Carlos Oliveira*
When I ask my clients, in the various markets where we operate, what it means to manage change in their organizations, each member of the board of directors or at the management level or at the operational level in the different areas of activity tends to have a different opinion of the from colleagues. The same happens in my company. “Managing change” is an issue that generates a chaos of interpretations and makes it difficult to lead a transformation process that increases the organization's performance.
For this reason I share three rules, not to be too exhaustive, resulting from the most successful processes, which can be used by leaders to manage change.
Rule #1: Adopt a reference model, but adapt it
A good way to bring order to the chaos of change management is to adopt a model. One of the best known, practical, reliable and recommendable tools for designing and managing a change process in an organization is John Kotter's 8-Step Model. Presented in 1996 in the book “Leading Change”, the model is still today the most used by consultants and organizations around the world (LBC, for example, developed a variant).
But one thing that the experience of many years of consulting has shown me is that “one size does not fit all”. Processes based on magic formulas tend to fail. Kotter's model should only be a reference, which should be adapted to each case. Other models may be more suitable, such as the lesser known but more focused VISAR model by Gary Topchick.
Rule #2: Focus and Simplify
Most failures in change processes happen because there is no shared focus defined right at the beginning. Generic and philosophical statements, however enticing they may be, create chaos, as each person assumes different things. The most important thing in a change process is to define right from the start, without ambiguities:
- What do you want to change (services, operations, people, etc.).
- To achieve what (what are the specific KPIs – Key Performance Indicators: reduce the customer service cycle, improve the customer experience, improve the company's competitiveness, etc.);
- How is this change measured (an activity plan and corresponding indicators, starting from the first day and at specific milestones).
Changing everything all at once is one of the mistakes of many programs. Small, performance-focused changes are different from culture-focused changes. Changes focused on a concrete process are different from changes focused on the company's core competencies. Changing the organization is different from changing people.
Rule n.º 3: Act on 4 axes that reinforce each other
Most change management programs that fail are based only on the top-down axis, ie, on the vision of the company's leaders. A change process only works if it involves four axes: top-down (strategy and rules defined at the top), bottom-up (creativity and concrete solutions coming from the bottom), transversal processes (to effectively change the machine) and culture (the real transformation).
Change management is changing
The view of leadership has changed over time. In the 1940s and 1950s, the hero leader. Next, the rational-leader. In the 70s and 80s, the leader-manager of change. In the '90s and '00s, the leader-authentic and relational. In this decade, we move towards the global citizen leader, whose attention goes beyond the company.
In this context, change management also changes and must involve multiple relationships outside the company, including changing the relationship with customers, suppliers, the community, social networks, regulators, etc. Open innovation is one of the examples of the importance of the company's external relationships and the ability to act outside the corporate bubble. Digital business models (such as Apple's) are another example of how the relationship with what is outside the company is that defines competitive advantage. Change management enters an even more complex field here.
Note: Article originally published in Portal da Liderança.
*Carlos Miguel Valleré Oliveira he is CEO of LBC, an international management consulting company present in eight countries: South Africa, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, USA, Spain, Mozambique and Portugal. The also chairman of the Supervisory Board of CCILSA – Luso-South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry signs the section “Point of View” in the Portal da Liderança on topics such as leadership-management, economy-society and innovation-entrepreneurship.