While change is inevitable in today’s business world, change is also becoming the status quo. How? We live in a “VUCA” world. Coined by the U.S. military, the acronym stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous – or in other words, we live in an environment with multiple, intersecting change forces that lead to unknown consequences.
And VUCA lives within today’s business organizations in multiple ways:
- Volatility – likely to change dynamically, rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse
- Uncertainty – imperfect or unknown information even within the realm of what’s familiar
- Complexity – intricate, complicated and interdependent factors that are difficult to understand
- Ambiguity – unclear, vague and open to more than one interpretation
With so many change forces in the works, it’s no surprise that multiple organizations turn to consultants to lead organizational change management (OCM) in an effort to transition their VUCA to SCSC (Stability, Certainty, Simplicity and Clarity).
OCM leads will use various models to explore the predictable emotions one experiences when going through change, assess an organization’s readiness for change through various diagnostic tools and lead an organization to embrace change by managing resistance.
Whew. The above steps take a lot of work. But what if you went through the above steps and the change didn’t stick with the organization, leaving you frustrated that all your hard work didn’t create long-term change. According to the Harvard Business Review and 30 years of similar research, 70% of change initiatives still fail. While OCM structure certainly increases success rate and moves people out of the “valley of despair” quicker and faster, we need to focus on building a different type of capability: change resilience.
Resilience in leadership is key to not only change management, but transformative change management. Here’s why:
Resilient organizations have stronger connectivity to their stakeholders.
Before diving into orchestrating change in an organization, it’s important to assess the groups impacted by change: stakeholders. After all, how can anyone meaningfully engage and win over stakeholders if there isn’t a clear understanding of who they are. A comprehensive stakeholder or audience analysis determines the size, scope, and complexity of the change’s impact on key individuals and groups – including both those affected by the change and those with the ability to influence the outcome.
Resilient organizations know the right questions to ask:
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- How and to what degree are stakeholders affected differently by the change impact?
- How are stakeholders distributed by type, geography, role, tenure, function, location, etc?
- Who influences (early adopters), follows (mainstreamers) and resists (late adopters)?
- Who is an expert versus a novice? How can these extreme positions be used to your advantage?
- Who needs to be managed closely or won over versus simply informed?
- Do you have potential constraints, conflicts, or concerns?
- How can certain groups be leveraged differently?
Even more importantly, resilient organizations take a mindful approach to analyzing their stakeholders by putting themselves in their stakeholders’ shoes. By imagining the emotions stakeholders might feel, leaders develop a deeper sense of empathy that will add richness and authenticity to the change efforts, creating transformative change.
Why is this change transformative? Stakeholders are more likely to be committed to change when an organization shows a firm commitment to what matters most to an organization – its people.
Resilient organizations are less disrupted by change.
Humans naturally resist changing beliefs, behaviors and actions because it’s easier to stay where we are than to risk what we don’t know. Even our bodies constantly desire homeostasis, which is why it’s often difficult to lose weight or break an old habit. We’re simply used to it. Resilient leaders alter their mind to accept uncertainty and improve performance in the midst of chaos. How do they do this?
It starts with cultivating an awareness around the mind in order to reprogram it. Think of your mind in two parts: lower mind and higher mind. The lower mind corresponds with our left brain, which automates logic, sequences and planning. The higher mind corresponds with our right brain, serving as a source of creativity. Each the lower and higher mind can be aware and unaware:
| Part of Mind | State of Mind | Thought Process |
| Lower mind | Unaware | Overthinking or a state of “paralysis by analysis” |
| Lower mind | Aware | Sensibly calculates, measures and organizes activities and enforces reasonable boundaries, with attention and focus. This leads to productivity and the power of choice. |
| Higher mind | Unaware | Thinks narrowly rather than seeing the big picture |
| Higher mind | Aware | Offers open, creative and expanded thinking around future possibilities, enabling one to reach a higher potential goal beyond preconceived limits. |
Through regular mindful meditation, leaders can activate and awaken conscious awareness, allowing both the lower and higher mind into an integrated state of balance and neutrality – a critical characteristic of resilient leaders. Working in a balanced state, leaders are less disrupted by change because they are in an integrated state of awareness between the lower and higher minds. And with less disruption or paralysis from change, the more transformative change will be.
Resilient organizations welcome change as continuous improvement.
Resilient organizations understand their audience, but they also understand how change impacts people, processes, technology, and the workplace during the transition from the current state to the future state. A Change Management Assessment is a diagnostic tool used to take inventory of all the specific change impacts and thoroughly assess the situation. Think of this as similar to when you visit the doctor’s office and the doctor diagnoses your symptoms through a routine set of questions and instruments that measure blood pressure, heartbeat, etc. In the OCM world, we typically perform a Change Impact Assessment to identify, diagnose and categorize who and what will be affected and to what degree.
Multiple factors affect the degree of an organization’s change effort: scope, complexity, anticipated resistance, cultural compatibility and change leadership.
Resilient organizations move through change more quickly, seamlessly and productively as they are constantly evaluating these factors to determine opportunities for learning and growth. The more an organization learns and grows, the greater likelihood an organization will rise above the competition.
Transformative change starts with building resilience. Leaders who are resilient to change are accustomed to the process. And from connectivity to stakeholders to a mindset of continuous improvement, resilient organizations are at the forefront of creating transformative change.
To take a step toward orchestrating transformative change in your organization, the upcoming “Thriving Through Transition” online course goes beyond traditional change management techniques to discover new pathways and techniques for lasting impact.
