What Makes Change Happen
Harvard Management Update| February 27, 2008
You have been charged with implementing a significant new initiative. Perhaps your company has defined a new competitive strategy—such as entering new markets or going global—and you need to align your group behind it. Or maybe you’ve identified stubborn problems in your unit—order-processing mistakes, duplication of effort, budget overruns—that need solving.
Your goal may be clear, but how clear is your strategy for reaching it? If you’re like most executives, the answer is, not clear enough. Indeed, most major change initiatives fail, many of them soon after implementation begins, says Larry Bossidy, coauthor with Ram Charan of Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right (Crown Business, 2004). The reason? Executives commit one or more of several common errors, all of which stem from insufficient planning and follow-through.
Some leaders assume that their unit’s culture has the flexibility and openness required to accommodate major change. They ram the initiative through their group—only to encounter stiff resistance that ultimately sabotages the effort. Or they fail to articulate the initiative’s benefits. “If people don’t understand the purpose of an initiative,” Bossidy says, “they’ll be skeptical about devoting their time and energy to it.”
Some leaders also don’t realize they must stay involved during implementation and continually communicate the initiative’s importance. “They just announce it and walk away,” Bossidy says. The result is initiatives that do little other than “wander and drift.”
Executives who want to avoid these and other prevalent mistakes when implementing new initiatives should look to these five steps:
1. Assess the prevailing culture
Before launching any change effort, carefully assess your unit’s or company’s culture. “Get outside opinions,” Bossidy advises. “Ask people you trust—a consultant, customer, supplier, former executive of the company— whether they think the culture can fulfill the objectives of the initiative.” External opinions are valuable because “people on the inside see the culture as they want to see it—not as it actually is.”
Also get a read on your culture from internal sources. Ask employees and managers questions such as, “What do you like about the unit (or company)? What don’t you like?” Solicit opinions about what’s causing your group’s or enterprise’s most pressing problems; for example, “Why does it take so long for us to get products to market? Why do we make so many order-entry mistakes?” Listen for answers relating to your group’s flexibility and openness to change. Do people feel encouraged to take risks and learn from their mistakes? Are they comfortable talking about problems?
Building momentum through smaller changes is particularly potent. It shows people they can rise to the challenge and enables you to begin more complex changes later.
While assessing culture, resist any temptation to bury your head in the sand because you don’t want to hear uncomfortable truths. “A lot of managers don’t ask these questions because they’re in denial,” says Bossidy. “Deep down, they feel that their culture can’t be changed,” so they decide that diagnosing it is a waste of time. Based on your cultural assessment, decide whether your team is capable of embracing the initiative you’re considering.
2. Condition the culture
If you’ve decided that the current culture is a poor match for the effort at hand, you must condition the culture. “Make the business case for change—in compelling terms,” Bossidy says. “Then start with something simple, to build confidence and demonstrate that people can work effectively together.”
Building momentum through smaller changes is particularly potent. “Succeeding on a small initiative, no matter how simple, provides a foundation for the next,” Bossidy says. It shows people that they can rise to the challenge and enables you to begin more complex changes later.
This phenomenon works on every level within an organization. For example, while serving as CEO of Morristown, N.J.-based AlliedSignal (which later acquired and took on the name Honeywell), Bossidy conditioned the culture for the company’s eventual adoption of Six Sigma by introducing an increasingly challenging series of starter initiatives first. These included “TQL,” or “total quality leadership,” which encouraged people to work as teams, gain experience with problem-solving tools, and analyze work problems in a classroom setting.
3. Commit time and energy
Some initiatives, once implemented, reach a plateau. As the novelty wears off , people’s energy and enthusiasm wane. To combat this tendency, the best change leaders stay involved throughout implementation of the entire initiative. “Kickoff speeches and delegation are not enough,” contends Bossidy. “Leading an initiative requires intense focus, hard work, tremendous time, and endless physical and emotional energy.”
A change leader needs to constantly breathe new life into the initiative. A change leader needs to constantly breathe new life into the initiative. For example, after Bossidy helped Six Sigma take root at AlliedSignal, he ensured that new generations of black belts (individuals who can explain Six Sigma philosophies and principles) were trained. He also recommends celebrating achievement of key implementation milestones. “Have an end-of-the-year or end-of-the-quarter party, where you recognize and reward people’s contributions to carrying out the initiative.” Constantly remind people of your appreciation, and show them the quantifiable benefits of the changes they’ve made so far.
Leading initiatives will never be easy. But by applying a few potent principles, you can sweeten the odds that your initiative will survive the most common hazards. If you’re entering a situation where your predecessor had begun a major initiative, evaluate its merit. “If it’s good,” Bossidy says, “keep sponsoring it. But put your own stamp on it. Look for new angles to introduce—anything to keep the effort fresh in people’s minds.”
4. Construct an able implementation team
Assembling the right team to carry out an initiative is the most difficult yet most important imperative for change leaders, Bossidy maintains. As he writes in Confronting Reality, “Naturally, you want people who are enthusiastic about leading initiatives, but you also need to make sure they’re functionally suited to the job and motivated to make things happen.” If, for instance, you’re introducing a new customer relationship management system to your group, ensure that the people who will be carrying out the initiative have a strong customer orientation—as well as a comfort level with and knowledge of the technology.
And if your implementation team needs the participation of a few individuals from other departments, be prepared for resistance from their leaders—many of whom don’t want to lose their best people to an “outside” project. “Appeal to these leaders’ camaraderie, commitment to teamwork, and pride in the company,” says Bossidy. “Let them know you’re depending on them. Reassure them that they won’t be losing a talented employee forever. And help them find ways to reassign responsibilities. Whatever you do, don’t let pushback from these folks stall the initiative.”
5. Call on your courage
Initiatives require people to think and act in new ways. They can require a leader to change some individuals’ or units’ responsibilities or remove them entirely from the team or company. Such changes in structure will create “real or perceived winners and losers,” Bossidy writes in Confronting Reality. To ensure the initiative stays on track, deal directly with any “aggrieved constituencies and [make] sure that good people aren’t discouraged or driven out when their part of the business is cut down,” he says.
Your challenge here is to remain “both inspiring and unrelenting.” Let people know that there will be consequences for not supporting the initiative. Your message? “We’ve thought about the pros and cons, and concluded that this is something we must do… If people aren’t on board with us, there will have to be changes made.” Changes in rewards can also “add muscle to the message,” Bossidy explains. At AlliedSignal, for instance, “30% of a business-unit leader’s bonus was tied to progress on Six Sigma.”
Leading initiatives will never be easy. But by applying a few potent principles, you can sweeten the odds that your initiative will survive the most common hazards.
Your goal may be clear, but how clear is your strategy for reaching it? If you’re like most executives, the answer is, not clear enough. Indeed, most major change initiatives fail, many of them soon after implementation begins, says Larry Bossidy, coauthor with Ram Charan of Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right (Crown Business, 2004). The reason? Executives commit one or more of several common errors, all of which stem from insufficient planning and follow-through.
Some leaders assume that their unit’s culture has the flexibility and openness required to accommodate major change. They ram the initiative through their group—only to encounter stiff resistance that ultimately sabotages the effort. Or they fail to articulate the initiative’s benefits. “If people don’t understand the purpose of an initiative,” Bossidy says, “they’ll be skeptical about devoting their time and energy to it.”
Some leaders also don’t realize they must stay involved during implementation and continually communicate the initiative’s importance. “They just announce it and walk away,” Bossidy says. The result is initiatives that do little other than “wander and drift.”
Executives who want to avoid these and other prevalent mistakes when implementing new initiatives should look to these five steps:
1. Assess the prevailing culture
Before launching any change effort, carefully assess your unit’s or company’s culture. “Get outside opinions,” Bossidy advises. “Ask people you trust—a consultant, customer, supplier, former executive of the company— whether they think the culture can fulfill the objectives of the initiative.” External opinions are valuable because “people on the inside see the culture as they want to see it—not as it actually is.”
Also get a read on your culture from internal sources. Ask employees and managers questions such as, “What do you like about the unit (or company)? What don’t you like?” Solicit opinions about what’s causing your group’s or enterprise’s most pressing problems; for example, “Why does it take so long for us to get products to market? Why do we make so many order-entry mistakes?” Listen for answers relating to your group’s flexibility and openness to change. Do people feel encouraged to take risks and learn from their mistakes? Are they comfortable talking about problems?
Building momentum through smaller changes is particularly potent. It shows people they can rise to the challenge and enables you to begin more complex changes later.
While assessing culture, resist any temptation to bury your head in the sand because you don’t want to hear uncomfortable truths. “A lot of managers don’t ask these questions because they’re in denial,” says Bossidy. “Deep down, they feel that their culture can’t be changed,” so they decide that diagnosing it is a waste of time. Based on your cultural assessment, decide whether your team is capable of embracing the initiative you’re considering.
2. Condition the culture
If you’ve decided that the current culture is a poor match for the effort at hand, you must condition the culture. “Make the business case for change—in compelling terms,” Bossidy says. “Then start with something simple, to build confidence and demonstrate that people can work effectively together.”
Building momentum through smaller changes is particularly potent. “Succeeding on a small initiative, no matter how simple, provides a foundation for the next,” Bossidy says. It shows people that they can rise to the challenge and enables you to begin more complex changes later.
This phenomenon works on every level within an organization. For example, while serving as CEO of Morristown, N.J.-based AlliedSignal (which later acquired and took on the name Honeywell), Bossidy conditioned the culture for the company’s eventual adoption of Six Sigma by introducing an increasingly challenging series of starter initiatives first. These included “TQL,” or “total quality leadership,” which encouraged people to work as teams, gain experience with problem-solving tools, and analyze work problems in a classroom setting.
3. Commit time and energy
Some initiatives, once implemented, reach a plateau. As the novelty wears off , people’s energy and enthusiasm wane. To combat this tendency, the best change leaders stay involved throughout implementation of the entire initiative. “Kickoff speeches and delegation are not enough,” contends Bossidy. “Leading an initiative requires intense focus, hard work, tremendous time, and endless physical and emotional energy.”
A change leader needs to constantly breathe new life into the initiative. A change leader needs to constantly breathe new life into the initiative. For example, after Bossidy helped Six Sigma take root at AlliedSignal, he ensured that new generations of black belts (individuals who can explain Six Sigma philosophies and principles) were trained. He also recommends celebrating achievement of key implementation milestones. “Have an end-of-the-year or end-of-the-quarter party, where you recognize and reward people’s contributions to carrying out the initiative.” Constantly remind people of your appreciation, and show them the quantifiable benefits of the changes they’ve made so far.
Leading initiatives will never be easy. But by applying a few potent principles, you can sweeten the odds that your initiative will survive the most common hazards. If you’re entering a situation where your predecessor had begun a major initiative, evaluate its merit. “If it’s good,” Bossidy says, “keep sponsoring it. But put your own stamp on it. Look for new angles to introduce—anything to keep the effort fresh in people’s minds.”
4. Construct an able implementation team
Assembling the right team to carry out an initiative is the most difficult yet most important imperative for change leaders, Bossidy maintains. As he writes in Confronting Reality, “Naturally, you want people who are enthusiastic about leading initiatives, but you also need to make sure they’re functionally suited to the job and motivated to make things happen.” If, for instance, you’re introducing a new customer relationship management system to your group, ensure that the people who will be carrying out the initiative have a strong customer orientation—as well as a comfort level with and knowledge of the technology.
And if your implementation team needs the participation of a few individuals from other departments, be prepared for resistance from their leaders—many of whom don’t want to lose their best people to an “outside” project. “Appeal to these leaders’ camaraderie, commitment to teamwork, and pride in the company,” says Bossidy. “Let them know you’re depending on them. Reassure them that they won’t be losing a talented employee forever. And help them find ways to reassign responsibilities. Whatever you do, don’t let pushback from these folks stall the initiative.”
5. Call on your courage
Initiatives require people to think and act in new ways. They can require a leader to change some individuals’ or units’ responsibilities or remove them entirely from the team or company. Such changes in structure will create “real or perceived winners and losers,” Bossidy writes in Confronting Reality. To ensure the initiative stays on track, deal directly with any “aggrieved constituencies and [make] sure that good people aren’t discouraged or driven out when their part of the business is cut down,” he says.
Your challenge here is to remain “both inspiring and unrelenting.” Let people know that there will be consequences for not supporting the initiative. Your message? “We’ve thought about the pros and cons, and concluded that this is something we must do… If people aren’t on board with us, there will have to be changes made.” Changes in rewards can also “add muscle to the message,” Bossidy explains. At AlliedSignal, for instance, “30% of a business-unit leader’s bonus was tied to progress on Six Sigma.”
Leading initiatives will never be easy. But by applying a few potent principles, you can sweeten the odds that your initiative will survive the most common hazards.