Leading change is not a fast or easy process, but it is required to sharpen the organizational “saw” through synergy and renewal. It demands the power to stay the course, through setbacks and triumphs, and demonstrate the endurance to achieve results. Change starts with a single step, but that axiom can leave you discouraged when – after step one – you realize there are many more steps to take. You will face roadblocks in the form of people, internal systems, and outside forces. If step one is difficult to take, steps two and onward require even more perseverance and grit. The will to succeed makes the difference between those who initiate change and those who achieve it. Fighting complacency requires constant assessment and coaching.
Perpetual Motion Machine
Evaluation of your organization – its people, processes, and culture – is key to survival. Whether you are just starting the change, in the middle of it, or on the back end, your task is never over. There is no “mission complete”. When you let off the gas, you respond to environmental progress with organizational complacency. Therefore, leaders need to constantly reassess the conditions of their competitive environment and ask “how can we be better?”
In her biography of Elon Musk, by the same name, Ashlee Vance describes his organizations (SpaceX and Tesla primarily) as “perpetual motion machine[s] that are a weird mix of dissatisfaction and eternal hope”. Now, keep in mind there are inherent flaws in Musk’s leadership style and any perfectionist has demons of their own to overcome. But, the idea remains true – successful organizations are perpetual motion machines. They are ever moving, ever changing, always dissatisfied, and never lacking in hope or hustle.
Patty McChord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, describes the importance of change as a culture in her book Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility:
Line-Ups Cards on a Napkin
My father’s life story and baseball are as intertwined as the white cowhide and red stitching of a baseball itself. He played baseball, coaches baseball, and for a short period of time he worked in the Baltimore Orioles front office. He was offered a job as general manager for an Atlanta Braves Minor League Farm Club, but due to other life factors he decided to turn down the offer and switch professions. Even with the change in professions, he never stopped coaching.
”It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” -Coach John Wooden
Walking away from baseball as a profession didn’t kill his passion for the sport. From the time I was a young boy to the last time I was back in town visiting, my father could be found sitting at the kitchen table listening to sports talk radio, reading the Baltimore Sun, and scribbling baseball line-up cards in pencil on a napkin. There was never a shortage of napkins discarded on the kitchen table when I was a kid. They had any number of team line-ups scribbled on them: the Baltimore Orioles, the team he was currently coaching, or the team he may coach in five years.
My father is always thinking like a General Manager. How can I make the team and the organization better? Who can I trade, sign, or bring up from the Minors, to improve the ball-club? Where can our coaching make the largest difference? What things are technique issues and what are purely personnel issues? He applied this same hustle and focus to his profession, every team he has coached, and other areas of his life. Leading change is leading a learning organization. As a result, leaders do this by evaluating, assessing, and then applying a coach’s mindset. When you are done “scribbling line-up cards on a napkin,” it is time to take action.
Teach, Coach, Mentor
Positive reinforcement will make the difference between a single step in the right direction soon after abandoned, and lasting change. As a leader, you are a coach, teacher, and mentor. Taking the “scribbles on a napkin” (the assessments and evaluations) and acting on them is about helping the individuals through the change. To get the best out of your organization, you need to focus on getting the most out of your people. You just might be coaching your future replacement.
Every time you teach your team to do an aspect of their job or yours, you are building depth in your organization.
Succession planning is the ultimate form of ensuring the change lasts. Every day as a leader is an opportunity to, possibly, train your replacement. At the very least, if not training your direct replacement, you are training your organization to function without you. The most effective way to drive change is to create a leaderless organization by building a leader in every follower. Do not confuse this with leadership by committee, but rather a process that uses common values, goals, and standards in each constituent so the team can function with minimal management and within simple guidance and intent.
Leading Change is an Art
Throughout this series we discussed the change theory of Kurt Lewin, three steps for overcoming the fear of change, values-centered change, and finally, how to apply perseverance to ensure lasting change. Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory, formulated through practice in the business world and instruction as a professor at MIT, provides a system for leading change. Leaders conceptualize, communicate, garner support, and then set to work building the values-centered baseline of change. They create systems/processes driven by the change rather than the opposite. Once the systems are in place, continual assessment and innovation are required to remain adaptive in any competitive environment.
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This concludes our series on Leading Change. If you missed Parts I-III you can find them HERE. What did we fail to talk about? Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter with #LeadingChange. As always, you can also leave a comment below or contact us.
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