HOW TO AVOID THE TOP 4 MISTAKES CHANGE LEADERS MAKE
Good judgment comes from experience which comes from bad judgment. – Anon
Looking at the common mistakes of change leaders is a great entry into this topic because people often only achieve success through its opposite: failure.
You cannot have success without failure
Consider the concepts of success and failure. They are opposites yet related—you cannot know one without the other. Our perception of any situation is relative, and we can only understand it through contrast. For example, in a universe in which everything is blue, you cannot discuss the concept of blueness because you lack contrasting colors.
The Top 4 Mistakes
This list of mistakes is based on 20 years of surveying and working with change leaders and those affected by their decisions:
Planting your idea in barren soil
Choosing the wrong kind of seed
Not enough care and maintenance
Letting it go to seed
Chances are if you have any success as a leader you’ve made some of them. If you have made these mistakes enough times – and learned from them – you can usually achieve sustainable success in leading change.
How to Avoid the Top 4 Mistakes
Here are the success habits of those who have bounced back from the mistakes:
Fertile soil
Many change leaders cannot launch a change because the individuals (and thus the organization as a whole) get stuck in a fear-based mindset far too often. Most organizations operate in either protection mode or growth mode but cannot operate in both modes at the same time. If people in an organization have recently gone through layoffs, cutbacks, a merger, strike action or lawsuits, the organization as a whole may be overly focused on safety and protection. In that state of mind, decision makers will not be open to new ideas. When most resources are focused on protection, there is nothing left over for growth. Here are some simple steps to create a more fertile, growth-oriented culture for change:
Address people’s fears: If people in your organization have unresolved issues around change, then you will need to address these before you propose a growth tactic. While some amount of protection is useful to ensure survival, a large number of organizations have been too focused in that direction, especially since the economic downturn. It helps to balance the Ph of the soil first before planting your “idea” seed by being clear with people’s concerns about the change and addressing each one in a constructive and validating way.
Tip: You don’t need to agree with their concerns, but the resistant people in your organization will need to feel that you have acknowledged their concerns before you can open their minds.
Be open to push back: Proposing change often invites resistance. Sometimes change leaders take that resistance personally and react or go into the “fight or flight” response. Then they lose their ability to communicate effectively. If you are feeling triggered by people who are opposing your ideas, it helps to ask open questions and remain curious rather than respond defensively. This may help you better understand their underlying needs.
Tip: Try writing down all the possible ways people may resist you ahead of time and prepare a constructive response.
Balance with benefits: Conversely, sometimes change leaders only mitigate fears by failing to outline the benefits and purpose of the proposed changes. This seems obvious, but you would be amazed at how often change leaders forget to talk about the benefits from the employees’ perspectives. Equally addressing fears and benefits and balancing traditional best practices with innovative ideas ensures the right kind of Ph for your soil.
Tip: Make a list of the benefits from a variety of stakeholder perspectives and start any change discussion with these.
Choosing the right kind of “idea” seed
Once you have created fertile soil, you are now ready to plant the seed of your idea. Just make sure to plant the right kind of idea seed. There are plenty of examples throughout history of “wrong seeds” being planted in fertile soil — in society, in organizations or within an individual. For example, when people are desperate for change due to an economic downturn sometimes they can end up agreeing to solutions with bad long term implications. .
Pay attention to intention: Check to make sure your intentions are benevolent and for the common good. You don’t want to end up planting a weed that kills other plants in the garden. Sometimes people have hidden agendas that they may or may not be conscious of. It’s okay to serve yourself, as long as it’s not at the ultimate expense of other stakeholders.
Tip: Ask yourself “what is my underlying need in proposing this idea and will this ultimately serve all those concerned?” For example, will asking for a larger budget for my department just serve us but be at the expense of other departments?
Include stakeholder’s input: Sometimes you need to survey others to ensure the idea would also work for them. People support what they help create. How can you best elicit feedback from key stakeholders? People love giving input on things that affect their lives. Plus, their input can further improve your solution and help increase buy-in for all concerned.
Tip: Send out a survey, bring it up for discussion, do a brainstorming session, make a phone call, etc.
Start small and scale up: Rather than plant a full-grown oak tree, start with an acorn and let the environment get accustomed to its presence over time.
Tip: If you want to propose online training programs for everyone in the company every week, try it first with one program and one department to see how it goes before scaling it up.
Regular care & maintenance
With fertile soil and the right idea seed, it now helps to ensure ongoing maintenance. Change initiatives require watering, fertilization, de-bugging, weeding, pruning and sometimes even stays. Many a brilliant idea dies a tragic death due to neglect. For example, a NING site within a high school started strong but, once the founding student graduated, there was no one to ensure its continued success.
Assign a great ongoing manager: This type of person usually has a different personality style than the change initiator.
Tip: Find someone (or a team) who love to do regular maintenance.
Apply “stays”: Those who maintain and grow the change may need training first.
Tip: Create an apprenticeship or coaching process with someone more experienced until they can function autonomously.
De-bug and de-weed: Invariably the thrill of a new idea will wear off. The actual practicalities of manifesting the idea may lead to many obstacles to overcome, and that’s when people lose their motivation. Also, other ideas may start to encroach on your idea and keep it from thriving. Tip: Ask open questions with people whenever you are confronted with an obstacle, mistake or even an obvious sabotage. If you can get down to the core of the issue you have a better chance of overcoming it.
Harvesting Your Success
Sometimes great change initiatives don’t survive long term because the initiators surprisingly forget to harvest. One harvesting approach is to celebrate milestones and ongoing achievements of change initiatives. This is a powerful way to reward and motivate change leaders. It also builds the social bonds that help change teams make it through tough times.
Lastly, tracking, measuring and publicizing successes help others see that the change is making a difference.