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Jim Collins popularized the saying, “Good is the enemy of great,” in his book “Good to Great.”
It’s profound. It implies that to be great (a great company, a great person, live a great life), we can’t be OK with good. In fact, good will get in the way. Good must be challenged, dismantled and reset. Then it must be done again.
Challenging the good, leading change even when things are working — this is squarely in the center of leadership’s job. Managers can identify when things are not working and fix problems, but it takes leaders to disrupt the status quo and insist on change, even when things are working.
But how do we do it? What are the elements in leading change that minimize the chaos and pushback, optimize the opportunity, and keep the leader in the driver’s seat? Taking a leaf from John Kotter’s “Leading Change” business book, here’s a roadmap for organizational transformation.
1. Vision. To quote Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” concept, leaders must be clear in their own minds why change is necessary and best for the organization. The reasons must be compelling and fact-based.
The leader must articulate a vision. What will it look like once we’ve gone through this change? How does this benefit our clients and the team? What will it look like if we don’t?
Building a compelling vision doesn’t need to be done in a vacuum, but it’s not to be delegated either. Leadership must set and control the vision.
2. Consensus. Be savvy. Who are the most influential people in the organization? This is not always those sitting at the top of the hierarchy. Approach these people first, share the ideas and invite feedback. You need the influential people in the organization to back you up behind the scenes as well as publicly. Ensuring they’re on board first is key to managing the message.
3. Strategy. Strategies are built by identifying the necessary actions, prioritizing them and sequencing the activities.
To the extent that the managers in the organization are competent, involve them in strategy building. Their knowledge is generally broader than the leader’s knowledge, and ownership of activities can be more easily pushed to managers if they participate in strategy formation.
4. Communicate. Once the initiative(s) have been identified, the vision created, consensus established and a strategy developed, communicate, communicate, communicate.
Create slogans, logos and bywords that carry the message. Include discussion of the initiative in all meetings — sales meetings, operations meetings, leadership meetings.
Overcommunicating has a small downside risk. Undercommunicating carries a huge risk.
5. Create wins. When developing the strategy, ensure we know what a win looks like. Without being disingenuous, capture early wins, even if they’re small. Celebrate these. Teams need to hear and understand what a win looks like.
6. Overcome the obstacles. Every initiative that gets launched has some unforeseen challenges, obstacles or consequences that threaten to slow, derail or impede the initiative. Leadership’s job is to acknowledge the obstacles and help the team overcome them.
7. Sustain. Once the initiative begins to bear fruit and become part of the way business is done, reinforce the change. Hold people accountable. Ensure the SOPs get written. Foster incentive plans to support it.
We have the privilege of working with companies around the country that are tackling change initiatives within their organizations, ranging from structural changes to changes in their sales processes to new ideas and applications in their operations.
Often, strong leaders can do a credible job leading change in their organizations, but there are other times when leaders struggle. Missing these steps is often at the root of failed initiatives. When initiatives fail, there may not be a reset button. The team has soured on the idea.
Leadership is a privilege; managing change well is mission — critical to success. In fact, this is the hallmark of great leaders — those who successfully transform their organizations to take advantage of today’s opportunities and meet tomorrow’s challenges.
