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Editorial Comment
Managing Editor
"... sometimes our expectations for true change are met, sometimes we are underwhelmed and the technology just fades back into the toolbox ..."
On the cover: The Dismounted Soldier Traning System incorporates the CryENGINE gaming engine. Image credit: RealTime Immersive, Inc.
an environment is clearly a leadership challenge that requires a skilful pilot. Both change management and change leadership are important and both have a place. The question is when should one shift from change management to change leadership? Change management is fine when the change affects a relatively small group of people, the stakes are low and the change stays in the ‘silo’, so to speak; however, when the technology starts to affect the whole system – large groups of people, crossing organisational silos, and with high stakes – then change leadership becomes paramount. Take mobile technologies for example. Mobile technologies are pervasive. Not only are we are seeing the technologies enabling a move towards the integration of training and work but even more importantly, we are seeing mobile technologies enabling integrated workplaces and rewriting analogue business processes. Think of it as a continuum anchored in event based and managed M-learning lessons, extending out to M-work, an integrated work environment that fundamentally changes the way the work gets done and who does it. M-work demolishes silos. M-work affects doctrine, structure, policy, and training. M-learning with its focus on the individual derives its ROI from training resources and students, stakes are relatively low; on the other hand, M-work focusses on the organisation and ROI is derived from organisational performance. M-work affects the whole system and everyone in that system. It is more than the introduction of a technology; it is a change in culture (the way we do things around here). Risks are high, but then, so are the rewards. Change management and change leadership, likewise, anchor the ends of a continuum. Leaders should not underestimate where they are on that continuum nor underestimate the stakes involved in their initiatives. The good news is that with strong change leadership, change management will take care of itself.
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Jeff Loube, CPT Managing Editor, MS&T Magazine jeff@halldale.com
MS&T MAGAZINE
Jeff Loube
Change is ubiquitous, and no more so than in the evolution of training technology in all its various shapes and forms. We are driven by technological change and by the expectations about learning and work that exposure to technology in civilian applications brings to the military. Each new technology arrives on a wave of great expectations; sometimes our expectations for true change are met, sometimes we are underwhelmed and the technology just fades back into the toolbox – I remember when every military schoolhouse just had to have a video studio. Most every time we embrace a new technology, and bring it into general use in our organisations, the project features a change management plan. Management consultants analyse the target groups and put a plan together to guide the user community through the five developmental stages of acceptance: awareness, curiosity, visualisation, tryout and use. Some roll outs are more successful than others; some just create a lot of dissatisfaction; and in some, even the worth of “change management” is questioned. I’m sure most of our readers have experienced the pleasure, and the pain, of change management. Clearly, change management is often not sufficient. John Kotter, writing in Forbes, discusses the concept of “change leadership” emphasising that it is not a synonym for “change management”. Change management is about controlling change and the tools used to do so. The goal is to minimize the distractions and impacts of the change. In other words to make sure it doesn’t get out of control and to ensure problems such as “rebellion among the ranks, bleeding of cash … doesn’t happen”. It is done by project managers whose task is to push the project forward and not go over budget. Sponsors watch over it to ensure the proper processes are followed. On the other hand, Kotter explains, change leadership is fundamentally different – “it’s an engine.” He says it is more about urgency, wanting to make things happen, visions, and empowerment. Today, he says, we have to make bigger leaps, windows of opportunity open and close faster than ever and the rewards are bigger than ever; at the same time, there are bigger risks than ever. Navigating in such
ISSUE 5.2011
Making Change