Posts tagged "Change Management"

Part 2: Guidance for the Change Agent

The Metaphor Language Research Center has taken many assignments to develop strategies for improving processes in developing countries in South Asia and Africa. This is the second of two articles and offers some recommendations to change agents, based on our experiences. (Read Part 1 here.)

Individuals who desire change in their governments and institutions may or may not have a clear idea
of the outcome they want but seldom have a realistic concept of how to achieve it. In particular, they do not comprehend the inertial resistance they will initially face and the countervailing forces that will persistently erode new processes installed.

Prepare

Understand the “lay of the land” and learn what government departments or non-government agencies have full or a degree of control over the target area.

Who are the stakeholders in the issue in question?
Who has what authority?
Who are the key deciders and decision influencers?
What are their beliefs and attitudes?
What problems in the past have been caused by individual attitudes, changeable policy, law?
What are legal or physical constraints?

Draft an approach that considers the needs of all stakeholders and the power structure

What is the incentive to change? Everyone on the planet has other priorities and is the star of their own movie. Why should they be a bit player in your movie?
Knowing exactly what you want to be different and how the change can be effected is an asset and liability.
Very often, change is blocked not because of resistance by the deciders but because the issue is very complex and the benefits of solving it are not fully evident and not a priority
If changes are made, who will benefit and who will not?
What are the foreseeable consequences?
Will some other “good” be compromised by a solution?
What has been tried before, if anything?
Does the proponent have a plan for effecting change or simply a dissatisfaction and a wish that things would be better?

Do you have a compelling case for the government or institution to engage?

Gain engagement: Establish a constructive dialog within the organization

Complaints, protests and other demonstrations of discontent may put pressure on leaders and a leader may be able to use that public outcry to engage the institution. Other times, it will be useful to engage a powerful community figure to help open the door– political, religious, cultural or other leaders may become allies. The goal of engagement is to gain acknowledgment of the issue, its severity and commitment to address it.

Participative solution

Establish a work session with stakeholders who have the authority to act or are key decision influencers. Establish agreement on the need for change, a vision, plan and progress monitoring. Employ methods that lead to sharing ownership of the idea, take account of new information and yield genuine commitment from all individuals.

Part 1: The Faces of Resistance

The Metaphor Language Research Center has taken many assignments to develop strategies for improving processes in developing countries in South Asia and Africa. This is the first of two articles and offers some observations from our experiences.

Some typical obstacles to change

• Establishing your right to be heard in the right forum
• Gaining attention of deciders
• Personal impact on deciders
• Absence of an efficient process to gain consensus frustrates all and shelves your initiative
• Competing priorities, typically for money
• Limited amount of time change agents have to invest
• Long held antagonisms between stakeholders
• Interminable talking

The rhetoric of resistance to change (as compiled by a group of change management practitioners)

– The “Resistors’ Rules of Thumb”– How non-formal, inertial resistance works:

• Don’t participate, but work on “the boss” off-line, if possible
• If forced to participate, don’t engage or take any responsibility for action
• If forced to talk, gently explain why there is no better way of functioning
• No overt disagreement with the objectives of change
• No conflict, no emotion
• If change is mandated, there’s no time to implement it
• If change is mandated, new problems will arise later to delay or sidetrack action
• If change is mandated, there will still be other, higher priorities
• If the change agent is an outsider, s/he didn’t understand
• If some change takes place, countervailing forces can still be marshaled to bring things back
• The change agent will eventually go away
• In a big organization, any force can be successfully resisted, including the “big boss”

Some additional Learnings re: Resistance

• It is not necessarily powerful bad guys who just want to take care of themselves– The leading problem is more often complexity and inability to characterize the problem in a way that motivates action (make it “Mind-Sized”)
• A passive form of resistance is common– which results in change being agreed but not ultimately implemented. Apparent causes are lack of funds to achieve the change. Actual roots typically rest in unwillingness to admin current or past weakness in the organization that would result in the leader’s loss of stature or loss of face.
• If all stakeholders are not participants in creating a vision of how the change would work, it will not be achieved
• Open discussion among stakeholders must be achieved
• Clear communication with a common vocabulary is necessary
• Realistic plans and milestones must be set

Anecdotes re: social and cultural complexities that can compound the problems of change in developing countries

• Leadership: The population in Muslim countries have no cultural heroes except Mohammed, because of deeply held religious beliefs
• Hidden power structures can circumscribe solution options (a seemingly obvious change in in health care training was blocked in one country because the health minister owned a building that would be vacated by the change)
• Westerners education levels are often inversely proportional to their effectiveness in developing country situations (the best ideas in Zambia government restructuring came from tribal chiefs)
• In some African countries, such as Zambia and Zimbabwe, the impact of AIDS has hollowed out government effectiveness
• Absence of basics such as clean water, effective transportation, education and health facilities compound difficulties in achieving change, even when all parties are committed. (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs plays a role here too)