2020 will go down in history as the year in which the status quo in the world of work was turned on its head. If your organisation was following any type of well-planned roadmap for change leading into this year, chances are you might have had to throw the 'plan' out the window, and focus instead on doing what was right in front of you. Right here, and right now. In this week's HR Blog we explore the future of work and why it's important to develop a change-ready (willing and able) culture, and how this type of culture can create positive outcomes for your business in 2020 and beyond.
Business leaders and HR Professionals understand that constant change is the new normal in today's workplaces. According to Gallup research, it's no longer enough to react to disruption, nor to simply delegate change management to HR or other internal functions. To get ahead of the competition (or even in some cases to simply stay afloat), organisations need to flip the script on change and enable employees to lead change themselves. To prepare their people to help lead change, leaders need a workplace culture that lives and breathes adaptability. That is, a culture with agility in its DNA. Modern change realities require modern change strategies that prioritise the human capacity to thrive in a state of continuous change. A truly agile workplace culture empowers employees to think on their feet and drive innovation with ease.
The Traditional Change Management Model
Historically, change management focused on processes and tools. That is, the logistics of 'what will change / is changing' and 'how it needs to change / will change.' Change management is typically about minimising disruption during the transformation process, although it often underemphasises the behavioural side of change. However, this more traditional approach won't work when disruption is constant. Even in the lead up to 2020, disruption had become more consistent (which might help explain why historically more than 70% of corporate change initiatives failed). Since the start of this year when the 'normal' ways of 'how we do things around here' were turned on their head, disruption has become the headline act. Meaning that traditional change management models and processes no longer work. Even though processes and technology are an important foundation for change, the true opportunity for managing change in 2020 and beyond lies in liberating your employees to create and sustain change in the flow of work.
Once upon a time, the choice to cultivate an agile, adaptive and innovative culture seemed like a nice to have. Under current circumstances (and into the future) it is no longer 'optional.' However, the capacity to be agile, adaptive and innovative demands new behaviours from leaders and employees that are often antithetical to traditional corporate cultures. Which means now more than ever, culture change is likely to be one of the most challenging parts of any transformation. Especially when change is imposed on an unprepared workforce with a timetable not of their choosing.
Developing a 'culture of change' can’t be achieved simply by top-down mandate. The skills, attitude and aptitude to thrive and flourish on change has to be cultivated in the hearts and habits of your entire organisation (and their shared perception of 'how we do things around here'). The reality is that someone with authority can demand compliance, but they can’t dictate optimism, trust, conviction, creativity, adaptability or innovation.
The Transition From Change Management to Developing a Culture of Change
Anyone who's ever run a change management project understands that there's always a risk of not attaining the goal because of a lack of strategic planning. Another frequent challenge is that employees are not prepared for transformation: they don't comprehend the need for urgency, or the advantages of implementing the change/s. A final reason for missing the mark is that most people like to stay in their comfort zone as opposed to going beyond it.
What that means in action if you want to generate a culture of change, is that you essentially need a strategy that will bring an end to the resistance of your employees so that everyone develops a 'change positive' mindset. Essentially, cultivating a culture of change should take precedent so that you can enhance the capacity of all your employees to manage change and to follow you on whatever journey of transformation circumstances demand of you.
The truth is, navigating change has always been an essential aspect of business operations. Most organisations understand theoretically that in order to be competitive and grow, it is essential to develop the capacity to pivot and adapt. That's why, in 2020 and beyond it is essential to transform your organisational culture (and the mindsets of your employees) from being change-averse and attached to their comfort zones to adaptable, innovative, agile and courageous.
Why Is A Culture of Change Essential Today?
It is fair to say that the first year of this new decade can be characterised by a continuation of, and increase in the following factors:
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High levels of uncertainty.
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Extremely changeable economic and business conditions.
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New competitive scenarios.
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New consumer demands.
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The emergence of new technologies.
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The impact of uncontrollable outside forces.
In this challenging environment, businesses should not only be able to change according to a roadmap, it is essential to cultivate the capacity to live in a permanent process of adaptation - to be able to change as needed in the flow of work. This means that when the dust settles on the immediate challenges thrown up by the circumstances of this year, businesses should prioritise their ability to change and adapt at all times and under all circumstances over and above all other cultural priorities.
Make Innovation A Real And Tangible Value
How does that look in action? Organisations that successfully managed to motivate employees in the face of disruption and change first focused on implementing strategies to develop values such as innovation, flexibility, adaptation, and creativity across the entire business. Something as simple as including 'innovation' as one of the values of your business (and defining it clearly) can make a big difference to the flavour of your culture. This value communicates a very clear message: being innovative is crucial to the way we do things around here. It puts innovation at the heart of what you do and how you do it. The other piece of the puzzle is to publicly recognise those employees who exhibit this value in their daily activities, reinforcing the importance of it (and the associated behaviours) for your business.
It might be true that valuing the notion of innovation is a necessary first step in implementing any type of change management strategy. However, if you want to create a truly innovative culture, one that motivates behaviour changes (and doesn't just transform how employees view change), you're going to need to understand the impact of transformation on employees on a day to day basis. The questions the business needs to ask include:
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Do your employees share the vision for change?
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Do they value innovation?
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How do they experience the changes that the organisation is undergoing?
The good thing is, #HRtech can help you identify (and improve) how employees perceive ad experience the values of your business. Such tech can also give you the tools to help your employees integrate your values into daily tasks.
Remove Silos and Champion Collaboration
To cultivate a culture of change, it is essential that you develop a flexible, collaborative culture that is open to learning, so your employees can adapt with agility to new circumstances, technologies and an evolving business model. By placing your employees in the driver’s seat of transformation, you can fast track the development of your company and dramatically improve the results of any change management initiatives.
Forbes magazine shared an article last year that outlines more than 10 ways to build a company culture that embraces change.
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Start with ‘why’: Rapid change is necessary in the current world of work, but if your people don’t understand the why' behind the change, they are more likely to resist, especially Millennials.
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Establish a regular flow of comms: In an innovative culture where there are rapid changes, change will likely go over better with ongoing communication between the leadership and the employees.
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Look out for ‘leaky sponges’: We can think of people like sponges, and change as the liquid the sponge absorbs. When there is too much change, people’s sponges start to leak.
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Reassure during uncertainty: Change equates to uncertainty. Companies often fail at empathising with employees when change occurs. It is important that decision makers develop strategies to address the uncertainty any changes might create in an employee.
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Prepare employees for upcoming changes: Leaders who anticipate and prepare for change can help build cultures and systems that are adaptable and view change as part of their DNA.
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Be transparent: Many organisations implement change behind closed doors, leaving their employees in the dark. This often means decisions are made in a silo by leaders who may not have a real-world understanding of the impact of those decisions on staff or customers.
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Encourage questions: With change and the natural human tendency to resit it, it is best to always be out in front of the change. Let your employees know as far in advance as you can.
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Empower your people to make decisions and act: Change can cause dread because it elicits a fear response. In a consistently changing environment, every individual should be empowered to navigate change by having the autonomy to make decisions that best serve the business.
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Help your team prioritise their new workloads: When employees are being asked to do more than what is reasonably possible, they will take shortcuts that will cause more work later. They will mentally, physically and emotionally burn out; lose a sense of motivation; or even leave.
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Teach your employees how to do what’s needed to adapt: Successfully navigating change requires adaptive behaviour. Employees usually know what is needed. They may know why it’s needed. But as their leader, do you know if they know how to do what’s needed?
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Build in breaks: Even the best employees can’t sprint indefinitely. Planning for employees to take some time off, relax and recover is vital to the execution of sustained change.
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Provide steady guidance and support: The one thing everyone can count on in life and in business is change: changing technologies, changing products and services, changing market demands and market outlooks. Change is constant.
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Use storytelling to communicate to your team: Stories are powerful. They stick better and are more engaging than concepts. When shared correctly, they help listeners grasp complex concepts, because they can extrapolate meaning from the story into the context of their role and organisation.
How to Create Culture of Change in Your Workplace
It can be difficult, under current circumstances to even think about how to cultivate a culture of change in your business, let alone implement it. As an HR Professional, are you prepared to encourage a culture of change from the leadership level down? Do you have what you need to encourage your employees to own the transformation that is born of disruption? If you recognise that your organisation has some work to do in this context, Gallup recommends you consider these four factors:
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Involve, trust and empower your people: Leaders can motivate employees to accelerate change when they cultivate and integrate employees' ideas. To source these insights, leaders should broaden their internal networks, give employees and managers a voice, and develop employees at all levels.
Leaders also need to entrust employees with autonomy. Employees need far more than information to guide change locally, they also need authority, coaching and accountability. For example, leaders should involve managers and employees who are affected by any change as early as possible and ensure employees understand the importance of their role in that change.
Ultimately, leaders can develop employees into agents of change by consistently demonstrating that employees' ideas and contributions matter.
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Prioritise manager development: Managers wield tremendous influence over how well employees adopt and sustain desired behaviours. In fact, Gallup data show that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, a critical driver of discretionary effort.
When managers serve as coaches, not bosses, they fuel engagement and inspire employees to move away from their routines and adopt new mindsets and behaviours. To position managers as coaches, leaders should invest in ongoing manager development, and most importantly, give managers the freedom to coach their team members.
For example, managers who are overwhelmed with administrative responsibilities will find it difficult to fully invest in one-on-one coaching conversations. But when leaders support managers with the right tools and performance expectations, they can unleash managers to strengthen employee awareness, adoption and accountability.
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Use analytics to get ahead of employees' perceptions and emotions: Emotions primarily drive decision-making, not rational thinking. In fact, 70% of decision-making is based on emotion and 30% on rational thought. This can be problematic because change can cause mixed emotions among employees, from fear and uncertainty to anticipation and excitement.
Leaders should use multiple channels to understand employees' emotions and perspectives, including ongoing dialogue, employee analytics and feedback mechanisms. With in-depth insights, leaders can adjust their strategies, grow employee buy-in and disseminate best practices.
For example, through individual conversations with key stakeholders, leaders can glean success strategies from early adopters and early resisters. And with qualitative and quantitative data on their people's change readiness, leaders can discover ways to unify employees behind a change initiative.
Because managers are responsible for inspiring change locally, leaders should involve managers in feedback collection and give them access to real-time employee analytics.
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Create a culture of learning: A disruption-ready organisation never stops learning and growing. To lead change, employees must repeatedly adapt to new discoveries and shifting demands.
Leaders should create processes and cultural norms that propagate rapid experimentation, adaptation and collaboration. Siloed learning won't create a culture of change leaders; leaders must ensure their people are aligned and working together to drive success.
Further, leaders need to use performance management practices that promote ongoing communication and coaching between managers and their teams. The right performance management solutions enable managers to keep employees "in the know," manage role expectations and inspire desired behaviours.
Disruption in the world of work is here to stay. It will continually alter workplaces, workforces, workspaces, workflows and workloads. Only leaders who respond to this new norm by disrupting their own philosophies and strategies about change can position the heart of their organisation, that is their employees, to continuously adapt and excel.
Have this year's disruptions required a change of strategy in your organisation? Looking for inspiration about how to transform your business to ensure survival and success? We've got a White Paper that illustrates what's possible.
Image source: Creating the new normal by Change Corp
