Organisational Change and LEadership

leading change drivers

Change is hard.

At the individual level there is plenty of evidence for the difficulty of changing;

• 90% of coronary-artery bypass grafting patients after two years have not changed their lifestyle,
• 97% of weight loss attempts are unsuccessful,

The record for organisational change is not much better. Most studies of M&As, restructures, introduction of new technology and cultural change show a consistently high failure rate.

• M&As – Many fail outright or fail to realise expected synergies
• Corporate restructures – Fewer than 50% realise lower costs or higher productivity
• Business Process Reengineering – Most fail to produce real results.

Overall, the literature shows an overall failure rate of 70% in organisational changes.

These studies are also consistent in their identification of the causes of this lack of success. Financial, technological and other “hard” factors are usually well planned, resourced and do achieve their specific technical objectives. The failures are invariably attributed to “soft” factors - people.

Insight & Influence has developed a model for how leaders can influence their people to take them through a process of change quickly and efficiently, to change their beliefs and attitude towards the change from resistance and reluctance to acceptance and commitment.

We call this model the Leading Change Drivers.

 

 

 

There were many fascinating things about Barack Obama's campaign for those of us interested in leadership and change. One of the most notable from our point of view was this campaign slogan. Not only did it talk of the importance of beliefs in change (a central part of our Leading Change Drivers model) but it also focused not on the candidate but on the followers; " change WE can believe in".

This emphasis on followers is something that we at Insight & Influence have been focusing on for many years now in our work advising and developing leaders. We believe that the conventional approach to leadership has placed far too much emphasis on the individual leaders and too little on the followers.

The approach is like the simple behavioural psychology models of the early 20th Century; a stimulus is automatically followed by a response. No regard was given to the subject (rat or human) who perceived the stimulus and made the response. This approach is similar to that with the leader focused models; as long as the leader exhibits the "correct" leadership behaviours then the followers can be expected to automatically follow. LIttle or no attention is paid to the followers; their thoughts, feelings or other influencers.

By the middle of last century, models in psychology that acknowledged the importance of perceptions, thoughts and emotions in determining how a person will respond surplanted the purely behavioural viewpoint. These "cognitive behavioural" models form the basis for the majority of contemporary theoretical and applied psychology.

Unhappy with this dismissal of the importance of followers in leadership and seeking an approach more in keeping with contemporary thought, we researched the myriad of leadership models looking for something more balanced and realistic.

We found what we were looking for in research conducted over the past twenty years by Achilles Armenakis and his colleagues. Their work in the development change readiness in organisational change ( for example, Armenakis et al 2007 and Bernerth et al 2007) provided an initial framework for us to understand effective leadership from a follower perspective. From a combination of their work, that of other authors in leadership, individual change, and influence along with our own professional experience as psychologists and consultants, we at Insight & Influence developed the Leading Change Drivers model.

Benefits of using the Leading Change Drivers

We have been using the Leading Change Drivers in two main applications:

• advising our clients on their strategies to influence their followers to accept and commit to organisational changes our clients have initiated. By structuring their communication strategies and actions according to the Leading Change Drivers, their initial influence efforts will be more effective, and
• to understand their staff's beliefs and attitudes towards the organisational change, we have developed the Leading Change Driver Survey. This produces a detailed profile of staff beliefs about the changes. This feedback enables the change leader to adjust their leadership actions to leverage the areas where staff support the change and address areas of doubt or disbelief.

We see the Leading Change Drivers Survey as being like a navigational instrument, providing updates on where the followers are on their change journey and allowing mid course corrections to ensure the overall change efforts stays on track.

By using the Leading Change Drivers we expect:

• reduced resistance to change,
• increased commitment to and participation in the change,
• faster pace of change,
• reduced risks of change, and
• increased chance that the change objectives will be achieved.

The Leading Change Driver model

 

The central idea of the Leading Change Drivers model is that people's response to a change is strongly influenced by their perception of that change. If they agree with the Leading Change Driver beliefs then they will accept the change and change their own behaviours to accommodate the new requirements.

The specific factors in the model were developed from the work of Achillis Armenakis but modified to reflected what leaders could do to influence these change acceptance beliefs. We also added two complementary predictors of acceptance; Trust and Organisational Commitment.

	Leading Change Drivers	Belief
Predictors of Acceptance	Trust	That leaders' stated motives for the change are genuine
	Organisational Commitment	The identification with and support for their organisation
Drivers of Change	Need	The perceived gap between the current and the desired situation
	Fit	The credibility of the proposed response to close this gap
	Resolve	The perceived commitment of organisational leadership to actively support the change
	Confidence	How capable people believe they are to complete the change
	Benefit	How those impacted by the change see they will benefit from it
Outcome	Change Intention	The commitment to actively support the change

We have found that this model is easily understood and accepted by whoever we present it to. It seems to fit in well with people's understanding of change and leadership.

Application of the Leading Change Drivers

How might a client use the Leading Change Drivers to help accelerate the acceptance of a major organisational change in their organisation?

Say an organisation faced with reduced demand had to restructure to reduce costs.

• The CEO can tell staff of the financial pressures behind the need to restructure the organisation. (Need)
• Examples can be provided of where this type of change has successfully restored the business’s financial viability. Staff could be involved in developing the operational changes to reduce the costs of delivering services (Fit)
• Training courses, coaching and new systems can be introduced to provide staff with the skills and confidence to at least try out the new procedures and behaviours and see how they go. Early successes would be used as examples to raise the confidence of others that they will succeed if they give it a go. (Confidence)
• Leaders may need to make a symbolic commitment to the new way; moving their office to the new premises, attending the training courses, using the new systems. (Resolve)

After two decades experience of restructures and redundancies, many staff are understandably suspicious of organisational change and the motives of leaders in introducing change, especially in difficult economic times. Such concerns regarding the organisational leadership’s motives and truthfulness are captured by the Trust factor in the model. Staff need to trust the leaders of the change if they are to follow them. The challenge for leaders is to increase the level of trust in them amongst their followers.

Staff also express rational concerns about how the change will affect them personally (Benefit). Change leaders can address both these issues by presenting an open, honest and realistic account of the pros and cons of the change from their followers’ point of view.

We see our role as consultants in organisational change as helping change leaders align their followers’ workplace behaviours with the new organisational reality. The Leading Change Drivers model outlined above provides a framework to understand and influence staffs’ cognitive and behavioural responses to change. By using this we can help our clients, the leaders of organisational change, achieve their desired outcomes.

From this model Insight & Influence has developed the Leading Change Drivers survey so that change leaders can obtain a reliable and objective measure of their staffs' beliefs about the changes they expect to be undertaking or are currently experiencing. If you would like to find out more about this exciting leadership tool, please contact David Heap at Insight & Influence.

References

Armenakis, A.A., Harris, S.G., Gole, M.S., Fillmer, J.L., & Self, D.R. (2007). A Top Management Team’s Reactions to Organizational Transformation: The Diagnostic Benefits of Five Key Change Sentiments. Journal of Change Management, 7, 273-290

Bernerth, J.B., Armenakis, A.A., Feild, H.S., & Walker, H.J. (2007). Justice, Cynicism, and Commitment: A Study of Important Organizational Change Variables. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43, 303-326