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In the past year, we’ve worked with
several clients who are seeking to re-invent their organizations,
transform their organizational culture, or successfully counter new
threats in their competitive environment. Each of these clients
has grappled with the difficulty of implementing change. As I
reflected on their struggles, I began to wonder if there isn’t room for
one more core value in the Baldrige Criteria – similar to one that
already exists. Is it time for a core value of “Organizational
and Personal Change?”
Executives who create sustainable
organizations are those who can leverage change leadership skills to
engage their workforce in the vision of “what could be” as well as
executing the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve their new
vision. In addition to motivating their workforce to change, they
role model the desired behavior by demonstrating their willingness to
commit to personal change.
We met with a CEO and company
founder yesterday who has bold ideas for where his company can go and
what they can achieve by 2020. During our conversation, he also
shared with us what he’s been reading, the networking he’s been doing,
and the mentoring he’s been seeking. He is eager to know what he
needs to learn and the personal behaviors he needs to modify to
successfully lead the change for his organization. He exemplifies
what we have seen in leaders of award-worthy organizations that embrace
both organizational and personal change.
If you’re trying to lead a
large-scale organizational change, have you looked at your own attitude
toward change? Our experience has shown us that the most
successful and sustained organizational changes include a healthy
component of personal change on the part of the senior leaders.
In closing, I’d like to share with
you “The Ten Laws of Change.”* For insight into personal
change, look at Laws 9 and 10.
1.
Change
begins and ends with the business - not with change.
2.
Change is
about people. People will surprise you.
3.
There is
information in opposition.
4.
The informal
network is as powerful as the formal chain of command. And you get to
design your informal network.
5.
You can't
draft people into change. They have to enroll.
6.
It's not a
calling. It's a job.
7.
Forget
balance. Create tension.
8.
No change
agent ever succeeded by dying for his company.
9.
You can't
change the company without changing yourself.
10.
Even if the
company doesn't change, you will.
*
Fast Company; April/May 1997;
pp. 64-74; "Change" {Ab No: AB3020} .
What are your lessons learned
about change?
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