37 change experts
Representatives from over 20 organisations
CHANGE LEADERSHIP 2016
A range of industries
In collaboration with Kingston University
London: +44 20 7340 0660 New York: +1 (646) 569 9198 Sydney: +61 (0) 2 8310 5354
‘Change leadership issues’ were cited as the top challenge to change programmes.
7/10 of our change expert survey respondents said that less than half of the organisations they have worked in included change leadership skills in their leadership framework.
Percentage of interviewees who felt that having a ‘clearly defined end goal’ was key to being a successful change leader.
11%
42%
Only 11% of survey respondents thought that change leadership skills were a natural ability.
Executive
SUMMARY
Change activity is becoming ever more common in almost all organisations. In a rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt and respond to new challenges and opportunities is an increasingly important aspect of a successful business.
• End-to-end leadership from change leaders who have completely bought into the change, understand how it will take place and will advocate for it, and are committed to leading the change beyond the initial stages and well into post-implementation;
As a result, a range of tools and techniques have been devised to aid businesses in change activity – from risk maps to RACI charts and from Gantt charts to the change curve – each proving useful for managing change.
• High emotional intelligence combined with authenticity to understand reactions and emotions, deliver meaningful and relevant messages, build trust and adapt leadership styles as appropriate;
Yet for change activity to be properly embedded within an organisation, minimising disruption and becoming part of business as usual, change management tools and skills are not enough. Change leadership is key. Despite this, few organisations include change leadership as a core competency within their leadership frameworks or leadership development programmes. When change is recognised as a core business activity and something that leaders must understand, training and development have often placed an emphasis on change management skills, as opposed to change leadership. Our research found that there are five key elements to successful change leadership: • Excellent communication skills that involve listening, telling stories and focusing on reducing the ‘fear’ that often accompanies change;
• An understanding of how to develop resilience and agility and gather feedback so that ‘change fatigue’ and burn out are avoided; • The use of strong networks to work collaboratively and gain a deeper understanding of the organisation – often leveraging technology to achieve this goal. We have seen an increase in investment in developing change leadership skills. However, it is important to recognise that there is not a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’. Change leadership skills take time to develop and need to be continuously improved and adapted through a mix of formal and informal learning. If organisations want to be able to successfully navigate change in the future, they need to recognise the importance of change leadership skills now and begin to plan how to further develop them among their leadership teams. It is only by doing this and ensuring that change leadership skills are seen as a crucial element in future success that they can grow and prosper in today’s business environment.
CONTENTS 1. What is change leadership?...................................................................................................... 5 2. What do we mean by change?................................................................................................ 6 3. What are the key challenges in delivering change? ....................................................... 8 4. What makes great change leaders?....................................................................................... 11 5. How do we develop great change leaders?....................................................................... 19 6. So, what now?................................................................................................................................. 21 7. Q5 and change leadership......................................................................................................... 22
OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH AND CONTENT As experts in change, Q5 have extensive experience in seeing how change is led across organisations and the rise in a need for change leadership capabilities. In collaboration with the Occupational and Business Psychology department at Kingston University, we set out to understand this further. In part, we were interested in what makes change leaders successful (or not), and we also wanted to understand how organisations are developing their future leaders to be better at leading change. Our research formed 3 key phases: 1. A literature review of established wisdom; 2. Interviews with over 20 change experts from a range of organisations; 3. A survey of 37 change experts and consultants working with global organisations on their change initiatives. Our interviewees and survey respondents come from an array of industries including education, energy, infrastructure, retail and financial services. We feel confident that obtaining insight from such a diverse support network has allowed us to produce a report which covers a breadth of geographies, industries and organisation maturity levels.
We have produced this report to inform, and not instruct, readers on change initiatives and change leadership. All of the data has been treated as anonymous and Chatham House Rule applies.
1. What is change leadership? The natural starting point for a discussion surrounding change leadership is to define what the term means: Change leadership is not to be confused with change management.
need to focus on “ We leadership as opposed to change itself.
”
- Interviewee, Media
Whereas change management is a set of processes, tools and mechanisms designed to keep periods of change under control, manage emotions and prevent unnecessarily high costs, change leadership in our view is concerned with the skills, knowledge and behaviours a leader needs to successfully initiate, drive and embed sustained change in an organisation. Successful change leaders may possess some of the same skills as change managers. However, what sets change leaders apart is their ability to embrace change, get people to buy into the underlying vision and keep them engaged throughout, rather than just push things along, keeping disruption to a minimum.2 This report therefore is less concerned with the skills and tools involved in change management but focuses in particular on change leadership. CHANGE LEADERSHIP VS. CHANGE MANAGEMENT 1 (Kotter 2011) CHANGE MANAGERS
CHANGE LEADERS
• Focus on planning and budgeting, ensuring change programmes are to cost and to timescale and that deliverables are met
• Set a direction for change, outlining a clear vision and imperative for what will take place through skillful storytelling
• Oversee the organisation and staffing of the programme, tracking progress and directing resources as necessary
• Motivate people throughout the change programme and beyond, adapting their style to suit the audience and situation
• Control the change programme through each stage, problem solving as and when necessary, tracking risks
• Align people around this vision, gaining buy-in through expert communication skills
1
John Kotter, CIO (U.S. Consulting organisation), 2011 http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2011/07/12/changemanagement-vs-change-leadership-whats-the-difference/ 2 Ibid.
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2. What do we mean by change? on “ Depending where our financial
performance is, there will often be directives that require smallscale change for a period of time, but even at this small level I think some of the principles still apply.
” - Interviewee, Retail
It was clear from our results that people mean different things when they speak about ‘change’. It is important to be aware of these distinctions when looking at change leadership because the type of change affects the leadership approach and style used. Different types of change are very obvious when we begin to think about the scale and size of change involved. For some of our interviewees, ongoing, incremental change is par for the course in their industry. Indeed, the very thing that makes them successful is their ability to respond and react to this type of change in as fluid and nondisruptive way as possible. This was particularly true for organisations in the retail and IT sectors. For other organisations, interviewees highlighted that even small-scale change could prove just as disruptive as large scale change projects, if the organisation was unfamiliar with any change at all or if change was executed poorly. In many cases, our results showed that large-scale, transformative change proved the most challenging for organisations. For this type of change, there was not only complexity in what the organisation was trying to do (e.g. introduce a new procedure or install a new system, etc.), but also additional complexity in what was needed to accomplish it (e.g. large-scale culture change, extensive employee engagement and communication, etc.). For many of our change experts, the real question they asked when it came to change (either large or small scale) concerned its impact. Whether the change was large or small, it was the impact that mattered when leading that change. In this sense, the same change can be viewed as high impact by one group of people and low impact by another despite whether it is viewed as large-scale or small-scale.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘CHANGE’? • Is it constant, small-scale ongoing change? Incremental change? • Is it large scale, transformative change? • How do we assess whether something is ‘high-impact’ or ‘lowimpact’? These different definitions of change are important when we consider the skills needed to lead change in the future. Increased digitalisation and globalisation are leading to rapid changes in society and the workplace – a VUCA world (see Figure 1). For many, dealing with change will form part of BAU (business as usual) activity and be seen as more of a learning process than a ‘one time and place’ event.
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It has led us to ask: Will the primary role of future leaders be to ensure their organisation prepares for change, embraces change and embeds change successfully, over and over again?
the speed of “ It’s change combined
with the complexity of the change which makes it now more challenging than ever before.
”
- Interviewee, IT
VUCA (Figure 1)
Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity
Originally a military term, VUCA is an acronym used to describe volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous situations. It is often used by organisations when trying to apply foresight and insight into strategic decisions.
rate at which we “ The are going through
change now is a lot more frequent. The way that the industry is changing and adapting, the products that are coming into the market and new ways of doing things …change is almost the constant now.
”
- Interviewee, Retail
If the answer is yes and change is to become more of a constant in our lives and workplaces, it is crucial for leaders to understand its importance, how best to respond to it, lead through it and successfully embed it. Our research shows that much of the current thinking around change is still relevant, and we have identified several nuances that build on the traditional change leaders’ attributes rather than oppose them. CHANGE LEADERS Current Thinking
CHANGE LEADERS Emerging Themes
Create urgency Sell the vision Empower and mobilise Exhibit strength of character
Create connections to the future vision Engage through stories Listen Develop resilience - in themselves and others Are technology competent Network and collaborate Build a culture
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3. What are the key challenges in delivering change?
talk about “ People the ‘frozen middle’
of management and blame them for the ills of the organisation. This is not fair. The ‘frozen middle’ are only responding rationally to the situation they are operating in. Their condition is an outcome of how they are led.
”
- Interviewee, Financial Services
Despite change playing an increasing role in BAU activity, the overwhelming number of organisations we spoke to still struggle to deliver change effectively. The majority of the change experts we surveyed said that most of the organisations with which they were associated with did not consistently implement change successfully. In many cases, our results showed that companies were surprised by the difficulty of change, as well as the amount of effort and specialist skill required to make it a success. In particular, they faced four key challenges in delivering change: 1. Poor change leadership Poor change leadership was most frequently cited as the top challenge in implementing change, with almost 50% of those surveyed referencing it. In particular, this was linked to the inability of leaders to deal appropriately with the reaction to change within the organisation, with poor communication at the centre of this issue. 2. Fear of change Interviewees told us that organisations struggle to understand, manage and respond to fear of change. Recent findings from neuroscience (see page 10) show that when people feel threatened, the brain responds as it does to physical pain, creating a sense of fear. As a result, when people feel threatened by change they resist it, frequently struggling to adapt behaviours and adjust to new ways of working. Even those who are only slightly impacted by the change can still feel a sense of fear concerning their position and status, the known and unknown, losing control, trusting others and their perception of fairness. Managing this fear was frequently referred to as a key challenge - with some leaders themselves feeling fearful of change.
TOP 4 CHALLENGES FOR DELIVERING CHANGE
1.
Poor change leadership
2. Fear of change 3. Lack of vision and unaligned objectives 4. Initiative overload and change fatigue Q5 | Page 8
3. Lack of vision and unaligned objectives
biggest challenge “ The about change is that
is instills fear. People want to know how it will impact their role, will they succeed or even be competent in the new system. Even among high performers there is an anxiety.
”
- Interviewee, Media
ability to “ The articulate vision is
crucial. Communicate all the way down the organisation to ensure that everyone is fully aware and accepting of the change initiative.
Both the interviews and the survey results indicated that the lack of a clear vision and objectives has a severely negative impact on how successfully change is implemented within an organisation. A vision helps to create a compelling picture of the future and acts as a guide and reminder of what the change will achieve, whereas clear objectives ensure alignment in the pursuit of one goal. Having a clear end result in mind helps change leaders create a compelling narrative to gain ‘buy in’, prevent scope creep and to measure progress. Without these crucial elements, it is difficult to get the leadership team aligned and change effectively embedded. In organisations where vision and objectives were in place, change leaders were able to communicate core messages in clearer and more defined ways, as well as track progress and identify issues at an early stage. 4. Initiative overload and change fatigue The research also highlighted that ‘initiative overload’ and change fatigue were challenges for organisations and take a variety of forms. In some cases, an organisation experienced fatigue with the sheer amount of change taking place, particularly when it interrupted the core business cycle. In other cases, initiative overload referred to what employees saw as ‘gimmicky’ attempts at communication and feedback surrounding the change, which felt false and inauthentic. Yet others felt initiative overload described more of a challenge for their business leaders who lacked the resilience to ensure a sustained effort around change and who did not practice end-to-end leadership. Finally, both initiative overload and change fatigue could result in failure to prioritise change leadership effectively, often leading to varying levels of commitment to the change. In a VUCA world, where change is part and parcel of doing business, the challenge for change leaders is really about having the resilience to continue to lead and perform, and to motivate their organisations to do so when faced with constant change and constant ambiguity.
”
- Interviewee, IT
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NEUROSCIENCE IN LEADERSHIP As most leaders are aware – people resist change. We also know that many change programmes fail to deliver the results promised. This is frequently because we all struggle to change our behaviours and adapt to new ways of working. Recent findings from neuroscience help us understand in greater depth than ever before what’s at the heart (or the mind!) of this resistance to change. This understanding helps us adopt new strategies in leading change in organisations.
Social Pain
Advances in brain imaging technology now show more clearly than ever before how the mind impacts the brain and how the brain responds to social as well as physical stimuli. We now know that our brains treat ‘social’ and ‘physical’ pain in the same way. When anything causes social pain it triggers actual physiological discomfort. Additionally, our brains are programmed to treat everything as either ‘threat’ or ‘reward’. The threat response is the default and is more easily triggered and greater in magnitude than the reward response. SCARF is a useful model for understanding our ‘social brain’, how it works and how we can trigger/avoid ‘social pain’ (Rock, 2008): • Status – whether an individual’s status is (or is perceived to be) better/worse • Certainty – what is known/unknown • Autonomy – an individual’s level of control • Relatedness – whether someone is a friend/foe
Physical Pain
• Fairness – or perception of fairness. The brain’s threat response will be triggered, resulting in social pain, when any of these areas of concern are affected (or perceived to be affected). This starts to explain why it becomes so difficult for organisations to successfully implement change. For many, organisational change inevitably triggers a number of these areas, causing them ‘pain’. As a result we are neurologically programmed to resist/avoid it. This happens at a subconscious level, regardless of how strong the rationale or business case for change may be.
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4. What makes great change leaders? COMMUNICATION SKILLS A. Listen to what people are saying B. Make use of storytelling to communicate and engage C. Focus on reducing the ‘fear’ that surrounds change
END-TO-END LEADERSHIP A. Completely buy into the change and advocate for it with conviction at all stages B. Understand the entire change journey and measure its progress C. Continue to lead the change post-implementation
HIGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMBINED WITH AUTHENTICITY A. Understand reactions and emotions B. Have the ability to adapt leadership style to meet the needs of the audience C. Are authentic and able to deliver meaningful, relevant messages about the change, thereby building trust
RESILIENCE AND AGILITY A. Understand how to develop and demonstrate resilience B. Avoid ‘change fatigue’ and burn out C. Gather and act on feedback in a timely manner
STRONG NETWORKS AND COLLABORATION A. Leverage the power of networks and work collaboratively to drive best results B. Understand the structure of the organisation and how it operates C. Understand how to leverage technology
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60%
of people surveyed placed communication skills as the number one leadership attribute to enable and embed successful change.
In conducting our research, we found five key attributes of successful change leaders that best enabled them to overcome the challenges outlined in the previous section. Many of these points may appear to be common sense, but our research finds that they are often ignored, overlooked or poorly executed by organisations. 1. Communication Skills Almost all of our interviewees and survey respondents said that communication skills are a key attribute of successful change leaders, and 60% of people surveyed ranked communication skills as the number one leadership attribute to enable and embed successful change. The term ‘communication skills’ can refer to a wide range of attributes and behaviours, but for change leadership there were three core elements that mattered: Listen to what people are saying
need a “ People narrative; they need to understand the why.
”
- Interviewee, IT
Listening is one of the most under-used but most crucial communications skills for great change leaders. Empathy develops naturally out of looking and listening. If change leaders listen attentively, they can start to ‘get a feeling’ for the another’s emotional state. Some people experience empathy as a powerful physical sensation – they seem to feel the other person’s emotions. For others it’s being able to imagine what it’s like to be ‘in someone else’s shoes’. The ability to empathise is critical for change leaders. It helps them to ‘tune in’ to the emotions and thoughts of others. Make use of storytelling to communicate and engage Storytelling is one of the most effective techniques used to communicate change messages in a way that ‘chimes’ with the organisation and the different groups within it. Storytelling allows change leaders to be clear about why change must happen and it also provides them with the opportunity to set out a clear vision for the future.
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A lot has been written about the importance of communicating a vision of change. The difference here is that successful change leaders need to do this in a way that helps people really connect with the view – they make the future state as tangible as possible. Neuroscience tells us that this allows the brain to form new connections and reduces our “threat” response to the change.
most successful “ Our change leaders
are resilient, good communicators and most importantly have the ability to articulate the vision.
Focusing on reducing fear that surrounds change
- Interviewee, Media
”
must be “ Change framed appropriately.
This will ensure or enable you to properly manage employees’ perception and their reaction to it.
”
- Interviewee, Media
Change leaders need to think about how else they can minimise the ‘threat’ response to change that leads to fear. Whilst creating a compelling case, for change it is also important to minimise the ‘threats’ in how change is talked about. In particular, change leaders need to encourage, support and gently reinforce the ‘new ways’ so that they become habit or routine. They must give people the time and opportunities to envisage the change and their place within it as early as possible. As this happens, change appears less threatening and more quickly becomes business as usual. When we consider that current thinking on change leadership refers to “creating the burning platform” as the established way to lead change, we have to be aware that this approach often generates fear. The more that people can visualise and connect with how things will be, the more comfortable they become with change - as opposed to feeling that they must change or their world will collapse. Great change leaders recognise this and help employees and teams understand and embrace change. Of course, other tenets of great communication also apply, but by using the particular skills cited above as a basis for great communication, change leaders are able to create a clear and compelling vision, help reduce the fear of change and connect with employees and teams to help them become comfortable. 2. End-to-end leadership Closely following communication skills, our research showed that great change leaders need to completely buy into the change and advocate for it with conviction at all stages. To do this, they need to understand the entire change journey (including its causes and the benefits it is bringing) in order to adequately prepare and authentically advocate for it.
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leaders, I think “ As it is our challenge
to keep momentum going, keep it positive and keep it moving forward.
”
- Interviewee, Retail
This may require the use of change management tools such as ‘roadmaps’ or ‘change curves’, but more importantly (and we found that this was frequently the case for most senior leaders who are less likely to deal with the day-to-day aspects of change implementation) end-to-end leadership involves understanding the key communication messages and focus at each stage of change, as well as how they may differ over time. Successful change leaders adapt their leadership style as the organisation moves through the change process. Our interviewees told us that clear measures of success were very important in end-to-end leadership. These measures should be included at each stage of the project, be tailored to that stage and last into post-implementation. They can be used to provide clear goals, insights and feedback. Without them, leaders are unable to identify whether objectives are met and change is being embedded successfully. Of course, there are difficulties in measuring change. KPIs and engagement scores can only go so far; many elements of the process are intangible. Great change leaders find new ways to measure all aspects of change – relying not just on data, but on a range of information. Finally, change leaders must continue to lead the change after implementation. Our survey found that 54% of change initiatives fail during this period of “re-enforcing the future state and embedding change”. It is crucial for change leaders to maintain communication and engagement, not only during the change period, but also following implementation and into the new BAU. Without this, there is a high risk that change will not ‘stick’.
During which phase of a change programme do change leaders mostly fail? 5% Designing/formulating the change programme Implementation and effective execution of the initiative
54%
41%
Reinforcing the future state - ensuring that change sticks
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all about people “ It’s and their emotions
and their attachments and learning and unlearning things.
”
- Interviewee, IT
Our interviewees highlighted that keeping end-to-end change leadership at the forefront can be challenging when change leaders have to juggle other initiatives and focuses– particularly if they are disrupted by external factors or unforeseen circumstances. The best change leaders are able to focus on embedding and reinforcing the future state while balancing other commitments, but this takes experience to master. Organisations where change happens most effectively give their change leaders the resources, time and space to help them do this. 3. High emotional intelligence combined with authenticity Understand reactions and emotions Emotional intelligence is seen as a key quality of great change leaders. Change leadership requires the ability to understand the reactions and emotions surrounding change and how these may differ according to the point in the process and people involved. Reactions may vary from anger to denial to acceptance, and change leaders need to be ready to respond to each. Have the ability to adapt their leadership style to meet the needs of the audience Understanding reactions and emotions is not enough in demonstrating great change leadership ability. Change leaders need to be able to predict when these reactions and emotions might occur and be able to flex their leadership style to respond to them. The change curve is a useful tool to help with this, but interviewees highlighted that knowledge of the organisation and team help considerably.
HOW THE BEST CHANGE LEADERS REMAIN AUTHENTIC • ensure they are truly self-aware of how they feel about changes before spending time with others speaking about how they feel • don’t pretend to be on board with change if they are not – it’s worse to be an ‘inauthentic authentic’ than to do nothing until they have found their personal connection point • are willing as a leader to accept that they don’t know everything, and realise it is OK to admit this • allow their emotions/ enthusiasm to show knowing that it will often inspire people • keep their promises to people so that grass-root changes happen
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Are authentic and able to deliver meaningful, relevant messages about the change, thereby building trust
“
Most of the time change is done to them as opposed to with them.
”
- Interviewee, Media
Finally, change leaders need to ensure that in demonstrating high emotional intelligence and responding to changing reactions and emotions, they remain authentic and realistic. Maintaining authenticity is paramount to be able to deliver meaningful and relevant messages. This is also a vital step to getting ‘buy-in’ and gaining their trust from those they seek to influence. 4. Resilience and agility Understand how to develop and demonstrate resilience With the challenges and tensions that often accompany periods of change, great change leaders need to understand how to develop and demonstrate resilience. They need to be agile, flexible and courageous. They must build confidence in their teams and be able to ‘bounce back’ from setbacks.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF RESILIENT CHANGE LEADERS • Positive - they are self-assured, based on a view that the work place is complex, but full of opportunity. They see opportunities even through the turbulent situations. • Flexible - they can suspend judgment when responding to uncertainty. • Organised - they use structured approaches to manage work in ambiguous situations. • Pro-active - they actively engage in the change, rather than seeking to defend against it, or denying that it is really happening. • Focused - they maintain a clear vision of what must be done to succeed and use this as a guide when they become anxious or disorientated.
Avoid ‘change fatigue’ and burn out Closely related to this is the ability to avoid ‘change fatigue’ and burn out. Our results showed that this was particularly prevalent in cases where a change programme lasted over a significant period of time.
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can have the “ You best strategy in the
world for a change or management change to deliver an objective, but if you haven’t got ‘buy in’ and understanding from the team then forget it.
”
- Interviewee, Retail
a passion for “ Having and history with the
firm can be useful, but so can having a fresh perspective. With a fresh perspective you can see the detail of entrenched ways of working and help make those small and symbolic changes that can unlock new ways of thinking and reacting to each other. [Be] someone who isn’t invested in the way things are.
”
- Interviewee, Media
In these cases, change leaders need to be able to deal with short-term issues and tasks, whilst remaining focused on the long-term – all the while continuing to engage people in the journey and ensure change is embedded. No easy task! Gather and act on feedback in a timely manner Our research found that the best change leaders regularly gather feedback and act on it in a timely and efficient manner. This technique enables them to identify issues quickly and act to solve them before they ‘snowball’. Gathering feedback also helps change leaders to tailor their own approach and engagement efforts. 5. Strong networks & collaboration Leverage the power of networks and work collaboratively to drive best results Our change experts emphasised that great change leaders use their networks to help gain the best results. Building connections helps to deliver many of the previous points such as gathering and acting on feedback, understanding reactions and emotions and reducing fear. Networks not only provide valuable support to change leaders but also help them to understand the varying impact of change and boost credibility. It is worth noting that the best change leaders do not always come from the most senior levels of the organisation, sometimes change is more successful if the individuals who lead it are ‘relatable’. In these cases it is networks and the credibility of the leaders within them that are most important. Poor change leadership is often the result of weak relationships with other leaders or senior stakeholders, which can make it difficult to get sponsorship and support. In this sense, our interviews highlighted that collaboration is also crucial. Change leaders need to be able to work with a variety of people and teams. Without this, they risk not having enough understanding of the different impacts of change and how to successfully guide different people through it, as well as being unable to gain ‘buy in’ from others. Understand the structure of the organisation and how it operates Finally, we found that change leaders must have a good knowledge of the organisation and how it functions. In order to fully understand the impact of change and how people may react to it, change leaders need to be able to demonstrate this knowledge, otherwise it is easy to appear inauthentic or misjudge a situation.
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Several change experts emphasised that this does not necessarily imply that change leaders must have long-service or have ‘worked their way up’ through an organisation. An outside view can be very valuable in identifying blockers and enablers. Whether they have 20 years of service with the organisation or 20 weeks, it is the understanding of the impact change will have that is most important. Understand how to leverage technology
eats strategy “ Culture for breakfast. ”
- Peter Drucker
In a VUCA world, the role of technology is growing faster than ever and provides many opportunities for change leaders to leverage. Great change leaders make use of technology in a range of forms, whether to communicate with teams, gather feedback or track progress against objectives. Using technology to engage employees is particularly important as an increasing proportion of the workforce have grown up in the ‘digital age’, regularly using the internet to connect with others. One interviewee told us how using Facebook had helped to embed real change within an organisation. Employees responded well to regular updates through what they saw as an informal medium and enjoyed sharing pictures and anecdotes demonstrating the ‘change in action.’ For this interviewee, it was the first time that they had used social media to engage their teams, and there was some debate over the risks it could involve. Ultimately though, by using this approach they were able to forge meaningful links with employees who quickly became advocates for change. And finally… We should note that the research showed that most successful change leaders not only demonstrated the five key traits outlined above, but also worked within an organisation set up to support them in doing so. Organisations that were more successful had a number of things in common, most noticeably: • a culture that is aligned with their strategy and values; • a focus on the “how” as well as the “what” in their performance approach ; • a preference for developing strong networks and working in a collaborative manner.
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5. How do we develop great change leaders? The journey so far
35%
of survey respondents say their organisation has an explicit expectation that leaders should possess the ability to initiate and lead change.
Traditionally, investing in change leadership has not been a priority for organisations. Only a minority of the organisations we spoke to currently factor change leadership into their recruitment and development processes for leaders. In cases where change has been part of development programmes, the focus is typically on the programme aspects of change (stakeholder management, communication plans, PMO activities.) - i.e. the skills required of a change manager as opposed to a change leader. Yet, change leadership skills are becoming more necessary than ever before and, in the future, businesses will need to instill these capabilities and traits in all staff as a core capability if they are to succeed. Preparing for the future
33%
of interviewees think that change leadership capabilities are becoming more important and relevant in today’s world.
A significant number of the organisations we spoke to are now starting to be more deliberate in their development of change leadership skills. Change leadership and the attributes associated with it are increasingly being integrated within leadership frameworks and measures, forming a core element of leadership programmes and being explicitly looked for in recruitment. But change leadership skills are not built solely through formal learning. Most change leaders today have not been through formal training to develop these competencies, but have learned through role-modelling and on-the-job experiences.
What is the best way to develop change leadership skills? Role-modelling
27%
A combination of all
22%
Learning on the job
22%
Formal training / leadership programmes
14% 11%
Natural ability Other
5%
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is a difference “ There between leadership
and change leadership. A good leader doesn’t necessarily have the capability to lead an organisation through a transition; there are a lot more emotions involved.
”
- Interviewee, Infrastructure
These are still seen as important methods for developing the necessary skillset - with almost a third of change experts surveyed saying that role modelling was the best way to develop change leaders and 22% saying that on-the-job learning was the most effective method. However, only 11% of the respondents from the online survey think that change leadership competencies are natural abilities. As such, the organisations we spoke to are looking to give employees the opportunities to develop and grow into change leaders. The research shows that although organisations have preferred methods to do this, there is no single “best” method. Rather it is best accomplished through a combination of exposures, including but not limited to: • formal training such as workshops; • role-modelling of successful change leaders; • experience with helping to deliver change; • coaching from experienced change leaders; • having knowledge of crisis management; • working alongside change consultants; • having the natural ability to lead people. The growth and development of change leaders takes time, and interviewees highlighted that because of this they may seek assistance from other parts of the company or externally, e.g. by hiring consultants. Some companies aim to hire experienced change leaders into senior positions to guide the organisation through change, but in these cases it is crucial to ensure they have time to build an understanding of the culture of the company if they are to succeed.
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6. So, what now? A key driver of this greater focus on change leadership is the realisation in many organisations that, now more than ever, change is a constant. The pace and complexity of change has increased exponentially in many sectors, especially over the last 3-5 years. Change is becoming business as usual and the end state is in many cases unknown. In short, leading in a VUCA world requires a new level of leadership in order to inspire, motivate and engage their teams, to create confidence in the future even when the future is uncertain and the likely levels of disruption are huge. The old school approach to change, that of creating a compelling platform and driving change into the organisation, doesn’t work without change leadership to make it happen. Organisations are beginning to look to how they can build change leadership capability whether through formal development programmes, coaching, role modelling or on-the-job learning. The best organisations are already beginning to see the benefits of investing in change leadership capability. Others must ask themselves whether they can afford not to develop change leadership skills.
Q5 thanks our interviewees who come from a variety of organisations, including: • ACCA
• Hertfordshire County Council
• Bakkavor
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Balfour Beatty
• Mitchells & Butlers
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Morgan Sindall
• Barclays
• NBC News
• British Gas
• Net - a - Porter
• British Heart Foundation
• News Corp
• CIPD
• News UK
• CIT
• Oracle
• Computacenter
• Premier Farnell
• De Beers
• Time Inc
• Dow Jones
• UBS
• Harvey Nichols
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7. Q5 and change leadership Q5 is an award winning change consultancy – we know what it takes to lead and embed successful change. We have worked with senior executives in a number of prominent organisations on all aspects of their change initiatives. We help leaders understand their strengths and areas for development in relation to change, and we provide the support and tools to build their change competence. Our findings from this report form a key part of our approach to understanding what makes great change leaders and how they are best developed. Our change leadership framework outlines the behaviours, skills, knowledge and actions required by successful change leaders.
Our change leadership tools • Change Readiness and Competence Assessments - We help leaders understand their strengths and areas for focus when preparing for change - how to build their own change competence and that of their organisations. • Change Leadership Programme - We conduct interactive workshop sessions giving leaders the skills and tools to prepare for, implement and fully embed organisational change. • Change Leadership Toolkit - As an award winning change management consultancy, we have put all our know-how and expertise into our change leadership toolkit. This provides leaders with all the information and tools they need to support themselves and their teams through a programme of change. • Neuroscience and Change – We bring the latest thinking and research on change to our clients from across disciplines and fields to ensure we and they stay on top!
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