Leading Change: The Nuts and Bolts of it

As an old adage goes, “the only person who wants change is a baby with a wet diaper”. Let us face it, most of us don’t like change, we love our comfort zones, we like our routines, most of us given the option would rather follow the well-trodden path than take the trouble of pioneering or exploring a new one and for some of us even a slight change in our routines might put us off.

History is replete with stories of companies or organisations who failed to innovate or change, ultimately losing out in the race and becoming redundant or dead. If change is so allergic for us then imagine the prospect of “leading” change; that is not a great place to be in. But whether we like it or not, if one is convinced about the need for change and if our very survival or growth hinges on it, then we have no other option other than to dive in and lead it.

I had the God given privilege of helping lead change in our movement few years’ back- one was a change initiative in our organisational culture and the other a strategy change and implementation. The insights that I learned in the process is unforgettable. Along with that I had the tremendous privilege of working with some amazingly gifted, visionary and Christ-like leaders who initiated and led this change process; to rub shoulders with them and watch them lead from close quarters and learn from their life is something that will be indelibly etched in my memory forever. I express my sincere thanks to each one of those leaders and I am ever grateful to God for allowing me to play a small part in that change process. With my limited knowledge, I have tried to capture my few cents worth of ‘take-away’s” and some of those principles which I believe might be of help for others who are initiating/leading or going through a change process. Here are some of the nuts and bolts that are vital for leading change.

Leading spiritually: Is it from God or from man? Have we spent enough time in His presence to hear from Him? Nehemiah in the Bible was leading one of the biggest change process in his time; raising up a people devastated by captivity, shame and ridicule, to build the broken walls around Jerusalem and add to it, the external threat from enemies. This was not the “leader’s fancy idea” or the people’s idea; it was a vision that he received from God after hearing about the desperate need and after many days of prayer, fasting and brokenness before God. Change for the sake of change or because others are doing it, is not a good idea at all. But if our God given vision demands a change in the way we do things and we are clearly hearing it from God, after much waiting and seeking His face, then we are leading from a heart that is spiritually tuned with God and that is critical and of utmost importance for any leader before he initiates anything; leave alone a change initiative.

The why of it: Are we fully convinced about the need for change? What is at stake if we don’t change? The ‘vision’ does not change, that is our North Star. But as a leader when one takes stock of the progress towards that vision; as he evaluates the current reality and sees the big gap; he knows that a change needs to happen or else it will be adversely detrimental to the very existence of his company or organisation.  Having a clear grasp on what is at stake and having one’s fingers on the pulse of the organisation is crucial for a leader initiating the change.

 Know the direction: Can you see the road ahead even if you cannot see the end picture right now? A leader sees much further down the road than the people he is leading. In a recent conversation with one leader, he told me that his organisation is going through a big change so I asked him what he was expecting out of it. I was shocked to hear him reply that he had no idea, he was just blindly winging it and adding to that he casually passed the buck by saying that his team had come up with this whole change idea. Man! What a terrible place to be, I felt sorry for the people under his care. That was a classic case of what Jesus said as, ‘the blind leading the blind’. It is good to remind ourselves that, “if there is fog in the pulpit there is bound to be dark clouds in the pew."

Crystal clear on the implications: Know who the real stakeholders are. The key stakeholders need to be taken into confidence well in advance and  a clear communication channel needs to be set up for them to be regularly updated. See if there are structural tweaking or modifications needed to facilitate and leverage the intended change. This classic incident sums it up well, “the huge printing presses of a major newspaper began malfunctioning. None of the technicians could track down the problem. Finally, a frantic call was made to the retired printer who had worked with these presses for over 40 years. “We’ll pay anything; just come in and fix them,” he was told.  When he arrived, he walked around for a few minutes, surveying the presses; then he approached one of the control panels and opened it. He removed a dime from his pocket, turned a screw, and said, “The presses will now work correctly.” After being profusely thanked, he was told to submit a bill for his work. The bill arrived a few days later, for $10,000! Not wanting to pay such a huge amount for so little work, the printer was told to please itemize his charges, with the hope that he would reduce the amount once he had to identify his services. The revised bill arrived: $1.00 for turning the screw; $9,999 for knowing which screw to turn.

 While going in for any structural changes or internal reforms do not attempt a major overhaul which will create a lot of confusion and instability and it will take much time for the dust to settle down instead it is better to try as much as to embed the proposed new change elements into the existing delivery system unless that system is totally flawed.

 Communicate: There is nothing like over communicating during a change initiative; maximize all avenues of communication to the stake-holders be it the regular meetings, large conference’s, informal talks, social media, short movies, interviews, well prepared high quality PPT’s, official communication platforms etc. It is good to adopt a multi-pronged mode of communication with face to face or one on one with key stakeholders, cascading and distance communication with others and direct communication when required but whatever the mode it has to be ongoing and specific.                                                                      

The power of Branding: Creating something visible around the change like a catchy Slogan or an attractive Logo is powerful, it easily gets people’s attention and people inadvertently tend to associate the brand image with the change initiative. The branding can be popularised on T- shirts, mugs, caps, pens, wristbands, small booklets, FB page etc. so that they can identify with the brand and the change.

Pray and mobilize people to pray: The more the number people praying the greater the ripple effect for change. God in the process starts aligning their hearts to the initiative. Prayer has a wonderful way of bringing people to change their views and attitudes towards a particular thing which they might not have liked initially. We need to remember that if the idea is from God then He has been at work much before we even started, he will bring the people and resources required for the change.

Share Stories: Info-graphics and statistics capture the ‘minds’ of people, stories touch the ‘hearts’ and inspire people. People love and remember stories, not the numbers. Look out for early leads and life stories on the change. Share stories of people who are initiating the change and seeing some kind of success. 

Get the other leaders on-board:  Communicate and convince as many leaders above you and those who are alongside with you. Watch out for the cross- winds at higher altitudes, those are more turbulent and dangerous than the ones blowing below.

Raise up multiple Champions: Being a lone ranger champion/spokesman can be effective to a certain extent, one advantage is we can avoid the Chinese-whisper syndrome but in the long run it will take a heavy toll on us. Develop other people, who are aligned to the change, to be champions at different levels, who will share the same vision.

Run with the Horses:  Look out for the early adaptors and run with them; others will soon follow. In every organisation there are people who will latch on to a new idea or change; identify few of them and start working with them. Be careful to work with the right people as some might be just flattering you. I have also realised that trying to move the sceptics at the initial stages will be a waste of precious time. It is better to abide by the proverb, “let sleeping dogs lie”.

Nothing works like a working Model: A successful model is powerful, without a model everybody is groping in the dark. It will be like the blind men feeling the elephant, we will end up everyone coming up with their own interpretations. People always look for models or what is really working, be it in any culture. Work towards creating early models.

A clear road map: Create a clear road map with major milestones to reach and celebrate. This needs specific, measurable and achievable goals with timelines. The more pictorial and graphic it is, the better.

Have regular pit stops for process check and evaluate the progress. Create a clear metrics on the expected outcomes, make sure that it is understandable and available to all.  

Change is like a Juggernaut, it starts slowly, it takes a lot of effort to get it moving but once it starts rolling, it is almost impossible to stop it.