It is a well-used truism that the conditions organisations operate in today are hugely volatile, with high levels of uncertainty and multiple challenges that burst upon you from unexpected directions.
This has long been the case, but the scale and speed at which these obstacles develop is creating new levels of challenge. As written in Forbes in 2019: “Change has never been so fast. It will never be this slow again.”
The mandate for leaders to respond and change in the face of such accelerating headwinds is clear, at least for the majority. Many will revert to extensive strategic assessments of the conditions, hoping a coherent plan and a systematic change program will steer them through.
However, defining and focusing on the ‘nature of the challenge’ in the hope that a better understanding of its nature will lead to better solutions, can provide false comfort, for several reasons:
The ‘nature of the challenge’ will change during your response to it
The challenges will show up in different ways, in different parts of the organisation
Different parts of an organisation will be at different stages of readiness to respond and adapt
Any carefully co-ordinated and controlled plan to radically reform an organisation will likely stumble when it hits the diversity of the real-world. “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” said Helmuth von Moltke. More crudely, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” said Mike Tyson.
For leaders then, it is virtually impossible to predict and define a future state that the organisation must move to. While the nature of the challenge, ie the pressures the organisation is under and the ultimate objective to grow and remain profitable, can be clear, what this actually means in terms of how to respond can be a source of paralysis. Nothing is certain to work, so how do you decide what to say yes to? If you can’t know and predict everything, which projects and approaches should you embed?
A shift in emphasis being taken by some leading organisations is seeing them achieve remarkable results in extremely short time periods.
They aren’t planning better than their competitors. They don’t have greater insight to the market than others. So, what are they doing?
1. They relinquish some control; balance framework and flexibility
They first establish a framework for ‘what good looks like’ from a business perspective, and then show commitment for people to be flexible within it. Central to this approach is the concept of ‘balance’. The freedom and flexibility to try, learn and experiment is balanced and guided by a clear framework of success and objectives.
The framework must be inarguable, simple and universal. It should be insulated from the vagaries and volatility of the external environment. Principles such as ‘does it drive profit?’, ‘is it good for customers?’ and ‘is it good for staff?’ are true no matter what happens and provide a clarity that is easy to understand and demonstrate (or refute). It means being clear on the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, but being very open in the ‘how’, in terms of both the content (what a solution might look like) and the process (how it will operate in real life).
One advantage of rapid changes in digital capability and potential is that the ‘process’, how something will work, is an increasingly flexible, non rate-limiting step. Not being tied to today’s technical solutions gives people freedom from the ‘process’, allowing them to be more creative in the ‘content’. With the right digital 'wrapper', it is possible to free people up to be agile, to rapidly test and learn, to fail without fear of retribution.
For this to work, leaders need to relinquish some control, placing it in the hands of the people who will be affected most by subsequent change – those individuals and teams who are responsible for making the business operate, who know what it takes to make things work and who will have to live with the consequences of the decisions day to day.
2. They recruit beyond the usual; build diverse and resilient change teams
They also deliberately build in diversity of input. The make-up of the most effective team to address and respond to these challenges may only be best discovered by looking across and around the organisation more widely than might normally be expected. Diverse people and thinking creates a more challenging environment for the ‘content’ to be critiqued, leading to more robust and effective outcomes.
Change will affect everyone in an organisation, whether they want it or not. There are people in most organisations who keep the business going – they could be considered a ‘safe pair of hands’, people who may feel ‘comfortable’ in a role, but whose experience and expertise are often overlooked. These ‘internal influencers’ - well connected, but not that visible - know what will make something work, what good looks like, and can be either important advocates, or unwitting saboteurs, of change.
It is important not to assume what their underlying skills, talent and motivation could mean. They have a clear understanding of the dynamics of the business, and they know how what they do affects it. If such people are involved in the process of change and given responsibility and support to create the future, not only will they experience higher levels of ownership and commitment, but they will also create better outcomes. No-one wants to make life worse for themselves and everyone wants to be part of success.
Combining long-standing experience with ‘naïve’ dynamism from elsewhere creates mutual opportunities to learn. Form working groups of people from completely different roles, allowing them to bring their experience into a new sphere. Encourage them to bring ideas to the table, to contribute and test approaches, and to challenge the norms.
Look to see the talent of the people you have - if you haven't seen it, you haven't looked close enough.
3. They manage attention spans; create self-sustaining cadence and momentum
In addition, they acknowledge that change is difficult, not just from a technical perspective, but from a human one. Judging the appetite and capacity for change with the desired pace of change means understanding and segmenting internal audiences, creating narratives that are magnified by key advocates and which leads to the generation of momentum. When not everyone is on the same page in pace of change terms, having peers and respected colleagues talking the talk and walking the walk can encourage significant shifts in perspective and behaviour.
It is often the case that, due to the speed the world keeps changing, a ‘rallying cry’ of a compelling future vision cannot easily be set. Where the level of challenge seems relentless, when there always seems to be program of change and a pressure to evolve, ‘change-fatigue’ can lead to people opting out of believing.
It is important then to celebrate progress habitually. Regular ‘showcase’ events, led and presented by those responsible and accountable for change are powerful engagement tools. Not only do they highlight the great work being done, they also focus the teams on the next priorities, allowing sharing best practice and creating a sustainable cadence of momentum which others in the organisation can see, believe in and aspire to.
4. They capture the imagination; continuously tell an optimistic future-facing story
Finally, to engage people across a business needs more than facts and figures – it takes ‘storytelling’. There are many reasons storytelling is so powerful, not least of which is the way it is tied to how our brains listen to and process information. Remembering a story isn’t a case of factual recall and comprehension – it taps into our emotional brains, triggering the same effect as if we were living the story, not just listening to it. A good story is one we can relate to as individuals – when re-telling it, it becomes ‘our story’.
Having a strong story behind change can be easy in the case of ‘turn-around’ situations – when the business is under existential threat. Here, leaders can have the candour to make this clear to all and it is often a case of ‘change or die’. In cases where the platform doesn’t appear to be burning (yet), where cash is being generated and people feel ‘comfortable’, creating a compelling case for change can be more difficult.
In either case, a more optimistic approach can pay dividends. When telling a story of why change is happening, make it clear it is not just a case of it coming from 'up high'. People should feel they are the drivers of their own destiny, not the ‘victims’. If a change seems too big, chunk it up so it is more digestible, less intimidating. Create safe environments for challenge, being as transparent as possible. Bring the voice of the customer into the room to tell people what's really going on ‘out there’. Put it in everyday speak – use human terms, relevant to individuals, their culture and their language.
Stories should come from someone people trust, and they shouldn’t belong to one person – people should be allowed to create their own version of the story.
The volatility of today’s world creates lots of opportunity for people to do things differently. Humans are naturally creative; we are learning machines. When given the opportunity to do something different, to try, and to improve, people are more than able to respond. Your people are brilliant. Allow them to be.
This article was written following the April Forum on leading successful strategic transformation in a fast-moving, uncertain environment. Visit our Forum page to find out more.
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