“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
It seemed like sage advice and, coming from the battalion executive officer, should have been. But as I prepared to take command of the organization, I had questions. A lot of them.
On the surface, I was taking command of what was widely considered to be the standard bearer across the brigade. A true example of what right looked like. But the closer I looked, the more cracks I found in the façade. And the more cracks I found in the façade, the greater my urgency to address them.
The day a forklift backed over a civilian employee was the final crack. Even as the commander waved off the incident as minor, I saw it as entirely preventable and a sign of just how deep some of those cracks ran.
For better or worse, change was coming.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
The challenge ahead of me wasn’t just change, it was the inevitable resistance to change that I would confront. The perspective from higher headquarters was that I was taking command of a model organization. The perspective of the organization was that they were a model organization. I was likely to struggle gaining much support from either.
Resistance to change is normal. The reasons behind that resistance can change between organizations, situations, and circumstances. In a 2012 Harvard Business Review article, Rosabeth Moss Kanter explained the most common of those reasons:
1. Loss of control.
Move someone’s cheese and they’re bound to resist. “Invite others into the planning, giving them ownership.”
2. Excess uncertainty.
People would often prefer to be miserable than endure change. “Create certainty of process with clear, simple steps and timetables.”
3. Surprise, surprise.
Nothing stokes resistance quite like sudden change. “Plant seeds… sprinkle hints of what might be coming and seek input.”
4. Everything seems different.
We are all creatures of habit and we reject changes to our routines. “Remain focused on the important things; avoid change for the sake of change.”
5. Loss of face.
Change can be interpreted as rejection. “Help people maintain dignity by celebrating those elements of the past that are worth honoring and making it clear that the world has changed.”
6. Concerns about competence.
Not everyone feels up to the challenge of change. “Over-invest in structural reassurance, providing abundant information, education, training, mentors, and support systems.”
7. More work.
Change will bring added work; change for change’s sake makes it worse. “Acknowledge the hard work of change by allowing some people to focus exclusively on it or adding extra perks for participants.”
8. Ripple effects.
Even minor changes will affect the organization widely. “Enlarge the circle of stakeholders… work with them to minimize disruption.”
9. Past resentments.
The ghosts of the past will haunt you for a while. “Consider gestures to heal the past before sailing into the future.”
10. Sometimes the threat is real.
For some people, change hurts. “The best thing leaders can do when the changes they seek pose significant threat is to be honest, transparent, fast, and fair.”
But change was absolutely necessary; it wasn’t just change for change’s sake. We had clear safety issues. Personnel issues – including a seemingly insurmountable backlog of overtime among the civilian employees – were rampant. And there were serious readiness challenges to address, from the physical conditioning of the troops to their essential training needs, as well as the overall maintenance posture of our equipment.
All of that had to change.
WINDS OF CHANGE
The change that was coming would be transformational. It would affect every facet of the organization, reshaping it into what it could be rather than the illusion it had projected in the past. It wasn’t enough to simply appear to be good; we needed to be as good as people already thought we were.
It was still a year before change management guru John Kotter would publish his landmark Harvard Business Review article, “Leading Change,” and two years before the release of book of same title. The article and the book that followed would influence change management for decades, setting in place the building blocks for successful organizational transformation efforts.
But I had neither. I was on my own.
Fortunately, I had a moderate degree of common sense. And everything about Kotter’s change model is common sense – or should be, despite the fact that so many leaders struggle with change processes. Eight simple steps for an equally simple model for change:
1. Establish a sense of urgency.
On my first day in the chair, I gathered my leadership team and explained to them what I observed. On paper, the organization conveyed an image that didn’t align with reality. “We have to fix this, and time is not on our side.” That sense of urgency pulled the team together and focused them on the task at hand.
2. Form a powerful coalition.
That leadership team was only part of the coalition. I needed leaders involved at every level and that meant fostering a sense of ownership across the entire organization. Not everyone was on board, but enough were that the energy was palpable.
3. Create a vision for change.
“Here’s where we are today; here’s where we want to be in 12 months.” A compelling vision isn’t that challenging to build. Selling it is another story.
4. Communicate the vision.
Fortunately, leadership by walking around was a skill I learned as a young lieutenant. After morning stand up with my leadership team, I would conduct “battlefield circulation” and communicate our vision to every corner of the organization.
5. Empower others to act on the vision.
I knew that I couldn’t achieve the degree of change we needed by myself, and this level of effort required a lot more than simple delegation. I empowered my leadership team to take initiative, assume risks, and make mistakes, all in pursuit of our shared vision.
6. Create short-term wins.
No change effort can hope to succeed without a strong strategic foundation. While we had lofty goals, we also had short- and near-term milestones built in to ensure that progress was sustained. Those milestones proved pivotal to maintaining and building momentum along the way.
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change.
Momentum provided opportunities to achieve and consolidate gains, which in turn fueled our ability to exploit unforeseen changes that propelled us forward in pursuit of our long-term goals.
8. Anchor new approaches in the organization’s culture.
As we approached our change goals, the organizational culture had fundamentally changed. Leaders at all levels were more capable, confident, and committed to our vision.
After a year, the organization was the living embodiment of our new motto: We go further together. The team that had been so confident in their own image a year earlier was even more so after 12 months of successful change. The false bravado was replaced with a genuine belief in who they were and what they could accomplish together. They were well aware of how far they had come, and no challenge was too great for them as they looked to the future.
