When you are implementing change in an organization remember this line: Slow is fast and fast is slow. While this statement is the opposite of what often feels or seems right, it lies at the heart of a successful change implementation program. Most leaders feel the need to push change to make it happen. In most situations, pushing change will actually slow the organization down. As Saint Augustine said: "Patience is the companion of wisdom." In a recent discussion with one of my coaching clients, we identified change management and implementation as his highest priority issue. As we discussed the leadership and communication implications he needed to address during the change process, he said that his natural desire was to do precisely the opposite of the course of action that we finally agreed upon. He said that his natural inclination would be to "Go in and tell them what to do and expect them to do it." In fact, the course of action we chose made him feel like he was sitting still and doing nothing. That's a tough situation for an action-oriented leader. This business leader needs to change both attitudes and behaviors in his team. He is not in a crisis situation, but neither can he wait forever for people to "get onboard" with the changes. He is a focused, hard-working leader who really cares about his business and his people. He needs the change to happen quickly and smoothly, but not at a break-neck speed. I advised him to slow down during the early phases of the change implementation to give his people the opportunity to contribute their thoughts and to maximize the probability that they will buy-in to the plan later. The leader, in this case, has good data and sound insights about what needs to happen in his business. Unfortunately, his team does not yet see things like he does. Honestly, I think his plan will prove to be the best and most direct solution to improve his business performance. Unfortunately, what he and I think is irrelevant when it comes to his team accepting and embracing a new way of doing things. This situation highlights one of the major dilemmas leaders face. Namely, consciously choosing, in the early stages, to do what "feels wrong" or "seems too slow" because it pays big dividends later. Delayed gratification comes into play in a number of leadership situations, but slowing down while driving a change through your organization is vital to long-term change acceptance. The idea is to personally slow down so that your organization can speed up. To explain my thinking on this topic, I'll share a change acceptance model for consideration. Every change, whether good or bad, involves loss. The loss of "the way we used to do things," the loss of comfort, the loss of security, etc. This feeling of loss triggers something like a grieving process that follows a relatively predictable pattern. The pattern goes in this order: Denial People focus on the past and hope the change fails or goes away. Resistance People acknowledge the change, but they focus on the effects (their feelings of loss, anger, etc.) and not the positive benefits of the change. Exploration People begin to face the reality of the change and explore both the positive and negative aspects of it. Acceptance People accept the new way of doing things and start to move forward again. Leaders often go through this process privately or with a small group of close advisors before they decide on the need for a change. Then they try to push the change through the organization. However, their people have not had the opportunity to process the change, so the organization reacts with denial: - "It can't be done."
- "It'll never work."
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Or resistance: - "I'll quit before I'll do that!"
- "You'll have to force me."
- "I'll do it if I have to." Leaders who push too quickly for agreement tend to lock themselves and their organization in a downward spiral of conflict and resistance. Once locked in a downward spiral of bad attitudes and behaviors, making progress on the change implementation becomes very difficult. Leaders who slow down to give people a chance to process, and contribute to, the change on the front-end, get better buy-in and faster progress on the back-end. The approach that initially feels slow and laborious winds up reducing the overall change implementation timeline. |
