Saddled by best practices
Why change is needed in the field of change management
Let me assure you that this is a thoughtful person who shows all due deference to those that have gone before me. I would add that now more than ever we need to move beyond and expand our thinking in the field of change management. Do broad, surface level “best practices” saddle the field of change management with limited success?
The field of change management is an area where the gap between what’s needed and what’s available is most glaring and the limitations painfully apparent. What’s left is a set of “best practices” that are neither sufficiently deep nor broad. What paralyzes and dumbfounds change leaders is that very little of the big stuff gets done. As organizations fail to realize needed change, employees are frustrated and more disengaged. I would assert that many change management best practices and approaches fall short of helping change leaders truly understand, specifically, what they need to do differently. For example, knowing that frequent communication about the need for change is a change management “best practice” doesn’t help the person responsible for the communication craft effective messages that tap into the nuances of human behavior. Or, knowing that executive leadership is a requirement for successful change doesn’t help executives glean any insight into different actions to realize different results. For those that have yearned for change insights that would change the playing field, these best practices barely skim the surface. And while these best practices have become gospel in the field of change management, ask yourself this question: do these best practices really help you understand what to do differently?
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I could not agree more! My change management practice is focused on helping organizations get acclimated to ERP technology. Business leaders that I work with understand that they need to set the tone and communicate. But then they ask a tough question – "so what am I supposed to say and do differently?" Textbook answers are no help, and how to craft an effective message is not something I can get across in a half-hour meeting or even a two-hour focus group. You are spot on with this observation – thanks for making it!
On the communication front, get professional advice on how to craft messages, it is important to get it right because it affects so many people's attitude to the change. If done badly it will introduce unnecessary barriers, no matter how often communications were sent. Bad content frequently sent will cause more problems than good comms content infrequently sent is my view, but would welcome other opinions
Thanks Dave! Recommend great book where leaders are realizing successful change – "SuperCorp" by Harvard Business School professor and author, Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
I believe you are right Melissa. Having worked as an internal change consultant what I have learned is that each change is different and although you develop tried and true ways to facilitate the transition you have to ask yourself is this what is really needed in this situation? Because even our changes are changing and perhaps people are more savvy about change and what their expectations are maybe we do have to reevaluate what we do as we may be making a lot of work for ourselves without much result. I also think, and have found some great insights from reading to support this, that applying best practice all the time for change actually creates barriers and constraints. Why don't we as a theorist once wrote, make our own footsteps in the sand instead of following what others have done? Otherwise we will never be innovative and isn't that what change is really about?
Thanks for your comments Lisa! You noted, "…and have found some great insights from reading to support this, that applying best practice all the time for change actually creates barriers and constraints."
Can you point me in the direction of those findings? Thanks again and enjoy the day.
~Melissa
Melissa,
Very often 'change Masters' are pursuaded to codify what they do as best practice. Having done this the best practice becomes fossilised and slavishly adhered to whatever the situation, because it is best practice. 'Change managers ' often fall into the category of those who apply the best practice (the process) as described without understanding what they are applying it to ie the current situation. And the current situation is never static in my experience, so an inflexible best practice approach can fail spectacularly, where a non-standard practice may suceed spectaculary. Thanks for the platform to discuss these points Melissa,
It all depends on who, where, what etc the prevailing situation presents. Best practice will give you tools and methodology to apply, the hard work is evaluating if it will work in the situation you face, and what else you could try to get the job done. In some situations it encourages 'laziness' in approach, and can stop people relating to what is 'real' because they are slavishly following the process. I have seen this happen with project management, lots of best practice, lots of plans and still there are failures in deliveries. I fear change management could suffer a similar fate.
I woul also add that I have seen Quality Management fall into the same trap. In some instances the attainment of ISO can 'blind' a comany into thinking it is doing things in a quality fashion and continuously improving if it follows the best practice documentation and process. However, unless the situation is well understood that may well not be the 'real' case.
Hi Mili,
Thanks for your comments! You noted, "est practice will give you tools and methodology to apply, the hard work is evaluating if it will work in the situation you face, and what else you could try to get the job done."
Spot on! Excellent points.
~Melissa Dutmers
Best practices give us a good map of territory others have covered before, and yet the best map is just a model or tool. Change leaders must have a deep competence in exploring unknown terrain, making decisions in the face of uncertainty, and dealing with the ever changing conditions. The best change leaders recognize when the wind is changing directions, or when it makes sense to turn around and try a different road when the one they are traveling is blocked, or to pause and regroup rather than depleting resources in the face of an unmovable obstacle.
Best practices are options that work much of the time — they are not recipes to follow with guaranteed results. It is a foolish explorer who ignores lessons learned over time from those who have gone before or from his or her own mistakes, but to blindly attempt to retrace another’s steps isn’t leadership – it is insanity. Best practices are one of many tools in a change leader’s tool kit, and the best change leaders have the wisdom and flexibility to follow the path when it makes sense, and to explore a different path when conditions call for it.
Hi Angela,
Well said! Thanks for the comments. I suppose I question the models and tools because the emphasis, it seems, is more on the tool than the judgment to realize results. Thanks again and enjoy the day.
~Melissa
Getting the "big stuff" done is usually the challenge. The theme of the responses is pretty clear. Regardless of best practices, it is usually up to the change leader to figure out how to flex them to the situation at hand and be able to meet the stakeholders desire. Best practices are frameworks to be used as guidelines. The more you use them, the better you can adapt them to the situation. I think it takes someone with an execution bias as well as the business savvy to understand how to do the basics. By the basics I mean taking some current state, helping the change targets understand what they want and then getting them there.
Mark, Agree you view. I think the business representative or client bears a responsibilty to communicate desired change targets and the 'consultant' activity of the change management role to draw these out and articulate them as measures for improvement. Violent agreement should be the result, if not go round the loop again.
Mili