Implementing innovations requires forethought and much discussion. Seven rules are essential.
1. Ask what you are trying to do.
2. Get trust and buy-in from upper management.
3. Create disciples.
4. Measure and monitor the change.
5. Create dissatisfaction with the status quo.
6. Visualize a future state.
7. Tell people what is in it for them.
Glen H. Hiner, chairman and CEO of Owens-Corning, discussed the need to change in the face of ever-increasing global competition. At the same time he noted that it is human nature to fear change. We become comfortable with old habits, and we fear what we do not understand. Fear can be a powerful barrier.
Hiner said too many leaders assume that if they talk about the need to change enough, it somehow will automatically bring about improvements. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The bigger the organization, the more difficult it is to innovate. He pointed out that companies like Owens-Corning are a lot like battleships, rather than pleasure crafts. When you touch the control of a small entrepreneurial organization, it responds immediately, but it is another matter for battleships, like Owens-Corning. When you signal a change of course with these battleships, it takes a while before you notice any difference.
For this reason, Hiner believes timing is most important. If you wait until it is obvious to everyone that the company needs to change—you have waited too long. He insists that it is the leaders’ responsibility to challenge themselves and others to innovate before there is a consensus that change is needed. You cannot dictate or demand improved productivity or better customer satisfaction. Your people must want to improve productivity or better customer satisfaction (1).
Implementing innovations can be an exhausting and frustrating experience. Nobody wants to change; we prefer the status quo even if it is bad. The difference between whether it is a very negative or positive experience is how the change is managed. When you ask managers who have been intimately involved in a project to describe their negative and positive experiences with change, it is almost always the same story. It is not so much what innovation is being implemented, but how it is done. Often, the first thing manager’s mention when asked to describe their negative expe-riences is the fact that those who try to implement the change do not take a unified approach. They often say that there was little foresight or planning. There was also unanimous agreement about the general lack of involvement and communication with those who will be affected by the change. As a result, there is little chance of buy-in. They are just informed of what they will be doing. Comments frequently heard make reference to creating a lose-lose situation. Exercise #6, in chapter 13, can help your people identify their own negative and positive experiences with change. The outcome of the exercise is to develop an action plan for your group so the next innovation is a positive experience.
If you do use this exercise, you will probably hear a group or individual describe a change that was dropped on them. People will say they felt powerless. Negative experiences with change often share one common attribute. Either they had no input or their recommendations were ignored. Frequently, there was not even an explanation about why the change was needed. There is minimum discussion of the problem and potential solutions. The outcome is predictable—a lack of trust. Gradually an atmosphere of dishonesty and personal paranoia develops that ultimately dooms the change.
When change works, it is an opposite or almost a mirror image of what happens when it does not work. There is a consistent, regular reporting of the status on the change so rumors can be kept to a minimum. Senior management, as chapter 12 recommends, has a clear vision for where they want to go. That is different from simply recognizing that some change is needed or that a problem exists. The innovators, often a project team, prioritize the details and decide what should be done and in what order. Effective change never requires that everybody become involved because that is clearly impossible. Rather successful change leaders define specific actions and commitments they need from key individuals. They work on obtaining this commitment and then communicating about the proposed change. This entails open explanation about why certain decisions are being made. It is not essential to get everyone involved but it is critical to show people what needs to be changed.
RULE #1: ASK “WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?”
Assuming there is a need for an innovative solution, you will need a goal that is achievable. Having a realistic goal requires first identifying the area or issue that needs changing. Anyone who is seriously considering implementing a new change or innovation should consider reviewing Exercise #7 in chapter 13. It will give you a good guideline so that critical steps have been thought out. Exercise #8 is a more dynamic and fun exercise called “Play Cards for Change.” This is a good exercise to use with a group of people to help them both reason out the process of change and discuss the right sequence that should be taken in implementing the change.
RULE #2: CREATING TRUST AND BUY-IN-BEGIN AT THE TOP
The bigger the change, the more the CEO buy-in must be dramatic, consistent, and persistent. Someone once said that he could not believe the number of executives who quit smoking cigars when cigar-smoking Lee Iacocca retired as head of Chrysler. Employees naturally try to imitate their boss. The boss must buy-in. A good example of the power of initial commitment is demonstrated by Jerre Stead. He was the CEO for AT&T and was involved in trying to create a customer- focused organization. They have gone through a process of defining their mission, values, objectives, and strategies. The primary champion of this change is their CEO, Jerre Stead. When he spoke of creating a customer-focused organization, he knew that actions speak louder than words. T this end he spends an average of 2 days or 16 hours each week visiting customers. He also talks to approximately 15 customers by phone each week. When he talks to them, he has a plan. He asks three questions:
• What are we doing that you like?
• What things would you like to see us do that we are not doing?
• What things are we doing that you would like to see us do better? (2)
So what has he discovered so far? He says their customers like their people, but find them slow and not as responsive as they want. He goes on to add that their customers complain that AT&T does not give their people enough accountability or decision-making power to do what needs to be done. Customers want to work with people to make the correct decisions for their business needs. Customers want representatives to know more about their (the customers’) businesses (2). Can there be any doubt about what is near and dear to this CEO’s heart? Such commitment to change is rare. Even rarer is the ability to sustain the effort.
RULE #3: CREATE DISCIPLES/FOLLOWERS
An old adage says “it’s easier to change people than to change people.” People can be forced to change, but change will not change them unless they accept the change as good. Leaders of change should openly communicate with their people. Explain the value of the change and especially tell them what is in it for them. Explain the impact of the proposed change on the company. Keep the focus on the issues with an open two-way flow. There must be opportunity for feedback on alternative ways. Communication works best if both sides are prepared to be flexible and willing to modify thinking and plans. Develop final solutions after gathering preliminary information, not before it has been gathered.
A fun way to build commitments for a change and at the same time help your people think through this process that will be involved is by taking them through storyboarding (see Exercise #9). This exercise helps your people to visualize what impact the change may have and keep them in the “moment of truth” that always comes with every innovation.
RULE #4: MEASURE AND MONITOR “IT”
One of the more popular training courses for executives consists of survival team-building exercises. Executives who have gone through this training sometimes strongly believe it has had a significant impact on their behavior. Many believe it was a great learning experience. But research study after study consistently shows that it has almost no impact on behavior. A year later they are still behaving the same old way. They may believe they have changed, but no one else does.
All too often change is assumed to be working, but in fact is not working. An essential element to successful innovation is outcome measurement. If there is no measurable change, you can try another approach before much resources and time are wasted. Obviously, when it comes to establishing measurements, make sure to measure the right things (for example, measure quality, not the number of people attending quality meetings). Perhaps just as important, maybe more important, is ownership of those measures of performance. Have employees become actively involved in creating their own measurement and numbers systems. Encourage them to create incentives for positive behavior and disincentives for negative behavior.
Successful innovation demands forethought. The bigger the change, the more forethought is required. Creating a good atmosphere for new innovations involves reducing inhibitors of change (3). It is natural for people to resist change, but you can diminish this resistance by creating dissatisfaction with the status quo. Begin the process of change by finding out about your people, and about their feelings toward the status quo.
All people get comfortable with the status quo. The reason you want to find out about their dissatisfaction is that people must have some dissatisfaction with the status quo before they can accept an innovation. Oh, they can be forced to change, but they will not support it unless there is significant pain associated with the old ways. Those people who feel pain with old ways are the ones most likely wanting change. Your first positive action when implementing innovations will be to clarify how much pain exists with the old ways of doing things.
RULE #5: CREATE DISSATISFACTION WITH THE STATUS QUO
If you believe dissatisfaction with the status quo is low, examine the results, gather additional information if you need it, and then share information that helps to create greater dissatisfaction. For instance, in doing additional research, you may discover a certain percentage of your customers choose a competitor because of certain on-the-job behaviors. You may also discover market share is being eroded because of poor service. In either case, share and clarify the pain of remaining with the status quo. If you find out that 20 percent of your orders are late, or some cost is greater than a competitor, then let others know about the situation.
Gathering and sharing any qualitative data that supports the need to innovate is an essential prerequisite to change. Some examples of information you might share about the current status quo includes having (1) too much work to do in the current work situation, (2) no available method or procedures for doing a better job, (3) no recognition system for doing work properly, (4) inadequate rewards, and (5) inadequate tools or equipment (3). Bryon Stock emphasizes that status quo conditions like these or others can be used to raise the level of dissatisfaction. When the perceived level of pain is great, people will be more receptive to innovation. However, this does not mean your goal is to try to create fear. There is already plenty of that in most change situations.
Many people still resist anything new even if they are dissatisfied with the status quo because they fear change. Fear may not be logical, rational, nor reasonable, but it does inhibit any innovation. The best defenses against fear are information and patience. William Bridges writes about human change in life and work, and describes three phases of change. He calls them the ending, the neutral zone, and the beginning (4). If you want to successfully implement innovations, you have to help people work through these phases. When you try to implement the innovation, one of the first impressions you may get is a sense of frustration because many do not see the benefits of change. Doing something different is, for some, like standing at the edge of a dark chasm. They are told to jump—but to where? There is often an overwhelming frustration because the old ways no longer work.
The fear for some is even worse because they do not even talk of change, at least not openly. Everybody knows there will be changes, but few managers rarely discuss it, nor clearly understand how the change personally affects them or their people. Under these conditions, it is natural for people to resist giving up old habits, attitudes, and roles. It is not that hard to understand why they are afraid. Work and what we do often help to define us as a person, and make us feel useful and important. No one wants to lose the comfort zones and personal identity they have built up over years. Despite our protest, we like the status quo.
W. Edwards Deming said that driving fear out of the workplace is more important to continuous improvement than all the cherished statistical techniques of total quality control (4). Employees and managers will let go, people will change, but there needs to be a sense of trust, dialogue, and negotiation. Reducing fear is possible but, unfortunately, manager’s compound natural fears of change by discouraging discussion of such issues. When we want to implement a change, there is a tendency to perceive struggles as unwanted and unwarranted resistance to a new or creative alternative. We tend to want to straighten out troublemakers and that is the wrong approach.
Straightening out people will not work, but there are several things you can do to help people deal with the natural apprehension and fear of change. John Iacovini identified several of these including the following:
• Give your people visible support.
• Try to point out areas that will remain stable and will not change.
• Give your people an opportunity to informally interact and share information and feelings.
• Use the past rather than ignoring it, and try to build on those accomplishments.
• Try to be sensitive to the fact that different people are at different stages of accepting the change.
• Counsel people and help them identify what they are holding on to, and most importantly, why.
• Focus on being supportive for your people in letting go of old ways of doing business.
• Constantly give information on the change, and just as importantly, give them a safety net when they make mistakes.
Try to keep people focused on the rational thoughts rather than emotional fears. Remember, people often hold on to old ways, even if they are not productive ones. Even if change is desired, many will be afraid of it. Many people would rather be safe above anything else, even if the current situation is not productive or satisfying.
Getting some people through what John Iacovini calls an impasse will take some work. He says overcoming this impasse is similar to getting your car stuck in the snow. If you gun your engine and spin your tires, you just get stuck even deeper. On the other hand, if you slow the engine and gently rock the car back and forth, momentum will eventually allow you to move forward (4).
Like inexperienced drivers stuck in the snow, if an organization tends to rush through this resistance or this impasse stage, people can get psychologically stuck and roll back into old patterns. That is why it is up to management to realign people who are at an impasse. Iacovini suggests when an organization or person reaches an impasse you should do the following:
• Take time to look at where things are.
• Try to encourage creative thinking and tolerate diversity.
• Encourage people to reflect on the past and think in new ways about the future.
• Focus on feelings and exploring new ideas.
Lacovini’s advice may reduce fear, but until the change is better understood, resistance will still remain strong.
RULE #6: VISUALIZE A FUTURE STATE
Chapter 12 noted the importance of clearly defining your vision. Fear alone is never enough to make people want to change. Supporting a new innovation is unlikely unless our people perceive this new future as having fewer obstacles and more benefits than the status quo. Experts like Warner Burke, among others, emphasize that a prerequisite for leading change is to create a vision of the future state. The difficulty of this task has already been noted. It takes time to get together to discuss the future; nevertheless, paint a clear picture of the future. You must be able to describe tasks or activities that will be easier or better under the new change. When you better articulate this future state, the change will be more easily accepted. Before articulating this vision, listen for ideas. Before saying that change is needed, first ask participants how they can, or would, improve the process.
Listening alone can provide you with much information, not only about what people fear, but also about what they like about the old ways of doing work. You can also find out what good relationships or collaboration already exist and then describe how the new innovation can improve or strengthen these relationships. Try to build on the similarity to the current situation, identify what positive values exist in the old, and show how the new innovation will strengthen or reinforce what was good.
RULE #7: TELL PEOPLE WHAT IS IN IT FOR THEM
The ideal situation involving a new innovative technology or work arrangement is for all those involved to have a complete understanding of the change and have a positive consensus about what the future state will be after the change. In reality, it will take continuous effort to fill in just the important parts. For each of us, the important parts and important information is the stuff that directly affects us. People do not need, and often do not care about, all the details of a new change, but the details directly affecting them will need to be well thought out and articulated.
We all see the benefits of change differently. Any change for many will still be resisted, even when there is dissatisfaction with the status quo. It will be resisted even if you have done your best to clarify the future state. The reason that some still resist is that they do not see the positive outcomes of change. In other words, they want to know “what’s in it for me?” They want proof that the change will be personally good for them. You can show the advantages of change by telling success stories, by making visits, discussing it, and promoting testimonials. One especially powerful technique for showing the advantages is to use pilot studies or projects (see chapter 13). In the end, though, much will depend on your own willingness and personal efforts to promote the new innovations.
When we talk of change we often underestimate the time, energy, and emotion involved in overcoming inertia. Executives sometimes seem to believe that creating a new product, process, or service is more important than implementing it. Many executives perhaps feel more comfortable developing creative solutions than in dealing with the human side. For whatever reason, change can fail if it primarily consists of a splashy presentation, a printed document, and nothing else (5).
RULE #8: DEFINE THE RESULTS YOU WANT
Larry A. Huston was the manager of total quality for Procter and Gamble’s worldwide research-and-development program. He talked of the need for visualization, which involves management understanding an innovation’s strategic intent, then consistently and continually reinforcing it throughout the organization.
Visualization is more than talk. Not only are you creating a vision of the future that the change brings, but you make sure necessary resources are allocated to the change. It means you are going to need clear and definable objectives if you are to avoid simply spinning your tires. Center your people on what needs to be done by specifically defining what profit, market share, or volume you expect from the new change; otherwise, they will be confused about what is expected, and what they are to do. Most importantly, once you have decided on a specific objective, say like a 25 percent market share and then define how to do it. Only then would it be wise to plan and deploy your resources.
Many innovations in the past failed because management did not have the insight to change the reward and recognition criteria. Why install a new quality improvement system but not change the evaluation system? Author Preston G. Smith points out that one of his clients had a strong dual-ladder system in which technical and managerial employees had equal advancement opportunities. However, the company decided to start emphasizing self-managed teams, so there is a need to consider a third ladder for team leaders. To do otherwise would make it difficult to convince talented people on the managerial or technical ladder to lead teams (6).
Only when a reward system is in place is it wise to assign accountabilities and check the results. The effort should be on identifying barriers blocking more effective performance. At Procter and Gamble, for instance, they have several aims for their assessment process including: (1) assessing both the results and quality of those results, (2) assessing the capabilities of the organization, and (3) achieving greater organization alignment (with your objectives) (5).
Once your objective setting and evaluation system is in place, you are finally ready for change. Some changes can occur immediately, but long-term change itself cannot occur without a great deal of training. You do not need to train everybody all at once, but you do need to commit your best people to the change process and prepare them to change.
Training is only needed when people must do things differently than before. Most managers know that some training is needed for implementing a change. Some of these same people recognize that it is the quality, not the quantity, of the training that is critical. However, fewer are aware of the fact that it is the sequence and timing of training that are essential.
Training is perishable. If you do not use it, you lose it. Preparing people for change and explaining new roles are useless unless they occur just-in-time or even just-a-little-late. Time and money will be wasted if several months pass between the time of the training and when it is used. People must feel that training is pertinent. There must be a strong interest in learning new skills for training to stick. The solution is to offer training just before it will be needed. It might be even better if people have had a chance to struggle a bit before introducing training.
A study conducted by a Harvard Business School team headed by Michael Beer noted the futility of expecting outside or staff experts to successfully implement change. The team looked at a number of large-scale corporate change programs. Some succeeded, while others failed. What they discovered was that, when company-wide change programs were installed by staff groups, they did not succeed (7).
Successful innovation requires that members of an organization’s change efforts focus on the details on how to implement change at the operational level. It requires showing how the current and past change efforts are doing. If managers are in fact thinking of making a change, they should also get an idea of what resources will be needed for those efforts to be successful. In other words, lead the change, do not just react or resist it.
Know what you want to change. If you are unsure what to change, you might consider doing a “needs assessment”. Once you have decided “it”—what you want to change—then plan it out and make sure you are focusing everything around that concept so everyone is trying to change the same “it”. Spend most of your time creating buy-in and trust, dealing with fear, and developing a core of disciples who are the true believers in the new order of things. Finally, do not assume. Just because it should work or feels like it is working, it may not be reality. Test reality. See how it measures up and correct if necessary. Remember it probably will need correcting.
1. Hiner, Glen H. 1994. Corporate change to face the challenges of global competition. Presentation at ‘Cadena Del Exito 1940,’ an executive meeting hosted by S. A. Vitro in Monterrey, Mexico, 11 February, 4.
2. Coaches corner. 1993. NCR News (November/December): 2 (in-house publication).
3. Stock, Byron A. 1993. Leading small-scale change. Training & Development (February): 45.
4. Iacovini, John. 1993. The human side of organization change. Training & Development (January): 65-66.
5. Koehler, Kenneth G. 1992. Effective change implementation. CMA Magazine (June): 34.
6. Smith, Preston G. 1993. Why change is hard. Across The Board (January/February): 55.
7. Schaffer, Robert H., and Harvey A. Thomson. 1992. Successful change programs begin with results. Harvard Business Review (January/February): 80-89.