Managing Change

In today's fast-moving world the concepts of management and "change management" are synonymous terms. Adapting to an ever-changing environment in which we attempt to achieve our mission is the predominant concern of all successful organizations.

In order to manage change effectively managers must be able to manage the six core processes that allow an organization to manage change. This seven-part series of articles seeks to introduce the six core processes that allow us to manage change and then to discuss each on in more detail.

Understanding the values that will make each of these processes successful and fulfilling is as important as understanding the processes themselves. The three primary value systems that we observe in management are authoritarian, relationship-oriented and laissez-faire. These form a continuum of values. Where managers will anchor themselves on this continuum of values will determine their success. The articles will demonstrate the effect of each value system on the outcome of each process.

The core values are:

Communication - We shall explore the effect of values on communications within an organization to demonstrate why the relational values of affirmation, involvement and servant leadership will result in successful change management.

Decision-Making - There are many styles of decision-making. We shall explore them and demonstrate why relationship values make such a difference.

Conflict Resolution - In the real world of imperfect relationships the successful manager will understand the importance of this process. The values that the manager models will determine both the fairness and effectiveness of this vital process.

Planning - The organizations strategic and tactical plans are crucial for success in managing change. They must be clear but flexible. The values that drive the planning process will make or break their success.

Delegating - Authority and responsibility will be delegated generously and with clear limitations and expectations. How that happens depends on the value system that motivates the manager.

Monitoring and Measuring - These twin processes form the expression of accountability in an organization. This "damaged" word is defined in terms of the value system that will make these processes productive and fulfilling.

Communication is the first of six core values, perhaps the core value, since it is also part and parcel of every other core process.

The ability of a manager to communicate effectively is important because it is the means by which information is transferred. Information is one of the basic forms of resource that people need for successful and fulfilling change management. (The others are human and financial resources and time.)

Communication models the underlying values that a manager holds towards those who look to him/her for authority. The values that form the basis of the manager's communication will determine whether those who receive their authority from them will receive the information they need when they need it. Thus, the expression of those values will determine whether the staff is successful, fulfilled, both or neither.

The core values of the Relationship Model™ are affirmation, involvement and servant leadership. When these values drive the manager's communication process, the information is generous, accurate, and matched to the staff's own expression of need for information. The communication process driven by this value system is characterized by a staff that is affirmed in their need to know, involved in determining what information is communicated, and supported in their desire to put information to work.

However, when communication is driven by an authoritarian value system where the manager is expressing values of power, control, manipulation and/or abuse, then we observe a communication process that may deliberately withhold information or communicate information in a manner that requires the staff to come back for permission before being able to act. Conversely, having information withheld, receiving partial or inaccurate information and being forced to return to the source of authority for more approval are symptoms of the authoritarian value system. The authoritarian value system is characterized by the source of authority having or taking more power than is needed to succeed with his/her responsibility. This deliberate metering out of information will inevitably lead to less success for the organization and fulfillment for the staff. Effective management of change bows to someone's need for excessive power.

On the other side of the values continuum is the laissez-faire value system. Communication driven by this value system will also be inadequate, but the motivation is different.

A "laissez-faire" values system tends to abrogate the authority to resource the staff with information. The motivation is not control but a tendency to shy away from giving the impression of being in control. The manager mistakes distance from the staff as empowerment of the staff. Information is not properly understood to be the vital resource that it is. Staff is left on its own to obtain what information it can.

But the "distance" created by this lack of affirmation, involvement and support is just as disempowering and demotivating. Staff is disempowered and devalued with the result that success and personal fulfillment are compromised. Effective change management yields to incompetence.

"Might is right" and "live and let live" values systems are equally dysfunctional. In other words, abusive power and incompetence in the process of communication have the same effect - the loss of effective change management.

In order to manage change effectively, a manager does well to recognize the symptoms of an authoritarian or a laissez-faire value system in his or her own communication process: incomplete, sparse, inaccurate, controlled, manipulated or false information.

In our understanding of healthy working relationships, the manager is accountable to the staff for providing the vital resource of information. That means that the recipient of authority can assist the manager by holding him/her accountable for using a communication process that provides the resource of information that does produce success and personal fulfillment.

As we have said earlier, the value system that drives the communication process is as important as the process itself. Developing an awareness of one's own value system, monitoring the active expression of affirmation, involvement and servant leadership, will ensure that the communication process will have the desired result of effective change management: success for the organization and a deep sense of satisfaction for the staff.

Planning is the third core process of an organization. Planning comes in two types - strategic and tactical.

The Board of Directors is the governing body of an organization. The basic strategic question that it must ask continually in an ever-changing environment is, "What services shall we offer to which people in which places and in what order of priority?" The answer to that becomes the strategic plan of the organization.

The board cannot answer this question without being in touch with key stakeholders on a regular basis. In our view a board should spend a minimum of 50% of its time listening to and learning from a parade of stakeholders coming into the boardroom. That parade should include clients and customers, donors and funding sources, representatives of the regulatory bodies - government, church leaders, specialists in the fields in which the organization works, etc., partners and "competitors".

The one who can properly introduce all these stakeholders is the one who likely knows them best - the CEO. The CEO should involve other senior members of the management team to suggest names of people who can help the board stay in touch with the environment as it changes. And, of course, senior managers are themselves important stakeholders.

Strategic planning should be simple, straightforward and brief. That will enable the board to give clear strategic direction to the CEO without becoming entangled in the complexities of tactical planning. In the Relationship Model™ a strategic plan of a multimillion-dollar, multinational organization or a small private school will be the same length - about ten pages. The components of a strategic plan include the strategic context, values, target groups, services, vision, mission, priorities, strategic goals and critical success factors. (Read further in the related articles below.)

The strategic plan will be kept current by the board interaction with stakeholders and the vital annual review and revision of the strategic plan.

Tactical planning is the work of the CEO and his/her team. This is a much more detailed document, one that forms the basis of all expectations of responsibilities of the management team as a group and of the individuals in it. The process of tactical planning, like strategic planning, must be based on the values of affirmation, involvement and servant leadership of those doing the planning.

Tactical plans have as many authors as there are individuals who set tactical goals for the year. Once those plans have been drafted, the team meets for a one or two-day retreat to share and discuss their plans and priorities. The financial plan - sometimes called the budget - flows from the tactical plans. It's important not to let finances drive the plans and priorities, but rather to let the strategic plan drive the tactical plans within the limits of the resources available.

The basic question of the tactical planning process is, "How shall we achieve our mission within the limits of our resources?" The main components of a tactical plan include a statement of the goal that is S.M.A.R.T.: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to the mission and time-limited. That is followed by a list of the resources required, the measurement of success that will be applied and a risk analysis, using the well-worn S.W.O.T. analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).

The critical success factors are the bridge between the strategic and the tactical. In other words, if the tactical plans address the critical success factors adequately, then the strategic goals of the mission can be realized.

Both strategic and tactical planning must be flexible enough to change during the year when the environment, the needs, the resources or other variables change.

Related Articles:

• Strategic and Tactical - What's the Difference?
• Strategic Planning Simplified
• Tactical Planning Simplified
• Setting S.M.A.R.T Goals

Les Stahlke, President