Call for Ideas, Activities, Tools to Leading Change: 8 Steps to Improving Performance During Change

I am asking for your input and your ideas related to Change Leadership!

I am about ready to publish my first book: Magnify Change Leadership: A guide for First Line Management. This will be a practical guide to help first line managers lead their teams through 8 important steps to improve their team's success during times of change. These steps include:

1. Establish Trust
2. Discover and Link to Team Values
3. Articulate a Clear Message About the Change
4. Create a Shared Vision with the Team
5. Collaborate with the Team for Solutions
6. Maintain Focus Over Time by Celebrating Wins
7. Empower Performance Through Coaching
8. Monitor the Process and the Results

The book will include a tool kit with over 32 ideas, activities, actions and tools that managers can use to improve their success in managing change. I would like to add your ideas to this list and site you as a reference in the book. Please share your ideas of activities, actions or tools that you have seen are particularly effective in developing these 9 steps during times of change. Send your ideas to me via email at: james.gehrke@magnifyleadership.com or post your ideas on this blog.

With your permission, over the next few months I will share your ideas with others in our newsletter and add the best submissions to the toolkit we publish. Of course we will site you as the reference in the book and we will be happy to send you a free copy when the book is published.

See the article below to learn more about each of the steps.

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Please forward this to others who may be interested in contributing or joining our monthly newsletter.

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Mark Twain once said, "The only person who likes a change is a baby in a wet diaper."

Individuals are naturally prone to resist change. During times of organizational change this tendency to resist may be magnified even further if employees feel the organization has broken or will break their commitment to them as individuals.

In today's environment of constant upheaval caused by cost saving efforts, realignments, outsourcing, etc., a change effort will bring many questions into the minds of employees, including; whether their position will be eliminated; if they will have a cut in pay, bonus, benefits, pensions; if they will need to produce more or do with less resources; if they will be relocated; or if they will face a multitude of other negative consequences because of what the company is proposing. With apprehension about the change, rumors swell and the minds of employees are diverted because of trepidations concerning the upcoming change. As a result, energy and efforts are dampened or diverted elsewhere, and performance suffers.

At a corporate level it may be easy to chart on paper the projected improvements a change will have on performance, raising results from point A to point B, through a number of steps, to help the company arrive at the desired outcome. The increased performance outcomes of a change effort can be measured in financial and production outcomes, improved products or service, improved customer or employee satisfaction or other measures. However, growth toward the desired outcome is not likely to come in a smooth straight line upward due to the fact that employee performance is likely to drop as new changes are begun due to resistance, fear, confusion, distractions, lack of motivation, etc.

The consequences of a drop in performance during change can have negative consequences for individuals (less bonus, loss of pride, future impact on review ratings, spiral negativity which could worsen results further, etc), on the team leaders (not making targets, less bonus, lack of ability to maintain team motivation, etc), and for the larger organization (slower time in implementing change, not reaching target outcomes, etc). Perhaps for this reason there are statistics which show that success rates for change efforts in Fortune 1000 companies are less than 50% and even could be as low as 20% (Harvard Business Review, 1998, p. 140).

Team leaders can apply a process to help lessen the dip in performance and shorten the time to implement the change and regain performance, benefiting the organization, the manager and the individual employees. This process includes the following 8 steps:

1. Build an environment of trust with the employees in order to create an environment where employees are more open to ideas and more willing to discuss possibilities and problems associated with change.

2. Link the change effort to a common team value in order to help employees feel they can relate to the change effort at a personal level. This increases the desire and motivation to change.

3. Articulate and communicate a clear message about why the change effort is needed and will help the team. This links the facts and figures supporting the change to the team value. Communication should frequent throughout the effort.

4. Establish a vision with the employees regarding the possible advantages of making the change in order to help the team define for themselves where the change will take them.

5. Collaborate for solutions with team members so that employees have the opportunity to identify the driving and restraining forces in the change effort and identify action steps for implementing steps to implement the change and overcome the restraining forces.

6. Establish and celebrate wins along the way. The leader should actively orchestrate wins and celebrations so employees can see that the change effort is important and see that changes in behavior will lead to positive outcomes.

7. The leader must manage performance around the change. This includes coaching those who need support with the change, disciplining or removing those who continually resist the change or have decided to fight against it, rewarding positive changes, hiring employees who have the new capabilities needed in the change effort, etc...

8. Constantly monitor the process and the results to ensure that the change effort is on track.

The Difference Between Leaders and Managers

Kotter argues that leadership and management are complimentary yet different. He believes that organizations that develop and promote leadership skills will out perform those who emphasize management skills since organizations with leaders will be able to adapt to the changing market place.

My multinational business experience in Europe confirms that organizations who emphasize leadership skills are greatly valued. The Turkish organization, while a less developed organization than others in Europe, was known as a breading ground of global leaders. The country manager gave young managers the opportunity to lead teams, then laterally moved them to other departments in order to broaden their exposure and experience in developing strong leadership skills rather than deep departmental skills.

This example demonstrates the value of leadership skills. Still, leadership is only one role that a manager plays and not a completely separate skill set. I disagree that "people cannot manage and lead." While the leadership role may be growing in importance, the other management roles are also important. Without balance a leader/manager may not fully benefit the organization. For example, long term planning certainly needs the vision of a leader, but management skills must also be used to organize the teams in ways to meet that vision. Furthermore, a leader/manager must have the communication and motivation skills to align and motivate, as well as the organizational and team building skills to ensure the team is organized and developed in ways to meet future challenges.