Q&A: Managing Change At Work

According to Gautner's research, the typical organization today has undertaken at least five major firm wide changes in the past three years. So that is changes that impact the entire organization. And further to that, they say that nearly 75% expect to multiply the types of changes and change initiatives that they'll undertake in the next three years. So they still expect even more change to occur and at a multiplied level. But and this is the most interesting part for me, half of change initiatives fail according to Gautner and only 34% of them have a clear success because you may say you are succeeding in your change initiative. But are you really? And that unlearners is what we are going to have a conversation about on today's episode of the unlearners podcast. It's a Q&A episode which means we are getting super practical. We are looking at change leader questions that we often get as the unlearners team answering those questions, helping you to think about how to do change and lead change better in your organization as an organization that is dedicated to unlearning and relearning in the current global climate. Welcome to the unlearners podcast. The unlearners. Now those Gautner insights that I mentioned right in the beginning are quite interesting. The first reason why I say that is because that part around half of change initiatives failing is quite interesting because the figure that most of us are familiar with is the roughly 70% failure. But you start to see how that makes sense because right at the end they then say 34% have a clear success which actually does tell you once again that it is roughly 70% of organizational change initiatives or possibly even organizations that feel they are doing change well but are not necessarily because that 30% or 34% according to Gautner have a clear success. It means that there is success that is clearly defined according to metrics that were set initially as ways to measure the success of the change because it's easy to say that our change initiatives are successful when we are feeling it out and we are using our gut to tell us that we have been successful in the change but not so much tangible quantifiable evidence. Well possibly even quite qualifiable as well evidence to that effect. And so this is really something that I would love to invite leaders, managers, supervisors but also individuals in the organization who fall a part of key talent and are on the front lines and wherever it is you are really in your organization to think about how you can support mainly yourself but also how you can support those around you, your colleagues, your leaders, your supervisors, your fellow leaders and others and possibly even your clients as well through various changes that the organization goes through because one of the things that we love to emphasize with our clients is that change really is needing to be approached as a process that affects a range of your stakeholders within the organization. It isn't just an internal thing and this is where we make the mistake a lot of the time as we think that we've got a change in system as an organization but we neglect to acknowledge how it impacts our stakeholders that fall outside of the organization like our suppliers for instance like our contractors for instance but also and sometimes more importantly our customers and our clients. So I really love those insights and I wanted to really use them as a basis for today's conversation even though it is a Q&A which means there isn't necessarily a big key theme that we approach this conversation with but change management and thinking about change management in a constantly flex, unlearning and relearning, changing, evolving type of way is really important. Many of us go into the space or go into leadership, we have all these great frameworks that we use around change management and we might even bring in a consultant, you might even be working with the unlearners through your change management process and we carry in some really great frameworks that have been proven to work over time that are really effective and strategic and support us in ways that we can really really support and we feel are working. But I want to just encourage as we go into the three questions we're going to chat about today and I'll tell you what they are now but I want to encourage a very responsive but also proactive approach. So really merging the, how do we respond to what the current climate is saying is necessary because it's one thing to apply a framework that was developed in the 70s and the 1970s to our current context and say that this has been proven at pretty much works but how are we being responsive to the changing talent dynamics that we are facing in our organisations? How are we consistently responding to socio-economic issues that impact how we serve our clients and how we do business and the fiscal climate that our organisation operates within? So as you apply whatever frameworks your consultant is advising or whatever you're using or if you're working with us then this is almost already working through this with you but you really want to be responsive. The other part is being proactive and this is where most people will say it more say it's an ele, you really want to have pro-activity as part of the equation and I strongly agree with this. So really thinking about how do we become proactive then which means that we build for the future. Regardless of what the future will be we're almost scenario plan, we allow ourselves to be open minded in terms of the various factors that stand to impact how we do changes in organisation but also how we're going to be affected by various changes. And the end of the pandemic or possibly even during the COVID-19 pandemic, we started to hear very interesting stories of organisations, maybe you know the Wembley example as well that was also really, really fascinating for me and a few of my colleagues around organisations that were very, very proactive when it came to their response around change. Even though a pandemic at the time depending on the industry that they were in didn't seem like the most likely scenario, they were able to put themselves in a position where it was directing their investments or their resources, whether it was strategic conversations around that putting in place systems, whatever it was, they were able to be proactive in putting in place measures so that whatever changes could occur they didn't have a huge knock-on effect on how they did business or serving their customers and clients and also managing their teams and keeping their cultures intact. So that was really exciting to see and you might also be thinking about how to be responsive. So I would say definitely have it chat with us. Let's have conversations about how you can be a little bit more both responsive and proactive in your approach to change as whether you are the change lead in your organisation, the transformational lead, the digital transformation lead and you're really looking at how you can think a little bit more strategically, more culture focused, more people focused in your change. We would be absolutely delighted to work with you in that aspect. Alright, so that's almost my opening thoughts and I know I took a little bit longer but I really was inspired by the research that I shared with you just now and just how it invites us to think a little bit differently about how we have been doing change in the past. And if you are in the space set that we are in and the unlearners, you probably geek out over this stuff and you've got lots of really great stuff to share as well. So please do connect with us and you know, great minds, you know, create something really phenomenal when they do. We've also got a great mastermind for change leads, for leaders who are doing change. So go over to our website, theunlearners.com and have a look at our mastermind, find our mastermind on there and we host events every now and again for like-minded but also a contradictory minded or differently minded leaders who love to exchange thoughts on what they are facing the different ways to do change, what they're reading, all of those types of things. We bring in guest experts at times to share the conversation, to share what research they are doing and what they're finding. So always just such a beautiful conversation there. It's fairly new so we launched it in 2023 and going quite strong at the moment. So definitely check out our navigating transitions mastermind. I think it'll be a treat for you if you geek out over this stuff like I do. All right, cool. Let's look at our three questions that will be really the cracks of today's conversation. today's title is "Managing change at work and it's Q and A episode, which means we will look at three key questions, answer those questions in ways that keep it super focused but are practical help you know exactly what to focus on. I invite you if you want just a little bit more of a way to tee up the conversation we're having today. Go over to episode 32. And episode 32 was focused on key priorities for you as a leader that is leading transformation and change and shifts and quite intensive systematic shifts in your organization at the moment. Go over and listen to those three key priorities. They are, we sent them out to our newsletter and learners are unlearned as a subscribe to our newsletter and we shared it on social but definitely go over to episode number 32 and have a listen to that. I think you'll enjoy it. It is a fun episode but also it gives you your, I don't like to call them marching orders but in a way that is very much what they are and they will help you stay focused on some of the things that matter. I think when you're in this space and you are working through something that is as flexors change, well which those two words really almost mean the same thing but there's just so much that you could potentially focus on and so that episode will really help you know exactly what to focus on right now and give you a really great three step roadmap. Alright so let's look at the questions for today. Our questions for today, the first one is who is supposed to manage change and how do they do that. So a big question that we get and we might have touched on this a little bit in previous episodes but I think it's never been phrased in this way so we'll approach that question and talk about whose responsibility is it? Excuse me to manage change and how do they do that? And then so we'll look at that. We won't just look at the individual who is responsible but we'll possibly also look at the roles that that various stakeholders can play in that change management process especially because today's episode was titled managing change or change management at work. Second question is is this the best time for this change? I love that question because this is a question we often get from our frontline individuals a question around is this is this the most opportune time to be shifting the changing this system to be changing this leader? How do we how do we maintain that until we get out of this period of simple swim? You might be going through a very tough time as an organization or really managing another change at the at the crux level of the organization and you're asking yourself is this the best time to do this? Is there not something else we could be focusing on? So that's a question. Question number two is this the best time for this change? I love that question and we'll talk about how you know whether it's the best time or not. And then question number three is a great place to start when leading change. Fraised more as a statement but I absolutely understand so we'll touch on goals here and and where you start what is the best place to focus on when you are leading a change initiative? What is almost like a step number one? What's the one thing I need to start with and then from there I'll almost see my moments and build I'll almost roll down the hill a little bit easier. So those are the questions we are going to look at during this Q&A episode. So grab a coffee, grab a whatever you'd like to drink. I've got my water here that I'm going to take a sip of now whatever you prefer with you've got a snack with you. Maybe snacking on fruits. I've got a dried fruit thing lately. Well I've had it for a while now. Excuse me. I love absolutely love dried fruit so that that would be my snack of choice at the moment. So question number one, who is supposed to manage change and how? This is a really good question and you know it's funny because it's we get this question a lot. This is a very popular question. Who is supposed to manage this change and how do they do that? So the way that I'm going to answer that or how I can give you shed some lights on this is it really does vary from organisation to organisation. It varies who is supposed to manage the change. And manage and lead here is very different. It is very different and I want you to understand the distinction between it and this might also help you might help you know exactly who is supposed to be leading or managing it at the time. Now the conversation around leading the change. I'll use the two different words, manage and lead here to answer the question. So the conversation around leading the change is always the the leaders job. And when I say leader here, I'm mostly talking about all of your senior executives. I'm talking about your C level executives, but I'm also talking about managers, managers and supervisors. So individuals who are not necessarily frontline or customer facing, but are leading individuals who are frontline or customer facing leading an operational team. So with these individuals, they are responsible for leading the change in the sense that they are custodians and carry the vision of what the change is supposed to yield for the organisation. So bringing clarity, bringing the inspiration for the change belongs to those individuals, championing the change is the main thing that they're supposed to do. And that for me is what leadership, a big part of leadership is is just being a kind of bullboard, being the, the North star that that what we're working towards is worth working towards in the first place. And that as far as I will say is the biggest job here for someone who is leading change and might be mindful again that I'm using the distinction of leading and managing. So that for me is what leading change. So leaders in an organisation whether they are senior leaders, middle managers, leaders of supervisors or managers, people who are leading a frontline team, it is our responsibility to lead change. Now the second part of that thing is the managing change. Whose responsibility is it to manage the change? Managing the change then starts to go into the more logistical parts of things. So whose responsibility is it to track our progress to keep everyone well informed, to highlight some of the the key educations that need to happen. What is the rollout plan? Those are, those are all aspects around managing change rather than leading it. With managing change then it becomes at the organisation's discretion how they want to manage it. Different things that you can look into here are having, having someone take on the role of change manager or change lead who is an internal person already. Now how you organise this is very much up to you where the someone's workload shifts and then they take on this responsibility or it's added on is very much up to you. It depends on how much of a workload already exists around the change because you want to be very mindful of that and not overloading certain individuals in your team. Now the managing is very logistical and so it's all of those different aspects that are part of managing. Now whether you have an internal person who then becomes change, transformation lead you do also have the option of hiring a consultant, hiring an external service provider to then be the person who comes in. Yes you as a leader as your leadership team will still lead the change in the sense that you remain, ball boards forward you remain, shining lights just creating constant inspiration to the team that this change is worth doing. You will continue to lead but then the external person that you bring in, excuse me, becomes the individual or the team that then manages the day-to-day execution around the change. So this is the tracking, this is the measurement, this is the any kind of trainings, workshops and learning and development that needs to happen as the change progresses. The updates with the team, setting targets and goals, workshop, workshopping everyone and like I mentioned the education that forms around it as well that is a very big part of that process depending on what the change is within the organization at the time. So you can choose, so this is very much what we do at the unlearners, you bring, bring us in to then do the management parts of the change. This would be then what we call change management which is a term that is not as huge now as it used to be because I mean we've used different words, people use different terms but that in essence is what that is. So to then wrap up the response to that question, those are the two things that I think are important to define here is let's take responsibility if we are in charge of leading the change and if we feel we don't have capacity to then manage the change so really be the person who is accountable for driving the results then we outsource it. We outsource it to someone with the capabilities, with the insights, with the muscle power, with whatever it is you're looking for here to be able to then manage the change. So you've got, you've got almost this two pronged approach to that transition process to that change process of it being led beautifully but also being managed in a really exciting way. I love the definition that I once heard that you, you men in a process, you manage a system, but you lead people. And that is almost how you want to think about it. You don't just want to have a change, manager in the picture that is managing that process, managing the rollout, managing the systems, managing the results, but you don't have someone who's leading the change. And you want both of that because both of those, because the individuals responsible for the leadership are really the people that are looking after the people element of it as well. Now you'll change manager and this is the final thing I'll say, you'll change management organization or individual that you have sourced, may also advise on the leadership aspect of it. So they will definitely, depending on who they are, but they will definitely advise and support you here and there when it comes to the leadership of it. So advising around some of the best ways to lead the change, how do you bring in the people elements, how do you make sure you bring your people along for the right, how do we reduce, how do we reduce resistance and increase our levels of buy in all of that type of stuff. So this is where you will have those individuals come into the party as well. All right, so that's question number one. Now let's move along to question number two. Question number two says, is this the best time for this change? I won't be too long on this one because it is very subjective. It depends very much on the conversation you've had internally as an organization. But one of the best ways to really look at this, and this is probably one of the more obvious logical ways here, but I think it might serve the best especially because I don't understand your context is thinking about weighing the pros and cons, so weighing the benefit of rolling out the change at this time, of executing at this time alongside the losses. What are the else? As I might say, that we would take if we roll out this change in conjunction with everything else that is happening because I assume that the only reason you would ask a question like this is because there is already a lot that is happening in the context that may cause this to fall under the radar or may cause that our energy be so unevenly distributed that something suffers. Now that might be the reason why this question is being asked. But I will say, having a conversation whether it's a strategic conversation among the team, whether it's a workshop, see how you design it. And when you, for example, bring us in as the unlearners, we may be able to help you with this. And starting off and saying, is this the best time? And then even advising a timeline that works best depending on what the organization is rolling out. And what we're doing and whether we would be strained for resources. And by resources, this could be financial, this could be time, but it could also be human capacity. Do people have capacity emotionally, you know, psychologically, but in a few different ways for this change? Because change really does take its whole on our, on our human, on our human capacity as an organization. So we need to always be mindful of that. Now that's, that's really what I will say to that question. Have a conversation about it. Look at where you are in your organization. What are some of your big plans coming up? And then how does the transformation or the change interact with the various, various initiatives, various strategic drivers or whatever it is that you've got planned around your calendar at that time? Is it something that would be negatively influenced or positively influenced that we can either align the change with or we can feed the two into each other. So look at all of those aspects. And then that's how you will know really. Because at the end of the day, you start the year off with key metrics that you want to drive. You start off the year with key deliverables that you want to, to achieve. And looking at both of what you've got planned for the year, our capacity and what we, we seek to achieve initially, that will tell you having a look at all of those aspects will really tell you whether you are on the right track with doing this at this time, whether it will yield the results that you want. And whether you're willing to take the risk because I feel this is one of the reasons why you would ask this question is because you're asking yourself, is it worth making the risk or taking the risk at this time to invest so much in this change? Will we get the returns or will we end up burning our people out? And so it's really important that you ask that question. So I'm glad that you are asking this question because it tells me that you are very intentional about how you factor change in. You are being proactive about change. You are not just responding. So high five hugs to you for that. And I think that that's actually brilliant. So that's a second question done. And then the very last one, I do want to say before I move on to the very last question is if there is more here that you want to talk about, that you want to engage on. And there's a certain question that you feel, oh, that was that was really great. I'd love more there or I'd really love a deeper support because this is where our team is at the moment. This is the question we're asking ourselves. Definitely have a conversation with us. Go over to the unlearners, connect with us and let's have a conversation about where you are and how we move forward and what the best questions are to be asking right now because the biggest one of the biggest things you can do for yourself during change is to ask the questions rather than focus on what the answers to those questions will be. Just ask the questions because the questions will drive us somewhere really exciting a lot of the time. So we'll just sit there and we'll ask the right questions and we'll get into a really exciting space moving into the future. So that's question number two done. And then the final question as we close office, a great place to start when you're leading change. Now this might be someone who maybe you're part of a smaller organisation. Now we don't focus a lot of our work within the the smaller enterprise space at the unlearners we work with more global organisations, multi-nationals, Fortune 500 companies. But I think that this question might be speaking specifically for someone who is in a smaller, maybe medium-sized organisation or an individual who has just started within a team and is noticing that, oh goodness, there's so much that's changing here and I'm noticing my people need a little bit of support. I need a bit of support. So wherever it is that you are, this question will probably be relevant to you and and I'd love to do it a bit of justice or not a bit of justice. I'd like to do it justice and answer it and answer it in a way that will really help you. So I'll say one thing here just to help you narrow down your focus so you're not thinking about too many things. A great place to start when you are leading change regardless of how big your team is, is your goals. This for me is, yeah, it's just a no-brainer as an individual who works a lot of transformation and change in helping people to do change in a way that works. So you want to start off with your goals and when I say goals here, I emphasise quite a lot the nature of co-created goals. So it's one thing as a leader whether you are at sea level in your organisation, middle management or wherever you find yourself at whatever work level you are. When you communicate or when you hold a vision for the change, it's great to communicate that. It's great to have a vision that this is where as I understand our strategy, as I understand what we're hoping to drive as an organisation, the key objectives that we have or the key results we want to achieve, this is the vision I hold for us. And communicating that vision. But when it comes to execution and how we get there, I strongly advise that this process be co-creative. So it'd be a process where we create these goals or we create the roadmap which the goals are in a sense together. What do we want to set for ourselves to help us to get there? So if the vision is that we expand our reach, for example, into five African countries because we are headquartered in Europe, but we really want to penetrate the African market. Or we want to move into the UAE within the next two years. If that's the big vision that we hold as an organisation, then we sit down with key members of our team. This can be all leaders across the organisation even if you're brave enough, depending on how big your organisation is. And maybe key talent as well. Regardless of where in the company they are, this might feel a little bit weird for you, but I think that this is a really great thing to do because you involve individuals with the perspective in the organisation that you don't have. And this is where true learning and transformation really happens. So you have those conversations and then you invite a shared creation process of creating our goals, of giving birth and giving rise to our goals. Where do we want to be? What do we feel with our capacity right now in the capacity we are hoping and are currently building? We will achieve. And then you sit and you co-create those goals. One of the things that I will say as we we close off on this question is as you co create those goals, it's important that everyone in the room understands that these goals are going to yes be a north star for us in the coming, whether it's quarter, maybe it's the coming three years, whatever it is, but having said that these goals are open to change. And then making it very clear so that by the time everyone leaves this conversation, we know when we will reconvene to brush up on these goals, to see how we are doing on these goals to maybe even re-engineer these goals. And it's not just a okay cool we've got our marching orders for the next five years, see you in five years time. But it's okay, I understand that this is what is informing current practice when it comes to our change. I know when we're going to be back here. So that if something is not working and we sit again in six months, I can say hey guys in month three, I actually noticed that this and this and this wasn't happening as well as we had wanted to or this person wasn't quite coming to the party and so it might be worth tweaking one, two and three. And then having that be really clear because the one thing with goals that I found is is extremely important to acknowledge and to do is to make room for those goals to change. We often feel very confined by our targets, they feel, they can feel claustrophobic at times. And as you set these goals related to leading your change, just to make sure everyone knows it, yes, these goals are aspirational, they're not we're going to sleep on ourselves goals, they are big hairy audacious goals as the beehag term says. But we will open ourselves up to revising them. Whether revising them means we we told them upwards because we're doing so well and we've got more capacity that's come in. Or maybe we just keep them the same or we we tilt them downwards because that's what we found might be necessary at this time. So those are key things to think about there and to to work towards. If you're thinking about a great place to start leading change, I would definitely say co-creating your goals. So communicating that big beautiful vision that you hold according to where we see ourselves going as an organization and then saying what are the key goals then that will support and not key goals that come from me but goals that we collectively set. Marketing, what are your thoughts on this? How do how do you guys how do we as a marketing team co-create? Apps team, how do we co-create this depending obviously on what capacity or teams you have in your organization really bringing everyone in so that the goals are all relative to the capacity that each and every team holds within the organization. And you are being like we said both responsive but also proactive as part of that conversation. All right so three questions that we have spoken through during today's Q&A episode. First one let's go through them one more time. The first question was who is supposed to manage the change and how. And we broke that question down into two really key bits. The second question was is this the best time for this change? Can't we do this later? And we answered that question in a really exciting way. I gave you a great way to have a look and measure and see if this is the best time. And then the very last question that we just wrapped up on is a great place to start when you're leading change. What's the what's the first call? Points of action that we can think about as a leader, as a manager, as an individual who's a part of a team. As you think about how to manage change, how to lead changing your organization. What's a great place to start? Where do I focus it in? If I haven't really done anything much but I'm looking for one place to start. All right, and learner, that is the end of today's episode. I really appreciate you joining, being a part of this conversation, but also for occupying the role that you play in your organization. Taking a taking the bull by the horns when it comes to change and transformation and unlearning and relearning in your organization. I have never believed that there is a more important agenda than change and transformation in an organization, but it's probably because I'm biased and I will acknowledge that. There's definitely that possibility, but I really do feel if we increase and improve our capacity to do change, we will be, we will make the leaps and the bounds that we believe are possible. And sometimes we don't believe are possible, but definitely are. So I wish you all of the based on that journey. Definitely do reach out, like I mentioned throughout our episode today, reach out. We would be more than happy to work with you. And if you let us know that you heard about our work first through the unlearners podcast, then I think it will make me and the team very, very happy to hear that. Otherwise, thank you so much, unlearner. Have a beautiful day wherever it is that you are listening to this. Thank you very much for your time. We deeply appreciate you and we cannot absolutely cannot wait to work with you to support your team to learn, unlearn, and relearn. So that whatever the future looks like going into the next five, 10, 20 years, you can still show up for it and build an organization that is always learning, changing and growing and can show up for the beautiful, beautiful future that you envisage for this world. I will see you on the next episode of the unlearners podcast. Bye for now.