Making it Stick

This is the last installment of the leading change blogs. At this point in the change process many things are beginning to look different. The changes are no longer reserved to small things, and the people around the organization have begun to adapt to a culture of change. For the individual at this point changes have taken place and there is already tangible evidence of your transformation as a person. So what more could possibly need to be done?

The final step is putting measures into place which ensure the changes last. For the organization this means leadership. As Jim Collins would put it, having the right people on the bus, and in the right seats. Not just current leadership however, there must be a plan to develop more leaders. Organizations cannot have enough quality leaders. Please note the qualifier there, quality. Too many leaders can be akin to too many cooks in the kitchen if the leaders do not really understand the role and life of a leader. If leaders are only positional leaders, see John Maxwell 5 levels of leadership, they are not always willing to follow at the right times. Quality leaders are developed intentionally, and the organization which invests in developing leaders will endure, and be a culture if change.

For the individual, steps must be take to keep the changes in place. This often takes the form of habits and regular activities. The most important tool to making change stick in our lives is accountability. Most of us do not have the capacity to hold ourselves accountable on every front, we need help. This is where the group that helps initiate and encourage the change comes in. They also need to be the people who hold you accountable to the ground you have already covered. For me this is my covenant group which meets monthly as a minimum, other times as needed.

Change is inevitable. The question is whether the change will move toward life, or toward death. Remember, death is a change. Change which produces life is not happenstance, change which brings life is intentional and must be thought through carefully. I think John Kotter has given us an excellent outline of how to work through change. I encourage all of you to read his words in Leading Change

Keep on Rolling

We are continuing our brief run through the 8 stages or steps of change as outlined by John Kotter in his book Leading Change. At this point of development change is happening at a good rate with in your life or organization. This is not the time to sit back and enjoy it all. This is when the small successes are collected together to point to larger changes. At this point there is enough credibility added up that initiating change is a little easier than in the beginning of the process. Now is the time to make the major changes which will ultimately create a new culture.

This is the point where good organizations become great, and individuals move toward greatness in their lives. In an organization major changes such as personnel, styles and core purpose can be addressed at this point. for the individual there has been enough success in developing change in your life, that new opportunities and experiences seem logical and normal.

At this point of making change there is a focus on cementing the change culture in to the organization or life. Making all the necessary changes, major or minor at this point, to ensure the culture shift will hold. It is important at this place of development to not cement the new ideas and changes, rather the culture of change. Where an organization or individual is today is not the place they should be tomorrow. Our lives and organizations should be organic, and constantly changing and adapting what the next opportunity is.

For those who are following Jesus Christ, this culture of change requires a deep connection with God. As we are more successful with change a great danger arises, we can think it was our ability. God is the one who is in charge of the changes which need to be made. Our change culture is a one where we stay deeply connected with God (Abide) and respond to the lead of God with obedience.

Just Win Baby!

It seems like common sense when the challenge is large. If you want to climb Mount Everest you do not simply spend a week on the treadmill and then go for it. There needs to be a series of victories which get you to the top of the world.

When trying to change going for the big win out of the gate without creating a foundation of wins is going to be difficult. It is important to create successful situation which other people can see. Not a grand and wholesale change, something simple and small. Chaining a series of these successful situation will create an atmosphere where change becomes normative. Can you imagine an organization or a life where change is the norm? Along the way the small successes need to celebrated. Now the celebration should be in proportion to the success. If you lose the first 5 pounds of the 85 you need to lose, there needs to be a party, but not on the scale of when you lose all 85, watch the snacks at the party all the work could be undone.

When we as individuals and organizations begin to reward success and change the culture of our lives and organizations change. However, we must create or build the wins in steps. Getting real practical here. If you want to read more, say your Bible, don't carve out a hour the first day to do this. Start with five minutes, once you have that victory for a few weeks, grow it to ten, then twenty, and so on.

Small success, or wins, leads to bigger success. There is something that needs to be added. Change is a continual process. There is always another success to be gained. It is easy to have this be about making money, or building successful organizations. The real challenge worth gaining success in is the person you are becoming through the change. Are you becoming more and more self, or me driven? Or are you connecting more and more with God?

Take Action

As I look at the steps to leading change, now it the time to move to action. To this point urgency has been created, the change team is collected, a vision and plan have been established, and communication of the plan is under way. Now the change process must be implemented.

The first thing to be done at this point is to remove obstacles to change, or even obstacles to new, innovative and creating work. Realizing there are things standing in the way which might be good, but are in the way of what is great and optimal for life and the organization. The removal of these obstacles can be as simple of a reallocation of time, it could mean the elimination of an activity, it could mean dismissal of staff, or it might mean changing the way you lead. As one might guess each of these carries different types and weights of baggage. Adjusting a schedule is easier than making changes to personnel. However, change is not going to happen is obstacles are allowed to be obstacles.

As the obstacles are being removed it is important to recognize the change might involve structural, or philosophical changes. In an organization, the management structure might work against the change that is trying to be put into place. Likewise the underlying mindset of the organization might be in the way of change. There needs to be a willingness to change, even to the core understandings and structure. In the life of the individual this might mean changing the way you have always done it.

Freedom is the last part in this phase of change. People need to be allowed the freedom to try new things. To take a chance without the threat of punishment if things do not work out well. I like to thing of this as the experimental stages. In our own lives and in the lives of organizations there needs to be room for experimental work to take place. This is the place where innovators and non-traditional thinkers thrive, leaderships responsibility is to let them.

Once the action steps are underway, new obstacles will arise. We must do what we can to remove those obstacles. Before we remove them however, we must first test them to see if God is placing an obstacle in front of us. The obstacle might be a warning, or a prompting from God to follow after Him. In all the change process, God is in charge, not humanity.

Get The Word Out

Once again I am working my way through the 8 steps of change as outlined by John P. Kotter in his book, Leading Change. Today's portion is about communicating the vision. The previous step was to create, or identify the vision, and develop a plan to reach that vision. The first implementation step is to let others know what the vision is. This is a very practical, yet often poorly done, step. There is no value in having a vision and a plan if there is not communication regarding it.

Organizationally this means saturating your organization with the vision and plan. This will mean print media to water cooler conversation, e-mail to spoken word. Taking the lead on this communication is the guiding coalition, or you team of people who are instigating the changes. If you and this team do not embody the vision and plan, that will communicate louder than anything else. Often we see this process done on television for the larger companies, smaller organizations will need to be more creative on a smaller budget.

On the personal road to transformation, we need to communicate the vision and plan as well. This gets into the area of accountability. When we communicate the vision and plan to other people, they will ask how we are doing with the vision and plan. We will need to answer them and ourselves. I would like to think I could make all the needed changes in my life without others holding me accountable, but I cannot. I need other people in the journey, and I would guess I am not alone in that. Now with our personal vision and plan, we might not want to get t-shirts printed, or pay for a TV spot, yet we must communicate to others our intentions to reach a preferred future.

A Look and A Plan

As we continue to look at the change process our next step is to create a vision and a plan. To do this we need to understand first what it means to have a vision. Some have said that a vision is a preferred future. While this begins to get at the idea it has one tragic flaw, our preferred future might not exist in the realm of possibility. For me a vision has to be something that is attainable. It might take great effort and will even necessitate a move of the Holy Spirit.

As for the plan, many great organizations and individuals have a well polished vision. This vision is posted in several places and presented as the hope of the organization. A vision without a plan is foolishness. One we have a look at what could be, there needs to be a concrete plan to get there. I say concrete because this is where detail begins to enter the picture. This is not the time for maybe and kind-of-sort-of language. The plan consists of the action steps being implemented to reach toward the vision. Equally, a plan without a vision is foolishness as well. Then people are putting in effort for an unknown direction and future.

It is easy to see how this would work in an organization, and I am sure many have experienced a organizations which make some classic blunders in the vision and plan department. The greater challenge is when the lens shifts from the organization to the individual. Most people have given thought about the vision in their life. It might involve making loads of cash, it might mean climbing the corporate ladder. But that is not the vision I am looking at. I mean, what kind of human being do you want to be? What do you want people to say about you when you are not there? Who we are should never be tied completely to the profession or vocation we have. Perhaps it is time to do some soul searching to get a vision of who you are in the future. You might even be bold enough to ask who God would want you to be.

Once the vision is established, is there a plan to move toward that vision. Are there concrete action items in you life to move you toward that preferred future? If not, it is time to get pen and paper, or the computer keyboard, out and put together a plan. Then implement that plan, starting today.

Truth be known, I do not think and organization can be changed or even transformed unless the senior leader and other key leaders are personally willing to commit to transforming their lives.

Cannot Do It On Your Own

Well back from a few days of R&R, and ready to jump back in. I am looking at the eight stages of leading change as outlined by John Kotter's book Leading Change. The first step is to create urgency, the second is to form a guiding coalition. One person, no matter what level leader they are, or what their skills and abilities are, can produce change. Change always requires a team effort, but not just any collection of people will do.

When putting together the team to instigate and implement change it is important to pay attention to the members of the team. A common error is to collect people who will always agree with you, and tell you what you want to hear. I want to be clear this is bad. Every effective team has the capacity to have healthy disagreement. However, the disagreement cannot be left at disagreement. There needs to be discussion and challenge of ideas, not to see who is right or wrong, but to produce the fruit of the desired change. Another component of the team which is often overlooked is the team must be willing to stand by each other and support each other when there is a bobble or a plan does not work. Change will often take a process of trial and error.

This is not simply an organizational principle. When trying to change an organization, a team is needed. The same is true when trying to create change within ourselves. We need to have a team of people who will journey with us through the change. People who will challenge us, people who will support us, people who will love us enough to enter the journey as their own. Without this team, or group change never becomes transformation, and transformation is ultimately the goal. I thank God I have both a personal team, and and organizational team, helping lead to transformation.