Managing Change in the Workplace

The Practical Application of Change Management
Motivation is a key concept in change management, primarily because if managers want employees to embrace a change in the workplace the right incentives are required to inspire workers to “buy in” to the change (Heath & Heath, 2010; Symbolic Framework, n.d.). As Wells (2012) points out, one of the best motivators is a leader who is willing to engage in self-leadership—i.e., a leader who demonstrates to his workers how to embrace change by embracing it himself. Other types of motivation exist, however: Grenny et al. (2013) identify intrinsic and extrinsic motivators as pivotal in moving employees (knowledge, praise and self-empowerment are all examples). In short, to get employees to drop resistance to change, managers must find the right ways to motivate. This paper will provide synopses of three sections of each of these three books, synthesize the information, and provide an opinion from a manager’s point of view on how best to practically apply the lessons.
Grenny et al. (2013) focus on personal motivation, personal ability and social motivation in chapters 4 through 6 of Influencer. They show that when it comes to change, people hesitate because it is something foreign to them: it is new, unknown, uncertain, and often unpleasant. Yet doing the right thing typically requires hard work and discipline. To make the grade, one has to study; to win the race, one has to train; to get rid of the Guinea worm, one has to avoid doing the one thing that brings relief (Grenny et al., 2013). Personal motivation is key to bringing about change: people have to become personally driven to do the thing they do not want to do—otherwise there will never be a committed “buy in” among groups. When people cannot do what they need to do, that is when a manager (or influencer) must help them to do what they cannot achieve on their own. Support systems are vital in change management environments, and every victory, no matter how small, has to be celebrated so as to boost morale and increase the sense among followers that the thing they thought they could not do is actually possible and within their ability. Manager can provide support for motivation, as the Symbolic Framework (n.d.) points out: “Managers who strive for quality understand they must involve employees, build on what organizational members share, and teach new members how to behave” (p.11). Emotional and social intelligence is required of the leader, because there will be social and emotional challenges along the way—but these can be overcome by enlisting the right people to provide motivation and social support: these people are like infantry supports for the change manager; they have the same vision and values, and they are also respected and valued among their peers, who are more willing to embrace change if they see their social peers doing so.
This is the essence of what Wells (2012) shows as well. Wells (2012) first begins by arguing that the best way to effect change is to lead from within—be the change that one wants to see happen. Talk is cheap: what matters to people is action. A leader who demonstrates his own willingness to be the change is one who is more likely to have success in getting others to be the change as well. At the same time, a leader has to have his eyes open to the reality: sequestering a leader away in a board room and stuffing his head with data will not lead to the types of big changes an organization needs to make to be effective. The reason is that the changes take place outside the board room in the workplace environment among the workers. To know what needs to change, the leader has to engage with the workplace and the workers. However, that is not all. He also has to have a vision of the type of change that is needed and what the workplace could and should be. Change without vision is meaningless, and workers will sense that. The leader has to have and be able to communicate the vision. The leader also has to be able to include the workers in the process. This is the essence of organizational change according to the Symbolic Framework (n.d.). Engaging with the workplace means getting feedback and making workers feel that they and their input are valued. That is one of the best ways to prevent resistance to change from occurring in the first place: give the workers the respect they want upfront, hear what they have to say, and invite them into the decision making process. At the same time, all have to be willing to accept the hard truths and criticism needed to make changes for the better: that is the final point that Wells (2012) makes—and it is an important one to remember for leaders.
Heath and Heath (2010) emphasize the importance of “finding the feeling” for change—and it is the same point that Wells (2010) makes when he writes about getting the leader out of the boardroom and into the workplace so that he can see with his own eyes the workers and their environment. The example that Heath and Heath (2010) give is that of the Microsoft designers who shrug off consumer complaints—until they actually watch consumers struggle with their product. Then they see right away what they could not see before they actually engaged with the end-user. They are, first of all, capable of empathizing; secondly, they are no longer in the realm of the abstract—the realm of power point presentations and slides of data—they are in reality, seeing the actual problems with their own eyes. This is what it means to find the feeling to allow change to be possible. It is also what allows for the unfreezing, changing and refreezing process to take place (Symbolic Framework, n.d.)—a process that ensures change is made in an effective manner. Those tasked with change will not embrace change unless they understand the problem and see the need to fix it. That is why Wells (2012) stipulates that vision is such a necessity. It is why Grenny et al. (2013) argue that personal motivation is key. People need to be invested in the change—emotionally, socially, and intellectually.
Another key that Heath and Heath (2010) point out is the need to “shrink the change”—i.e., to make the change seem like less of an insurmountable mountain and more like a series of small hills. The example they give is the car wash promotion in which the consumer is given a card with two spots already stamped: the consumer only needs to get eight more stamped to earn a free car wash. The process has already been begun—that is what makes the challenge seem less difficult. This is exactly what Grenny et al. (2013) argue the leader needs to do in their chapters on personal motivation and personal ability. If the worker feels that task is overwhelming, find ways to make it simpler for the worker. Of course, nothing helps like a conscientious leader who has watched his followers and seen with his own eyes where they struggle. Again, the leader cannot be cooped away in the board room: he has to be down among the workers, feeling their pain, anticipating their problems, and envisioning the way upwards and over the obstacles they are sure to encounter. As the Symbolic Framework (n.d.) notes, a manager should “serve as a role model for the behaviors sought by the organizational change. Actions speak louder than words” (p. 30). Managers should lead by example in other words.
Finally, Heath and Heath (2010) stress the importance of education. Grenny et al. (2013) and Wells (2012) stress the same concept. To get workers to “buy in” to change, they have to be educated and given a logical reason for why change is needed. The social and emotional lifts can help—but at the end of the day, people are rational and will want a rational explanation. Getting people to commit to change, to make a personal commitment to change, takes personal growth: essentially, the person is committing to growing. Growth is not easy—there are always going to be growing pains, but those have to be accepted as part of the process.
All of these lessons show that organizational culture is the essence of change. Organizational culture affects individual behaviors and organizational effectiveness. The culture is where values, vision, identity, ability, and commitment all intersect to create the social, emotional, physical and intellectual environment in which the organization and the workers are situated. Managers who do not respect the culture will not be able to effect change. Change starts with culture. That is what Wells (2012) showed when as a leader he left the board room to get into the real world of the workplace—which was messy and unkempt: an untidy culture permeated the organization and that constrained production. By getting people to invest in their culture, the leader is investing in them and getting them to invest in themselves: that is the point Grenny et al. (2013) make again and again. It is what Heath and Heath (2010) emphasize when they suggest that managers find the feeling—the thing that is holding people back. To find it, they must get engaged; they must get to know the workplace culture; they must be willing to see for themselves how things stand—and they must be willing to interact with the workers because all change starts and stops with them. This aligns with the Symbolic Framework (n.d.) , which holds that “top managers can set the tone for a culture and for culture change” (p. 11). They are the leading lights—the guides pointing the way.
My personal opinion of these three sections from these three books is that they all basically reflect the same points. Each one makes the point in a different way but in every case the same lessons are being taught. Leaders have to be willing to listen to their workers; through listening comes understanding, and through understanding comes the solution—the change that is needed. To get to that change requires more than just a blue print. It requires patience, consideration, support and celebration. Workers want to be involved and considered and if their input is not obtained, expect resistance. Leaders should put themselves in their workers’ shoes to understand what they are thinking and doing before they set about making any changes at all. However, leaders are leaders for a reason, and at the end of the day they are the ones who have to take a hard look at things and call it as they see it. These three books show that a leader must unite his soul to those souls of his workers and together they must stitch themselves to the soul of the organization: in doing so, they can create a new culture, and in that new culture is the change that lays waiting.


References
Grenny, J., Patterson, K., Maxfield, D. McMillan, R. & Switzler, A. (2013). Influencer:
The New Science of Leading Change. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
New York, NY: Broadway Books.
Symbolic Framework. (n.d.). Power point presentation. Digital file.
Wells, D. (2012). 16 Stones: Raising the Level of Your Leadership. Franklin, TN: New
Vantage Books.