Principles & Processes of Change

It's easy for business professionals to succumb to "initiative fatigue." They give up trying to fix those chronic organizational problems that everyone complains about but no one seems willing or able to resolve.

As a change agent for the past 30 years, I've often seen those problems. I used to joke that I could write the book on how not to undertake company-wide changes, be they strategic planning, HR initiatives or business process improvements.

Yet I've seen something amazing and unexpected Executives embrace the annual planning process they formerly avoided. In my work with health care organizations I've witnessed surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and administrators coming together to overcome surgery delays, thereby moving from blame and fear to transparency and trust.

What are the principles and processes of change that lead to such results?

Principles of Change

Think of organizations as silos, then de-silo.

The silo walls between functional groups or departments within the organization can become tall and thick. This makes the organization resistant to change. Furthermore, improvements made within the functional silos usually have only incremental effects on an organization's overall performance. Breakthrough change occurs at the handoff points between silos.

Business leaders need to break down the natural barriers within their organizations and foster dialogue up and down the hierarchy.

Move from individual commitment to involving others

Too often, the individual's reaction to change is to avoid it, or worse, to sabotage the new idea. It's important to create awareness of the initiative and to get employees to buy in. Buy in doesn't’t just happen. It flows from awareness to commitment (evidenced by a change in personal behavior) and ownership (evidenced by involving others)

Processes of Change

Use a comfortable café setting.

People enjoy being in a safe and pleasant place where they can talk about things that truly matter. In this type of environment, they listen as much as they talk. They build on one another's ideas while having fun. In this setting, move the stakeholders off-line and seat them with people from different functional silos. The change agent's role is to create this safe environment for dialogue and to pose the compelling questions that will create meaningful conversations.

Next, encourage the players to change tables and continue to explore the same question with each other. It's easy to tell if it's working. The sound level increases with each round of discussion as people become more and more engaged in dialogue.

Bring the stakeholders together. Have them sit with their counterparts from other functional silos. Let them speak about matters they don't (or won't) talk about on the job. They're clever people and are looking for an excuse to talk about the right things.

Talk about the desired situation first

Trained as an engineer, I always thought change began with an analysis of the current situation. In contrast, it's more effective to come together to determine the kind of results desired. The sequence of the change process then becomes: describe the desired situation; describe the current situation; and develop high leverage actions to close the gap between reality and desire. With participation across the silos comes commitment from individuals. With involvement in identifying the high-leverage actions comes ownership of the change and involvement of others.

Creating a Discipline of Change

What about execution? Someone has said, “Vision without execution is hallucination.” So true! What are the key elements of a discipline of change that drives execution? I have found these three components to be essential:

• Measure what really matters- the compelling question is “How will we know we are making progress?” Resolving this question minimizes the tendency to confuse intention with action.
• Use the calendar to take you where you want to go- time is your ally. Ask, “How do we use the existing business cycles (and due dates) to reinforce the time line for the change initiative?”. Other stakeholders in the process have their legitimate demands. How can your time line be aligned with theirs?
• Manage the conversations- How can you get airtime for your action items on the agenda for routine meetings? Position on the agenda denotes importance. It signals how critical it is for your stakeholders. The question becomes, “What conversations will help move the action items forward?

 

Results of Change

Following the above approach, I've seen a pediatric department in the Middle East, composed of 40 pediatricians from more than 10 different nations, turn a dysfunctional working relationship into an effective one.

Using these principles and processes of change the Texas Medical Association convened three Health Vision Summits with physician leaders, insurance and hospital executives, business executives and government representatives. They were able to collaboratively develop and reach consensus on health care recommendations for the upcoming legislative session.

A surgery department in a North Texas hospital is decreasing surgery delays and improving working relationships by involving all the stakeholders in finding ways to improve the patient-flow process.

This technique was used successfully by a state public health organization with physicians, medical society representatives, and educators. The organization was thereby able to implement changes legislated by the state.

On another occasion, I hosted, in an airplane hangar, a café discussion involving more than 600 oil industry executives, engineers, scientists, and construction superintendents. Three years later, they continue to meet annually in the café setting to revisit the strategic plan.

Summary

Is your organization suffering from initiative fatigue? Is each new change initiative is met with an attitude like the last one, “this too shall pass?”

Do you wonder what the key players in your organization could do collectively that they cannot seem to do independently?

Is there a need to move from fear to trust among the key players?

Consider our approach:

• De-silo.
• Move from understanding to commitment to ownership.
• Create a café environment where people can talk about what really matters.
• Identity desired situation, define current situation, and create actions that will close the gap.
• Create a discipline of change to move things forward.

Adapted from “Strategies for curing organizational problems lead to positive changes” by Dan Walters, Austin Business Journal, January 13, 2006