How do we make change stick? This is a big question for any leader of any type of organisation.
Typically the top team make the strategy for the organisation. It’s no surprise that they are also the ones who get rewarded on the success of the strategy. Whilst developing strategy is an art, some of the best plans either never get done or fail during the execution. There is often an enormous gap between the plan and who and how it’s going to be implemented.
The secret of successful change implementation lies in engaging all parts of the organisation.
Let’s start with the formal structures. The formal organisation is expressed in the organisational charts. Formal structures sustain the organisation through regulatory compliance, governance and control the purse strings.
The informal organisation is based on the reality of day-to-day interactions. Informal structures develop because people find new and better ways of doing things which are easier and save time. Patterns of interaction are shaped by friendships, practice, interest groups and other relationships. Most new ideas and innovations emerge from the informal structures.
Here’s where things come unstuck. Just because strategy is made at the top and there is a management structure, doesn’t mean that the formal organisation is the best way to roll out strategy. Organisations that implement change top down through the hierarchy will inevitably fail. Top down doesn’t work because of egos, push back, politics, ‘not my idea’, blame, over worked managers, poor communication, lack of buy in etc.
Even if the strategic plan is a work of art, the quickest way to kill off change is push it down through the hierarchy. The biggest hindrance with top down implementation is that it fails to take the informal organisation into account.
Implementation is holistic Sustainable change is only possible when the formal and informal structures are fully engaged in the change process. Everyone who is a stakeholder in the game wants to be part of the action.
There are champions and supporters in the informal organisation that are both passionate and better equipped to take change implementation to the next level than often burned-out and overworked managers.
The role of the change agent is therefore a political one bridging the competing needs and wants of the formal and informal structures. Without such a bridge change is even more painful than wants be and will almost certainly fail.
I call the process of including and engaging all levels Collaborative Change Implementation.
Here are the 3 stages of Collaborative Change Implementation:
- Alignment Stage
- Traction Stage
- Integration Stage
I’ll write more about these stages in future editions of Changing the Game. The practices and tools for implementing successful change are incorporated in the UFacilitate Suite: QUEST Change Track and QUEST Dynamic Meetings www.tincanlearning.com/tincan_u_facilitate.htm
