Turnaround

By Natalie Born

Let’s be honest: change is hard for most organizations. In fact, change has long been one of our top-five fears as humans. Years ago, I was asked to take an entire organization on a change journey, and let me be clear: I did not know what I was signing up for.

As I sat across from the leader of this organization, he warned me that it would be like taking on a turnaround and a startup simultaneously. He said if I were up for the challenge, I would have the chance to build something extraordinary from the ground up. He didn’t tell me the teams involved were jaded, cynical and seemingly unmovable. I was unaware of the mountain that lay ahead of me.

LEADING CHANGE IS BRUTAL

In my new role, I had a dotted line of more than 100 practitioners reporting to me. I decided it would be best to start with focus groups; I wanted to learn more about everyone’s experiences from the ground up.

One person named Cassandra gave me a particularly hard time. She immediately let me know that she had outlasted three changes of the guard and would outlast me. To her surprise, I asked her if she would become a part of the change she wanted to see. I noted that her tenure could be helpful to us since she had already seen what was not effective and what did not work.

LEADING CHANGE TAKES CREDIBILITY

It is well-known that the fastest way for a leader to lose credibility is to say one thing and do another. Ignoring problems and failing to act when action is required could lead to further disaster. While most leaders naturally want to surround themselves with people who agree with them and never challenge their leadership, I knew I would never effect change that way. If I had walked away from that conversation with Cassandra and decided to ignore and avoid her (as I may have wanted to do), I would have been a figurehead in a role with no real power to make a difference.

LEADING CHANGE REQUIRES ACCOUNTABILITY

I created several teams made up of the most vocal, frustrated people, and each time we met, we dove straight into the heart of the matter. Leading change can’t just be about allowing people to air their grievances. I challenged them to provide me with real solutions to the specific problems they raised. We whiteboarded those solutions, and I sent them out to test them. If the test was successful, we began to document, educate others on the change, and implement those changes across the board.

LEADING CHANGE REQUIRES VISION

As meetings with team members continued, we quickly realized this change journey was bigger than we were. We needed to put together a visual image that would tell the story. This resulted in a one-page visual description to talk about the change with our stakeholders. This one-page vision showed not only the challenges but the journey we were on to win. It helped everyone to understand our true north and where we were planning to go over the next three years.

Remember, change is an emotional journey that most people don’t want to willingly take. Start with honesty and lead with credibility, accountability and vision. Give people a future to look forward to, and enlist them to go on the journey with you. We’ve heard it said, “Change imposed is change opposed.” Remember, you have the power as a leader to invite others to the table, and when you do, just wait, they will own the change as their own.