Cultivating a New Change Mindset
As a change management professional one of the things I continually speak of when training leaders on how to lead change is that change is not an event, it is a process. After 25 plus years working within change environments, I have learned that statement is no longer entirely true.
Since 2000 we have witnessed change become an ever-present, piercing reality. Change is a part of the fabric of our environments(s), all of them, without exception. In the past you could actually find pockets of life that experienced low to no change. Imagine that. In 1993 I remember sitting in an executive training session in Utah with Stephen Covey (Sr.) and listening to him describe change as now “ever present”, that it was the new normal that business needed to prepare for. At the time I thought he was exaggerating! How true it was… and now is.
Historically we have approached change as something to be managed, something that we can traverse with some success if we plan for it and anticipate the needs of the people moving through it. And that definitely works and has shown results for a variety of organizations over the past 2 decades. For large scale change such as software implementations or wholesale organization changes, having a well thought out change management strategy is critical to achieving the objectives of such projects. But what about all the other types of change we face on a regular basis, do we need to apply the same rigour and structure?
While the tools and methodology of change management will add benefit to any size of change, I would argue that we need a more evolved approach to keep up with the times. The rate, frequency and amount of changes that we are involved in has increased exponentially. We are right to ask the obvious question - do we have the time needed to create a plan for each and every change? The speed of change today doesn’t always allow for the sometimes cumbersome task of traditional change planning. Often by the time we fully analyse and understand the change it is too late, it has either started already or in some instances, gone on without us. Statistics tell us that 75% of executives say their projects have not achieved the objective they set out with, that the aspired behaviour change was not realized.
So how do we keep up?
It starts with understanding that change frequency and volume can only be successfully overcome with the right mindset. Understanding that the skills required for people to scale change successfully at our current pace are agility and resilience. The mindset we meet change with is the predictor of whether the change will succeed, fizzle or fail.
As humans we are hardwired to resistance, it is our natural instinctual reaction to change. To begin to create a change mindset is to become consciously aware of this reaction so that we can interrupt the pattern. At the same time, we also have to adjust how we see change events as in what is our story or impression of change, is it uncomfortable, exciting or simply a pain in the ass, after all “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it!”. Our past experiences determine the story and meaning we assign to it and produce the feeling that we have about it. If we enjoy learning or experiencing new things, then change is a more welcomed experience than if it provokes performance insecurity or a loss of control.
People that thrive in change often have an opportunity mindset about it, they focus on what is good about it or a benefit they will receive from it or in the absence of those, will see the opportunity of change as being part of evolution and that is the benefit. This way of looking at it produces acceptance and the ability to detach from the old way and start to learn and embrace the new way.
As mentioned in my previous article Change Interrupted, many of us have cultivated this in the area of smartphones or technology. We’ve been taught through continual ‘product enhancements’ and upgrades that new is always better (once you get used to it usually!). Because we trust that we’ll like it (history has proven over time) we’re open to the change at the onset, helping us dismantle our resistance instinct and move to learning more quickly. It also helps us let go of our attachment to the way or technology we currently use so we can replace it with the new. You could even say that the frequency of technology change is another reason people will embrace the new as they know that even if there are components they don’t love, there will be another enhancement and therefore an opportunity for it to resolve or change to something they will love.
The good news is that the type and pace of technology change has started to teach us the type of agility and resilience we need to scale the volume of change we face. Whether we are aware of it or not, our ability in this regard is changing. Some more slowly than others, but the collective needle is moving for sure.
Why does it matter?
It is a competitive advantage for an individual or company to have a well cultivated change mindset and culture. The quicker change is embraced, the faster proficiency grows - this often results in being closer to the next evolution of that particular process, habit, technology etc. The creative and collaborative benefits that result from teams and individuals that work with an effective change mindset are enormous. Personally you are less stressed and more engaged with the “new” or prospect of new. Professionally it gives you (and your colleagues) energy and higher engagement and ultimately offers access to new levels of creativity.
Having an effective change mindset doesn’t necessarily mean we can abandon change planning, it is still needed in a variety of change types for now. But it does inform the evolution of how we plan for change, eliminating some of the old methodology and replacing it with collaborative evolution which can be baked in when dealing with nimble teams. Cultivating an effective change mindset transforms the change process into a simpler form, an evolution process where often the next system, process or tool is obvious as people become proficient with each iteration. There is no break or project start or end, no new “change initiative”, we simply transition to a state of continual evolution within our tools, practices, states and behaviours.
In this way change is a continual evolution rather than a process, allowing an open, engaged process towards a destination that by its nature is continually unfolding, it’s never “finished” or “done”.
I explore this concept further in Change Interrupted. If you are interested in exploring ways to create a change culture within your team or organization I can help.
