The 10 questions change leaders must answer first

Information Outlook, May, 2004 by Carol Kinsey Goman

Two or three years ago I read a news story about an executive who had been hired to turn around the fortunes of a business that was on the rocks. The product was bad. Morale was awful. Management appeared to be confused about what to do. And customers were staying away in droves.

Clearly, this fellow had been hired to make changes, and here's what he said: "We gotta shake this place up and keep shaking until we get it right."

He was a change manager, to be sure. He had been brought in because things were not working well and somebody had to make miracles happen quickly. And our guy did that in spades, firing middle managers with abandon, reversing policies that had served the organization well, and establishing immediately that he was king.

You know what? It worked, for a while. The operation seemed to take on a new focus, and customers returned. The product got better. Management relaxed, and the teamwork that everyone had hoped for seemed to emerge once again. That's the good news.

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But I used that word "teamwork" advisedly, because this organization indeed was a team--a minor-league baseball club in a large Southern city. Sports franchises make great cases for the study of change management because the results show up so quickly.

In this case, the "shaking up" of the organization worked for slightly less than one season, and the new manager was summarily relieved even as his bravado still seemed to echo off the locker room walls. He was a bold manager of change, to be sure, but he was not a skilled one.

The lesson of our friend's forceful and narrow-minded attack on the company he set out to correct is critical for corporate managers. It says that change cannot be mandated or forced. It says that change has many constituents and that these constituents count.

It says that change managers need to ask difficult questions of themselves before they set out to "shake things up." And it insists that they listen to the answers. Here are some of the questions that sensitive change managers must consider before they set out to make things better.

Question #1

What is the employees' perspective?

To mobilize a workforce to transform itself, leaders must know what people in the organization are thinking, must encourage them to articulate their points of view and their concerns, and must be ready to respond to them sincerely. The first question that leaders should ask is, "What is the employees' perspective?" And don't rely on secondhand information or make assumptions about what you think employees think. Ask them--and keep asking them until they tell you. Only then can you begin to design a strategy that builds on synergies and fills in perception gaps.

Question #2

Did you "set the stage" for change?

One of the most vital roles of leadership is to anticipate the corporation's future and its place in the global arena, and then to formulate strategies for surmounting challenges that have not yet been manifested. To proactively respond to these challenges, businesses must continually reinvent themselves. Leaders must encourage employees to join a constant questioning of the prevailing business assumptions--and to be ready to act on new opportunities early in the game to maintain a competitive advantage.

Question #3

Are you tracking employee perceptions throughout the change?

It is important to find out what employees are thinking before the change, but it is just as crucial to have a system for monitoring employee perception throughout the change process. George Bernard Shaw once said that the problem with communication is "the illusion that it has been accomplished." When it comes to communicating change, leadership must be especially careful not to suffer that illusion.

Strategies that include employee interaction and feedback systems help organizations track the level of workforce comprehension. You will find the greatest advantages come when organizational feedback is gathered immediately after the delivery of every important message. One of my clients uses this short questionnaire to query her audiences before they leave the meeting room:

* What in your view are the most important points we just covered?

* What didn't you understand?

* With what do you disagree?

* With what do you agree?

* What else do you need to know?

Question #4

Are you giving honest answers to tough questions?

In the light of economic realities that offer little in the way of job security, employees must be able to rely on their employer to give them honest information that will allow them to make informed choices about their own jobs, careers, and futures. And when you can't answer every question, it is best to tell people that you understand their concern but don't know the answer. Or that you don't have the information yet, but will get back to them as soon as decisions are made. If you have the information but can't release it, it is better to tell people that than to withhold or twist the truth. Not everyone will appreciate candid communication, but few will tolerate anything less.