No one wants to be on the losing team. Everyone wants to be connected to a winning team.
Or for those who don’t view life in terms of win/lose, everyone wants to see results from their hard work and effort in life.
We all have different values and different needs, the need to see results may be driven by values of achievement or purpose or making a difference or others acting on your ideas.
At different times in my career I have been brought into a role and/or department to fix something that is no longer working. Some of these objectives that I had been given responsibility for represented significant change. Turn around operations.
We Do Not Like Change
And, many of us do not handle it well.
What does a leader do when they take over a team who faces significant change in their work environment?
Start with vision. Start with clearly articulating that future state that you are going to lead your people toward. Once the vision is clear and clearly articulated for everyone to understand, everyone needs to know their part in that future. Leaders must help people answer this question: How do I fit into this future?
Once a person can see how they fit into that vision, they have a choice. People, as an employee, as a spouse, or citizen, have a choice.
We Always Have The Power Of Choice
People may identify with a vision and be the strongest supporter or they may decide there is nothing in this vision for them and choose not to participate. They may even decide to remove themselves from the environment where this vision is being considered.
In any large scale change a leader will be faced with a broad level of responses to their proposed change. A leader who has mastered their work will know how to identify the people who have chosen to be a strong supporter of the vision. They may label these people early adopters. These people become one of the strongest drivers of the desired change and they often take the roles of caregiver, helper, educator and bring others who may be struggling with the change around to see the benefits.
The Early Adopters and Leaders
The people who choose to remove themselves from the environment being impacted by this change should be respected. They have taken their power of choice and moved themselves on to something they can choose to be part of. Something better for them. I would not automatically assume these people are quitters, they simply chose a different path. The leader may have lost a very valuable asset.
The Tide
The people who choose not to participate, the path of least resistance, represent the tide of change. These are the larger ‘general population’ that may need support to understand and get on board with whatever change they are faced with. There may be misunderstandings or assumptions being made that impact the clarity of the desired vision for these people. Again, nothing wrong, and a good leader must listen to these people. This is where a good leader has the opportunity to learn whether their strategy was sound. Maybe important details were missed and something in the plan needs to change. Real leaders listen, consider options and are not afraid to say they were wrong, when they are wrong.
We Are All Connected
In the work that I have done, and experience in observing failed initiatives, I have seen that there are common threads to these failed strategies. Three in my opinion:
First, strategy fails because leaders fail to plan properly
Secondly, strategy fails because leaders fail to support the people affected by the change.
; and,
As a leader when scanning the environment for potential risks of a business strategy there is an important and often overlooked factor. This factor is called culture.
Finally, when strategy and culture disagree, culture always wins.
This Is Important
Culture, in a healthy environment, protects things such as rights and freedoms. Culture, in an unhealthy environment, protects things like elitism, the boys club and a host of other morally unacceptable behavior. This is why we vision positive change through possibilities and creativity and why we deal with negative change through laws and enforcement.
If a bad leader were to attempt to force a strategy on people that infringed on rights and freedoms using law and enforcement; people stand up against this strategy because it is taking away a healthy right or freedom or both. In this case I guarantee there would be evidence of an unhealthy environment and morally unacceptable behavior found around this bad leader.
People may not know why they feel the need to stand up against the proposed change, and if we were to investigate further on an individual basis we would find that the change impacts on the individuals values, leading the individual to a choice. Choosing not to participate, not to support and not to exit. With the bad leader attempting to remove choice by forcing change, people stand up for their values.
This Is Human Nature
If we were to now refine the three common threads, I proposed to failed strategy, we are now left with only two. Strategy fails because of a failure of leadership or the change negatively impacted positive culture.
In these two examples, I believe it is right that the strategy failed. This is evidence of an unsound strategy. Something was wrong with it. Try again or get us a good leader.
Choice Filtered Through Values
As our world has advanced leaders have gained more tools and advantages in knowing how to initiate change supported by people. This has increased the rate of change and depth of reach the leaders of organizations have into our lives.
We have grown so accustomed to adopting exciting new change we even brag about being the first in line for the latest gadget. Have we been blinded by our addiction to social proof?
Take a scan of your environment, who is leading? What failed strategies do you see around you?
Most importantly, what are your values?
What Will You Stand For?
Follow along, do your values exercise. This will lead into goal planning and visioning for the upcoming year in future posts.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
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