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For
important initiatives to reach their "realization"
potential, it's usually necessary to call into play two disciplines.
The first is project-management, the second is change leadership:
•Project management deals with the logistics
of implementation (redoing the organizational chart, defining
functional milestones, scheduling, training, cost-control, and
so forth).
•Change leadership uses behavioral science
research and techniques to deal with the dynamics that unfold
within the surrounding human landscapes (developing commitment,
communicating effectively, minimizing resistance, fostering
resilience, etc.).
The word "project" has a common enough meaning, but
we need to hone in on that word "change." Daryl Conner's
1992 book -- Managing at the Speed of Change -- went
so far as to say it often becomes "The Beast." And
it does so in ways you'd never expect:
Major change minimizes our ability to dominate events. For
a species whose entire existence is predicated on its ability
to control its environment, the ultimate nightmare is an inability
to assimilate change in a world transforming itself faster by
the minute. The Beast is the fear and anxiety within us all
as we encounter the significant, unanticipated changes that
shatter our expectations. It is not a figment of the imagination,
and it cannot be explained away as a passing phase that afflicts
only a young boy or a frightened soldier. The Beast is a metaphor,
but its devastation of individuals, organizations, and society
is real.
Conner's work with private-sector organizations spans 28 years.
His Atlanta-based ODR® has formulated and refined a methodology
for optimizing change initiatives -- the Managing Organizational
Change® process -- and has teamed up with long-time
congressional advisor Jerry Climer, also President of the Public
Governance Institute, to develop and put forth a governing version
of the "MOC" discipline called Leading Public-Sector
Change(TM).
When organizations face important problems or opportunities,
those in charge often assume that selecting and engaging the
correct solution is all that is required of them. Whether introducing
new technology, policies or procedures, restructuring for better
alignment, or creating a new corporate culture, many of these
leaders approach the task as if deploying a business solution
is synonymous with achieving the desired outcome.
What's key here is the frame of reference they hold regarding
the influence of uncontrollable forces on how the change effort
turns out. Sometimes, the more leaders feel that the outcome
is at the mercy of serendipitous forces, the less likely they
are to accomplish what they set out to do.
Readying the Human Landscape is mandatory to achieving a solution's
intended impact. Creating proper readiness requires a thorough
pursuit of these four issues -- the risk factors that
begin to thwart an executive when he or she neglects to anticipate,
measure, and maneuver:
• Sponsorship -- To what extent are the
appropriate executives, managers, and supervisors willing and
able to provide the level of commitment needed to sustain the
solution's full implementation? In the public arena, players
here can include the President or Prime Minister, legislators,
ministers or department heads. But the key question relates
to how important the change’s success is to the leaders
personally.
• Capacity -- To what extent do users
have the intellectual, emotional and physical resources needed
to adjust to the changes required by the initiative?
• Resistance -- To what extent are various
stakeholders exerting overt and/or covert reluctance to support
the effort? (Note: Resistance always arises. Even when the change
offers potential benefit to every player, some will still resist
-- simply because it's human and natural to resist the unfamiliar.)
• Culture -- To what extent do the assumptions,
behaviors and beliefs necessary to achieve the goals of the
solution differ from those that are currently in place?
Major change undertakings are best understood as extended journeys,
not brief excursions. Along the way, not all the stumbling blocks
and inhibitors are easy to spot. When you do see one, it could
still be hard to mitigate.
At certain times, the "known" variables that surface
(which are possible to decipher and deal with) become overwhelmed
by the "unknown" variables -- the mysterious forces
that clearly influence final results but are much more difficult
to isolate and manage. When this happens, powerful but perplexing
dynamics -- factors either too subtle or too complex for many
leaders to understand -- have taken hold.
To understand how these questions relate to the introduction
of public-policy initiatives and governmental-policy change,
it's helpful to focus on the five components that make up the
context of change. They include the present
state, the pain at hand, the solution, the implementation process,
and the ultimate desired outcome. A brief definition of each:
• Present State -- The way things are
before an initiative is introduced; the reason why a call to
action is necessary
• Pain -- The cost of continuing the
status quo
• Solution(s) -- One or more initiatives
chosen to address the conditions of the present state
• Implementation -- Deployment of the
solution
• Ultimate Desired Outcome -- How things
would look if the problems of the present state were solved
or the opportunities were fully exploited.
The Public Governance Institute focuses on the nature and process
of the Human Landscape issues that surround important initiatives.
We do this not because they are more important than making the
right decision, but because they are typically misunderstood
or neglected in major change projects. The terrain around new
initiatives is populated with people who deploy a wide range
of thoughts, emotions, perceptions, skills and biases that have
a direct bearing on the effort's success. When this human landscape
is left unattended, resistance prevails, and the success of
the initiative is jeopardized.
In sum: Principles and methods similar to what ODR® has
proven in the private sector can be used by public-sector managers
to carry out change.
Now let's consider a "case study" that's far from
complete -- a story with most of the chapters yet to be written
-- that you can track to see how pertinent the Leading Public-Policy
Change framework is.
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