September 17, 2023

Becoming a Master Change Agent

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Chapter 8: Becoming a Master Change Agent

Chapter Overview • Change agents are key to the entire change

process

• Change success is a function of the person, a vision, and the situation

• The chapter describes traits and competencies that contribute to change agent effectiveness

• Experience plays a big role in skill development

• Four change agent types are described: the Emotional Champion, the Intuitive Adapter, the Developmental Strategist, and the Continuous Improver

• Internal and external change agents and change teams are discussed

The Change Path Model

Awakening Chapter 4

Mobilization Chapter 5 through 8

Acceleration Chapter 9

Institutionalization Chapter 10

Becoming a Master Change Agent • Factors influencing

change agent success • Change leader

characteristics • Change leader

development • Types of change leaders • External change agents • Effective change teams

Being a Change Agent

Person Vision Situatio n

The Change Agent Role— Is It Worth the Risk?

• Being a change agent can be professionally hazardous

• It can also prove energizing, exciting, educational, and enriching

• You are likely to improve your understanding of the organization, develop special skills, and increase your network of contacts and visibility

• Failure experiences, though painful, are seldom terminal—change agents tend to be resilient

Endothermic and Exothermic Change

• Exothermic Change • More energy is liberated than is

consumed, by the actions undertaken to promote change

• Endothermic Change • The change program consumes more

energy than it generates

The Interaction of Vision and Situation with Who You Are

Later in this chapter, we explore behaviors and attributes common to change agents. Here we ask you to consider why, where, and when you might become more of a change agent.

1. What purposes do you consider vital? What visions do you follow for which you would make significant personal sacrifices?

2. What would be a vision that could catapult you into persistent, committed, and even sacrificial (by normal standards) action?

3. How does the situation you find yourself in affect your desire to become a change agent?

Essential Change Agent Characteristics

• Commitment to improvement

• Communication and interpersonal skills

• Determination

• Eyes on the prize and flexibility

• Experience and networks

• Intelligence

Attributes of Change Leaders

Inspiring vision 92*

Entrepreneurship 87

Integrity and honesty 76

Learning from others 72

Openness to new ideas 66

Risk-taking 56

Adaptability and flexibility 49

Creativity 42

Experimentation 38

Using power 29

Attributes of Change Managers

Empowering others 88

Team building 82

Learning from others 79

Adaptability and flexibility 69

Openness to new ideas 64

Managing resistance 58

Conflict resolution 53

Networking 52

Knowledge of the business 37

Problem solving 29

Another Way to Think of Change Agent Actions

Consider their use of:

• Framing behaviors

• Capacity-creating behaviors

• Shaping behaviors

Toolkit Exercise 8.2—Attributes of Change Leaders from Caldwell

LOW 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 HIGH

1. Inspiring Vision 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. Entrepreneurship 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. Integrity and Honesty 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. Learning from Others 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. Openness to New Ideas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. Risk-Taking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. Adaptability and Flexibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. Creativity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. Experimentation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10. Using Power 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Toolkit Exercise 8.2—Attributes of Change Managers from Caldwell

LOW 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 HIGH

1. Empowering Others 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. Team Building 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. Learning from Others 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. Adaptability and Flexibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. Openness to New Ideas 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. Conflict Resolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. Adaptability and Flexibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. Networking Skills 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. Knowledge of the Business 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10. Problem Solving 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Toolkit Exercise 8.2—Change Agent Attributes Suggested by Others

LOW 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 HIGH

1. Interpersonal Skills 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2. Communication Skills 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3. Emotional Resilience 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4. Tolerance for Ambiguity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5. Tolerance for Ethical Conflict 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 6. Political Skill 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7. Persistence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Determination 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9. Pragmatism 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10. Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 11. Openness to Information 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12. Flexibility and Adaptability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13. Capacity to Build Trust 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 14. Intelligence 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Toolkit Exercise 8.2—How Did You Rate Yourself?

1. How would you assess yourself on the scales that proceed? What areas of development are suggested?

2. Are you more likely to be comfortable in a change leadership role at this time, or does the role of change manager or implementer seem more suited to who you are?

3. Ask a mentor or friend to provide you feedback on the same dimensions. Does the feedback confirm your self-assessment? If not, why not?

Developing Yourself as a Change Agent

• Formal study helps develop the awareness and skills of change agents, but experience is invaluable

• You are your own best teacher—learn by doing

• Accept responsibility and blame no one

• True understanding comes from reflection on your experience

• Reflection and Appreciative Inquiry are powerful developmental tools for both yourself and those you are working with

Miller’s Stages of Change Beliefs

Stage 1: Beliefs: People will change once they understand the logic of the change. People can be told to change. As a result, clear communication is key.

Underlying is the assumption that people are rational and will follow their self-interest once it is revealed to them. Alternately, power and sanctions will ensure compliance.

Miller’s Stages of Change Beliefs (cont.)

Stage 2: Beliefs: People change through powerful communication and symbolism. Change planning will include the use of symbols and group meetings.

Underlying is the assumption that people will change if they are “sold” on the beliefs. Again, failing this, the organization can use power and/or sanctions.

Miller’s Stages of Change Beliefs (cont.)

Stage 3: Beliefs: People may not be willing or able or ready to change. As a result, change leaders will enlist specialists to design a change plan and the leaders will work at change but resist changing themselves.

Underlying is the assumption that the ideal state is where people will become committed to change. Otherwise, power and sanctions must be used.

Miller’s Stages of Change Beliefs (cont.)

Stage 4: Beliefs: People have a limited capacity to absorb change and may not be as willing, able, or ready to change as you wish. Thinking through how to change the people is central to the implementation of change.

Underlying is the assumption that commitment for change must be built and that power or sanctions have major limitations in achieving change and building organizational capacity.

Toolkit Exercise 8.3—Your Development as a Change Agent

1. Think of a situation where someone’s viewpoint was quite different from yours. What were your assumptions about that person?

2. Did you ask yourself, why would they hold the position they have? Are you at Miller’s stage one, two, three, or four?

3. Are you able to put yourself into the shoes of the resister?

4. What are the implications of your self-assessment with respect to what you need to do to develop yourself as a change agent?

Change Agent Types

Incremental Change

Strategic Change

Vision Pull

Analysis Push

Emotional Champion

Intuitive Adapter

Developmental Strategist

Continuous Improver

Change Agent Types (cont.) • Emotional Champion

• Has a clear and powerful vision of what the organization needs and uses that vision to capture the hearts and motivations of organization members

• Intuitive Adapter • Has the clear vision for the organization and uses that

vision to reinforce a culture of learning and adaptation

• Developmental Strategist • Applies rational analysis to understanding the competitive

logic of the organization and how it no longer fits the organization’s existing strategy and the environment. Seeks to alter structures and processes and shifts the organization to the new alignment

• Continuous Improver • Analyzes micro-environments and seeks changes such as

re-engineering to systems and processes looking for smaller gains instead of giant leaps

Are You an Adaptor or Innovator?

• Are your preferences more aligned with those of an Adaptor? • These individuals are more conservative in

their approach and more oriented toward incremental change

• Are your preferences more in line with those of an Innovator? • These risk-takers prefer more radical or

transformational change

Toolkit Exercise 8.4—What Is Your Change Agent Preference?

1. How comfortable are you with risk and ambiguity? Do you seek order and stability or change and uncertainty?

2. How intuitive are you? Do you use feelings and emotion to influence others? Or are you logical and systematic, persuading through facts and arguments?

3. Given your responses to the above, how would you classify yourself? Are you: q An emotional champion? q An intuitive adapter? q A developmental strategist? q A continuous improver?

4. How flexible or adaptive with the approaches you use?

The Inside Change Agent Roles

• The Catalyst overcomes inertia and focuses the organization.

• The Solution Giver knows how to solve the problem.

• The Process Helper facilitates the “how to” of change playing the role of third-party intervener.

• The Resource Linker brings people and resources together to solve problems.

Benefits of Using External Change Agents / Consultants

• Provide subject-matter expertise

• Bring fresh perspectives

• Provide independent, trustworthy support

• Provide third-party expertise to help facilitate discussions and manage the process

• Extra assistance when talent is in short supply and/or time is of the essence

Selecting a Consultant

• Ensure you have a clear understanding of what you want from the consultant

• Talk with multiple (up to 5) consultants and/or consulting organizations

• Issue a request for proposal (RFP)

• Make your decision and communicate expectations

Characteristics of a Good Change Team Member

1. Knowledgeable about the business and enthusiastic about the change

2. Possesses excellent communications skills, willing to listen, and share

3. Totally committed to the project, the process, and the results

4. Able to remain open-minded and visionary

5. Respected within the organization as an apolitical catalyst for strategic change

Developing a Change Team

1. Clear, engaging direction 2. A real team task 3. Rewards for team excellence 4. Availability of basic material resources to do the job,

including the abilities of individual team members 5. Authority vested in the team to manage the work 6. Team goals 7. The development of team norms that promote strategic

thinking 8. Careful consideration of the personalities and skills of

team members, when designing the team 9. Selection of dedicated individuals willing to give it their “all”

Design Rules for Top Change Teams

1. Keep it small—10 or fewer members 2. Meet at least bi-weekly and require full attendance

Ø Meeting less often breaks rhythm of cooperation and coordination

Ø Frequency is more important than how you meet (e.g., virtual vs. face-to-face)

3. Everything is your business—no team-related information is off-limits to other team members

4. Each of you is accountable for your business 5. No secrets and no surprises within the team 6. Straight talk, modeled by the leader 7. Fast decisions, modeled by the leader 8. Everyone rewarded partly on the total results

Creating Structures for Team Projects

Consider a change challenge you are familiar with

1. To create needed structures when forming a change team, consider how you would manage discussions about and gain agreement on the following topics: a) Tasks to be completed b) Authority—scope of decision-making responsibilities c) Roles d) Boundaries

2. How would you use these to help manage the team as you move forward?

Toolkit Exercise 8.5—Your Skills as a Change Team Member

1. Think of a time when you participated in a team. How well did the team perform?

2. Review the characteristics listed by Prosci in Exercise 8.5, Qn 2. Did the team members exhibit the listed characteristics? Did you?

3. What personal focus do you have? Do you tend to concentrate on getting the job done—a task focus? Or do you worry about bringing people along—a process focus?

4. How could you improve your skills in this area?

FedEx’s Change Team Checklist

1. Ensure that everybody who has a contribution to make is fully involved, and those who will have to make any change are identified and included.

2. Convince people that their involvement is serious and not a management ploy, all ideas from management are presented as “rough ideas.”

3. Ensure commitment to making any change work, the team members identify and develop “what is in it for them” when they move to make the idea work.

4. Increase the success rate for new ideas, potential, and actual problems that have to be solved are identified in a problem-solving, not blame-fixing culture.

FedEx’s Change Team Checklist (cont.)

5. Deliver the best solutions, problem-solving teams self- select to find answers to the barriers to successful implementation.

6. Maintain momentum and enthusiasm, the remainder of the team continue to work on refining the basic idea.

7. Present problem solutions, improve where necessary, approve, and implement immediately.

8. Refine idea, agree upon it, and plan the implementation process.

Roles for Middle Management

• Linking—with Above, Bottom, Others

• Offering advice/help—as a Top, Bottom, a Link

• Influence Up • Championing Strategic Alternatives • Synthesizing Information

• Influence Down • Facilitating Adaptability • Implementing Strategy

Advice to Those in “The Middle”

v Be the top when you can and take responsibility for being top

v Be the bottom when you should. Don’t let problems just flow through you to the subordinates

v Be the coach to help others solve their problems so they don’t become yours

v Facilitate rather than “carry messages” when you are between parties in conflict

v Integrate with one another, so that you develop a strong peer group you can turn to for advice and support

Rules of Thumb for Change Agents

1. Stay alive—no self-sacrifice

2. Start where the system is—diagnose and understand

3. Work uphill

4. Don’t over-organize

5. Don’t argue if you can’t win—win/lose strategies deepen conflict and should be avoided

6. Load experiments for success

7. Light many fires—don’t work in just one subsystem. Understand patterns of interdependency

Rules of Thumb for Change Agents (cont.)

8. Just enough is good enough—don’t wait for perfection

9. You can’t make a difference without doing things differently

10. Reflect on experiences

11. Want to change

12. Think fast and act fast

13. Create a coalition—lone rangers are easily dismissed

Rules of Thumb for Change Agents (cont.)

…and remember:

Ø Keep your optimistic bias

Ø Be patient

Ø Be ready to seize the moment!

Summary

• Change management is an essential part of the role of those who want to manage and lead

• Becoming a change agent is a function of who you are + the situation + the vision

• Change managers and change leaders are differentiated and the stages of development outlined

• Four types of change leaders are described: the Emotional Champion, the Intuitive Adapter, the Continuous Improver, and the Developmental Strategist

• The use of external change consultants and change teams are discussed. Rules of thumb for change agents are reviewed

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Becoming a Master Change Agent

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