THE TEN BIGGEST MISTAKES WE MADE MANAGING
CHANGE,.....AND THE LESSONS WE LEARNED

I’ve been a professional speaker on “the human side of organizational change” for fifteen years. I’ve addressed audiences in seventeen countries, I’ve worked with hundreds of executives, managers, and communicators in dozens of industries -- and I’ve seen first hand how the management (and the mismanagement) of change impacts a work force. From my perspective, here are the ten biggest mistakes that we’ve made managing change -- and the lessons we’ve learned. (These were also my concluding remarks at a recent international conference for Linkage Inc., “Change ‘99.”)

#1 - We didn’t understand the importance of people. 60-75 percent of all restructuring failed -- not because of strategy, but because of the “human dimension.” Michael Hammer, the author of Reengineering the Corporation said, “I wasn’t smart enough about people. I was reflecting my engineering background and was insufficiently appreciate of the human dimension. I’ve learned that’s critical.”

Lesson learned: Organizations don’t change. People do -- or they don’t. If the human beings in your organization don’t trust leadership, don’t share the organization’s vision, don’t buy into the reason for change, and aren’t included in the planning -- there will be no successful change -- regardless of how brilliant your strategy is.

#2 - We expected that people throughout the organization would have similar reactions to change.

Lesson learned: Some people in an organization are naturally more “change-adept.” We need to spot and encourage the early adaptors -- and we need to develop change-adept employee profiles to better understand how to develop these qualities throughout the organization.

#3 - We treated transformation as an event, rather than a mental, physical and emotional process. Lacking “emotional literacy” we disregarded the wrenching emotional process of large-scale change -- and when we began to address the emotional component, we underestimated its depth.

Lesson learned: Leaders of change have to become proficient at facilitating the emotional process of change. There are five stages in the transformation process: denial, resistance, choice, acceptance, and commitment. Different management strategies are effective in addressing the various emotions in each of these stages.

#4 - We presented the current change effort as “the answer” to the future. Then, when subsequent changes were announced, they were viewed with skepticism and distrust.

Lesson learned: There is no single solution for the future. No one can predict or control the tyrannies of global markets, societal pressures, government regulations, technological advances and customer demands that shape the future. We must develop resilient work forces capable of committing to the current change strategy, while staying alert to the conditions that signal the need to alter our course.

#5 - We were less than candid. Under the rationale of “protecting” people, we presented change with a too positive “spin.” And the more we “sugar-coated” the truth, the wider the trust gap grew between management and the work force.

Lesson learned: Communicate honestly. Today’s employees are demanding it. Not everyone will thank you for your candor, but they will never forgive you for anything less.

#6 - We did a poor job of “setting the stage” for change. All too often change was announced in an environmental vacuum, with little reason or rationale for what the organization was trying to accomplish and how this change fit into the corporate vision.

Lesson learned: To prepare employees for success in a rapidly changing business environment, we must give them pertinent information about demographic, global, economic, technological, competitive, and industry trends. People need to know the vision, goals, and strategy of the company. They need to understand the financial reality of the business and how their actions impact that reality.

#7 - We tried to manage transformation with the same strategies used for incremental change.

Lesson learned: Incremental change -- continuous improvement, etc. -- is linear, predictable, logical, and based on a progressive acceleration of past performance. Transformation is none of these things. Transformation is a redefinition of who we are and what we do. It’s often unpredictable (responding to unforeseen circumstance, challenges and opportunities), illogical (demanding people and organizations change when they are the most successful), and most importantly, in a transformative change, our past success is not a valid indicator of future success. In fact, our past success may be our greatest obstacle.

#8 - When the corporate culture changed from one of entitlement, we forgot to negotiate the new “compact” between employers and employees. The result was that people knew what they were losing, but didn’t have a clear picture of what to expect in its place.

Lesson learned: Employee commitment is still a vital element of successful organizations, but an entirely new compact between employer and employee is required. This new understanding moves the organizational “mindset” from paternalism to vibrant partnerships. The new compact must be conscious, realistic, and mutual.

#9 - We believed that change-communication was what employees heard or read from corporate headquarters. So we focused our attention on speeches, newsletters, videos, and email -- only to find out that, from an employee’s perspective, the kind of communication that impacts behavior is 10 percent “traditional” vehicles, 45 percent organizational structure (whatever punishes or rewards) and 45 percent management behavior.

Lesson learned: A communication strategy that is not congruent with organizational systems and the actions of leadership is useless. In the words of one CEO, “What you do in the hallways is more important than what you say in the meeting.”

#10 - This final mistake was our worst mistake. We underestimated human potential. And when we underestimated potential, we wasted it.

Lesson learned: Trust in the innate intelligence, capability, and creativity of your employees – and people will astound you. As the head of quality at Motorola put it, “We never envisioned that well-empowered people at even the lowest, entry-level positions, properly trained within their skill levels could move heaven and earth.”