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Roles in the change process - Coggle Diagram
Roles in the change process
Leadership of change
Transformational leadership
The leader will focus on the building of the strategic vision, the creation of identity and empowerment and the development of an appropriate culture. The original inspiring entrepreneur behind an organisation is often a transformational leader. The people and organisational impact of a key charismatic individual is always clear for all stakeholders to see but so is the gap created when that personalised driving force is no longer part of the organisation, particularly if much of the operational driving force relies upon it.
Transactional leadership
The leader is generally more concerned with making sure that the operational flow is appropriate to enable the strategy to be achieved, the term transaction referring to the motivation of followers by exchanging reward for performance. Problems occur in the longer term if strategic vision is unachievable or based on the hubris of one or more key individuals
The leadership of strategic change requires a combination of both transformational and transactional leadership in the same way that it requires both autocratic and participative leadership. The sign of a truly successful strategic leader is their ability to use a range of leadership styles in the ever changing world around them in an attempt to satisfy differing stakeholder expectations
The leaders use of power when dealing with other people
The role of leader implies that there are followers and therefore that the leader in some way or other is in a position of power with regard to the followers
Covey (1992)
suggests that there are three core types of power exerted by leaders
Coercive power
: the follower is concerned or afraid of what will happen if they do not follow the expectations of the leader (often based on fear of punishment or revenge)
Utility power
: the follower fulfils the requirement in the expectation of some form of reward, the leader has something that they want, tangible or intangible
Legitimate power
: The follower has a trust and respect in the leader and their objectives (often based around respect and belief)
Identifying the change agents
A change agent is a person or people who are able or required to use their particular abilities (and/or) knowledge or position to effect change within an Organisation
Communication techniques
Communication is an essential part of managing effective strategic change
As soon as more than one person is involved, there is the need to consider how a message is best communicated and through the most appropriate channel, according to the person or group receiving the message
Communication is always a two way process - transmitter and receiver
This disconnect applies in all forms of communication, and an important strategic consideration for the person transmitting is how to ensure optimal receiving of not just the communication ut also the intentions dn meaning of the words being used
As soon as individuals are involve, the problem of the variety of differing individual interpretation and understanding is introduced
A significant part of any strategic plan must also be how that plan is communicated, knowing that a listener will create will create their own meaning and interpretation
When to communicate and what to communicate needs to be built into every strategic plan. There is no ideal time, other than to ensure that every effort has been made to communicate to relevant parties ahead of the need for their involvement within the anticipated strategic change and further to attempt to ensure that those being communicated to have really understood the salient facts and requirements
The Johari window
By plotting the dimensions of the known and the unknown with that of ourselves and others it helps us to identify, consider and challenge where the disconnect happens in our communication with others
Arena
An area where there is open communication between all individuals concerned; subjects can be openly challenged as all parties have a good understanding and knowledge (
Known by others, known by myself
)
Blind spot
An area where we as a communicator, need to seek additional knowledge from other people to ensure that we have a full understanding and thus enable better communication (
Unknown by self, known by other
)
Facade
Can allow us, as a communicator, to dominate the decision-making and potentially abuse our leadership power; the objective must be to help others understand in order to enable better communication (
Known by self, Unknown by other
)
Unknown
An area of uncertainty where all parties have limited or no real knowledge or information and therefore there is the risk of incorrect decision making; the objective is clear - better knowledge and information through research or the introduction of additional people; this might be a good example of where an external consultant could play a useful role in the strategic change process (
unknown by me, unknown by others
)
Methods of managing change
The following approaches will be useful in different communication circumstances; these might be separate strategic change processes or different approaches may be required during the same strategic change process
Education
The process of facilitating learning is an important part of the communication process in the management of change; its effectiveness will be largely based around the culture of the organisation and the readiness of the learners to accept the process
Those who lead the change process need to identify good teachers for this process, recognising that they themselves might not be the best at this task
Participation
When people are able to participate in different stages of strategic change, they are far more likely to become part of the change rather than reject it
There is a risk that people will find change solutions based around current practice and culture rather than be prepared to consider alternative approaches
It is also not always possible to involve people in the early stages of strategic change planning in order to maintain confidentialtity
Facilitation
It is important that one or more people within a change project team have specific responsibility for facilitating differing communication processes
When understanding is just assumed, people are often left unaware of the real organisational expectations
Support
Part of the strategic change plan should be to identify and communicate the different stages of the process where it is important to garner support from all key people
As with participation, the sooner people are involved in a process and the importance of their role is explained and understood, the sooner they are likely to participate fully within the change process
Ownership
This is a key word that is often misused by consultants and others as in: 'we need to give the people ownership'
While of course the approach is right, as people will take more care and consideration over something that they believe they own, the concept often fails to realise the remoteness with which many people view their work in comparison to their personal life
The real benefit of an ownership approach will come from a culture of inclusion within an organisation
Negotiation
The concept of negotiation as part of the change communication process can be useful if treated professionally
A natural human reaction to a perceived change can be what's in it for me?
Negotiation, when used intelligently, can help to plan both sides of a change process, identifying pre-emptively the benefits that can be gained (tangible or intangible) by people participating fully within the perceived changed environment
Force
It may be necessary at times to give people no choice but to co-operate with a change and therefore insist they fulfil the requirements
It is a dangerous precept upon which to base any change as human nature is resistant to force and natural instincts will begin to rebel.
It could be that this becomes a breaking point with an organisation requiring a change of personnel
Manipulation and coercion
Manipulation suggests attempting to get people to do something different by not giving them all the facts or potentially making the situation appear better than it actually is
Coercion is a more extreme form of manipulation, where change is imposed through power, often through the use of threat
Levers for strategic change (
Senge (2006)
Time intelligence
Time will always play a significant part in the management of strategic change
As a resource, time is both restricted (were are only 24 hours in each day) and needs utilising (if you fail to use today's time, you cannot move it forward into tomorrow)
A significant part of the leadership role is determining the optimal time to operate the levers of change
Sometimes this may be dictated by the need for completion of a project by a particular time; sometimes there may be an urgency and a short and defined timescale; sometimes the availability of people will dictate the timeframe; sometimes the leader needs to determine the timing for the different stages of the strategic change
The deadlines will often be set by the stakeholders and therefore have a direct influence on our efficiency and our effectiveness
Removing presumption
There is often the need to pull a lever to change the paradigms of long-standing, taken for granted presumptions about the way an organisation has to operate
We naturally become familiar with a known manner of operating and often presume that certain operations happen in a particular way
To change this lever will require a participatory route, the opening of people's minds and the willingness to think laterally about what actually happens and what needs to happen within an organisation or a subset process within the orgnisation
Changes of routine and operations
The complexity of large multinational organisations and even the level of complexity that often develops within smaller organisations means that people are used to operating levers within the system at a particular time and in a particular way
Often these routines can be perceived as the basis of core competence and competitive advantage but such routines can prove a difficult lever to shift when seeking strategic change
An important part of the strategic planning process is to identify and map these routines and the people who are closely associated with them
This will allow the appropriate challenge, education and communication to ensure that the operation of all such levers is fully understood before any change is implemented
Change of expected outcomes
It is intrinsic that the strategic change process is specifically designed to allow for regular reassessment of the intended process based around emergent outcomes. There is a risk that the end objective is never achieved and therefore a disciplined focus on time and the setting of clear targets and expectations is essential