LEADING ORGANIZATION CHANGE: Learning Log and Reflective Analysis

Date: 18-12-08.

Force Field Analysis.

Understanding the Pressures For and Against Change.

Force Field Analysis is a useful technique for looking at all the forces for and against a decision. In effect, it is a specialized method of weighing pros and cons.By carrying out the analysis you can plan to strengthen the forces supporting a decision, and reduce the impact of opposition to it.

How to Use the Tool:

To carry out a force field analysis, first prepare a worksheet as per below figure and follow these steps:

· Describe your plan or proposal for change in the middle.
· List all forces for change in one column, and all forces against change in another column.
· Assign a score to each force, from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong).

For example, imagine that you are a manager deciding whether to install new manufacturing equipment in your factory. You might draw up a force field analysis like the one in Figure 1:

Once you have carried out an analysis, you can decide whether your project is viable. In the example above, you might initially question whether it is worth going ahead with the plan.Where you have already decided to carry out a project, Force Field Analysis can help you to work out how to improve its probability of success.

Here you have two choices:

To reduce the strength of the forces opposing a project, or To increase the forces pushing a project.

Often the most elegant solution is the first: just trying to force change through may cause its own problems. People can be uncooperative if change is forced on them.

If you had to implement the project in the example above, the analysis might suggest a number of changes to the initial plan:

By training staff (increase cost by 1) you could eliminate fear of technology (reduce fear by 2)
It would be useful to show staff that change is necessary for business survival (new force in favor, +2)

Staff could be shown that new machines would introduce variety and interest to their jobs (new force, +1)

You could raise wages to reflect new productivity (cost +1, loss of overtime -2)

Slightly different machines with filters to eliminate pollution could be installed (environmental impact -1)

These changes would swing the balance from 11:10 (against the plan), to 8:13 (in favor of the plan).

Key points:

Force Field Analysis is a useful technique for looking at all the forces for and against a plan. It helps you to weigh the importance of these factors and decide whether a plan is worth implementing.Where you have decided to carry out a plan, Force Field Analysis helps you identify changes that you could make to improve it.

Leading Organisational Change: Learning Log and Reflective Analysis

Date: 15-12-08

Change Failure.

The question is “why” we fail to manage change.

Most of Change failures were due to poor changing initiatives as mentioned by John Kotter.

There were few studies which were being carried out on Change Failure – the observations were summarized as per below:

Ø Programmatic change – avoid programmatic change.
Change leader need to avoid by analyzing the impact of change. Ensure change initiatives
derived from comprehensive change management strategy. This means of confronting the
deepest issue ie attitudes and behaviors
Ø Writing a memo instead of lighting a fire
Ø Talking to much and saying to little
Ø Declaring victory before the war is over.
Ø Looking for villains in all the wrong places
Ø Unable to align human resources initiatives. Ensure our change management plan is
reflected in their systems and practices.
Ø Succeeding in a changing world. Lack of sense of urgency as said by Kotter.

We continuously need to question ourselves whenever we pay a visit and relook at our change management strategy or plan. Ask ourselves?

Ø Have I targeted the most pressing, deepest issues confronting the organization?

Ø Are the shift in attitudes and behaviors that need to be part of the plan?

Ø Have we help line mangers identify the most critical processes for reengineering etc?

Ø Do we provide training in redesigning and improving the key processes?

Ø Have we communicated enough? Communicate…communicate…communicate …..in order
to eliminate resistance….

Ø Are we facilitating the organization to design a process for gathering internal or external
customer feedback?

Ø Have we extended our empowerment to others to make decision and to act on our change
vision?

Ø Are we attending continuous improvement on our change management plan, monitor and
measure its performance?

Change Management Plan – What is it, in a simple way?

Change management plan is a roadmap that guides change planning and implementation activities

The change management plan is very dynamic. As we execute it, we shall learn and may require us to do some alignment or adjustment.

The are six step plan which are widely used for creating a change strategy and plan.

® Step 1 – Prepare to change

® Step 2 - Create vision and build commitment

® Step 3 – Create the Macro Change Strategy

® Step 4 – Design the Change Management Plan

® Step 5 – Implement the Change Plan

® Step 6 – Learn and adjust.

Again, we as change leader shall avoid programmatic change by analyzing the impact of change and ensure the initiatives is derived from a comprehensive change management strategy.

Change leaders must monitor the implementation of their change plan and regularly monitor the status of the plan

Human resources managers shall align systems and practices with change management plan.

Leading Organisational Change: Learning Log and Reflective Analysis

Date : 06-12-08

LEADING CHANGE:

Key learning lessons on Kotter’s eight (8) steps of change - change formula leadership:

1.Sense of urgency – increase urgency
2.Establish coalition – build the guiding team
3.Create a vision – get the vision right
4.Communicate and shared the vision – communicate for buy-in.
5.Empower action - empower other to act
6.Create short term win
7.Do not let up - consolidate and do not declare victory too soon
8.Make it stick - make change stick.

A summary of the article: "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail" by John Kotter. Harvard
Business Review, March-April 1995.

LEADING CHANGE: WHY TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS FAIL

Despite all the rhetoric, books, effort, and money thrown into change efforts in organizations today, most fail. Mega-consulting firms Arthur D. Little and McKinsey & Co. have studied hundreds of companies that entered Total Quality Management programs, but about two-thirds "grind to a halt because of their failure to produce the hoped-for results". Efforts at "reengineering" fared worse, with a 70% failure rate.

Peter Senge puts it quite starkly in his 1999 book "Dance of Change": "this failure to sustain significant change recurs again and again despite substantial resources committed to the change effort (many are bankrolled by top management), talented and committed people "driving the change", and high stakes. In fact, executives feeling an urgent need for change are right; companies that fail to sustain significant change end up facing crises. By then, their options are greatly reduced, and even after heroic efforts they often decline". This seems a bleak appraisal for any organization. Yet the equally important learning is that change efforts are still important to face.... and the sooner the better.

John Kotter (who teaches Leadership at Harvard Business School) has made it his business to study both success and failure in change initiatives in business. "The most general lesson to be learned from the more successful cases is that the change process goes through a series of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable length of time. Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and never produces satisfactory results" and "making critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains". Kotter summarizes the eight phases as follows.

1) ESTABLISH A SENSE OF URGENCY

Talk of change typically begins with some people noticing a vulnerability in the organization. The threat of losing ground in some way sparks these people into action, and they in turn try to communicate that sense of urgency to others. Kotter notes that over half the companies he has observed have never been able to create enough urgency to prompt action. "Without motivation, people won’t help and the effort goes nowhere….

Executives underestimate how hard it can be to drive people out of their comfort zones". In the more successful cases the leadership group facilitates a frank discussion of potentially unpleasant facts: about the new competition, flat earnings, decreasing market share, or other relevant indicators. It is helpful to use outsiders who can share the "big picture" from a different perspective and help broaden the awareness of organization members. When is the urgency level high enough? Kotter suggests it is when 75% of your leadership is honestly convinced that business as usual is no longer an acceptable plan.

2) FORM A POWERFUL GUIDING COALITION

Change efforts often start with just one or two people, and should grow continually to include more and more who believe the changes are necessary. The need in this phase is to gather a large enough initial core of believers. This initial group should be pretty powerful in terms of the roles they hold in the organization, the reputations they have, the skills they bring and the relationships they have. Regardless of size of your organization, the "guiding coalition" for change needs to have 3-5 people leading the effort. This group, in turn, helps bring others on board with the new ideas. The building of this coalition – their sense of urgency, their sense of what’s happening and what’s needed – is crucial. Involving respected leaders in this coalition will pay great dividends later.

3) CREATE A VISION

Successful transformation rests on "a picture of the future that is relatively easy to communicate and appeals to customers, stockholders, and employees. A vision helps clarify the direction in which an organization needs to move". The vision functions in many different ways: it helps spark motivation, it helps keep all the projects and changes aligned, it provides a filter to evaluate how the organization is doing, and it provides a rationale for the changes the organization will have to weather. "A useful rule of thumb: if you can’t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are not yet done with this phase of the transformation process".

4) COMMUNICATE THE VISION

Kotter suggests the leadership should estimate how much communication of the vision is needed, and then multiply that effort by a factor of ten. Do not limit it to one management meeting, a President’s address, or a few news articles. Leaders must be seen "walking the talk" – another form of communication -- if people are going to perceive the effort as important. Deeds along with words are powerful communicators of the new ways. The bottom line is that a transformation effort will fail unless most of the members understand, appreciate, commit and try to make the effort happen. The guiding principle is simple: use every existing communication channel and opportunity.

5) EMPOWER OTHERS TO ACT ON THE VISION

This entails several different actions. Allow organization members to make changes in their areas of involvement. Allocate budget money to the new initiative. Carve out time on meeting agendas to talk about the vision. Change the way your work is organized to put people where the effort needs to be. Free up key people from existing responsibilities so they can concentrate on the new effort. In short, remove any obstacles there may be to getting on with the change. Nothing is more frustrating than believing in the change but then not having the time, money, help, or support needed to effect it. You can’t get rid of all the obstacles, but the biggest ones need to be dealt with.


Date : 08-12-08

6) PLAN FOR A CREATE SHORT-TERM WINS

Since real transformation takes time, the loss of momentum and the onset of disappointment are real factors. Most people won’t go on a long march for change unless they begin to see compelling evidence that their efforts are bearing fruit. In successful transformation, leaders actively plan and achieve some short term gains which people will be able to see and celebrate.

This provides proof to organization members that their efforts are working, and adds to the motivation to keep the effort going. "When it becomes clear to people that major change will take a long time, urgency levels can drop. Commitments to produce short-term wins help keep the urgency level up and force detailed analytical thinking that can clarify or revise visions".

7) CONSOLIDATE IMPROVEMENTS AND SUSTAIN THE MOMENTUM FOR CHANGE

As Kotter warns, "Do not declare victory too soon". Until changes sink deeply into the enterprise culture – a process that can take five to ten years -- new approaches are fragile and subject to regression. Again, a premature declaration of victory kills momentum, allowing the powerful forces of tradition to regain ground.

Leaders of successful efforts use the feeling of victory as the motivation to delve more deeply into their organization: to explore changes in the basic culture, to expose the systems relationships of the organization which need tuning, to move people committed to the new ways into key roles. Leaders of change must go into the process believing that their efforts will take years.

8) INSTITUTIONALIZE THE NEW APPROACHES

In the final analysis, change sticks when it becomes "the way we do things around here", when it seeps into the bloodstream of the corporate body. "Until new behaviours are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are subject to degradations as soon as the pressure for change is removed". Two factors are particularly important for doing this. First, a conscious attempt to show people how the new approaches, behaviours, and attitudes have helped improve the enterprise.

People have to be helped to make the connections between the effort and the outcome. The second is to ensure that the next generation of enterprise leaders believe in and embody the new ways. Kotter writes "there are still more mistakes that people make, but these eight are the big ones. In reality, even successful change efforts are messy and full of surprises".

Bibliography:

You can go further into Kotter’s ideas by reading one of the following:

The Article: "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail" by John Kotter. Harvard Business Review, March-April 1995.

The Book: "Leading Change" by John Kotter. Harvard Business School Press, 1996.