Change Management Is

Killing Your Culture

Ponder This

If you are reading this article, you either work in a Change Management Office (CMO), are responsible for implementing organizational change, or have been tasked with leading change for your company.  If that is true, I would like you to grab a cup of coffee, clear your mind, and ponder the following “A” and “B” statements from the perspective of which statement your people would select.

A: The change process in our company is project-based

B: The change process in our company focuses on our culture

A: Our change process builds an army of “order takers”

B: Our change process builds an army of “problem solvers”

A: Our change process views people as obstacles to be overcome

B: Our change process views people as a leverageable resource

A: Our change process focuses on driving the company’s metrics and hitting milestones

B: Our change process focuses on supporting the people impacted by and responsible for implementing the change

You should keep reading if you believe your people would select more “A” than “B” answers.  Even if you think they would choose more “B” statements, you should keep reading to understand better why that might be the case.

Change Management-The Current State

It seems every organization now has a Chief Change Officer and Change Management Offices (CMOs) to implement change, build resilience, and increase its capacity for change.  These folks are tasked with bringing about successful change by moving their companies from a current state to a desired future state in the most efficient manner possible by applying the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques they have learned.

Yet, for all the efforts of these well-meaning, hardworking folks, the following struggles continue to exist.

• 75% of all change initiatives fail to deliver the desired results, according to a Harvard Business study https://hbr.org/2017/11/what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-change-management
• 70% of those failures are due to “Human and Cultural Issues,” according to a McKinsey study. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/changing-change-management
• 70% of workforces are disengaged https://news.gallup.com/poll/241649/employee-engagement-rise.aspx
• 53% of workforces report being burned out https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/04/05/indeed-study-shows-that-worker-burnout-is-at-frighteningly-high-levels-here-is-what-you-need-to-do-now/?sh=3a4d974c23bb
• Morale and engagement are at all-time lows in many organizations

Why is this the case?

The Script Remains The Same

Change Management has gone the way of every other leadership practice that has come before.  Changing culture is hard work and takes time.  Time most organizations do not believe they have.  So, what happens?  Shortly after our high potentials return from their leadership training full of new concepts and practices, the organization quickly dilutes what they have learned.  Stripping away the purity, we latch on to the vocabulary, water down the methods, throw out the entire cultural component, and simply implement the tools.  How can I state this with such certainty?  Because I have lived it repeatedly during my career, and now I see it daily in our consulting practice.  Maybe you or your organization can confess to one of these examples.

• Servant Leadership principles become nothing more than the same leadership but with kinder words and banners on walls.
• True Lean principles devolve to nothing more than a series of cost-cutting practices.
• The fancy diagram used to describe your values-driven, people-centric culture only appears in investor presentations and annual reports. In practice, every meeting starts and ends with the numbers.  The impact on people and culture is, at best, an afterthought.
• Change Management is nothing more than project management with a communication plan that shouts messages at people.

Change Leadership Is What’s Needed

In our experience, Change Management has become exactly what the name implies.  Projects are managed, not led.  The leadership principles that were once taught have been dumbed down, and the cultural and people aspects of change have been removed for the sake of expediency to drive results.  The irony of this thought process is that with every iteration of the process, the morale, engagement, loyalty, trust, and productivity of the people needed to execute the changes get eroded.  With it, the entire organization’s culture dies a death of a thousand cuts.

Below is a summary of the differences between Change Management and Change Leadership.

Change Management              vs.                   Change Leadership

Project-based/Reactive                                           Culture-based/Proactive

Builds an Army of Order Takers                            Builds an Army of Problem Solvers

Asks “Why do people resist change?”              Asks “Why can’t people see what I see?”

Demands Adherence                                                 Supports People

Manages Uniformly                                                  Leads Individually

People are obstacles to overcome                         People as a leverageable resource

Fails 75% of the time                                               Improves every metric

A Deeper Dive Into What Change Leadership Means

Culture-based and proactive – Change leadership is as much about culture as the change itself.  Change leaders recognize their role is to continually develop a more emotionally resilient organization with increased capacity for change.  This requires a focus on building a healthy emotional and leadership environment where people feel genuinely respected, valued, and emotionally/psychologically safe.  Change leaders recognize that this work is a never-ending journey beginning long before any change project is conceived and continuing well after implementation.

An army of problem solvers – Change leaders capture their people’s hearts and minds, resulting in a level of engagement that defies description.  This engagement shifts people from a group of “do as I am told” order-takers to an empowered team of thinkers relentlessly focused on a journey of constant improvement of all aspects of the business.

Why can’t people see what I see – Change leaders refuse to point blame or accuse people of being “resistant to change.” Instead, they employ a highly reflective approach to implementing change.  By constantly asking, “Why can’t people see what I see?” and “How can I help them to see what I see?” Change leaders also replace judgment with curiosity when faced with emotional responses from people.  Not only asking why people can’t see what I see but flipping the question to why can’t I see what they see?  Doing so opens the door for a meaningful conversation where people feel heard, valued, and cared about.

Supports people – By definition, change causes people to have to give something up.  Stated another way, change causes people to feel a sense of loss, and that loss, no matter how small, triggers a grief response.  It is this fact that makes change so emotional for people.  Change leaders recognize, acknowledge, and support their people through these emotions.  Change managers do not.  Change managers simply manage tasks, hold people accountable, assume any emotion is resistance, and work to manage those people out of the organization.  Change leaders also engage their people with compassion, empathy, and vulnerability.  When demonstrated, these characteristics support a Respect For People culture, foster an Emotionally/Psychologically Safe environment, and instill a sense of hope in people as their feelings are validated and supported by their leader.

Leads individually – Change leaders are skilled in the art of Adaptive Leadership and leading on a scale of one instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach.  This flexibility and willingness to meet people where they are in the process and then apply the right leadership approach to best support them sets a change leader apart.

People are a leverageable resource – Change leaders realize they are responsible for the people impacted by and tasked with implementing the change.  They are not responsible for the change itself.  Change leaders understand that 70% of change failures are due to “human and cultural issues,” pure and simple.  As such, change leaders bring a focus on the people and think about the numbers mindset to implementing change.  Those who reverse the focus find themselves constantly fighting unnecessary emotional battles with their people.

Improves every metric – How can I make such a broad and absurd claim?  Because I was responsible for shutting down a plant of two hundred people, and throughout the twelve-month process, the plant achieved its safety, quality, cost, and delivery goals every month.  There was no sabotage or violence.  We helped all two hundred people either find jobs or be able to navigate retirement.  On the last day of operations, the remaining people swept up their area as if they were coming back on Monday.  This experience taught me the difference between change management and change leadership.

Here’s The Point

Change management is killing your culture one project at a time by eroding your people’s engagement, loyalty, and motivation to succeed.  Successful change requires organizations and their leaders to shift from managing change to LEADING change, and leading change is a never-ending cultural journey that is not connected to any specific initiative or project that starts wherever you are at this moment and continues forever.

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Anthony Casablanca

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