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RJC & Company ®Transformation Engineers

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Change & Transformation Toolkit


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IntroductionChange is a rite of passage.

In 1909 anthropologist Arnold van Gennep began laying some of the theoretical foundation for what we today know as change management. Change is a celebration of human transition, and a “rite of passage” essential "to all things in nature," argued van Gennep. Today, leaders commonly agree that the speed of markets and technologies necessitate that organizations must continually change. Still, organizations tend to experience change reluctantly and as a mandated afterthought rather than something to be celebrated.

Organizational change is identical to a rite of passage in that they both move through three distinct phases--current, transitional, and future states, what van Gennep called pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal, and they are both at their core an evolution occurring in response to external societal, cultural, and economic forces. Becoming an organization capable of successful change should be viewed as a rite of passage--a celebration of learning and evolution towards a higher state of being.

Change projects that go well feel good even from the beginning. “In my experience, the most difficult change projects are those that begin with bad feelings (fear, anxiety, avoidance, confusion, blaming, etc.),” says Rob Choi, CEO at RJC & Company Transformation Engineers. “Conversely, change projects that have blossomed,” he says, “are those that are viewed positively and as a fact of life – like a rite of passage.” “Far too often I have experienced change projects viewed as a mandated hardship that must be managed. Far too often have I seen these projects on a path to fail.” The difference in successful change management is a radical yet critical paradigm shift in how change is viewed.

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Preliminal LiminalPost

liminal

A mark in a time of separation from the old ways. A general understanding that movement and progression needs to occur.

An ambiguous period characterized by growth, learning, and often discomfort. An in-between state of being during which time one has left one place or state but has not yet entered or joined the next.

A typically celebratory time in which one has completed the rite and assumed their new identity and re-enters their society with a new status and higher state of being.

Rite of Passage


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Change RoadblocksRJC & Company’s experience and research identified several constants that exist in organizational change efforts across a variety of business sizes and industries. The data revealed four specific roadblocks but one stunning insight. No matter the stage of change—from ideation to follow-up—roadblocks are mindsets that spur associated behaviors. These mindsets , described below, were collective behavioral postures client companies possessed about change. By identifying a company’s change posture, one can then utilize the appropriate tools to obtain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of a change effort and create a guide for effective corrective measures.

The adage attributed to Albert Einstein that, "if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it yourself" is an important principle in successful change management. From illegible and overly complicated deck slides to the act of withholding information to create an illusion of complexity to appear more valuable to leadership, complexity is anathema to successful change. Put in another way, the deeper into the organization the change needs to reach, the clearer and simpler the change effort needs to be. To achieve that, stakeholders need to avoid over-complexity. In most cases, complexity is the status quo. The inability to simplify is an indication of a shaky grasp on either the vision or execution of the change, or sometimes both. Moreover, complexity, especially if it's is false or unnecessary, can engender fear. Fear may then act as a contagion to the extent that individuals may feel embarrassed or fearful that they are not understanding the change effort, when the reality may be that the efforts are not being explained to them effectively.

Overcomplexity

Sightlessness--or the inability of impacted stakeholders to see the context of a change--often results in "fill in the blank" thinking. “Neuroscientists researching this idea call it predictive coding (or the free energy principle), according to Matt Evrard, RJC & Company’s Head Behavioral Scientist. “It suggests that the brain strongly prefers to actively manufacture information instead of waiting to passively receive information to reduce uncertainty,” he says. In short, people will make up a context if you don't provide one, and if their thinking is driven by fear or anxiety, a positive context is probably much harder for people to imagine.

To manage fill-in-the-blank thinking, leaders need to provide a clear context. Take this thought experiment for an example: imagine a L-shaped metal pipe. It would make little sense if you examined it by itself. But now think of it as a solution to the defined problem of keeping a bicycle upright. See? Perhaps your initial thought was that the pipe could be used as plumbing or a tool, but it was not until the problem was defined that the pipe took on meaning. Leaders must develop and communicate the context of a change, especially if it is a core business transformation.

Sightlessness

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Change is a rite of passage


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Individuals' fear is a prevalent cause of change disruption. Whether it is the prospect of change causing more work for a worker, or fear that there may be less work for the worker thereby reducing job value, or even job elimination, fear is often the first feeling that individuals impacted by change experience. The fear of change is a part of the human experience. Neophobia or metathesiophobia are two psychological phenomenon that describe the fear of change. Robert Wilson, in his book, Prometheus Rising, describes neophobia as part of our hard-wiring, especially in a community that is not conducive to change. Our brains often process change, says Wilson, as “existentially feasible but socially unthinkable.” While fear is inevitable, it isn’t immutable. Thomas Kuhn in the Structure of Scientific Revolutions also cites the idea of neophobia and describes how generations who believe an idea to be new must be replaced by a generation to which the same idea isn't new in order for a paradigm to shift. Similarly, if change practitioners do not take steps to manage fear, specifically by over-communicating the change throughout the organization so it seems like an old idea, it may derail a change project and create a self-fulfilling prophecy that the old ways were better.

Fear

Neglecting may also be described as "analysis paralysis" or "risk aversion." Neglect is choosing inaction intentionally or by complicity. It is likely to be an outcome especially when groups are experiencing the other three mental roadblocks cumulatively--fear, over-complication, and sightlessness. If people are fearful, think things are too complicated, and don't understand where change will lead them, they are likely not only to abandon adoption but may actively resist the change, or simply quit their jobs.

Neglect/Inaction

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Change Roadblocks


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Change Roadblocks

Future Visioning:An assessment process for defining the organization’s forward looking vision

Readiness Assessment:A series of tools to piece together what an organization’s change posture is in present-time

Urgency (Business) Case: A data collection process to aggregate hard data on desired impacts of the future state

Current State Assessment: A mapping of the current state in key areas to the desired state in the same areas

Governance/Guiding Team: A process to define the change team’s goal, objectives, work streams, and deliverables

Risk Assessment: A gap assessment of the importance and performance factors of the change

Change Leadership Factors: A level two evidence based competency map of the behaviors required for successful change

Change Project Plan: A level one to level three plan describing specific tasks and deliverables required for quick-wins and long-term success

The best change strategies to overcome roadblocks are simple and clear

A key driver of a change team’s effectiveness is the consistency of change related knowledge across the team. One project or change manager, and certainly not a single systems administrator, should be relied on to solely lead a change effort throughout an organization no matter its size. Both the roadblocks and the successes of a change effort tend to behave integrally and interdependently. Complexity will stimulate fear, fear will stimulate inaction, and so on. Similarly, using the right tool and processes to increase effectiveness will generate progress. A simple and clear message will lead to understanding, understanding will lead to confidence, and so on.

Occam's Razor--the principle that says an idea with the fewest assumptions necessary to make it feasible is usually the correct one--is well-conceived for change management. Organizational change asks individuals, with differing contributions of effort, ability, and discipline, to maximize a proposed change. Everyone must come to terms with the change in his or her own mind as an individual. The simpler and clearer the change effort is, the easier it will be for the individual to adapt to it.

Change Toolkit


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Change Toolkit

Business Process Mapping: A process of documenting key business processes and optimizing them for the future state

Decision Template: A model for go/no decisions, as well as change controls and change requests

Change Levels: An analysis and documentation of the level of change required for each impacted business unit in order for the effort to be successful

Training & Development: The plans and logistics for the training to support the change including piloting, EUT, and LMS

Stakeholder Analysis: Template for assessing stakeholders’ interest and authority to determine their positions of influence and potential change impact

Communications Plan: A messaging board map to the project plan timeline for key strategic messages that need to be communicated to impacted stakeholders

Success Metrics: Identification of the 30K, 10K, and high definition success metrics for the change project

Transition Planning: A process to define the steps associated with continuous improvement and institutionalizing the change

Social Network Analysis: A questionnaire designed to identify the informal networks in an organization including the individuals who are key to making things happen outside of their formal roles

Phases of Change: Training materials to help grow an internal change capability

Action Register: A process and materials for documenting a RACI register for key individuals to make them accountable for sustaining the change after the formal team disbands


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Contact UsFor more information on our toolkit: [email protected]://rjcmc.co

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rjc and company change tooklit_tel_888_654_9044

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