Harbingers of Change
Some CEOs seem to have an instinct for spotting harbingers of change and then taking initiatives that steal the march on the competition. In 1999 a quarter of the bacon sold in Britain came from foreign pigs that had not been fed antibiotics to make them grow faster. The Danish industry abandoned these drugs in response to consumer demand – a harbinger of change. In Sweden farmers are banned from using antibiotics to promote growth. This gave both the Swedish and Danish farmers an advantage over those in the UK who had not yet developed alternatives to antibiotics.Just like the first daffodil is a sign of seasonal change, so the Chinese family moving in next door is a harbinger of global economic change which is already affecting people around the entire world. There are 1.3 billion people in China absolutely desperate for change whilst people in the west remain complacent, enjoying the impermanent security of employment and economic strength.
Change is an accepted part of our lives, as uncontrollable as time itself. How we manage it whether as an instigator or on the receiving end will determine our level of success. Those who recognise the harbingers will invariably have the advantage over those who jump on the bandwagon and do their best to make up for lost time.
The job of a CEO these days is very often to bring about change in response to market data, industry trends or competitive pressure. Given that the pressure for a CEO to deliver seems to be building as a consequence of the increasing rate of change, is there any wonder that the majority of change initiatives struggle or fail, and most peter out unfinished (read The Dance of Change by Peter M. Senge).
The processes of change are many and varied, and most seem to brush against the CEO’s need to get from A to B in the shortest possible time.
Accepting that the prime job of a CEO is to execute plans and initiatives, and deliver shareholder value, all manner of options exist in response to the question - how? The processes of change are many and varied, and most seem to brush against the CEO’s need to get from A to B in the shortest possible time. If speed is a requirement then your change process must take this into account. There may not be enough time for a thorough consultation process when every single week of inertia results in competitive disadvantage. And when change happens slowly, day-by-day, we can become like boiled frogs – the change in temperature from cool to simmering heat is gradual and therefore not a major concern until it is too late to do anything about it - but death is inevitable.
The world famous theatre director Peter Brook in his book ‘The Empty Space’ relates to his very first experience of directing a cast of 45, and how he meticulously prepared using cardboard models of the stage, set, and actors to decide how he should direct at rehearsals. Having worked it out, at the actual rehearsal the actors behaved very differently from how he had imagined they would in his cardboard rehearsal the day before.
So rather than promote or argue for one best way of dealing with change, we might draw on experience and respond to needs, by suggesting a number of guidelines that any change process must encompass:
1 Harbingers of change are everywhere. Your marketing radar must be recognising these signals and feeding them into strategy formulation.
2 The rate of change is increasing rapidly. People throughout the organisation need to constantly acknowledge this and be ever-ready to respond positively to harbingers of change (avoid boiled frog scenario).
3 If major change is required speed of change is important (avoid becoming an ‘also ran’).
4 Change initiatives need to involve all the players and not be thought out in isolation (avoid resistance and confusion).
5 A CEO has little time to convince stakeholders that the ship is turning around, and so any change initiative must bring quick wins, medium term gains, and pragmatic optimism for the future.
6 Change initiatives need to be well thought through because they will require100% commitment (avoid the ‘peter-out’ syndrome of poorly designed change initiatives).
The human perspective
The above is all well and good, but what about the people who resist change and feel threatened by it? How do you deal with change initiatives which include downsizing, mergers, acquisitions, consolidation, and redundancy which have negative connotations for some people? When change is upon you it is too late to ask this question. It makes more sense to be ready for it when it comes, or taken to the extreme, encourage change with a ‘bring it on’ attitude. You want to be poised on the leading foot, not the back foot.
You will find that people in any company are divided into those that enjoy change and thrive on it, and those that fear change and grumble about it. It’s almost like a game of hide and seek where those hiding are stuck in their position for fear of being caught, and the seekers are scouting around and stirring people up so that they will come out of hiding.
Change agents are seekers of new truths, and have no trouble convincing each other that change is good.
Work of preparing people for change must focus on the people who are hiding from it.
There are many ways people hide from, or resist change. From our experience of working with people over many years we have observed that they all come from one of the following 4 fundamental causes:
1 No-one has ever appreciated what I have done and now you are telling me that I have to change. Why? Could someone important please tell me I have done a good job – just once?
2 I need my job, and even though I feel insecure most of the time, I can cope with it. I don’t know if I would be able to cope with it if it were to change. I am not highly skilled – it takes all my effort to do the job I have now – if I had to do another job people might see that I’m not very good.
3 I thrive on certainty and all this talk of change makes me feel very uncertain about the future. The more I think of it, and the more I hear about it, the more anxious I become.
4 I like structure. Change is usually chaotic and this would stress me out. I like to know where I am, who I report to and what’s expected of me otherwise I lose direction and focus.
When people are ready for change they face it head on with optimism and enthusiasm for all the new possibilities it will bring. How many of your people are in a state of readiness? At Quadrant 1 we refer to these people as orange circle thinkers. And how many are well entrenched in their hiding places – stuck in their blue square thinking?
Recognising blue square thinkers - It is easy to spot people who are hiding from change and who may need help to steer them through it. Their vocabulary, demeanour and body language is often quite different from orange circle thinkers. Orange circle thinkers operate from a foundation of challenge, curiosity, pleasure, difference, impact, celebration and influence. Their behaviour, language and body postures will support their way of thinking. Blue square thinkers on the other hand will operate from a foundation of security, status, threat, suspicion, pain, confusion, uncertainty and avoidance and their behaviours, language and body postures will reflect this.
Very often all that is needed to help such people through change is some reassurance. Some may need more help in the form of personal development training to get to the real reasons they are avoiding change. Many years of working with such people has shown us that, once the barriers are removed, people who previously resisted changed begin to embrace it and even encourage it. Taking this course of action with skilled people is, of course, much more cost effective than replacing them with new untried people and all the associated costs and risks involved in recruitment not to mention the necessary but unproductive period of initiation, learning and familiarisation which takes place when someone new joins an organisation.
In summary everyone in an organisation has a role to play in change, the CEO/directors in recognising the harbingers and engaging people in the process, HR/Training Managers in making sure that employees are prepared and willing to embrace change and the employees themselves in taking responsibility for their own personal development.
If you would like to find out how Orange Circle Thinking could help you, your colleagues or your organisation call 0870 762 1300 for an informal discussion.
