Three Roles - Do They Make or Break Organizational Change?

Culture's role in guiding change:

I consider myself a culture advocate. Advocacy is all about influence, sharing and helping create connections that achieve desired results. In the case of culture, it cannot defend or speak up for itself and is at the mercy of the actions (or inactions) of the people who live within it. I have been fortunate to work with some amazing organizations that have achieved strong success in both the private and public sectors. These organizations did not do anything profoundly different in their desired outcomes, the exceptional results happened through creating strong connections with employees to help them understand what actions were needed for success. This meant sharing information and stating why a change needed to be made. After the why was clear, all employees were determine how to align their actions fit into the bigger picture to achieve the results. It was about helping people connect to the vision in action and words.

When we look at measures of business success, we often look at outcomes such as output, budget, financial results. These are all lagging indicators of an organization's success. By the time these indicators can be used, the the goal is well underway and we need to pivot in reaction to a result. Culture, on the other hand, is a leading indicator of an organization's success. Organizations who have a healthy and aligned culture are able to collaborate and manage all aspects of a shift by working through the people around you. This means balancing decision making and setting clear priorities with how best to engage people in the options to move ahead.

Considering culture and how things are currently done is especially important during a time of change, people need to feel engaged and have a clear understanding of why the change is needed. Without this anchor, even the simplest changes can feel like a big deal. To achieve success an organization needs to consider how current initiatives tie to the goals and what may need to be stopped or delayed to make room for the changes needed. Decisions are made considering the long term and bigger needs of the organization, rather than the individual or team goals.

At times we are faced with shifts in which it is unclear why the change is needed. Sometimes the change might even feel counter to how we interpret our culture. In these situations each individual must decide how to respond to the changes so that it creates minimal impacts to their wellbeing, alignment to their values, and goals.

Change does not happen in a vacuum. Culture provides the foundation of how a change will come about. In addition to culture, there are key roles in an organization that impact the success of a change. Each of these roles directly impact the success of the outcomes achieved by the organization.

Three roles that impact change success:

Role #1 : The Individual:

When individuals are faced with a change in direction, there are always choices. Here are three to consider for the individual:

1. Flee - A person avoids taking any actions around the changes or leaves their role. Not having the courage to engage with understanding the direction or change and doing the minimal required to "get by" in their role. Both of these situations are a loss for the individual and the organization.

The Individual:

Silently quitting: Avoiding is silently quitting. This individual loses passion for their work and feels like nothing they do makes a difference. Over time, this erodes their confidence, drive and can result in depression or anxiety if left unchecked.

Leaving the organization: This option creates new adjustments as to how their skills fit in the new business and how they can serve to new role. It also creates transition as they get used to a new culture and company dynamic.

The organization loses when a person disengages from their role. They lose the expertise of that person as well as the impact the withdrawal has on the team connection and dynamics. This challenges the success of the desired outcomes because the organization does not have the full access to the expertise and input from the individual in the role.

Fleeing is always an option when a shift happens in an organization. It is a choice to be made carefully - weighing the mental, physical and emotional impacts either leaving or silently quitting has on yourself, your team, your organization and your life.

2. Obey:

In this choice the individual shift towards the new direction. They use their expertise to move the outcome as requested. Because they may not fully understand or buy into the direction, allegiance is often given to completing a task rather than moving a goal forward. While doing as they are asked moves the goal forward, the individual is unlikely to speak up if they disagree. The goal is job security, not engagement and the tasks is often completed without considering if the action is the most effective way to do it. This limits the ability of the person to influence the direction and outcome and requires the leader to plan the actions for the individual.

This choice is about accepting what is and finding ways to make the new direction happen, no questions asked. It achieves success in outcomes and decisions are made based on compliance. If individual's values are significantly misaligned, then it will result in reduced job focus, satisfaction and productivity. The organization may lose the knowledge or creativity of the person which could impact the quality or effectiveness of the outcomes.

3. Engage:

In this option the employee accepts that the change is happening and they seek to understand more about the change. They ask questions, provide input and they adapt their thinking and actions to find creative and novel ways to achieve the results. Because they are part of the solution, they are able to provide support to others in the organization so everyone understands and is able to pull in the same direction to achieve the desired goals. The employee takes ownership and thinks about how best to act to achieve the desired goals. They are also willing to consider how others need to be engaged to achieve overall success. This employee is empowered to think and act in a way that achieves the goals and aligns with organizational values. This creates proactive ideas and solutions to help achieve the desired path.

In this scenario, the organization has more creativity and ideas to solve the problems that arise and they are able to pivot direction more quickly because they can engage people in solutions rather than having to think through how each detail needs to be done. This is built on trust and open and honest conversations about what is changing, why and engaging people in how best to achieve the desired direction. I requires employees who have the courage to ask and leaders who have the courage to listen.

Role # 2: The Supervisor or Middle Leader:

The leader in the middle straddles two very different functions in a shift. Beyond managing their own personal shifts, they also need to engage with their leaders to understand the shift and how it will impact their teams. They then need to share this message to motivate and guide their team to pivot their direction. Sometimes this level does not have all the information needed and needs to be open with their teams to share what is known at each stage of the process.

Employees trust their leaders to guide them through a shift. They need to hear why a change is needed and how it will impact them. They also need to know that their leader cares about them and needs them to be part of the shift. Employees who feel their leader cares are more able to lean into their discomfort in the shift and be curious about it.

This can be a challenging role, especially if the leader is unclear of why things are changing or how they will be needed to do things in the future. It takes courage to be in this leadership role to engage people on all sides of the shift to all move together in the same direction.

Role # 3: The Executive Leader

The role of the Executive Leadership team is to look at the business holistically and determine what areas are running well and what areas have gaps that need to be filled. It is also the role of this group to look beyond the current needs to what the organization might need to learn or do differently as the business landscape evolves to the future.

The Executive level is unlikely to have a full picture of all levels of the business and needs to rely on their leaders to provide context to assist with effective decision making. The key to this level is being clear with where you are going (vision), how you want people to act (values) and how you want people to be involved going forward. This includes what decisions need to be made at each level as well as how you need team members to engage in the shift to ensure it is successful.

As consultant, I have worked with leaders at all levels who have lost productivity by not providing clarity of direction and who have not been open to questions along the journey. In these cases the desire to push a goal forward may have saved time in the short run, but significantly more time was taken to settle unrest longer term.

I have also been fortunate to work with leaders who were willing to make strong decisions and remain open and curious when questions and suggestions came forward. This allowed them the agility to pivot as needed because they partnered with their teams to understand challenges and shift approach. It did not shift the direction significantly, but it allowed the employees to be clear on the shift so they could support it together. In these cases employees took much stronger ownership of results and the outcomes were stronger in the end.

Summary:

It is an executive leader's job to provide the vision and to guide the organization onto a chosen path. It is the job of all leaders to work through their people to achieve results. Results are not just a number on a spreadsheet. It is too late if we wait until we look at the lagging result of numbers to measure progress. All shifts start with collaboration and partnerships between leaders, teams and individuals. Executives set the high level why for a change as well as some of the initial steps to achieve the goals. Middle leaders take the overarching vision and partner to align the goals and share the vision through their teams. It is at this point that the important tactical work begins and the leader engages with their team to connect how individual contributions are needed to achieve the overall corporate direction. For all levels this involves a willingness to ponder questions, provide solutions and encourage people to engage in solutions that will shift direction and find solutions. Aligning direction with values and vision helps employees engage with the journey and support the change in direction.

As a leadership coach I work with leaders to create a strong and aligned strategy as well as plans to engage their teams in the direction being set. If your team needs support to move your goals forward - or in setting goals at the start - I am your strategic partner to help you get there.

Call me today to discover how I can help you reach your goal!

Judy