organization, the circumstances, and the personality of the sponsor, but in general, highly successful sponsors are purposeful, attentive, committed, decisive, and resolute. I’ll break these down into very specific statements and actions. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2009 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
The Geometry of Sponsorship
(1) CommentLet’s continue to explore what we know about sponsorship, and examine why we don’t always act in ways consistent with what we know. In addition to the axioms I talked about in my last post, there are certain relationship dynamics that offer us reliable ways to interpret events and help the sponsor.
The majority of the strategies used to manage the change process depend on certain relationship configurations that exist between sponsors, agents, and targets. The most common among these configurations can be described as Linear, Triangular, or Square in nature. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2009 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Essential Truths About Sponsorship
Of the four primary roles in the change process (sponsors, agents, targets, and advocates), none is as crucial to successful realization of change as that of sponsor. Yet, as practitioners, we often don’t bond with these leaders effectively enough to carry out our responsibilities. I think this is the biggest problem we face as practitioners: Even though we know how important sponsors are to successful change, we don’t always do what we could to help them succeed.
Guiding sponsors toward new behaviors and mindsets is the heart of our profession. Maybe it’s time to invest more energy in exploring what we need to learn and what needs to shift in our own actions so we can be more influential with sponsors. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2009 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
