Leader development strategies for navigating dynamic organizational change

Organization Development

Organizations continue to experience dynamism in terms of the changes and complexity. Leader development strategies have been touted by scholars and practitioners alike. The opinion shapers have increasingly focused their attention on flexibility, resilience and adaptability aspects as the requisite skills if success is to be realized in the business world today. Although numerous leadership training initiatives focus on elements of adaptability, most of them emphasize competence and overlook the need to know how to manage one\'s mind within a dynamic environment. The need to manage the mind amidst the dynamic nature of the immediate working environment cannot be overemphasized because outside forces continually transform the static conditions into complex surroundings. This paper aims at exploring these conditions by majoring on real time strategies to adapt in dynamic decision-making circumstances (Larry Kroh, 2012).

There is a common view that companies seem to assume more than they should. Indeed, the word assume has been labeled one of the most dangerous words within the management jargon. The transition from manager to director is a good example in which the word has been erroneously given meaning. The transition is often viewed as a mere change of title with little difference in terms of skills needed. It is often viewed as a mere office change with bigger salary perks, space and sheer air of higher dominance. This means that the transition is viewed as just more of the same old thing. The unspoken assumption is that the director should figure out their new portfolio and that the managerial skills acquire earlier are enough to steer them in their present position and even higher. The new era of smaller matrix organization has rendered ineffective. Directors are under pressure to deliver faster on the fly. There are deadlines to meet along with a meaner organizational support structure in terms of staffs and material resources. The lucky directors will be assisted by their line managers who will update them and provide direction and requisite coaching. They are likely then, to address the performance and skill gaps before they become serious concerns. On the other hand, if there is a non-cooperation attitude and culture within a company, the directors are left to fry in their ignorance (Larry Kroh, 2012).

Change as a Function of Three Steps

The unfreeze-change-refreeze model is one of the most commonly discussed and applied by OD scholars. It is the brainchild of Lewin and Schein. Lewin applied his force field conceptualization principle to prescribe to organizations what they should do to enhance performance on groups and sustain such performance levels. The side bar illustrates the complete description of what Lewin outlined. The model is descriptive in nature. The model does not deal with naturally occurring patterns. Although Lewin, mostly, used the term freeze, refreeze has also been consistently been used; and thus we adopt it in this paper (Jean M. Bartunek & Richard W. Woodman, 2015).

Transforming towards better group performance is normally a short-lived affair. After a boost, group performance often reclines back to its original cocoon. Consequently, it is not appropriate to define the aims of a group performance change in the plan as one that attains a higher level. Any long-term permanence level should be incorporated in the primary objectives. Any successful transformation must include three elements, i.e. unfreezing (if need be) the current level labeled L1, shifting to another level L2, and freezing the new group life at that level. Owing to the fact that all levels are determined by a force field, permanence means that the fresh force field is secured against change; relatively. Unfreezing of the current level may expose organizations to various problems in different circumstances. There is need for a catharsis before all prejudices can be obliterated completely. An emotional stir-up is often necessary to bring about the end to complacency that is often hard to break. The same principle holds true in the case of endeavor to freeze the new level. It is often possible to build an organizational set up that resembles to a casual circular process that is stable (Jean M. Bartunek & Richard W. Woodman, 2015).

Institutionalization & Subjective Reality

Earlier OD literature indicated specific ways in which change was initiated and managed in institutions. Advocacy of OD and reeducation as a pseudo-management ideology that should be adopted to attain higher performance and involved staffs signals a version of complete institutionalization that is slated to benefit everyone. The situation has often been viewed in terms of the health of organizations. It coincided with the adoption of winning and the successful organization tradition by proponents of OD. The hyped view of OD has come under criticism. However, it is evident that the various cultures in organizations have a correlation to the success of its operations and efforts to bring change can be aimed at narrowing or broadening the institutionalization scope (Antonie van Nistelrooij & Harry Sminia, 2010).

Berger and Luckman change process points to the individual level. The \'Alteration and subjective reality\' points to the socialization of an individual and the dynamic rise and fall of symmetry between subjective and objective reality. The two researchers use the expression \'alteration to describe the situations in which individuals un-learn a social order and replaces it with new knowledge of another. People can be socialized into an organization\'s objective reality if they are members of an organization. They will be faced with distinctive social order at a subgroup level such as departments, teams and business units. There is likelihood that people are pre-socialized if they are members of a professional entity, have attained a level of preliminary education and training or even if they have previous work experience in other organizations. When these individuals move from one organization to another or are simply moved from one section to another within an organization, they experience alteration of their objective reality to some extent (Antonie van Nistelrooij & Harry Sminia, 2010).

Transformation Leadership

Transformational leaders prefer to mix with their followers in a dynamic relationship. This approach makes the followers feel elevated and often become more interested in being active. Consequently a new crop of leaders is hatched. The leaders lift their followers up via morality levels. Burns was drawn to the matter of moral leadership. He viewed such leadership as arising out of and returning to the fundamental needs, wants, and values of the followers including their aspirations. He points out that such leadership becomes a moral one since it increases the level of human behavior and ethical aspirations of both the ones who are led and those who seek to lead. Therefore it has a transforming effect on both parties. Research reveals a remarkable relationship between transformational leadership and the level of effort that those who are led are willing to make, the level of satisfaction with such a leader, higher job performance ratings and overall effectiveness. The vision of the leader and their effectiveness in implementation in task cues influences performance and a wide range of attitudes among the subordinates (Venkat R. Krishnan, 2012).

BCG embarked on a project with one of its clients to come up with a fresh stakeholder strategy for engagement, methodology and the accompanying tool. The client function was to benefit from sharing the output by BCG. This function was an international gas and oil outfit spanning C-suite to the operations level. BCG intended to prepare its client for a roll out to succeed. Rendering a Powerpoint presentation would be hardly enough. There was need for the output to present in an engaging and enriching medium. There was need for the output to be handy so as to enable anyone in the organization to refer to it and to be easily updated by the project team of the client. BCG developed a learning environment that was branded using the award winning training model of GO1. Along with GO1 the company converted the deliverables of the project into smaller multimedia learning reservoirs ranging from records of screen capture tutorials to animated short videos. These lesson modules along with several others were designed as short learning courses and units since there were different system users and the detain depth they required. The client was involved in the development of the learning environment so that the consequent handover would be a seamless process. A training workshop for trainers was organized by GO1 along with BCG and the portal owner drawn from the client\'s team. BCG succeeded in lifting the client enablement to a higher level; thanks to its acclaimed training portal. Consequently, the projects and the outcome were successfully rolled out in the relevant client teams (Scott Cooper, 2016).

The Pragmatic Approach

There is really no doubt that organizational transformation is hard; even under the best of circumstances. This is why there is the Pragmatic Pathways Methodology designed to assist in maximizing change initiatives and their success rates by increasing the initiative\'s velocity. It also reduces the initial investment and cuts down uncertainty where possible. The ability of the detractors to put up formidable resistance is greatly reduced in the process (John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, Christopher Gong, Stacey Wang, & Travis Lehman, 2013). The three methods differ but they make use of the following principles so as to increase their chances of success.

I. Go round the internal resistance tendencies: usually, the most concrete resistance to change initiatives happen internally. There are various reasons for this occurrence. It may emanate from the slow approval pace, adoption or sheer refusal to embrace change. The first step should be geared towards seeking alignment as much as possible. In situations where alignment is completely impeded, the philosophy of pragmatic pathways principle is designed to circumvent such confrontation as opposed to engaging in standoffs. You lose either way if you try to battle with detractors. It may end your initiative or make you lose time and resources. Therefore change initiators must seek ways to circumvent detractors. This can be done as little initial investment as possible. Time lines should also be minimized in order to gain traction fast. The people willing to support change should be brought on board.

II. Leveraging your ecosystem

The pragmatic pathways principle also helps organizations to touch ground with their wider ecosystem. The ecosystem members of the organization have a lot of information and knowledge about the industry. That means that they are essential partners to help you overcome challenges that arise in your operational path as opposed to dealing with it alone.

III. Make use of disruptive tools: The three methods highlight the utilization of new tools to assist in the process of change. The intention is to expedite the flow of transparency and information; which culminates into improved decision-making. Additionally, the tools help in lowering the organizational hierarchies and go round the huddles that prevent change.

IV. Target immediate effects: Each of the pathways is crafted to assist organizations to reap the gains of the change initiative at the soonest possible opportunity. The mentality helps organizations attain their short-term objectives and at the same time test the feasibility of their engagements at the soonest possible time. The process of trial and error that is the product of quick development and testing of ideas can be the channel through which the change agents will gain traction at the same time by illustrating the gains of their initiative as they correct or adjust failure points.

Case Study: How to overcome the challenges of bureaucracy in a financial services institution

A leading financial services provider in North America defined a fresh group level strategy and vision. It was clear to the CEO that the success of the initiative was anchored on the group\'s ability to adopt a new set of behavior pattern including accountability, cooperation in the change process and agility. It turned out that old habits take much effort to extinguish. The tendency to protect owns turf was particularly prevalent among the tenured senior staffs. The team leader used the Mckinsey Development to figure out how to proceed and overcome the challenges. He requested for a leadership program that would produce many leaders to spearhead change. We crafted a two-month model program that required only six days of classroom attendance. It was to be done by small cohorts of 20 individuals. A couple of forum workshops anchored the program that is focused on self leadership and leadership within a system. Participants were asked to reflect on the personal strengths, the obstacles they could foresee, and goals as leaders. We asked participants to state their agenda for leadership to refer to later. The participants were made aware of the need to readjust their behavior so as to succeed. The participants, in cohorts of 25 defined the argument for change and pointed out organizational challenges and dynamics that cut across the personal agendas for leadership. The program also helped them get a clear perspective of what they needed to do to move the company in the desired direction. The CEO has adopted the program for roll out across the company for a period of two years (Battling bureaucratic behavior to transform a financial services provider, 2016).

Appreciative Leadership: Muse over the following story line to get a grasp of what appreciative leadership is all about. Alexander the Great\'s Father, Philip of Macedonia, stated that an enemy of a deer, as led by a lion, is worth fearing more than a lion army led by a deer. Of course, it is an army of lions led by a lion that is the most fiery and unstoppable. If the lead lion is an appreciative one and the other lions being products of the Appreciative Inquiry, it is rather easy to envision the force of the lion pack that awaits the word of their leader to stage an affront. If humans can assume the same scenario in an organization with leaders that adopt Appreciative Inquiry, associates are inspired to brave the tides, question, to think and embrace positive behavior necessary for the company to succeed. Appreciative leaders are characterized by high self belief and esteem. They make the employees feel appreciated in the organization. The approach encourages leaders to recognize that all human beings function well with some level of recognition of their role. Appreciative Leadership strategy makes everyone feel they have something worthwhile to contribute to the success of the organization. It inspires associates to seek the best. They are encouraged to continually keep learning. I encouraged employees to think beyond the traditional spheres. They see the best and make use of it. An organization\'s future success is anchored on its current strengths (Mary Lloyd Moore, Joseph P. Cangemi, & Jay Ingram, 2013).