Change: Moving from intent to implementation

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The Celerant Change Club, created at the end of 2008, welcomes professionals from all walks of life who want to exchange points of view, encourage reflection and share best practice for implementing change in the corporation. Change: Moving from intent to implementation is the first work created by its members. Journalists, University academics and people with operational experience from many different sectors explore the many facets of change, its practices and its alchemy.

Based on a wealth and diversity of experiences over many years, the contributions to this work are valuable testimonials which will provide a relevant commentary and toolkit for any executive or practitioner to follow when the moment comes to implement a change programme.

CHANGE: MOVING FROM INTENT TO IMPLEMENTATION

Change: Moving from intent to implementation

CHANGE

MOVING FROM INTENT TO IMPLEMENTATION

Written by The Celerant Club

Written by The Celerant Change Club

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CHANGE

MOVING FROM INTENT TO IMPLEMENTATION

Written by The Celerant Change Club

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Publication Director: Nicolas Pinglot, President of the Celerant Change Club Editorial and Steering Committee: Thibaut Bataille - Philippe Jaspart - Sabrina Laborde - Mathilde Leroy, Founders of the Celerant Change Club Editorial Advisor: Anne Bleuzen Design: Andrew Barnes-Jones ‘Change: Moving from intent to implementation’ is a work published by the Celerant Change Club on behalf of ©Celerant Consulting Holdings Limited.

Any full or partial representation or reproduction created by any procedure whatsoever without the express authorisation of ©Celerant Consulting Holdings Limited is forbidden and is an infringement punishable by the Code of Intellectual Property.

All views expressed in the articles of this book are not necessarily the views of Celerant Consulting.

Celerant Consulting, October 2010.

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We dedicate this book to all people responsible and/or engaged in a change management programme.

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CHANGE: MOVING FROM INTENT TO IMPLEMENTATION

Contents

Foreword

by Bernard Leblanc

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Introduction

by Nicolas Pinglot

3

Conclusion

by Bart Le Clef

117

Bibliography and References

119

PART ONE: Stakes and scope of change 1.1 Change as a constant in the history of humanity

by Jean-Éric Bousser

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1.2 A crucial stake: From the collective 16 big bang to overcoming chaos

by Jean-Éric Bousser 1.3 The sense: The essence of change?

by Yves Ducrocq

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1.4 Resistance to change 32 by Élie Matta & Jonathan Hayes Summary: 40 From a single change process to a positive and permanent activity

by Gregory Godenne & Henri-Paul Missioux

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PART THREE: Winning approaches and tactics

PART TWO: The players who act and commit 2.1 The change manager: conquistador or sherpa?

by Isabelle Domergue

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3.1 A socio-political approach to organisational change

by Guillaume Soenen

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2.2 Top management, the essential link of change

by Nicolas Orfanidis

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3.2 Managing the rhythm and pace of change: sprint of marathon?

by Tanguy Appert

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2.3 The rank-and-file as a change leader?

by Nicolas Vedrenne

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3.3 Design and implementation of the road map

by Régis Brachet

98

2.4 Communicating change: General de Gaulle’s Appeal of June 18th

by Françoise Berthier

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3.4 Administering change: cutting-edge medicine

by Jean-Marc Bouillon

Summary: 78 Climate change for mankind by Élie Matta & Mathilde Leroy

Summary: The art of merging technique and tactics

by Philippe Jaspart

106

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FOREWORD

Change is a Constant

By Bernard Leblanc ontrary to what it may seem, this statement is not a paradox but simply the conclusion from observations of societies, human beings, corporations and nature etc. Due to their inability to evolve, entire civilisations, societal organisations and corporations have disappeared - the examples are legion. But even if change is indeed permanent this does not mean that everything must be changed everywhere and all the time inside corporations. The manager’s art is therefore:

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• On the one hand to relevantly determine, what has to remain stable in the company and what has to change, in a sustained way and at a specific moment in time; • And on the other, to succeed in implementing change without any deterioration in the results of the corporation and by improving them over time.

As far as corporations are concerned, change can either be defined as a forced transition from Status A to Status B (pressure from the environment), or as a result of the management determination.

There are no quick and successful recipes for change. However, my management experience has taught me that there are some fundamental principles that should be respected in order for the corporation to have the best chances of success.

To quote a few: • The need for change must have a sense for the entire fabric of the corporation (respect of company values and culture).

• Management must lead by example and respect the essence of change programme.

• Writing down what the company wants to achieve through the change: why is change needed? What ambition? What future positioning is the corporation seeking?

• All communication must enable each individual affected (internal or external) to understand the corporation post-change and for each employee to understand his or her role in the change and their position in the future company.

• The cohesion of ‘signs’. The larger the company, the more attentive the personnel are to this. Management statements contradicting the ‘signs’, or behaviour by

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the latter that opposes the change, are frequent reasons for the failure of change programmes.

• The constant involvement of the management and which can be seen and understood by everyone.

It is natural that change is worrying because it ushers in a future which by definition is less certain than a pure reproduction of the present. And this triggers natural resistances in people. The manager's art will consist in transforming these change-threatening resistances into an opportunity. And to do this he has various ‘tools’ he can deploy: • Entrust the change management to a genuine leader or to a team capable of creating a network of people from all entities concerned by the change and, if possible, with a good professional reputations.

• Ensure that the leader chosen naturally takes others into consideration and shows humility, especially when highlighting successes achieved by others.

• Verify that the leader's intelligence of situations and his sensitivity to others does not impair the ability to take difficult decisions.

• Do not hesitate in compensating what those teams or individuals may lose following the change.

When I read the following chapters I thought that they would have been very useful to me during the difficult ‘managerial’ moments in my life as a business leader. I therefore recommend that every manager wanting to implement a change programme in his corporation reads this book, as it contains a pertinent and essential clarification on all the above points.

Bernard Leblanc was senior vice-president at Gaz de France.

Today he is CEO or managing director of various corporations.

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INTRODUCTION

Beyond Beliefs and Models

By Nicolas Pinglot he principle of a change programme is simple. Based on existing resources (machinery, IT tools and staff) we will improve the operation of the organisation (processes, management systems and organisations). By changing habits we will optimise the smooth operation of the corporation and achieve substantial - and more importantly - sustainable benefits.

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The concept of a change programme first appeared in the services portfolio of consultancy practices in the 1980s and today is well and truly anchored in the corporate, industrial and services sectors - and even in the public sector. Many organisations are now trying their luck in this adventure and some have even started to create roles of ‘change manager’ or ‘programme directors’. In 2008 and 2009 we carried out a study of 600 executives in Europe and North America (corporations with more than $500 million turnover). 85% stated that they had instigated at least one change programme in their corporation in the last 12 months, whilst 25% told us they had launched at least 5! So change management has now secured its place at the heart of strategic corporate considerations. Have we finally found the solution for our managerial states of mind? Not necessarily, as it would appear that instigating a change programme is a bit of a heads or tails lottery as these very same executives stated that an average of 47% of their change programmes had failed, with only 9% of them declaring that they had been successful with the majority of their programmes.

And according to these same executives the main reasons for failure were: • The difficulty in winning hearts and minds concerning the need for change: 51%.

• The lack of commitment of local management: 31%.

• The difficulty in implementing the strategy and the actions: 31%.

Therefore change is not an uncomplicated undertaking. None of this is new. The reasons cited were underlined by John P. Kotter 15 years ago in a work that has since become a classic management text book. 1 It is not however the offers of expert assistance which are lacking. On the occasion of a recent Invitation To Tender aimed at setting up a ‘change management’ consultant panel, a large multinational asked, in France alone, for contributions from 300 companies covering the entire profile spectrum including psychologists, coaches, trainers, 6 Sigma specialists, strategists, operational consultants, communication 1 Leading Change. John P. Kotter, Harvard Business Press, Boston, 1996.

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agencies, HR management and project management. In short everybody is offering ‘change management’!

Nor is it the tools and methods which we are lacking. With Kotter’s 8 reasons for failure, the 4 pre-requisites for change, the 6 phases of appropriation, 6 Sigma, lean management, socio-dynamic matrices, the scale of the change, the management curve, communication and training plans, cartography tools of increasing sophistication of the stakes and players and PMO (program management office) techniques - how does one navigate through them all? For their part, university academics scientifically consider the matter with detachment and they have watched the theories evolving, gaining substance, diverging and re-converging since the 1960s and they ask themselves with amusement, whether all these simplifying models are actually used by industrialists and consultants outside of conference rooms and the PowerPoint slides which sell them! Reality is so much more complex they tell us.

Let’s recap. High stakes which are being increasingly acknowledged together with a multi-faceted subject that is difficult to grasp - definitely enough subject matter to write a book, given that there are already hundreds explaining what must be done.

Energised by a desire to exchange experiences and encourage reflective thought, a dozen professionals from all walks of life wanted to put pen to paper to share their experiences with us, rather than their beliefs or the latest new shiny model.

Journalists, university academics and industrialists have provided us with many testimonials and aspects to consider. Moving away from the traditional tools and methods recommended for this subject, these professionals guide us towards richer and more subtle paths to follow: • Is resistance to change an obstacle to be overcome or a natural and healthy phenomenon, or indeed a given not even to consider?

• Are change programmes organised on linear and plannable models or are they closer to the chaos theory which is by definition non-linear and non-predictable?

• Is a project management professional blessed with a blend of interpersonal skills, tactical sophistication, loyalty, courage and deep empathy, a very rare breed to be found as a change manager?

• Must a change programme have a definition in order to succeed?

Whatever the answers to these complicated questions, our specialists all agree on one point: Change management is more of an art than a science or a technique. It is a demanding discipline which requires curiosity, energy, experience, courage and above all humility.

Enjoy the book Nicolas Pinglot, President of the Celerant Change Club, Principal Manager, Celerant Consulting

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PART ONE

Stakes and Scopes of Change

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‘Cycles can be viewed in days, stars, seasons and even by life and death.’

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CHANGE AS A CONSTANT IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY

1.1

Change as a Constant in the History of Humanity

By Jean-Éric Bousser What is more natural and permanent than change? Ever since the very earliest societies, people have understood the need to provide themselves with sufficient resources in order to advance along the path of progress, whilst preserving the indispensable stability of their organisations. Competition, innovation and change have been placed on a pedestal by the capitalist society. But how can change be implemented in an increasingly complex society?

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ycles can be viewed in days, stars, seasons and even by life and death. But at all times man has been able to observe that change is inherent to nature, and all the more given that he can see this directly by the effects on his own body.

Many texts and speeches of philosophers or men of letters - such as those by Heraclitus in particular or, in Chinese civilisation, the "Yi Jing" of "Book of Changes" - also show that the great civilisations of the past had already very clearly understood that change perhaps constituted the "only constant" of nature. Early in his history, therefore, man learned to organise himself to limit those effects deemed undesirable or dangerous for his survival and sought - for instance by imagining divinities that he had to honour and appease - to exorcise the fears that this changing nature inspired in him and to temper its excesses.

Is society conservative by nature?

Ever since the earliest organised communities, important phases of changes and natural cycles were marked by ceremonies and rites. It was one way of integrating into the life of the society and "domesticating" what was in fact imposing itself on humanity and affecting its activities.

Confronted with this nature as dangerous as its benefits were prodigious, man quickly understood and integrated - as illustrated clearly by the Austrian economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises in his magnum opus L'Action humaine (1949) - all aspects that they could in order to ensure the survival of the species, from the active cooperation of individuals and the division of labour within an organised society, to the rules and laws respected by everyone. Magic practices, religious taboos and rites framed the life of the society, but any person who in these circumstances ventured to transgress or wanted to change the established order should beware, for he was

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excluding himself from the group and from the benefits of its protection.

If these first societies experienced internal conflicts and power struggles, leading periodically to upheavals within some of them, their organisation, often accentuated by the seal of the divine, was essentially stable and durable. It was a stability and social discipline which helped ensure the effective accomplishment of the tasks necessary for the life of the group but which only left a little space for individuality.

This desire for stability, this "conservatism" and this distrust in relation to change affecting the organisation of society has however endured, with the causes seeming often to be rooted in the fear that it will lead to an unrest in society that will harm its efficiency, when this is not simply in the interests of the most powerful groups that comprise it.

This difficulty in accepting societal change is also perhaps due to the - more confused or subconscious - feeling that it is likely to revive destructive urges which the civilising effort permits to curb, or to use the language chosen by Freud in "Civilization and its Discontents", the fear that it paves the way for a "Return of Thanatos", deadly for the socialised individual and its defences.

Progress and competitive advantage Whatever the case may be, these reactions of defiance when faced with societal change contrast strongly with the widespread acceptance and the rapid implementation of technical progress which has succeeded, over the years, in changing the natural conditions and improving working conditions for mankind. Written scripts, animal rearing, seeds, the wheel, the plough, the sail and much later, the steam engine, electricity, the railway all represent so many crucial inventions, which as their uses continued to develop, profoundly modified material conditions and social relationships.

As for societies whose organisations, power systems, beliefs or mentalities have compromised this partiality for technological change, they were distanced then dominated by others which were more dynamic.

In fact, resistances to changes provoked by scientific or technological innovations have often solely been attributable to the desire to preserve certain powers or social interests such as demonstrated for example by the opposition of the church to the thesis of Galileo or the revolt of the Canutes in Lyon faced with the arrival of new weaving looms. As to the progress of scientific knowledge it has often been held back by social inertia or the weight of religious or political dogmas. One only has to think of the latent opposition of the church to the dissection of the human body or to the eccentric but official genetic theses of Lyssenko in Stalin's USSR. There are, on the other hand, very few examples of human organisations which have refused on principle - as the Amish can do in the United States for example to derive the benefit from a technological change even when it was a question of their gaining an advantage over other groups. The arms trade provides a very good example of this historical partiality to change, both from a technical and strategic point of view. No major technological innovation may be of interest in this field that end up being adopted by armies or by an organisational or strategic change. And

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this is for one simple reason. A force must necessarily seek to place itself in a situation of dominating its potential adversaries, and therefore to systemically look for a "competitive advantage". This is how in his work Anatomy of a Spectre (1981), the historian and sovietologist Alain Besançon shows that one of the only sectors to demonstrate a degree of dynamism, relative creativity and partiality to change in a soviet and moreover stagnant economy, was the army, because "there was a spirit of competition" between it and its main adversary, the American army.

We can see that competition, innovation and change have always seemed to go hand in hand.

"Finally the corporation arrives..."

It is also not surprising that with the emergence of capitalist production methods, this trio has found its rightful place. Indeed as Joseph Schumpeter wrote, in the capitalist society, all the structures and conditions in business operations "always find themselves within a process of change" (See box).

Creative destruction "Capitalism is not and cannot be stationary. Nor is it content to grow in a consistent fashion. It finds itself being revolutionised from within by new corporations, or in other words, by the intrusion into the industrial structure as it exists at a certain moment in time by new products, new production methods or new commercial opportunities. All these existing structures and all the conditions in business operations are always situated within a change process. Each situation is disrupted before it has had time to exhaust its possibilities. Economic progress in a capitalist society signifies upheavals. And [‌] within this turbulence, competition operates in a totally different way than it would do in a stationary process. The possibilities of gains which may be obtained from the manufacturing of new types of objects or from the reduction in manufacturing costs of existing objects occur constantly and demand new investments. These new products and methods start to compete with the old methods and products and not on an equal footing but with a decisive advantage that may signify the death warrant to the latter. And this is how "progress" is made in the capitalist society. And to avoid any slumps in sales, each company is under the obligation to follow and invest in turn [...]"

Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy Part I iii, p. 32-33, HarperPerennial, Modern Thought, 2008 (free translation).

With the realisation of the growing position held by the corporation in the operation of society and the quest for an optimum organisation of production, genuine reflections on change were gradually starting to be made amongst economists, entrepreneurs, sociologists and psychologists. Particularly since the Second World War, a source of significant advances in the organisation of production and in the wake of the development of corporate and management theories, attention has focussed on the process itself. This has led to the creation of a veritable corpus of rules and methods

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for the implementation of change in corporations and human organisations in general.

And the clear awareness that the human factor is at the very heart of these processes has become steadily clearer over time.

We are however far from the "man-machine" as conceived by some classical 18th century economists. Of course organisational methods which fragment and depersonalise into too many tasks have not disappeared, on the contrary in fact, if one thinks of the new "workshops of the world" such as China or other developing countries. And also, the expansion of certain forms of part-time work does not necessarily constitute progress either. But the highest performing corporations understand that it is in their vital interest to free up the energy and creativity of their employees, so that they can collaborate fully towards their objectives, and even contribute to defining them.

The employee nevertheless remains marked by the seal of subordination to the directives of his hierarchy in his execution of the tasks which have been assigned to him in exchange for remuneration. This reminds us most opportunely of the famous decree from the French Highest Court of Appeal known as the "Boyer Decree" of 12 January 1997 which stated: "The link of subordination is characterised by the execution of work under the authority of an employer who has the power to give orders and directives, to control and take disciplinary action against any shortcomings in his subordinate." We can see very clearly then that it is up to the employer - and it is his duty - to fix the rules and define the tasks. This enables us incidentally to clearly understand that there is no question of devising a change programme without the very close involvement of company executives.

However, in the opinion of well-informed specialist, Philippe Bernoux, the existence of a constraint in a change implementation within a corporation is not sufficient for its success. Its acceptance by the employees is an essential factor. There is all the more chance of change being successful if it is perceived as legitimate and if it embraces the buy-in of everyone, including those who are only supposed to act in subordination to directives.

Implementing change - a complex art How can we move beyond this inevitable tension - this contradiction between constraint and buy-in? This is the nub of the question posed by contemporary thought on change implementation in organisations which are evolving in increasingly uncertain environments and with prospects which are difficult to predict. And it's once again in the arms sector that we find a very vivid example of this "new order" relating to the implementation of change. The transformation programme undertaken by NATO over the last few years aims to favour, in a profession where obedience to the established rules is a cardinal virtue, the initiative of those involved and the "spontaneous" emergence of new ideas in terms of organisation, tactics and strategy. It particularly intends to be innovative in its change implementation methods so as to be in a better position to meet the challenges posed by the new era which we have now entered, that of permanent change and the management of complexity.

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Strategy and complexity Edgar Morin, in his Introduction to complex thought (Le Seuil, 1990), explains: "A programme is a sequence of predetermined actions which must operate in circumstances enabling it to be implemented. If the external circumstances are not favourable, the programme will stop or fail. [‌] A strategy on the other hand develops one or several scenarios. From the outset it makes preparations to integrate anything new or unexpected in order to modify or enrich its actions. The advantage of the programme is obviously a very high degree of economy. There is no need to reflect, everything is done automatically. A strategy on the other hand is determined by taking into account the uncertain situation, adverse and even adversarial elements and it is forced to modify itself over time based on the information provided, and it can also be very flexible. But for an organisation to carry out a strategy, the organisation must not be designed to obey programming, but must be able to deal with the elements capable of contributing to the design and development of the strategy."

As Lieutenant-General J. O. Michel Maisonneuve, who as Chief of Staff of the Headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation of NATO in Norfolk, in Virginia wrote: "To cope with change, many organisations carried out re-engineering intended to remain in existence only as long as the end-state was achieved. Today, however, it is acknowledged that change may not be a march towards an end-state at all, but instead may be a perpetual state of affairs. So the next step in the transformation of 'change management' would seem to be the creation of specific organisations whose mandate is to manage change, and, further, to promote innovation, experimentation and lateral thinking. Change has gone from being a negative activity that needed to be managed to a positive one that should be promoted and encouraged."

In addition to ad-hoc programmes, organisations would from now on have to equip themselves with genuine strategies which also enable sufficient free space to be left for the capacity to adapt and to change. And this is the very challenge posed by the management of complexity.

What is a complex system?

A complex system is "characterised firstly by the number of elements that comprise it [...], then by the type of interactions between these elements, the number and variety of links which interconnect these elements [...] and by the non-linear dynamism of its development, in other words, the accelerations, inhibitions and oscillations which are difficult to predict."

JoĂŤl de Rosnay, L'Homme symbiotique, Le Seuil, 1995.

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But does everything have to be constantly in a permanent state of flux or upheaval?

Of course it doesn't. The whole art of managing change consists specifically in determining what, within an organisation, must remain stable and what must change and then to enable the co-existence of change and the necessary order to continue with activities. Especially in modern and often very complex organisations, one must endeavour to avoid that a desirable change in one part of the whole does not bring about unexpected or inapposite consequences in another, or even lead to general chaos. Mastering the change implementation process therefore involves, as we shall see in the following chapters, an in-depth knowledge of the organisation concerned and a well-defined idea of the tools to use in accordance with the objectives sought.

A raw materials newsletter editor in the 1970s, in charge of the development of specialised economic information at AFP in the 1980s, editor-in-chief of the daily L’Agefi in the 1990s, and now editor of the subscriber newsletter service, Investnews, Jean-Éric Bousser has for decades closely followed all the major changes experienced by the global economic and financial system. He is a founder member of the Association Systémiques.

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‘Indeed, history provides us with many examples of civilisations which, following the example of the Mayas or the valley of the Indus purely and simply disappeared...’

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A CRUCIAL STAKE: FROM THE COLLECTIVE BIG BANG TO OVERCOMING CHAOS

1.2

A Crucial Stake: From the Collective Big Bang to Overcoming Chaos

By Jean-Éric Bousser Wanted or endured, predicted or unpredicted, change is multi-faceted, just as the attitudes of people and organisations towards it and the ways that it is implemented.

Between collective big bang and overcoming chaos, two diametrically opposed approaches, the whole art of change implementation will consist in finding the path which enables uncertainties to be reduced to a minimum whilst at the same time ensuring the continuity of the organisation. oncerning the definition of the process itself, and not only its result, change is affected by time - for instance a period of almost instantaneous upheavals caused by a tsunami, or a multi-millennium evolution of a climate, a landscape or an animal species. Its duration is therefore an essential element in the appreciation of this phenomenon as is also its intensity. But a distinction must also be made between the categories of changes, depending on their natures.

Some, which can be classified under the generic term of "social", affect, whether they are wanted or not, the organisation of life within the human groupings and their work. Others which can be qualified as "natural", whether predictable or unpredictable, are based on the action of nature. Finally some changes are instigated, voluntarily or not, by the actions of people and others occur without any action on their part at all.

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Social changes like natural changes are weighed down by often crucial stakes, and, based on the passive, reactive or proactive attitude that they adopt in their regard, human groupings may or may not condemn themselves to suffer the effects, which may potentially be dramatic. An attitude which often depends, moreover, on the one hand on their degree of understanding of the causes and the clear appreciation of the consequences of these changes, and on the other, on their abilities to take advantage from it, if they are necessary and/or potentially beneficial, or, if applicable to prevent it and/or combat any harmful effects.

Indeed, history provides us with many examples of civilisations which, following the example of the Mayas or the valley of the Indus purely and simply disappeared, due to not being able to or not knowing how to adapt their modes of life and their organisation to the challenges posed by a change which affected their equilibriums which impacted their normal operating modes.

There are some challenges which can be particularly insidious and difficult to spot,

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without even tackling the crucial subjects of contemporary reflection such as global warming, the digital revolution, bio-molecular research, the prevention of hereditary diseases or the demographic decline in Europe.2 These are topics with significant potential consequences for the rules in use concerning the human being, and, in the long term, for the concept that future generations will devise for the place of the individual in society. And as an example of such an insidious challenge, one can simply evoke, how (a version from antiquity of our pollution problems) the result of a change, namely the construction of a lead drainage system, improved the water distribution method in Rome of the Caesars, but at the same time was to lead to the gradual development of lead poisoning and thereby contributed, according to many scholars, to the fall of the Imperial City.3 This example, taken from ancient history and which should not therefore stir up useless polemics, enables us to intuitively understand and outline the contours of a new category of changes, namely that which brings together those that one will qualify as "induced" or - to use an expression dear to monetary policy and inflation specialists - "secondary". A change can indeed indirectly unleash other, sometimes perverse, effects, which gradually in their turn come to modify the natural or social environment until the moment when the cumulative importance of these modifications again imposes changes, when it does not unleash real upheavals or revolutions.

Change can be categorised as having many different facets - social, natural, induced, wanted or undergone, predicted or unpredicted, initiated by man or notand which are inter-related. The same applies to the attitudes which groups and organisations can adopt when faced with the onset of change.

What attitude to adopt when faced with change?

When faced with the damaging or even disastrous consequences of certain changes that were not wanted, predicted nor overcome, or in other words, changes undergone in full, people have often been, and continue to be, tempted to attribute the responsibility to causes which are totally different to what they actually were in reality at the outset; and, as they are mistaken on the causes, they can also due to this, choose to attempt to eradicate them or remedy their effects, using means and tools which are totally ineffective. Is it not the case, for instance, in those first societies which saw in their natural phenomena, such as drought or insect invasions, the expression of the anger of the Gods, that they attempted to calm through sacrifices and prayers, without that ever provoking either the return of the rains or the departure of the locusts? Is it not also the case that some of our contemporaries who choose to deploy incantatory speech or adopt - when they are not simply looking for a scapegoat - waffle worthy of the "Newspeak" so dear to George Orwell, to conjure up the perils, although very real, with which we will henceforth be faced?

Any natural or social change of significance which affects the environment in which any given community evolves or which modifies the conditions in which it operates, imposes on the part of the latter, an action or an adapted reaction if it does not intend to undergo and suffer this change, but on the contrary to preserve, re-establish or improve the social links which are appropriate to it in its henceforth modified environment.

2 Well before the retirement debate attracted the attention of our media onto demographic questions, the great historian, Pierre Chaunu had rung the alarm bell on the consequences of an insufficient birth rate in Europe in a work that has remained very topical: La Peste Blanche, comment ĂŠviter le suicide de l'Occident, Gallimard, 1976.

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One can therefore immediately understand how very important it is for any group subjected to a considerable change to its lifestyle, its organisation or its activities that it knows how to identify the causes and establish fair diagnoses as to the methods to be used to accompany it, adapt to it and to prevent or combat any harmful effects if necessary. Diagnoses and methods whose relevance and effectiveness evidently depend in most situations, on the level of development of all types of scientific and technical abilities at its disposal, and also on various psychological and moral factors, have a significance which can in no case be under-estimated. For instance, the ability to work together, perseverance, lucidity, vigilance and ability to adapt constitute essential assets. Assets which of course are also based on the capacity of the group to be aware in time of the risks which it is running but also of the opportunities that it judges will open up to the group if such or such change were to occur.

To better confront an unwanted change, it is naturally preferable for each group to know how to position itself as being reactive. This poses the question of anticipation, forecasting change, its prevention or overcoming its consequences. And this is the essence of the long fight undertaken by the human race since its very origins to protect itself against changes linked to natural cataclysms. And man's progress in this struggle will have been due mainly to his aptitude for identifying the signals presaging such catastrophes, thereby providing them to a certain extent with sufficient time to protect themselves from their effects.

This proactive attitude, this determination not to succumb and to anticipate, can only of course deliver advantages as far as changes induced by the "natural" game of human activities and forces at work in society are concerned, such as economic evolutions, the dissemination of new technologies but also demography or development of pollution. To correctly measure the sequence of consequences of its actions in order to show itself to be proactive and avert changes linked to the perverse and destructive effects of its actions, does however remain a considerable challenge for the human race, an objective still very far from being achieved, but which could nevertheless represent the essential challenge of this century.

In fact, is not the whole art of running groups, organisations and societies the awareness of the risks which threaten them, to avert them and to identify problems likely to hinder their operations and their expansion and to implement the necessary changes in time in order to avoid any paralysis or degradation of their performances, but also to favour the option of new techniques or methods likely to improve their effectiveness?

Of course, it has to be noted that such "social" changes are often carried out with urgency and under constraints of environmental pressure, or in other words, once they have become inevitable, man is forced to act to try to restore a dangerously tense or compromised situation. But this is far from being the case in general. In fact, most organisations have not only learnt to voluntarily initiate the changes that they judge to be beneficial for them, but they also devote a large proportion of their activities to organising, planning and implementing them.

3 Recommended reading: Lead and the Fall of Rome: A Bibliography, available on the site http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/orb/lead.htm.

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From collective "big bang" to overcoming chaos These implementations can take very different forms, and for instance, imply what certain specialists describe as the "collective big bang" or, conversely, the transition through a period of relative disorganisation, provoked or not, which enables hoped for changes to be implemented, into a phase of "overcoming chaos" in one way or another.

Talk of chaos - a strong term - of course refers back to the idea of disorder. This can therefore give rise to a situation where an entity is aware that it must change and potentially knows how, why and what objectives are to be attained, but will not necessarily know how to achieve it or even if it is capable of so doing. Under these conditions, the period of change may be experienced as a sort of jump into the unknown, a difficult moment when one abandons old marker posts, acquired and well-integrated behaviours, to move towards new learning experiences and forging new relationships. Organisational and psychological chaos may take hold within the group.

Overcoming this chaos will specifically consist of gradually reducing the uncertainties within the group, shepherding the sheep who have strayed onto the right path, cutting short any attempts to revert back and channelling all energies towards the desired objective. Fully overcoming the chaos is therefore a process which extends over time, is difficult to implement and live through but which can also turn out to be very beneficial to the extent that it heightens the sense of responsibilities of the individuals who must take charge, enables strong personalities or born leaders to emerge, and even compensates for the failings of hierarchies which have become sclerotic. But its success is far from being assured when it does not result either in a characterised failure or in a group orientation totally different to that which could have potentially been envisaged at the outset.

In comparison, at first sight, the "collective big bang" can seem a less risky approach if it consists, at least, of reducing the change period to a minimum, of shaking an organisation from one state to another in a very short period, having envisaged what will be incumbent on each person to do within the group and having informed him of the role he must play. This limits as far as possible the margin of improvisation and uncertainties in the roll-out of operations and communications with third parties. Such techniques for implementing change obviously require extensive planning and impeccable organisation, just as everyone has experienced during a company relocation into new premises. This was also the case at the time of the oscillations of national currencies to the Euro in the early part of this century.

The situation is very different of course when it is a question of responding very quickly to an unforeseen change or a crisis situation. The big bang then concerns a collective group which must respond urgently and take essential measures without necessarily having prepared for them and form an organisation to ensure the continuity of its activities. Such "big bangs" genuinely reveal personal qualities, of the autonomy and initiative of the people concerned and more generally of the degree of cohesion of the organisation.

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"Collective big bang" or "overcoming chaos?” It would be illusory to want to favour one method at the expense of the other and to see in them the only possible approaches to change. In fact, based on these two examples, specialists insist that the choice of the most appropriate approach depends essentially on the specific situation and the desired objectives of the organisation concerned.

A raw materials newsletter editor in the 1970s, in charge of the development of specialised economic information at AFP in the 1980s, editor-in-chief of the daily L’Agefi in the 1990s, and now editor of the subscriber newsletter service, Investnews, Jean-Éric Bousser has for decades closely followed all the major changes experienced by the global economic and financial system. He is a founder member of the Association Systémiques.

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‘Whenever it is a question of an individual, there are three funamental parameters which make sense to them: values, culture and beliefs.’

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THE SENSE: THE ESSENCE OF CHANGE?

1.3

The Sense: The Essence of Change?

By Yves Ducrocq Every change project, to a greater or lesser extent, disrupts the marker posts which guide the corporation, its employees and its external partners. If one wants to avoid creating chaos, first of all the "direction elements" on which strategy and operational activity are based must be known. This is the only condition which provides the means of redefining the cohesive signposts in the perspective of expected change.

A new direction understood by everyone. iving sense is a frequently used, and sometimes overused, expression.

"The loss of direction" would be one of the "psycho-social risk" factors which are discussed today to evoke the increasing unease of a specific proportion of employees in corporations in perpetual movement: stress, depression, burn-out syndrome etc. Conversely, employees who "find the direction/meaning" in their work seem more motivated. But is this really the case?

What are we talking about when we talk about the "sense"?

G

Values, culture, beliefs Whether it is a question of an individual, or a group of individuals, there are three fundamental parameters which "make sense" to them: values, culture and beliefs.

Personal values refer to morality or ethics such as honesty, reliability and commitment and it is through these values that the individual evaluates his compatibility with the corporation to which he contributes, and which in turn embodies the values in which he must be able to identify with. Values are not always formalised but are often very present in the way businesses are run.

However, they must not be confused with culture which represents that which has been acquired. It is a question of what is, or what becomes, common to a group of individuals - what welds them together. We talk frequently about the "building site culture" and of "public service culture" etc. It is not unusual to note the surprise of a new entrant when faced with the operating methods of a corporation. Absorption or rejection then occurs. Either the person little by little adopts these modes of operation and "assumes the culture" of the corporation or ends up leaving.

Beliefs are what are deemed to be true. Over and above individual beliefs, collective beliefs endure although they are sources of errors of judgement. Thus, a very widespread

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belief is that corporations in developing countries are more competitive because they pay their employees very badly. But some of them actually have purchasing, production, marketing and innovation processes with a higher performance that the majority of their competitors in Europe.

The sense(S) is therefore built up from these three elements: Values

S Culture

Beliefs

Before committing to any change, it is essential to identify that which imbues these elements with the current sense of the corporation and to formalise for each one what they have to become in order to act in a relevant way.

Values These are very often the behavioural patterns of the chief executive officer himself and expected from each of his employees. It is obviously essential, for these values to be shared, that they are communicated but also that they are really lived on a daily basis. Leading by example here is the most effective communications technique.

The cohesion between declared values and behaviours is much stronger and much more important than any political correct statements uttered (too often?).

Culture Five factors seem to be determining factors in a company culture: • The nature of the shareholders: stability or volatility, operational profit-sharing or not in the results, re-investment in the corporation or distribution policy of priority dividends. In other words, the feeling given to the employees of being in the same boat or not.

• The values and behaviours of the chief executive: If he takes action, gets involved and knows how to delegate, he will engender the same type of behaviour in his teams. But if he limits himself to merely reciting values and behaviours which he does not apply, then he will provoke doubt and even unrest.

• The market in which the company operates: Each market has its own culture and the corporation which operates there on a long term basis must adopt its fundamental characteristics, or risk never being successful in it.

• The position in this market claimed or occupied by the corporation: This strongly determines its identity and its behaviours. For example the totally different market positions held by Fiat and Audi in the car market are a determining factor of their culture.

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• The working conditions of the employees: The immediate environment and the working conditions in which the employees carry out their roles have a direct effect on their behaviours and their internal and external relationships.

Each of these elements determines the culture of a corporation which will be all the stronger the higher the cohesion between them. One must therefore ask oneself about their cohesion in view of the expected result of the change.

Beliefs Beliefs are numerous and varied and it is prudent, when wanting to implement change, to know how to distinguish what is the proven result of experience, that is to say, the state of the art (in the corporation but also in the profession) and that which it is commonly accepted to think. In order not to get oneself imprisoned in ones beliefs, it is essential to open one's mind and discover other practices. It is common to hear: "Have a go and you'll make it!" And it's true, subject to being open to transpositions and experimentations and through the association of the fundamentals acquired from different areas of experience.

When reality refutes generally accepted ideas "It is impossible to become a world leader in the manufacturing of mass consumer products if one does not invest in very high productivity production equipment."

This reasoning is easy to believe and even to understand. However, a Japanese company has built its success and its number 1 global position in the manufacture of propelling pencils through the creativity of its designs and the flexibility of its organisations, by servicing of all the well-known, worldwide brands. The components to be manufactured or moulded are of course manufactured by the highest performance production equipment, but the assembly of the wide diversity of its components and its products is carried out by hand due to the remarkable efficiency of its organisation. There are no factories bringing together the most advanced procedures and the necessary skilled labour, but a dense network rigorously animated by work distribution centres and of groupings of sub-units, finished products and quality control, spread out around the site, enabling home working, by selected persons and formalised commitments.

Change: a loss of marker posts?

Values, cultures and beliefs constitute marker posts for the corporation and its employees.

Will change really challenge all three parameters or only one of them? In all cases there will be "change" in that which "made sense". On the collective level, it is a question of identifying if the change sought will, or will not lead to modifications in: • Values, i.e. expected ways of acting by each of the employees.

• Culture, i.e. the expected behaviour of each person, starting by the chief executive, the market (to conquer for example), the targeted position in the market and the working conditions of the people affected.

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• The beliefs, some of which will be challenged, in order for the expected change to succeed.

As soon as the necessary challenges have been identified, people must be trained and all the processes and organisational structures must be reviewed in order to establish new marker posts. Each individual will then have the factual elements enabling him to understand what is expected of him and the reasons for his buy-in.

Let's take the example of a corporation with an international influence: Taking risks and individual responsibility

Method, precision, discipline; each person carries out his task, is not distracted by those of others and applies the defined processes.

Values

S

Culture

Mission: Provide some simple and reliable answers to daily essential needs.

We can only earn money over the long term with products which are sold at a rate of more than one million pieces every day.

Beliefs

To adapt to the evolution in its environment, this corporation decides to change strategy. And in so doing, it "changes direction": Taking risks and individual responsibility

International, cultural diversity, openness of mind and mobility.

Culture

Values

S

Mission: Provide some simple and reliable answers to daily diversified needs.

It is the ability to respond to a wide variety of needs in a more efficient manner than our competitors which will ensure our performance and our durability.

Beliefs

The values remain the same but the beliefs and culture change radically, leading to profound changes in recruitment, management, the product offering, distribution, investments etc.

On an individual level what will be the consequences of the change? One cannot dispense with this concern, even if the change in the corporation, as in any human organisation, cannot of course be overcome to suit every individual. For it is the men and women who implement it and the method used to involve each of them that is the determining factor in the durability of the change implemented, but also in the memory transmits the memory of changes, learning experiences, transformations and constructions rather than injuries, human disorder or disrepute.

Then beyond the tested project implementation methodologies, it is appropriate to devote time, attention and expertise to understanding the desired result and to the

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buy-in of the largest number of people, so as not to deprive oneself of the richness of people and their capacities for involvement.

Of course it is necessary at the outset that everyone knows what is expected of him.

But the expertise to carry it out and especially the desire to do it must also be present.

Yet this desire is based on two sets of parameters: • Those which originate from the corporation: The material conditions to carry out its mission and the material conditions of remuneration and the managerial conditions.

• Those which come from him: his drivers (the activities which propel him naturally into movement) and his motivations (what he is ready to do at this moment with his career and his life). Drivers and motivations are specific to each of us. Studies show that involvement increases ten-fold if a significant part of our working time corresponds to them.

Thus, a man who has understood the "new direction" in which one wishes to lead the corporation and who has been placed in favourable conditions so that it makes sense to him, will be a long-term driver in the change to be implemented.

Understanding the sense of change Very often, importance is placed on understanding the reasons for change rather than on the different structures one wants to build. The emotional takes over from the rational and more energy is devoted to explaining why it is no longer possible to keep our current ways of operating than to what we want to build tomorrow.

However, some formalisation work is essential and which will enable the expression of the following: • What mission do we attribute to the corporation in its market (its utility)?

• What ambition do we have for it?

• What is the profession and sector of the corporation (the expertise that it must have at its finger tips to succeed in its mission and achieve its ambition)?

• What market positioning does the corporation want (its position and image in its market)?

It is appropriate to re-emphasise these points or to communicate them by explaining them. And this will give the sense (everyone will know where the leaders want to take the corporation and why) and that it will make sense (everybody knows what impacts this path will have on the values, culture and beliefs and will be a player in it).

Giving sense is above all, showing the path to follow, and a path will harness human abilities. When the corporation knows how to use the abilities of its employees, and to not only show them the result but the aptitude of each and all of them, without ceasing to adapt to the evolutions in the environment and continuously creating an additional asset, then everybody will understand the sense of their work and their added value. This corporation will develop the confidence of each individual in their ability to adapt, contribute and thereby reinforce their ability to act.

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Giving a direction is also showing a desirable path and ensuring that this desired future will be shared by those on whom one relies to achieve it.

What makes sense for an individual, a group of individuals or a corporation is an alchemy composed of history, the present and a perception of a desirable future.

What future are we inventing today which will make the corporation become a project again? What actions will we implement to achieve it? What forces originating from our collective heritage will help us succeed?

It is difficult to ask people to step up to positive changes when they are cut off from the reality of the evolution of the corporate environment. It is also preferable in periods when the corporation is not being challenged rapidly and brutally by its market, to consolidate their knowledge and their understanding of the parameters which will have an impact on their future.

The corporation is a complex component of an economic system that is even more vast and complex. Everybody must be allowed to understand what the position of their corporation is in the market, what their place is in the corporation and what part he will play, through his initiatives, in its future.

If everybody knows that the path to pursue will require some things to be questioned, challenged and some innovations and if everybody can contribute by making best use of their drivers and motivations, the change will be implemented and successful.

This assumes confidence. It wins in the past and regenerates in the present.

Necessary cohesion between the internal and the external If the change has to have an impact on the corporate environment, it is therefore necessary that it is perceived as having a sense for those at whom it is destined, namely customers, prospects and partners.

The efforts that will have been deployed internally to explain the reasons for the change and to prove that it is being implemented, must also be carried out externally without delay. These two aspects must be led from the front, as inevitably a long time will pass before the external environment integrates the changes implemented by the corporation. The classic trap is to say: "We have so many things to do internally that we'll take care of the others later." This is an error which risks transforming customers and partners into brakes on the change, if they continue to see the corporation as it was "before". Conversely, clear communication about the change will reinforce the sought after reputation.

The stronger the reputation of a corporation, the more difficult the change is to "accept" for those who know it (or believe they know it). The stakes here are huge, as there must be cohesion between the change perceived externally and that experienced internally. The link between the fundamental elements of a corporation's reputation (its past, its present) and its desired future must be of strong significance. In other words:

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• Its values, culture and beliefs set the definition of its future - that makes sense; • Its desired future is clear and unambiguous - that gives direction.

For example, after a period of unmarked products, CitroĂŤn relied, in its latest communications campaign, on its innovative and avant-garde corporate history to differentiate itself by means of a message that was understandable by its customers and which was a matter of pride for its troops.

What is the situation for the partners who work with the corporation? These are the "external resources" which have an important place in the value-added supply chain which the change will be redefining. Carefully chosen partners, i.e. those partners who are attuned to the new mission adopted by the company, will trigger a lever effect both of creativity and speed. It is also crucial that the internal and the external know how to work together. A structured change of their respective operational methods is essential. It is mandatory that the conditions for an efficient collaboration between two organisations, which will probably have very different cultures, are identified and put in place.

New leader, new direction?

Often the arrival of a new leader is not perceived as a change in the sense of a structured and implemented programme. The mission of the corporation and the ambitions that there are for it, remain unchanged. Often nothing is communicated given that nothing is considered to be fundamentally changing. However, a new leader often has a heavy impact on the values of the corporation, on its culture (its operating methods) and its beliefs, when confronted by a new and powerful eye. The force and speed of his decisions may surprise and cause concern. If the direction is not explained and any transformations are implemented through successive experimentations, the impact on the people and the corporation may be negative giving rise for instance to disorientation, anxieties, and the risks of losing necessary human resources. The new leader has therefore the obligation to formalise and broadcast what he wants to change in the elements which give the direction to the corporation.

We are not all equal when faced with change. Some people require permanent changes. This enables them to exercise their creativity and their need for new challenges.

Others are afraid of change, of the adventure that it suggests and the disorganisation that it could trigger. There are also others who hope and pray that it will improve their situation or conversely they fear losing a situation which suits them.

In reality, all are useful, but they must not neutralise each other. On the contrary, the enthusiasm of one must be enlightened by the prudence of the other. Everyone has a role that is all the more active when they make a useful contribution to achieving the change taking place. And here, to find a good position, to choose to be an entrepreneur as far as the implementation is concerned, also requires being a

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"self-entrepreneur". To choose to understand the direction in which the corporation has committed itself, to choose to make it known that which, in these transformations, makes sense with oneself, is not to succumb to one's future but to commit to it, to have confidence in it, and to decide on one's future.

Yves Ducrocq is a founder member of the Celerant Change Club. Over his career he has contributed to many innovation, restructuring and cultural change projects. He is now Chairman of NFID (Nord France Innovation et Développement) and Dephis (Développement et Performance par les Hommes, l'Innovation et la Stratégie).

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‘Every individual reacts to this based on psychological factors such as fear of the unknown...’

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RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

1.4

Resistance to Change By Élie Matta & Jonathan Hayes The notion of resistance to change has emerged as being more complex than it appeared at the outset. Whether they are individual or collective, active or passive, resistances assume many different forms which are not necessarily harmful. How can they be easily understood and in particular, removed? The wealth of literature on this subject illustrates the wide variety of approaches. he expression "resistance to change" is part of common management vocabulary. It applies in essence to the recipient of the change and designates his opposition to any action altering the status quo.

Resistance to change is said to be responsible for the high failure levels of organisational change projects. The expression is in such common use that its definition is no longer mentioned in University text books, seminars or in board meetings. But is this phenomenon really so very well understood by the management?

And how can these resistances be removed?

T

A brief history of the concept In the 1940s resistance to change appeared under the behest of Kurt Lewin and did not have the individual and psychological dimension that is awarded to it today.

Lewin adopted a systemic approach in which change and resistance were conceptualised at group level. He considered that the individual is present in a field of forces - his environment - which influences his behaviour and whose equilibrium confers a quasi-stationary status on the group. The group is guided towards change either by accentuating the forces which move in the desired direction, or by diminishing the antagonistic forces. In doing this, the initial equilibrium is deconstructed in order to institute a new quasi-stationary status which must subsequently be consolidated.

Lester Coch and John French, disciples of Lewin, introduced the expression of "resistance to change" in an article written in 1948. They defined it as the reaction of an individual to the frustration induced by some specific force emanating from his environment. It therefore becomes a fact and a negative attribute of the employee which must be overcome. This definition on an individual level has been amplified over time and has since prevailed. The expression "resistance to change" has however been challenged and has recently been subject to virulent criticism due to the following: • A conceptual vagueness: Resistance to change gives rise to a multiplicity of definitions which range from a chosen opposition which must be overcome to a

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beneficial characteristic which must be better channelled.

• A uniform character which does not correspond to reality: Since 1969, Paul R. Lawrence has been taking issue with the works of Coch and French. In his opinion, individuals do not resist change itself but the impact of this change on their social relationships. In 2001, Eric B. Dent and Edward H. Powley found that for every change perceived negatively, the participants perceived 1.9 positively. Is resistance to change being over-estimated? Each individual accepts or in turn refuses changes in accordance with specific parameters or circumstances. An individual does not resist change per se but is definitely resisting something.

• The stigmatisation of a scapegoat: Associated almost automatically to a sole employee, resistance to change may be perceived as a guilt-inducing destructive concept4.

With any force inducing a contrary force, resistance to change, is however inevitable. A change programme without resistance would require every participant to grasp the situation in an identical way and share the same diagnosis - unless they are all suffering from an extreme form of groupthink, having annihilated all parts of their individuality within an organisation, all of which seems unlikely.

Long viewed negatively as an element to overcome, resistance to change is now increasingly being viewed as a natural and healthy phenomenon. It has even become desirable. For instance, Paul Bauer (1993) considered that, in the same way as pain, resistance alarms the change agents. For E. A. Johns, resistance is a pre-requisite to any change programme which provides beneficial feedback and enables the necessary adjustments to be made. Considered at its fair value, resistance forces management to examine the rationale of the changes proposed in more depth and helps break down any certainties that have been too quickly acquired. In addition, it is not the prerogative of a specific category of employees. Whereas the resistance of the base is often visible since it is explicit, middle and top managers resist just as much but more implicitly.

Whatever the divergences of the conceptual approach, attitudes of resistance are very clear to see. In order to envisage a reduction of their negative influence, the manifestations of resistance must first be identified and the causes understood.

How do we resist change?

Manifestations of this are varied and can from the outset be classified as individual or collective on the one hand and active or passive on the other. Gérard Carton, a consultant specialising in change implementation, proposes an interesting topology by distinguishing between four forms of resistance: • Inertia, characterised by no obvious reaction to the change. This lets people think that one accepts the change but primarily one is trying to gain time to defer its application.

• Argumentation, a dialectic game in which the doubts and reserves are verbalised.

This is the most productive form of resistance to the extent that things are said.

4 Céline Bareil, Centre d'études en transformation des organisations, Cahier n°04-10, August 2004, Montreal.

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• Revolt, strong even violent, reaction (demand for transformation, strike, etc) which may be the result of a certain escalation in the power ratios.

• Sabotage, which hides an intense revolt under apparent submission. It goes hand in hand with manipulation and its objective is to demonstrate the inefficiency of the change proposed.

If inertia is, par excellence, the passive form of resistance, then argumentation, revolt and sabotage are the active forms. Each may be the fact of one individual or a group movement (trades union action etc). One can therefore envisage the whole spectrum from active resistance to active support, transiting through passive resistance and passive support. Each employee adopts their starting position which he will move away from according to individual psychological variable organisational factors.

Individual causes of resistance Every change triggers an upheaval of the established order and the challenging of a certain type of routine. Every individual reacts to this based on personal psychological factors such as fear of the unknown, the fear of a loss of power or status, the fear of being unable to adapt - all factors which drive people to resist change.

There are of course also others which depend on the culture and experience of each individual, but also on the degree of comfort provided by the "old order" now being phased out. Without necessarily fearing what will happen, why should one be pleased to leave a comfortable situation?

Faced with change, each person also reacts to certain organisational variables.

Paul Strebel (1996) invites us to envisage the employer/employee relationship as an implicit contract, a set of reciprocal commitments and obligations which he calls "personal compact". It is a contract that is at the same time: • Formal: The employee knows what the corporation expects from him in terms of mission and performance (employment contract, explicit job description) and what he delivers in return in order to carry out his work correctly.

• Psychological: This relates to mutual expectations and reciprocal commitments which are more implicit and based on feelings such as trust.

• Social: It is the perception of cohesion between the statements of the company (displayed values) and its actions (management attitudes).

For Strebel, any change affects the very nature of the contract and requires a clear re-definition of its clauses by management. He sees in their non-revision, a major cause of blockages and resistance: "If they look through the prism of unchanged personal compacts, employees often have a poor understanding, or worse, are not aware of what the change implies for them"5 So when the superior/subordinate relationship deteriorates, cynicism is quick to spread and it significantly slows down any actions promoting change. In an applied study, Reichers et al (1997) found that cynicism has serious impacts on resistance to change when it results from the feeling of the subordinate being held to one side, of not being informed or respected by his superior. Similarly, Folger and Skarlicki (1999) saw in resistance to 5 Paul Strebel, Why do employees resist change? Harvard Business Review, May-June 1996.

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change a means of making the corporation pay for a treatment perceived as unfair.

Therefore a wronged or offended employee instigates a campaign of revenge in order to restore a prior agreement that he deems as having been flouted. His action and reaction will be all the more violent if the damage caused by the change is significant and if the conduct of the superior in this change has been judged as inappropriate.

Organisational causes of resistance If we now move on from the individual to the organisation, one side of the arguments explaining the resistances to change can be found in an "ecological" approach to the evolution of organisations (for example, Hannan and Freeman, 1984). This approach underlines that more inert corporations enjoy greater stability and reliability and, due to this, have a greater chance of survival. Consequently change often triggers unforeseen and undesired consequences and in an extreme case may cause the corporation to disappear. Therefore as a survival factor, resistance to change and an organisational inertia sets in.

This inertia sets in as a result of various types of intra-organisational socio-political mechanisms (Rumelt, 1994): • A bad perception: myopia, or in other words, the inability to see the future clearly and the tendency to underestimate the signs from subordinates or the environment; a denial often linked to the arrogance which leads the manager to only accept that which is expected or desired; the quest for consensus to the detriment of a realistic approach to the facts (groupthink); organisational silence.

• A weak motivation for change: This may perhaps be due to rational causes such as direct costs (a change jeopardises the organisation) or costs which eat into market share (the change is beneficial for one department but harmful to another).

• A lack of creativity: This may result from a change in the environment that has been so rapid that it paralyses the response of the corporation or from an attitude that considers the situation as natural or inevitable or from a strategic vision which is not shared by the employees as they are disconnected from the daily work practices.

• Political obstructions: Even when the executive management of the corporation perceives the necessity for change, political and cultural reasons may create resistances.

• Other forces which prevent actions being executed: A lack of leadership, routines or the dilemma of the first person to leave the status quo.

Positive and negative in turn, resistances appear as refractions to a uniform treatment, but a subtle mixture is required between a dissuasion from their violent or silent forms and encouragement of their constructive forms. But how do we get there?

Traditional participatory approaches Back in 1947, Coch and French were arguing in favour of those affected by a change programme being able to participate more actively in its definition by bringing them together and explaining the reasons for the change, thereby neutralising any resistance.

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And these participatory approaches are still regularly recommended today.

Considering the resistance primarily as social, Lawrence (1969) recommended a greater variety of tasks for employees, the utilisation of terms understood by everyone and new vision of the role of the manager, defined more as a communicator who stimulates interactions rather than a superior who executes a plan and then controls it. Several measures were considered as judicious here depending on the causes of the resistance (Kotter and Schlesinger, 1979) including: 1. Education and communication: If the resistance stems from a lack of information, then communicating the rationale behind the change generates a sense of involvement but requires time.

2. Participation and involvement: If more involvement is sought, then it is effective to enable the teams to participate in the design of the project. This however does run the risk of turning into a cacophony, triggering bad results - and what's more it could be a long process.

3. Listening and support: If the resistance is due to an anxiety relating to the future or to a fear of new practices, listening and providing emotional support is beneficial.

However, one can devote time and specific resources to this and still fail.

4. Negotiation and agreement: If a group loses something in the change and has a significant power to cause damage, it is opportune to negotiate and provide pledges and additional information. On the other hand the cost may be considerable and the manager risks being taken hostage.

5. Manipulation and co-opting: It is sometimes useful, in order to neutralise a threat, to involve a member of the adverse party in the execution of change. Low cost and rapid, this measure is however risky. The discovery of such motivation may result in an increased resistance.

6. Coercion: When both time and resources are extremely limited, putting one's foot down and imposing a certain orientation is sometimes necessary. Efficient in the short term, accumulated resentment can, however, be devastating in the medium term.

This approach wants to appear pragmatic and take the contingencies of the rankand-file into consideration. It assumes however that the causes of the resistance can be clearly identified, that the remedy is appropriate and that it can be administered.

Well, none of this is as simple as that. It really seems that there is not one single solution and even less a miracle solution but many factors to be taken into consideration and handled.

Accompanying the employee faced with change: Methods and concerns Breaking with the traditional participative approaches, CĂŠline Bareil (2008) developed a model centred on the seven phases of concerns through which each individual passes when faced with change and which can be revealed during discussions.

Each requires specific action by management (see diagram).

By focusing on the real-life experience of the employee, the main advantage of this approach is to tackle the different sources of resistance at the opportune moment.

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Some will argue that this process is long and costly but few other current models provide so much clarity to a manager who is working daily with his teams.

Concern centred on...

The employee

The management must...

Nothing (No concerns)

Is not aware that the change will apply to him or is in denial.

Clearly communicate the contents of the change and underline its importance or urgency.

Oneself

Worries therefore about his own future and everything that will affect him (continuity of his position, loss of authority etc)

Listen and support him.

The organisation

Questions the seriousness of the initiative and asks himself if the change is there for the long-term

Demonstrate the seriousness of the reasons for the change and the methods made available to implement it. Management attitudes are scrutinised and exemplary conduct is crucial.

The change

Wonders how the change will be implemented.

Invites him to participate whilst communicating the envisaged action plan and the resources available.

Experimentation

Is bombarded with doubts as to his capacity to cope with the proposed change.

Play a supportive role aiming to facilitate the knowledge transfer by providing access to training etc.

Collaboration with others

Wishes to exchange information with other employees and find collaborative solutions.

Motivate and facilitate these exchanges to capitalise on the knowledge acquired in the previous stages.

Continuous improvement of change

Wonders how to improve on what has been implemented.

Must continue to be attentive to emerging and ideas and paths, in order to gain maximum advantage from the change integration process.

The many different approaches to the concept of resistance to change are very indicative of the interest and progress made on this subject, but their very diversity is a cause for concern. Their detractors call for more attention to be paid to the complexity of the phenomenon and that its full understanding should be derived through more dynamic models.

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Could it be that the traditional linear model of change - planning, evaluation, anticipation of resistances and remedies to overcome them - is erroneous and needs to disappear to make way for a non-linear and non-hierarchical model?

Jeffrey Goldstein, an academic in the field of complexity and chaos theory, believes that, by doing this, it shakes up our habits and customs. He invites us to abandon the notion of resistance to focus on the forces of attraction: Every system gravitates towards a point of attraction and the change aims to modify this anchor point.

If there is resistance, it is because the attraction of the new centre is lower than that exercised by the former one. As a living organism, the corporation is increasingly characterised by its capacity for self-organisation. Nothing can predict the emerging order, therefore change agents have to fill out the context, by introducing small elements which will have big effects and provide, by means of information, sufficient energy for the system to depart from its initial equilibrium.

Lewin's definition of this was systemic and so was Goldstein's answer. Adopting this response does mean abandoning the prevailing terms of reference, of flirting with complexity, ambiguity, uncertainties and of admitting the impossibility of predicting a result: these are many elements not really conducive to tempting the management and which could presage acute resistance.

Élie Matta is a lecturer at HEC Paris. His research interests cover corporate governance, organisational power and leadership.

Jonathan Hayes is a PhD student in Human Resources and Organisation at HEC Paris. His research interests cover the problems of organisational change including the psychological security of the players and their relationships with their hierarchical superiors.

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FROM A SINGLE CHANGE PROCESS TO A POSITIVE AND PERMANENT ACTIVITY

SUMMARY

From a Single Change Process to a Positive and Permanent Activity

By Gregory Godenne & Henri-Paul Missioux othing is more natural than change and nothing is more natural than to resist it!" This is what our authors have just reminded us of in this first part. And it is precisely here where the real difficulty lies for them, as most people do not like instability whatever their hierarchical level in the corporation.

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However, as recalled by Jean-Éric Bousser, change is not a new phenomenon. Since the very start of time, natural catastrophes, wars, big discoveries and new ideas have provoked upheavals in the organisation of human societies which have had to adapt and transform themselves - sometimes to the point of becoming totally different when they have not disappeared due to not having succeeded in managing their mutation. For it is not so much change itself which engenders fear but its impact on all relationships in society and which compromises the stability of any society striving - through its culture - to perpetuate sustainable norms and rules for its members.

Today resistance to change is considered as a healthy reaction which helps to have a critical look at certainties sometimes too quickly acquired. Élie Matta and Jonathan Hayes explained to us that this must be perceived as an essential pre-requisite to a constructive dialogue in turn enabling the necessary adjustments to be made. Resistance manifests itself in different ways. On the one hand it can be collective or individual or on the other, passive (inertia) or active (disagreements, uprisings, sabotage). Individual resistance arises from personal psychological factors and organisational variables such as the modification of the implicit contract which links the employee to his employer. Collective resistance stems from the fear of unforeseen and undesired consequences of change which lead organisations to considerable inertia.

In a world in constant mutation and where innovation and competition underpin the system of wealth generation, how can change be stimulated whilst at the same time maintaining a relative stability? The entire art of implementing change consists in finding the path which enables uncertainties to be reduced to a maximum whilst at the same time ensuring the continuity of the organisation. It is in fact through endeavouring to anticipate the signals presaging a modification to the environment that organisations are able to adopt a proactive attitude, no longer suffering the changes perceived at the outset as constraints. And, as shown by Yves Ducrocq, for

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change to become a positive activity it must be given a meaning whilst at the same time understanding the extent to which the values, the culture and the beliefs of the organisation will evolve. This evolution must also be communicated externally so that the visions of the customers, prospects and partners are aligned with those of the organisation. Understanding the meaning of change is therefore to have a clear vision of what collectively is trying to be achieved.

Some people will say to you that consultants like us will find any possible way to promote change! May be, but we provide a guarantee that the period of instability that separates the initial status from the target will be optimised from all the necessary angles. Change cannot be tackled in the same way for every organisation.

It must vary depending on its duration and its intensity and be implemented in conjunction with different measures according to the degree of buy-in or resistance.

From traditional participatory approaches to the method of shared concerns through non-linear and non-hierarchical models, where reasoning is in terms of forces of attraction, change does not map in a straight line to the objective that has been set. Just like a sailing boat sailing into the wind, you have to tack faster or slower, whilst keeping the destination in sight.

Change may very well have been a natural component of evolution, yet there is still a critical moment in the life of a corporation where the emotional can rapidly take over from the rational. Change requires the mobilisation of the whole organisation from the very top management down to the rank-and-file employees Change remains a perilous exercise which in many cases results in failure. It is all the more difficult to change when one is not accustomed to managing this sort of situation.

Experience and an external perspective are therefore key success-factors which will help bring about the need for change whilst keeping the process under control and enabling sustained results to be obtained.

Henri-Paul Missioux Vice President Operations, Celerant Consulting Gregory Godenne Consultant, Celerant Consulting

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PART TWO

The Players who Act and Commit

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THE CHANGE MANAGER: CONQUISTADOR OR SHERPA?

2.1

The Change Manager: Conquistador or Sherpa?

By Isabelle Domergue Successful change is based on the one imperative of winning hearts and minds and creating the buy-in of relevant teams. This is change manager's mission, the very essence of change and must be driven by top management. To see it through to a successful conclusion, the change manager must demonstrate essential qualities and be able to draw upon his strong values. The profile of a rare breed indeed. manager with the skill to blend project management techniques with empathy and compassion will be able to harness energies around the shared vision of the future. First and foremost he must understand this vision and become totally imbued with it, as this vision will be the main cornerstone of the project, the reference point for all future choices and options. A full-time member of the corporation, the change manager is there to help transform this vision or this "dream" into a reality. So what does this dream fulfiller look like?

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Two key competencies To successfully complete his mission, he must rely on two key competencies. First of all he must be a professional project manager. Without technique there is no tangible and measurable execution and achievement. A transformation project is primarily a project, i.e. a defined scope with clear objectives, an activity planning with intermediate milestones understood by everyone, with a project team where the roles and contributions of everybody are known plus rigorous monitoring of the progress and expenses in relation to forward planning and, of course, a governance that is simple, recognised and implemented.

But there must also be this empathy and compassion which will enable individuals to go beyond the usual limits of their ecosystem and in a sustainable way. He must not only embody the change but also be its living personification through a real presence which is at the same time firm, protective and unobtrusive. By listening to the rank-and-file employees, and also to internal and external clients, he adjusts his actions and their rhythms to those which the organisation is able to bear. He fulfils the objectives of top management but is at the service of the organisation as a whole. He must not merely give orders but must ensure decisions leading to the objective are taken at all levels of the organisation. He suggests, clarifies and opens doors to new horizons. But in order to achieve this, he must first and foremost be listening to the entire organisation and the individuals which comprise it, and

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listening to their buy-in, their enthusiasm, their beliefs and their resistances. For this is when he can act effectively and restrain, accelerate or even influence top management to adjust the direction to be taken.

His first duty is honesty, loyalty and courage, for this is the only way that over the long term he can rely on the support of the key players whom he needs.

Alone, he is nothing To reach a future state, this state must be defined. It is the vision of the corporation, often prepared by the strategy and delivered initially by top management. This vision which, by definition, is rarely precise, but is duty bound to be clear and inspiring. For this vision is the first driver of change as it is the common reference point which is aimed at. It is the core of the joint project which brings together all the players in the change.

The change manager receives a mandate from top management to lead the organisation towards this objective, therefore transforming a vision into a reality. Without a mandate there is no legitimacy, whatever his position in the organisation. And throughout the project, top management will be requested to reaffirm the objectives, assess the value of the first results achieved and confirm the orientations. In other words, the change manager must be able to rely on the visible support of top management for the project.

Furthermore, nothing can be done or transformed into reality without teams. Teams who will - or will not - buy into the project. Teams of those who will be impacted and who can therefore make the change happen or on the contrary, nip it in the bud.

This is why a change manager never acts alone. As a noble conqueror of the future, he is also very close to the rank-and-file thereby creating the conditions for the teams to voluntarily become players in a change made necessary by the strategy of the corporation. Co-creation is often the first key to success. Of course it is not a question of naivety and letting people believe that the strategy of the corporation or its change project can be decided in a democratic manner. It is more a question of using a space of freedom (the "how will we get there?") to involve the teams impacted and to transform them into the players and decision-makers of their own change.

Here's one example: a corporation, driven by a declining market, decides, after several years of "classic" cost reductions, to outsource part of its customer service activities in Europe. Of course many other organisations have gone down this route, the techniques for carrying out such a project are well known and many consultancy companies propose their services in this area. But the role of the change manager is, first and foremost, to ensure that the managers of those teams, which will be likely to disappear, take ownership of the project and decide that, on the one hand, it is the only solution and, on the other, that they are the best suited to running this project both for business continuity and for the well-being of their teams.

The first job of a change manager is often to create and unify a network of individuals

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selected from all parts of the organisation and who represent different hierarchical levels; individuals with nothing linking them other than the transformation project and their buy-in to the project. These people are sometimes called "change agents." They are not only the project ambassadors in their daily professional entourage but also the eyes and ears of the change manager. Closest to the rankand-file they know how to find tangible examples which will enable their colleagues and teams to visualise the objectives aimed at and the benefits which will be incurred from them. They know how to detect doubts and resistances and to understand the reasons and consequences of them. Their contributions are very valuable as it is thanks to them that it is possible, on an ongoing basis, to adjust communications in particular in order to create the buy-in of most of the teams impacted.

What brings the change agents together, in addition to the project itself, is the change manager who guides them, supports them and enables them to function as a network united around common values.

The change manager, an individual with values A change manager bestowed with this empathy and compassion mentioned above has very strong inter-personal skills. His humanism, his liking of other people and his sense of the general interest all enable him to unerringly renew the energy he needs to move forward and move the organisation forward.

Both a listener and a leader (he is primarily a manager), he is capable of detecting the slightest successes and praising those who have achieved them (golden rule: never himself!). He is also able to anticipate any difficulties ahead so is better placed to prepare the organisation to overcome them.

Given that a transformation project is rarely a long and predictable tranquil river, the ideal change manager is both persistent and flexible, enthusiastic and lucid and always loyal both to top management and the teams. This is very similar to squaring the circle - and to get closer to this ideal description and to experience every day the huge gap between the vision and the reality on the ground, the change manager draws his energy from strong values, not only those of the corporation but also his own personal values which are often referred to as "liking other people.� To fully play his delicate role of a leader who stays in the background, he must be convinced of the importance and privilege of being of service - to the corporation, the management and the teams - namely to other people, rather than to his personal ambition. Yet the danger which lies in wait for him, as it does for many successful people, is the intoxication of power: the power to change things, and the power to influence etc.

The listening capacity of the change manager is also based on values - the respect of the other person and different points of view, and the desire to understand.

Moreover, given that a transformation project will only succeed if there is real ownership of it at rank-and-file level, the change manager must always remain humble and highlight the achievements of others rather than his own. The best

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ideas and achievements of a change manager are those which he has so successfully transmitted that they are replicated by the operational managers and that he discovers during a conversation in the corridor or during a meeting. And despite the frustrations that he may sometimes experience (he is human after all!), he must take care to be sincere when he praises another person.

And last but not least he must show that he has courage - the courage to say no to such and such a team and the courage to alert management when things are not going as planned and the courage to confront his own doubts.

Due to the fact that by its very nature a change project challenges the usual practices of an organisation to its very foundations, it rarely incites unanimous and continuous enthusiasm. It is therefore not uncommon to encounter reactions of opposition which can sometimes be violent. The value system of the change manager will enable him to play his role fully whilst remaining honest with others and with himself.

It can happen that a change will bring about a contradiction with his personal values; for example, a project to drastically reduce costs which may eliminate a whole category of jobs in Europe or lead to the closure of a factory. In such case as this, some individuals will prefer to refuse the assignment, believing that they would not be able to accomplish it without compromising their own personal beliefs. This would, at best, generate an ineffectiveness that could harm the project, and at worst, create real personal suffering.

The change manager, a fallible individual The change manager is first and foremost a human being and whatever his qualities, he must also confront his own discouragements.

First of all he must not ignore his doubts, with the risk of tensing up about the objectives to be achieved and leaving the teams who are the only real players in the change by the wayside. The better he knows himself, the better he will detect and analyse his doubts in order to bounce back better. Knowing, is understanding - and understanding is progressing. He may pass through the throes of the valley of despair, from discouragement, the fear of not succeeding, to the suffering of having to undertake things which contradict with his own values.

But why dwell at length on his own doubts? Firstly, because they may quite simply be "in a more advanced phase" in relation to the rest of the organisation.

Understanding and overcoming them will then enable him to better manage the resistances ahead as they may already be sensed by the rest of the organisation the management, the change agents and the teams. Also because any subsequent intervention of the change manager may have a contrary impact to the one sought (for example, causing anxiety rather than to reassure). And finally, because doubts do not disappear to order. Burying one's head in the sand has never helped progress. It is by understanding the origin of his doubts that the change manager can continue to steer the ship into a safe harbour.

Should he hide them or share them, and if yes, with whom? This is a difficult question

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for which each person has his own answer. Should he play the honesty card to the very end and be transparent with the project team? Definitely not, as this would risk creating disruptions that he would then have to manage. On the other hand sharing his doubts with a few "sparring partners" would enable him to overcome them more effectively and transform them more quickly into a strength. And there is no shortage of potential partners be it the sponsor (the member of the board of directors with particular responsibility for the project), but on the frequent condition of also arriving with answers, alternatives and options. Another solution is to rely on the consultants who are supporting the project. Without any particular attachment to the corporation and with the benefit of many different experiences, they often have the necessary distance to help a change manager to also view things from that perspective. Sharing his reflections and questions within a network of change professionals is also an interesting option, for the same reasons as the one above, but adding the fact that this also creates the obligation to clearly formulate the problem. Finally the private sphere may sometimes suffice as the simple fact of talking about it, enables possible solutions to be envisaged. And then, for the most complex cases linked to problems of leadership and behaviour, don't forget business coaches!

Whatever the specific situation, the doubts of the change manager are also his treasure chest which will enable him to gain a better understanding of the reservations and questions of other people. And, in addition to his expertise, his values and his convictions, there are the first energy sources for bouncing back.

And afterwards?

When the project is completed and the summit is in sight, the time has come for the change manager to fade into the background. The continuity of the results obtained will have been one of his prime concerns. A successful transformation is not a sand castle washed away by the first wave. The teams have taken ownership of the vision, have stated operationally the changes to be implemented and have anchored them in their daily realities. The orchestral conductor, the servant, can and must, now disappear from their ecosystem.

What happens to him now? A full-time member of the organisation, he must consider his short-term future within the corporation. Apart from in individual cases, the question of the continuity of such a function must be asked.

Should change implementation be envisaged as a long-term function? Even if the continuous changes in the market, clients and techniques enable it to be said that there is always a change project going on somewhere, the "continuous function" option presents the danger of self-managing projects, risking a disconnect between the real needs of the organisation and its capacity to sustainably absorb changes.

Despite everything, corporations of a significant size may see an interest in considering change management as a permanent need and envisage having at their disposal an internal nucleus of professionals who move from one project to another (and one organisation to another) within the corporation. They do have the advantage of

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immediate effectiveness. These dream creators understand the techniques of project and change management and are familiar with what is at stake for the corporation.

However, this option is not without danger as it may lead to the change manager being weakened and to a disconnect from the operational reality of the rank-and-file.

The most desirable option is undoubtedly that of the "temporary role" and for several reasons. The change manager, who at the end of the project, returns to operational duties will be enriched by a new experience and recharge his batteries whilst confronting daily realities. He will be able to recapitalise his energy but also reinforce his operational legitimacy. And, even more importantly, he will be able to further boost his inter-personal skills in an operational role, since the ultimate objective in terms of change implementation is indeed that each manager, each leader, is a potential change manager. The world is moving faster and faster and with bigger and bigger leaps and every company from an SME to the large corporation, owes it to itself to adapt continuously to its clients, its market and its environment in the widest sense of the term. And every manager is also increasingly encouraged to implement change. Some groups have understood this very well and include in their management training courses, and even at the highest level, a change implementation component which is becoming increasingly significant, both in time and in complexity. Of course this does not prevent some complex change projects from requiring and continuing to require for a period of time the specific mentoring and role of a change manager.

So, conquistador or sherpa? Based on the evidence, the answer is both. The change manager is a conquistador who helps the organisation conquer new territories but he is also a sherpa at the service of the corporation, resisting the temptation to push himself forward, in order to enable the real ownership of the change by the teams who are the true players in it.

Isabelle Domergue is a founder member of the Celerant Change Club.

She was Change Manager in Areva’s nuclear reactor business sector until December 2009, after having previously held similar roles at Shell in Europe. She is now in charge of more operational functions at Areva.

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TOP MANAGEMENT: THE ESSENTIAL LINK OF CHANGE

2.2

Top Management: The Essential Link of Change

By Nicolas Orfanidis Top management involvement is not only a decisive factor but essential in any change implementation programme. It is top management who will give the necessary impetus through a vision, but they will also provide guidance and a refocus throughout the change process and even beyond, whilst at the same time ensuring the continuity of the changes brought about. Top management is therefore the main player in change implementation. The most important aspect and to demonstrate that it believes in the need for change, top management must commit to it fully and assimilate it into its own behaviour. n the mid-1990s the top management of a multinational wanted to evolve the group and its performance, so decided to launch a wide-ranging re-engineering programme with the aim of re-thinking all processes in order to optimise them. Inspired by continuous improvement methodologies and Japanese Quality Circles, this programme proposed that the employees forming the "basis" of the corporation disregarded the existing processes and looked again at the working methods under a totally new eye. Their reflections were to be formalised in the form of proposals which would be validated by middle management. And if the latter opposed it, it would still hold. The top management had announced that it would "break down" any potential barriers blocking the inexorable march of progress!

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Many ideas were submitted, but few came to anything. The middle management gave the green light in accordance with considerations which may have seemed too material, empirical or devoid of vision, in particular in the eyes of the young collaborators who had worked on these subjects. They had therefore to toe the line and return much less ambitious proposals.

What does this story tell us? Firstly that top management involvement certainly does not stop with the launch of the change programme. Secondly that a change proposed by the base can only be carried out with its backing and its commitment.

Is top management, therefore, the cornerstone of any change implementation?

Top management, the natural leader of change?

It is a fact that top management, in other words the board of directors of the corporation or any significant business entity within a group, are almost without

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exception the originators of change programmes. How can we explain this?

Of course the function of the leader of the corporation makes him the visionary of the future of his corporation. He must develop a vision, then a strategy which will enable him to anticipate and determine the changes required for the best performance of his corporation and even for its very survival in a competitive environment.

Generally speaking, neither rank-and-file employees nor even middle management can forge such a vision for themselves, as they do not have an overview of the entire corporation and the constraints imposed upon it. However, the smaller the corporation, the more the employees will understand and even anticipate what is at stake - which should normally ease the buy-in to the change or, conversely, thwart it if it is badly implemented.

The need for change may also be perceived in advance by employees, because the optimisation of daily work is felt as an imperious need for improvement6. But for all that they will not have the necessary means and information to determine the nature and importance of the change required. Here again it is of course the role of the leader alone to have a command of all the parameters and therefore to be able to assess the relevance of a change programme.

It can also happen that bosses of specialised sectors or business units in big groups anticipate necessary changes in their sectors, even before the general management of the corporation perceives them in full. In such a case, the appropriate course of action is to convince top management of the well-founded basis for the changes wanted present the subject from a leadership perspective of vision, strategy, allocated resources and return on investment. Once this is done, it is essential that top management picks up the reins of the change initiative and for two reasons: • The change may be relevant for one part of the corporation but invalid, or even dangerous for the corporation as a whole. Only the vision of top management will enable this to be assessed. • Even if it has a restricted scope, the project must be "adjusted" by top management to demonstrate to all employees concerned that it absolutely is an important project for the corporation, and recognised as such by the leadership team. This is even more relevant if the project in question may have a direct or indirect impact on the other entities of the corporation, even their extended (transver salised) existence.

The ideal in this case is to register the specific project in a more wide-ranging change programme developed across-the-board at the corporation. Therefore it assumes a "corporate" aspect and the general management team validates its well-founded base and provides its support.

Finally, by validating a change programme, top management risks part of its credibility.

Its conduct will be scrutinised, analysed and interpreted by the employees of the corporation. It is therefore duty bound to be a model. Why should employees 6 It is part of human nature to want to improve things and to search for efficiency to make processes easily applicable, thus even obtaining a desired comfort. No manager should consider that employees could take pleasure in a non-optimised situation. Only a lack of communication could let him think that.

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accept or apply that which is not accepted or applied by the leaders supposed to be showing the route to follow? Why would they commit to the change - which is not natural for anyone - if they do not feel a strong commitment to it from their leaders?

Top management must therefore embody the change, reflect its image and its face, to all the employees by living the change and by being involved throughout the process and making contact with the rank-and-file.

Leading by example and fully undertaking the responsibilities linked to the decision to implement the change will require courage. This is the case when anything is challenged, as you will carry with you a certain number of employees based on conjectures. We are not talking here of programmes launched belatedly and for which the survival of the corporation is already at stake. Real courage is to know how to take important and difficult decisions when the present situation still does not show the need for the envisaged actions.

Convince, communicate, muster Once the impetus has been given by a model and courageous leader, what are the first stages? The launch of a change programme imposes first and foremost a strong commitment on top management for its promotion within the corporation. This commitment will be all the more significant if the change is to go against the culture and values of the corporation, the genes of its employees or well-established processes and working methods, not necessarily not adapted to the present.

Of course, the management of communications or of internal or external consultants will support the management board of the corporation in this task, but it is nevertheless the duty of management to step out into the front line and present the meaning of the change. How should they do this? By explaining and deciphering simply and clearly the need for change, and by explaining the why, the how and the aim, in order to convince all the future players in the change, for they will be the ones carrying it out.

Through this initial communications phase with the employees, top management must therefore transmit their conviction that the change is necessary, even urgent in most cases. This feeling of urgency will most often enable employees to be mustered around the project and motivated with a view to its success. This phase is characterised specifically by the presentation of: • Analyses of the present and future of the corporation. • The vision of top management for the corporation. • The defined strategy and the favoured work axes so that the corporation avoids taking a route that will possibly endanger its long-term survival.

To sum up, it is a question of making the employees understand that change is essential to secure the future of the corporation. Of course this all requires that communications are conducted with transparency to the extent that this is possible.

The buy-in of the employees will be all the stronger if the transparency given reinforces the credibility of the decisions taken.

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This process of communication also requires cohesion and perfect coordination within the management team and in particular when the change programme is applied to an entity in a difficult situation (business unit, branch etc) within a healthy corporation. A real-life example showed that the top management of the company sometimes communicated less dramatic messages that those conveyed by the management of the business unit. This dissonance may lessen the credibility of the message as to the urgent nature of the change and reduce the efforts of operational managers to nothing. Leaders therefore must pay attention to good communications management at the start of the project and to achieve this top management must be united, cohesive and in solidarity with each other. Any weakness or dissension could produce a confused message, and blur the willingness and the objectives of the management and, as result, provoke resistance to the change.

Structure, identify the players, motivate Is this impetus, followed by this commitment at the start of the change process, sufficient? Absolutely not. Once they have been convinced, the employees will not take the path of change on their own. Piloting the change programme will be essential for its success. Here it is up to top management to identify a real project manager with qualities of leadership, charisma, precision and organisation, but also with a dynamism which will enable him to successfully complete his mission. Top management therefore has the duty and the responsibility to identify the key resources for piloting the programme, resources which will also know how to relay the messages from top management throughout the organisation.

It is also its responsibility to provide material and especially human resources to this leader, project manager or change manager7 in some cases, to achieve his mission, and to delegate to him the necessary responsibilities to implement the programme within the corporation particularly in the case of a transverse change implementation in a matrix organisation.

Every person responsible for implementing change must therefore carry the baton of top management, whilst at the same time having the necessary autonomy to involve the maximum number of convinced employees. The change programme is primarily an operational project carried out by employees and not solely a management project.

Redefining priorities, setting the direction Once the change has been defined and the implementation programme structured, it is a huge temptation for top management to hand over the baton and detach itself from the operational implementation of the change. This would definitely be dangerous. The role of top management is just as important during the operational phase since the process will naturally pass through crises which will subject the main players in the programme to intense pressure. Periods of doubt will follow periods of euphoria. And this is where top management must remain vigilant and provide its assured support when the need arises, or exercise healthy pressure to provide the desired orientation, redefine the priorities of the 7 See Chapter 2.1, p46

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programme, and even modify it to achieve the defined objectives. It must also adapt to events and help remove resistances, in particular by communicating as much as necessary but especially by arbitrating, taking decisions and always showing the route to follow.

This pre-supposes an essential and regular involvement in the monitoring and follow-up of the programme, an involvement preferably organised through a piloting or supervision structure at the highest level which will fix the milestone phases and monitor the progress of the work and the results obtained. It is important that senior management sets the necessary rhythm for the project to ensure a constant dynamic going forward. Furthermore, defining and sharing the rhythm with the project team synchronises all the players in the change programme, thus enabling their cohesion and motivation to be maintained. This also enables top managers to be in step with the real progress of actions on the ground.

The healthy pressure required for re-motivating the troops is however not always felt as such. Who appreciates being berated by his chairman about the management of the change implementation programme? As an employee or first-line manager you may well be asking yourself why the sky is falling in on your head! And yet it is often quite simply the pressure exerted by top management to help the change players get the best out of themselves in order to overcome difficult hurdles.

Another very important point is recognition in relation to the change players. Top management must appreciate the value of the actions taken, and by extension, of the people responsible. This understanding of how to appreciate the value, express thanks to and even compensate the positive change players is an important aspect of a change implementation programme. As the change process is based primarily on human values and human resources, top management must never underestimate the human management of the process and the people involved.

Through this direct contact of top management and its close involvement in all the phases of the process, the change players will be aware that the change is considered as essential at the highest level for the future of the corporation. Therefore, top management involvement is essential in the operational phase, at least in its supervision. This is one of the reasons why one could consider that without top management involvement, a change programme is doomed to failure.

Sustaining and ensuring the continuity of change There are of course other necessary success factors, especially the duration set for any change programme. Here again it is the responsibility of top management to ensure that the changes achieved are sustained. How many optimisation programmes aimed at changing deep-rooted habits, which, once completed successfully, see the changes brought about disappear almost as quickly as they appeared? "A leopard cannot change its spots" says the proverb. Nothing could be more true. It is imbued in human beings to repeat things since this provides a level of comfort, requiring as a result less energy to be expended. So, the obstacles

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hindering the sustainability of change must be identified and the assimilation of new processes and methods must be monitored closely.

The commitment of top management therefore exceeds the mere operational closure of a change programme of which the definitive success will be measured over time and not at the moment when its official completion is declared.

Top management is undoubtedly a major player in change, the standard bearer of the programme from end to end within the corporation. It must act as a model - as the first guarantor of the change implementation. It must also convince the employees of the justified validity of the change, by supporting the players and knowing how to award the necessary recognition for the agreed efforts. This constant commitment will be the fertile core for the sustainability of the changes achieved - the last step too often neglected yet which sanctions the success or failure of a programme.

So is the role of top management now finally completed? Is the change programme designed in stages or as an ongoing process? In an economic world in constant evolution, with, it seems, a shortening of economic cycles, or at the very least, an acceleration of the information and decision-making processes, one may well ask oneself if tomorrow's world will only have a place for top managers who know how to implement continuous change processes, enabling their corporations to be permanently adapting themselves. This is certainly one of the most interesting challenges ahead for the managers of the 21st century.

Nicolas Orfanidis is a founder member of the Celerant Change Club.

After having held roles of financial and sales responsibility in France and Germany in the semi-conductor, telecom networks and mobile telephony sectors, he now works in the transport and mobility sectors (underground track automation industry). He has financial responsibility for a Business Unit of 250 people at Siemens France.

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‘It is totally justified that a board of directors may experience doubts about the relevance of a downward duplication of its leadership role.’

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2.3

The Rank-and-File as a Change Leader?

By Nicolas Vedrenne Change programmes involve all employees of a corporation, from top management to the rank-and-file. Should leadership therefore be shared by everyone? Despite the fears and doubts that this may arouse, the emergence of a rank-and-file leadership seems necessary and essential for change to be successful. op management is not alone in having to get involved in change programmes. The creation of a rank-and-file leadership is often recommended to increase effectiveness and optimise resources. Is this just a simple communications tool? Should all or only part of the marshal's baton be passed and the emotional intelligence of top management delegated?

These very fashionable ideas are preached by many consultants, but they are very complex to implement. Should one believe in rank-and-file leadership?

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I am a leader‌ but neither am I It is totally justified that a board of directors may experience doubts about the relevance of a downward duplication of its leadership role. Does this not transmit an underlying message of failure by the top management, when there is an expectation from the rank-and-file to revive, through its own initiatives, a change process that threatens not to advance? This questioning is difficult, confused and a potential inversion of roles is often feared, even judged as dangerous. To ask the rank-andfile to be a "leader" poses the question of the future authority as a consequence of the change: "What have I done to have to delegate my expertise?" The opinion of the rank-and-file relating to the leadership transfer mechanism must also be considered, as the rank-and-file often expects management to demonstrate resolve, especially at difficult moments. "Who is in charge, who is running things here?" Is top management not trying to divest itself of a complex responsibility by delegating downwards in an organised way? And then there is always a latent reciprocal trust problem: The management will ask itself if it can really have confidence in subordinates for the responsibility that they are assuming, and the rank-and-file will question the confidence they should place in the mangers who want them to assume their role.

Confusion further increases by a notch if one considers the presence of middle management who are a bit lost in the middle of it all. Often caught between a rock and a hard place, it fears that its management role may judged as less indispensa-

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ble by its hierarchy and it sees its teams taking more responsibility to its own detriment. Fear may easily set in, and especially if change communications fail to include or highlight the value of the middle managers. "The one time there is a strategic project, people are going to see my teams directly and giving them more responsibilities!" In most cases middle management will not be very convinced by its sudden position as sandwich filling which implies in a way that its "managerial" role is not legitimate.

Furthermore one can ask oneself about the ability of the rank-and-file to cultivate leadership. After all, if the rank-and-file has always remained in its jobs, it is because it was lacking in leadership qualities (a relatively widespread idea) or that it is too specialised to assume other functions. The "everybody must be a leader" message is dangerous.

We are aware of the acknowledged incompetence which affects the troops in this subject and it would be an error to rely on the potential intervention of consultants to transform people with hitherto limited responsibilities into leaders. But pay attention, there is a danger here as: "There is no man worse than someone who has been a slave...and is no longer". This is how a mentor once defined to be the state of the troops in a subsidiary recently purchased from very paternalist owners and plunged into a full-scale restructuring. How can one discover leadership in this type of situation?

Another risk in wanting to stimulate rank-and-file leadership is the potential destruction of team spirit via the creation of individual initiatives and the emergence of strong personalities. The confusion can even have a whiff of revolution about it: "To arms! It's up to us to lead the change!" The creation of silos between departments and pockets of resistance will be the output. Badly controlled overall communications will turn out to be counter-productive, and will divide the teams rather than bringing them together. Personal motivations may get the upper hand on an established group and change may be seen as an opportunity to be seized for certain elements who had been frustrated hitherto. So it is during change projects when one has to manage more requests for increases, criticisms vis-Ă -vis peers etc.

For a negative message is potentially concealed in this delegation of leadership: Moving from the role of player to the role of leader is not achieved in a day nor without clashes. It is not a question here of renaming the change players or the "early adopters" of a project and suddenly changing their hat. One will have quickly transmitted an implicit message implying that the current organisation is nor the right one.

"Who decides? Who no longer decides?" Yet more ground where new resistances may germinate. Calling top management into question, earthquakes for middle management, poor rank-and-file potential, teams shaken up and a biased message is a very negative picture which does not lead one to envisage rank-and-file leadership as the ally of change. Therefore, why weigh oneself down with such a burden?

Rank-and-file involvement as a leverage effect The idea that a few people could change 5,000 or even 50,000 individual behaviours is naive. To achieve this result, something other than an order must be transmitted.

It has to be the sort of inspiration which will change the traditional structure of the

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corporation. In fact, there is without doubt, no change or modernisation project that does not convert the rank-and-file into a master of ceremonies. Therefore, the downwards transmission of leadership within the corporation is inevitable, as an imitation of senior management will be born sooner or later. There is much talk of management by example, well here it is. Imitating the leader is not new. It is an innate attitude in most organisations and change will catalyse this tendency.

A matrix organisation and the emergence of informal networks have reinforced this trend. Moreover, as we will see, rank-and-file leadership will be one of the control and management tools of these networks.

The need for a rank-and-file leadership will arise naturally during ambitious transformation projects which go hand in hand with downstream management. This type of management goes far beyond the notion of listening that one is entitled to expect from all the employees of a corporation. It is a question of downwards delegating the remits traditionally reserved for top management such as strategy definition and action plans, the implementation of methods and the control of the results of the actions taken. By entrusting the rank-and-file with new responsibilities, it will take ownership of the project and by its own accord slide into the skin of the leader.

For example the Adeo Group (Leroy Merlin, etc.) talks about rank-and-file leadership as a "sharing of knowledge, power and assets."

Inevitable and necessary, but rank-and-file leadership does present one advantage: It is one of the only tools confronting the resistances to change8. No project will ever mobilise 100% of followers, non-conformists and especially the trade unions.

The rapid infatuation that rank-and-file leadership provokes will be a means for the corporation to "pick up speed" over its potential opponents. The rank-and-file leaders will reduce, through positive inertia, the force of the impact of the change, making its implementation more flexible.

But the main trump card is the fact that the rank-and-file is in contact with the rank-and-file. Pleonasm it may be, but it must not be forgotten that over and above the contact with the markets, suppliers, clients and partners, the core of the corporation is very close to itself. An average employee interacts continuously with his peers, at a much higher frequency than that of the management. The same applies to the generation and preservation in time of the butterfly effect desired by the change implementers, far above the theory which wants solutions to come from the rankand-file. However, he will not always be aware of this. Top management must therefore communicate clearly on this point, so that the base fully integrates its role of permanent ambassador of change. In the Inditex Group (Zara, etc.), a comment made by a customer about a product to a single sales person may generate a complete re-design of a garment which will be in the shop in less than two weeks.

This is real leadership through contact with the rank-and-file.

There is also more than one type of leadership. In the rank-and-file, complementary types of leadership will be observed including the "self-leader", cultivating his motivation via a responsible approach to change, the "coach leader", capable of rubbing off onto his opposite numbers, the "positive rebellion leader" capable of 8 See Chapter 1.4, p32

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bring people together and the "complete leader" who possesses all these qualities and is often spontaneously appointed by his peers. Knowing how to blend this cocktail of positive competencies, paves the way to success. We also note that the more horizontal the organisation, the greater the tendency towards a "complete leadership" mode. One very simple example is the public presentation of big changes by the rank-and-file itself. These presentations are often much more unifying than presentations given by top management.

But should the dose be measured? And does an ideal leadership mix exist? Will change be any more successful if everybody is a little more of a leader? In all likelihood, yes. There is often a tendency to underestimate the capacity of the rank-and-file leadership. In theory, every person should have some potential leadership to liberate, even if there are always exceptions to study. The observation of numerous structures has taught us two things. When a corporation is mature, it has many rank-and-file leaders, and the more leaders there are, the more sustainable the results of the change. Therefore, one can deduce, without too much of a risk, that the maximum dose of leadership is the optimum dose.

Rank-and-file leadership is therefore inevitable, necessary and absorbs resistances to change. Therefore, the more, the better. What is the recipe for this dish from which we often fear indigestion?

Everyone is a leader: the four ingredients of success First of all it is appropriate to accept a phase during which one will transit from a low number of leaders to a more widespread leadership. Obvious, but nevertheless in many cases it is the only taboo key success factor. Who amongst you would easily accept losing this exclusivity reserved to date to only a few people? This goes beyond the simple delegation which we are used to, and it is certainly the most difficult point. One must do some work on oneself to overcome the fears which are certainly not well founded but omnipresent and stated at the start of this chapter. However, the redistribution of leadership is not necessarily associated with a loss of control.

During change programmes, the number of specialised and dedicated employees is often increased. This therefore compensates for any potential instability linked to in increase in the power of initiative in the troops. One can note however, that the project launch is not necessarily the best time to start creating rank-and-file leadership.

But why wait for this opportunity? After all, a permanent rank-and-file leadership is moving in the direction of the continuous improvement of the corporation.

Then it is necessary to move from the mind state to the action state with its associated constraints, activation and deployments. There are several ways of making this rank-and-file leadership a reality: Freedom and autonomy of decision-making, upstream information systems, redistribution of powers, re-integration and involvement of the followers etc. Whatever the form it takes, it is important that the content and the facts are there. To be able to say to a back office employee, "We have this problem, what would you do?" and that he replies: "I'll take care of it!" and that effectively he does take are of it, means much more than announcing a

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series of symbolic initiatives, monthly meetings and debates. And it is based on facts, not form, that we move to action. Rank-and-file leadership is not a tool, an excuse or a method. It is a fact. Similarly, care must be taken not to load down the corporation with indicators, contradictory messages and norms which are contrary to rank-and-file leadership. Here, for example, are two ways of describing the same position in a recruitment advert published by competing tour operators. The first mentions "taking telephone calls from our customers and prospects, giving advice on our destinations […] management of customer calls". The second reads as follows: "You will contribute to the smooth operation and service quality of the activity and you will escalate as soon as possible any problems, operating breakdowns or identified risks. You will cultivate the sense of the internal and external customer." It is obvious that the second tour operator expects more leadership to be exercised by the rankand-file. One must also endeavour to analyse any existing or potential informal networks in the corporation (groups of friends, sports clubs, etc). It has now been demonstrated that top management has no control whatsoever over these networks which take ownership of the messages and self-manage their leadership. New communications tools make their influence even more tricky to contain. For example on Facebook in August 2010 there were nearly 60 discussion groups for "Wal-Mart employees", and some with rather flowery names. We immediately understand from this that Wal-Mart policies are discussed far outside the place of work. These outbursts of messages are natural and difficult to control. It will therefore be essential for a large corporation to implement rank-and-file leadership in order to auto-channel these informal networks and to help align their messages to the official messages of the corporation.

Finally, over and above these networks, sufficient time must be taken to qualify the entire pool from where the leadership should emerge, and determine what its strengths and weaknesses are. There are always forces opposed to the creation of leadership. The important thing is to have analysed them and brought them under control throughout the process. So here we come back to the idea of planning and risk analysis in the same way as for any other component of a change process. The creation of rank-and-file leadership is not an exception to the rule. Being proactive in the matter, whatever the method, will be a key success factor. "What form will my rank-and-file leadership take?"

Impacted, commit yourself!

The commitment of the rank-and-file, directly impacted by the change, is therefore a requirement that is complementary to top management involvement. Despite fear about role confusion and the capacity of the rank-and-file to assume its mandate, this form of management is implicit. One could even ask oneself if any microchange actually generates a new form of involvement and responsibility which would modify, in a transitory or permanent manner, traditional corporate structures, creating therefore a more induced change. The perception of this management style in change, and even its success, will be linked to an in-depth analysis of the networks which make up the corporation and the transmission of the message that one wants to send - the subject of the next chapter.

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A graduate of the École Supérieure de Gestion de Paris, Nicolas Vedrenne’s professional career has spanned France, the United Kingdom, Latin America and Spain within Société Générale and Sema Group, where he specialises in new ITCs. Since 1999 he has assumed responsibility for change as President and/or Managing Director of several subsidiaries of the British group, Experian, in Latin America. He works as a strategic consultant for businesses undergoing change and as an interim executive manager. He is the Managing Director for Europe of the Merchant Risk Council.

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‘Successful change requires the “humanisation” and communication as its keystone.’

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2.4

Communicating Change: General de Gaulle’s Appeal of June 18th

By Françoise Berthier Communication is the "humanising" keystone of a change project. To be effective it must deliver the right message to the right target at the moment when it is expecting it and use the right communication tools. Taking control of these different parameters pre-supposes a carefully prepared communications plan. an mobilisation for change be generated without a targeted, specific and unique communications plan? What history will retain from June 18th 1940 as the founding act for Free France was at the time only an unusual piece of communication, not really planned, broadcast over the airwaves, without visual contact and not recorded. However, the impact of the Appeal by General de Gaulle was crucial because this event was the starting point of a fundamental change in the war strategy of the Allies. The communication effect far exceeded June 18th. It developed gradually, through complex networks, adapted to the context and coded, secret and forbidden communications transmitted by radio... not a very common communication, yet effective, as it achieved its objective.

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If General de Gaulle's Appeal of June 18th was particularly remarkable and specific, is this not always the case each time it is necessary to communicate to undertake strategic and important changes and each time it is necessary to assemble and unify the energies of the men and women without whom change could not be undertaken?

Communication imbued with meaning Whether it is a change of organisation, the implementation of new information technology applications or a new work process, changes always have an impact on individuals, their roles, their professional identity, their competencies and their working habits. But people need to understand in order to act, as they need to be able give some meaning to their commitment9. This is all the more crucial in periods of change when marker posts get lost. And therefore the role of communication is to give meaning to the inevitable uncertainty linked to the change.

To give meaning is to indicate the direction. Change is not undertaken without an objective, or without a target to be reached, and to be effective, change communication must enable people to understand the direction towards which one must move, and how things will be "afterwards."

To give meaning is also to indicate the significance of the change. Therefore this 9 See Chapter 1.3, p22

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communication must be rational and explain why change has to occur, what the necessity is based on and also the risks that would be run if change did not take place.

Finally it must enable an understanding of how the final objective will be achieved, the methods and the assistance which will be provided, any mentoring and training etc.

It is only when individuals have made the link between their past and their future that they will have understood and grasped the meaning of the change that they can commit to in the present and build something new.

Who is the communication aimed at?

It is not the corporation that changes but the men and women who, by changing, enable the organisation to change. They are the ones who will make the transformations succeed. Before becoming an organisational and collective result, change will inevitably pass through individual actions and reactions. Therefore, communication must be targeted at individuals who have neither the same history, the same experience nor the same mobilisation when faced with the changes.

Preparing change and the communications means anticipating the reactions to the changes which vary greatly from one person to another. To make it easier to understand, these reactions can be grouped into a few large categories, following the progression on the change curve, as illustrated here: The Human Reactions to Change Scott & Jaffe – Survive and Thrive in Times of Change External Environment

Denial

Commitment

Past

Future

Exploration

Resistance Internal Environment

Denial is the first reaction along the path to commitment. This can be experienced, for a longer or shorter period of time, but when it sets in, we are faced with a real refusal of any change. This is immobilism.

This is then followed by resistance to change. In this stage we understand the change and accept that it exists. However, and more often than not for individual reasons, we are still not ready to commit to it. This is when we hear comments such as: "That won't work", "That affects the others, but not me" Some people may withdraw

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and when this phase lasts too long, suffering and stress, even depression, will set in.

Once the resistances have been removed, the exploration of the new situation can begin. "I'll try and see what happens", "Why not?" We then want to experiment with the new. Then finally, commitment is possible.

We all pass through these phases at a different rhythm. Sometimes we pass through each phase so fast that we don't think we experienced it. The same person may, however, experience a very variable progression depending on the type of change and the stage they are at in their lives. For instance one will respond differently to a professional redeployment if one is 30 or 50 years old. This is why expectations of mentoring, hand-holding and communication are very different from one stage to another, but also from one person to another.

What are the communications needs at the different phases of change? At the start of the process, during the denial and resistance phases, and when the change is not yet a reality, but already a source of upheavals and loss of marker posts, we need clarifications and understanding in order to be able to make sense of the new. The information must therefore be frequent, even repetitive, but also educational Structured and formative and strongly connected to the public expectations.

Then during the exploration phase, when change becomes reality and when individuals understand and accept its implementation, they look for an individual support to make their gradual commitment possible. The communication is fundamentally interactive to enable people to progress individually through their own experience, whilst at the same time sharing this experience with others.

And finally at the commitment stage, once the change has been integrated and has almost become the normal way to act, communication is a tool of recognition and reinforcement. Managers know that recognition is a major motivational lever for employees and that particular attention must be paid to it during periods of transition when the identification of new marker posts is absolutely essential. A recognition of achievements often carried out in difficult and ambiguous contexts enables the teams and individuals to "validate" these achievements which now become their new milestones in this new environment. Without any recognition of the commitment of the change players, their motivation and their involvement will run out of steam and the change will not be sustainable: "What's the point!" they will say to each other. This communication may come from managers, leaders or the team in charge of the change, depending on the level where it is operating.

And this is where communication must be singular and specific. It must adapt to human reactions, both individual and collective, and reach out to those motivations which are the very source of the energy and the commitment. Taking the time to identify these main reaction types and assessing their relative weights, enables targeted actions to be taken and also the investment to be measured which will be necessary with such and such a group at such and such a stage.

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A real communications plan to go hand-in-hand with change If the Appeal of June 18th was what started the change, it was then relayed by a whole communications process. The same applies to any change. Initial communication is essential to give it meaning, but change will not take place without relaying tactical and targeted communications throughout the whole project.

Employees' expectations evolve over the change period also forcing the communications to be evolving on an ongoing basis so as to be in a position to unify the commitment wherever it is to be found. A real communications plan is therefore essential for strong impact change projects. It should focus around 5 main axes.

1. Identification of the target enables messages to be tailored according to trades or professions, countries or business sectors, and to take the motivational levers of the individuals concerned into account.

2. Clarification of the objectives (final and intermediate) enables the main link and the content of each communications campaign to be established. For instance, at the start of a change project, the objective will be general and strategic, and will target the information and mobilisation of the teams. (This was the case of the Appeal of June 18th). Then further downstream when the objective has become more specific, communication can be used to remove resistances and provide elements which explain to individuals how they will be supported during their individual efforts.

Setting the objective enables a cohesiveness to be achieved in all phases of the communication and a cohesive message is essential for those people that one has to unite.

3. The content of course depends on the target audience and the objective. If at the start of the project, the role of communication is to raise the awareness of the whole corporation or group of the stakes of the change, then the content will be the cornerstone, namely the same message for everyone, centred on the rational explanation of the change, the objective to be achieved etc. However, if the communication is targeted at a given public, it will take into account the group's own characteristics and will specifically clarify the impact of the change on this group.

4. Planning and timing forecast the key phases in the communication so that it has a presence at the three crucial moments: • At the start of the change, a communication which explains the meaning and clarifies.

• During the change, communication which supports, accompanies and enables interactions.

• When the objective has been achieved, communication which reinforces and recognises.

5. Finally the choice of media is crucial as the best communications will fail if they do not use the most appropriate method for the situation and meet the expectations of the people receiving it.

Let's make a distinction here between strategic and institutional communications and middle management communications. The first delivers collective messages,

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provides the broad orientations and the direction of the change whereas the second enables information to be cascaded closer to the rank-and-file, specifically to where the changes are actually taking place.

Written communication is adapted to institutional, strategic and collective communication, and during all phases of the change. Written materials also have the advantage of being retained and reused, giving the opportunity to remember the key messages and avoid distortions, interpretations and very active rumours in a phase of uncertainty. The creation of dedicated support materials will reinforce the importance of the change communication by distinguishing it from usual communications. A "special change" newsletter or website for instance will often be very useful and effective in uniting teams around the key messages.

However, communicating on and during the change is a real challenge which really throws the normal communication channels into question. Written, computerised, remote communications tools very quickly reach their limits because change is taking place and being implemented, hence interactive, short-term, tactical and targeted communication will now be required. Meetings, work groups and other individual discussions increasingly become opportunities for exchanges, group reflections and for asking or answering questions and are equally effective whether they are formal or informal, such as taking place in the cafeteria. These meetings force and enable both managers and the employees to be available and not remain in their own areas, to open up to others and therefore to the changes.

A multidimensional communication which unites energies To meet this demand for proximity and to favour exchanges, communication must rely on multidimensional channels which can be ascending, descending or transversal.

Middle managers are a fundamental cog in the wheel of ascending and descending communication. They are the ones who will distil institutional information to make it operational and tangible. To this end they will run a communications programme consisting of dialogue and listening, designed to help each person progress along the path of change. They will also be in a position to assess the value of and escalate information, reactions and suggestions from their teams. Key players in the change, it is essential to identify these managers and then to prepare them for their roles. Preparing them is primarily putting them at ease and making them proactive in relation to the changes: • By informing them. It is a question of giving them clear, precise and updated information that they can then cascade down to their teams and thanks to which they will know how to react to unexpected and informal situations. • Then by training them. In other words by developing their "change management" competencies so they are better able to mentor and manage their teams and develop effective behaviours and techniques in periods of transition.

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The third - transversal - dimension is undoubtedly the most important as it is based on matrix organisations such as the organisation in project mode, which are at the heart of our corporate operations. This is where it draws its legitimacy from. Work groups, project groups and other professional networks are typically structures which generate a style of communication which is more spontaneous, fluid and reactive than the "hierarchical" relational style which is much more controlled.

Outside of power games distinctive to vertical organisations, each person expresses himself more easily and is not limited by "This is what I think but I dare not say it".

This communication therefore has a more direct and rapid influence, catalyses change and creates the desire to follow it.

It is therefore regrettable that, during periods of transformation, this transversal dimension is too often neglected by organisations. Is this because this takes them out of their usual control processes? Nevertheless, recent communication tools such as collaborative platforms put in place for specific projects, recognise, valueadd and promote these transversal interactions. Based on the freedom and individual will to use them and participate in them by stating ones opinion, one's ideas and contribution on a given theme, they offer an opportunity for commitment and are a powerful source of energy to accompany all the changes.

Measuring the impact of the communication If communication is of prime importance in any change project, then the evaluation of its effectiveness is equally so. The two major success criteria are the understanding that the individuals have of the change, and then the achievement of the objectives targeted by such change.

"Pulse check" type surveys are very relevant tools for evaluating the impacts of the communication. They generally consist of questionnaires sent regularly to the employees during the implementation of the changes with the results constituting a "bottom up" feedback which provides details on how well the communication message has been established and its impact on individual commitment. These surveys can ask questions directly linked to the: • Understanding of the target of the change.

• The perception of its implementation.

• The appreciation of the methods put in place to mentor and support the change.

They are generally created and piloted by the project team in charge of mentoring and supporting the change. Then by analysing the results it can be identified whether there are any communications needs which have not been covered and whether the action plans need to be readjusted. However, these surveys are only of interest if the results are shared with the employees so that they can contribute to any adjustments. Therefore they have the dual interest of measuring the effectiveness of the communication and of giving employees the opportunity to participate in the change programme, and also engage with it.

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Without the mobilisation of the teams closely united around a common objective, no change project will succeed. Successful change passes through its "humanising" phase and communication is the keystone to achieving this. Imbued with meaning, targeted at the change players and contributing to overcoming resistances, this communication will underpin the motivation and individual and collective commitment for a project that is well-understood and shared.

Françoise Berthier, is an active member of the Celerant Change Club, and is Change Management Head at Sanofi Aventis R&D-HR. A specialist in people and organisational development, she has been working for several years with teams or managers in their development and change projects.

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‘...changes in the weather are better accepted if everybody remembers that one season, more clement or more harsh, leads to another.’

XX

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CLIMATE CHANGE FOR MANKIND?

SUMMARY

Climate Change for Mankind?

By Élie Matta & Mathilde Leroy

T

he organisation, understood as an ecosystem composed specifically of a community of individuals and a common purpose, has a duty to operate with fluidity and without significant gaps, whilst cultivating an essential adaptability to variations in the environment in which it is evolving.

The very nature of ecosystems is that they are subject to transformations - be they direct or indirect, dramatic or moderate, endogenous or exogenous. The life of a corporate ecosystem, with human capital at its very centre, is a succession of ecological upheavals. From this perspective change generates a perpetual quest for one or several states of equilibrium in order to preserve the integrity of the ecosystem.

In a changing climate when the equilibrium shifts causing territories and certainties to fragment, it is essential for the different change players not to question the overall climate of the corporation - namely the organisational culture - as a fundamental benchmark or link forger, within which the change programme must be implemented.

However, this overall climate is also subjected to the vagaries of change. The cultural framework will continue, but not necessarily its attributes. Every potential variation must be reformulated to constitute as many micro-climates of benefits, both individual and collective in order to enable opportunities for progress to emerge from possible cataclysms. This sums up the entire human challenge in all transformational events And if one dared to ask why it's not good weather?

One of the least favourable certainties for taking action is to think that change is an inevitability and that there is only one possible path to take.

To encourage the need to question a change, to understand it and to experiment is a key success factor in any transformation. This logic of deconstruction and reconstruction of representational scenarios is the prerogative of the various leaders of change.

Nothing is taken for granted and everything has to be built. By presenting a weather map where the sun is shining apart from a few clouds, change leaders are able to activate the essential leverages to motivate the human capital, namely: • The feeling of security: To guarantee psychological security and to create a climate of confidence leading to action and commitment to the change.

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• To give people a voice: To know how to listen and make oneself heard amongst the multitude of latent voices (reticence, suspicion, aggression) and loud voices (resistance and sabotage); • To be conscious of being part of a whole: Oneself and the others constitute an indivisible whole.

"During a storm one can find calm at the very heart of the typhoon" (Jiang Zilong, All the colours of the rainbow) The objective of "bright sunshine" for change managers and leaders Below are a few pointers for change managers and change leaders to consider when leading teams through the change without losing sight of performance objectives and driving forward each person involved whilst maintaining a collective dynamic and effective collaboration.

Create psychological security: Make a distinction between contribution and evaluation, adding value-add through actions in relation to the result in order to keep the stress inhibiting the change at bay.

• Recognise the risk of failure: Anticipate it and potentially prepare teams to move from destructive inaction to essential exploration. Failure is not an end, but a means.

• To bestow authority or the feeling of authority: Organised chaos leads to a period perceived as anarchic but which is tacitly guided by the leader, at whatever level he is positioned in the organisation.

• Use language that is direct and clear: Everyone should understand each other, otherwise things get reformulated.

• Behave consistently: This enables everyone to find the meaning of the change.

• Structure the process: Draw up a road map and identify the progress, the successes and the failures. This is the best assurance for a winning approach and tactics.

"As far as the future is concerned, it's not a question of predicting it, but making it possible." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) Climate upheavals, sustainable change Transforming organisations without disrupting the human beings involved is a perspective of the mind. However, it is not the human being who must change in order to be successful in the transformation project but the corporation itself - whilst at the same time preserving its ecosystem. The different change players hold the levers in their hands to create a favourable climate for change. This will enable each person to adapt and for corporations to increase their flexibility and responsiveness whilst at the same time accepting the complexity of the environment and being open of course to new dimensions presented to them.

To change successfully, whatever the role that one assumes and the attitude that one adopts, is to learn how to master these "meteorological" mechanisms which enable organisations to change. Unleashing them requires expertise, experience

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and perseverance. Having faith in human beings and their talents is essential in the implementation of sustainable change.

“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill…

Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance."

(Samuel Johnson) A season but not like the others?

Change agents, managers and leaders are subject to the same adverse weather conditions and the same sunny intervals. But changes in the weather are better accepted if everybody remembers that one season, more clement or more harsh, leads to another. Each season requires its own adjustments but it is by remaining ready for change, whilst accepting that the seasons follow each other, that any turbulences are better overcome. Élie Matta Associate Professor at HEC, Management and Human Resources Mathilde Leroy Director of Organisational Development Bernard Julhiet Talent Management

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PART THREE

Winning Approaches and Tactics

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‘As part of a strategic change programme, it is useful to combine in a single set of strategic thinking on the one hand and organisational analysis on the other.’

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3.1

A Socio-political Approach to Organisational Change

By Guillaume Soenen Organisational change is a socio-political stake and not only a "technical" problem.

In order to succeed, a "political" approach must be adopted and adapted to the French and wider European contexts. Such an approach must allow sufficient scope for a wide-ranging prior diagnosis in order to validate the strategic relevance of the changes. It must also adopt a contingency approach so as to avoid managerial "off the peg" thinking and to verify its value system whilst adopting a fair approach.

Finally, existing change experiences must be capitalised on and collective expertise in change management must be built and further developed. ore than two out of three change projects fail10. To increase their chances of success in Europe, and in France in particular, practices adapted to the European socio-organisational context should be adopted. This is distinguished from the Anglo-Saxon context which is used, as a greater or less explicit reference, for most of the models and current practice in change management.

M

In a broad-brush caricature, in the Anglo-Saxon approach, change management is primarily considered as a "technical" question. How must we communicate? How can we create a sense of urgency? How can we "free up energies?" etc.

Without wanting to discount the usefulness of these approaches, the political dimension of change must absolutely be taken into account, as every corporation is a place of power where many different rationales and stakes come up against each other. Such an approach diverges from those formal approaches described in the text books and is distinguished by the refusal of managerial “off the peg� thinking and the false dichotomy between formulation and implementation. It postulates that organisational change is not primarily a technical problem but a socio-political problem.

The importance of a prior diagnosis Organisational change is certainly most often presented as an "important" strategic phenomenon, but a relatively simple one. It must be directed and is a result of an action taken voluntarily, most often autocratically, sometimes with participation. Here is another simplifying hypothesis: Given that it is planned, organisational change is an organised process. In reality it is a complex phenomenon as it incorporates dimensions which are simultaneously operational, systemic, historical and cultural.

10 Change management. The phases of successful change in the corporation.

Report from the 'Economist Intelligence Unit', sponsored by Celerant Consulting, 2008.

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In addition - and this is a crucial point - change is often conflictual. It is an action that triggers disequilibrium, uncertainty and incites power games. Finally, it is a chaotic process. Sometimes imposed, it is also emergent, even insidious. We must use this second and more "political" conception of change as a base when we develop the implementation of any strategic change programme.

If one accepts the idea that change is a complex process, then the first lesson is ready to be learned. You have to understand how to "waste" time at the beginning in order to then save time subsequently and increase the chances of success. Too often, the prior diagnosis phase is reduced and is only an approximation. If it is a question of acting quickly in order to respond to the needs of the market, then the context must also be analysed within which the envisaged change is to be implemented.

What should this prior diagnosis include? It is common to make a clear distinction between the development of the strategy and its implementation. However, much research work and live experiences have led us rather to consider that the art of the strategy is primarily a question of execution. Military strategists have long been aware of this: "Strategy is a simple art, but which owes everything to its execution" (Napoleon Bonaparte). Within the framework of a strategic change project, it is useful to associate strategic reflection and organisational analysis as part of the same whole.

In brief, this consists of analysing the corporation as a socio-technical system and a human community; in other words, a group of people, production technologies, structures, behaviours, representations, rules of the game, which are more or less implicit, plus values. The specific context of change must also be considered. How much time is available? What is the scope and extent of the transformations envisaged?

What financial resources and expertise does the corporation have at its disposal?

Are these resources available? What aspects of the corporation must be retained during the change and, conversely, are there aspects, such as behaviours which absolutely must disappear? Finally, what is the attitude of the different categories of personnel affected by the change? A differentiation must be made here between the knowledge that change is needed, (denoted as the Anglo-Saxon concept of "awareness"), the will to change and finally the ability to change (the concept of "empowerment"). Awareness is not the same as will - and will is not the same as ability.

Validating the strategic relevance of the changes The prior diagnosis of the change establishes the need for change plus the "target" organisation that will have to be put in place based on the envisaged strategic developments. The traditional management distinction between strategy and tactics, or between preparation and execution, is particularly problematic in a scenario of strategic change. Too great a separation between these two groups of concerns should be avoided. It relies on the subsequent ability of managers to deliver a change, to adopt exemplary behaviour, to defend the project and to resist the pressures which will only increase. It is certainly easier to defend something more effectively when one has an intimate understanding of it.

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There are two ways of creating this intimacy. Firstly to entrust the execution to those people responsible for defining the corporate strategy. In the case of large-scale strategic change it will be the board of directors who should deliver the change and make it "its" priority. The second option is, from the outset and at the time of the prior strategic reflection, to involve those managers who in all likelihood will be responsible for implementing the changes necessary for its execution. This enables organisational and operational concerns to "enter into" the strategic deliberations and which then contribute to increasing the chances of the strategy actually being implemented11.

During this advance deliberation phase, it is important to make use of solid analyses and avoid temptations for managerial "off-the-peg" approaches. There is in fact a drift of this when piloting organisations, which consists, under the cover of "benchmarking" and operational excellence, of adopting managerial practices and organisation types such as those used in the fashion sector. This drift goes back a long way. TQM, Re-engineering, Quality Circles, MBWO12‌ The annals of management best-sellers are packed full of "fashions" whose success is as meteoric as is their rapid disappearance. These "technical" and "universalist" approaches disconnect the strategy from the implementation of change.

Adopting a contingency approach After the exhaustive diagnosis phase, it is now time to draw up an adapted change programme. This requires choices to be made on numerous parameters such as the management method (collaborative or directive?), the starting point of the change (top down or bottom up approach, use of pilot sites?) or even the action levers (structural, technical, training, communication and symbolic) etc. There is a relatively wide range of decisions to be taken and these choices must be made under the dual constraint of responding to the strategic stakes on the one hand whilst taking the organisational context into account on the other.

The converse approach would be to rely fully on a standardised approach. Our proposition must immediately be clarified. It is not a question, and in fact quite the contrary, of dismissing en bloc any recourse to "best practice" of which experience has validated the relevance. Nevertheless, the practical organisation of the change programme must meet the local conditions where it is being implemented. Every corporation is a contingent system. Any organisation whatsoever is a system characterised, amongst other things, by its history and culture. Therefore, there is no "one best way" or miracle solution.

Let's take one example. We know that participation increases the commitment of the employees and makes an overall contribution to the success of the changes.

However, in certain circumstances the opposite happens. Specifically, if the corporation is comprised of several groups of people with opposing behaviours and interests, a participatory approach may lead to discussions running into the sand and finally to immobilism characterised by an aggravation of tensions between these groups.

Would it not be better, in this specific case, to adopt a more structured approach 11 See Chapters 2.2, p54 and 2.3, p62 12 Management By Walking Around.

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which, from the outset, sets out the rules of the game for the groups in play? It is in fact impossible to absolutely confirm which is the best solution, since as far as change is concerned, contingency is extremely important.

Adopting a contingent approach also enables the specific concerns of the different players in the corporation to be identified. Sometimes, these do not even exist as the player is not aware of the change or is in denial of its reality. Often the concerns are very specific and can be traced back to job security, the evolution of working conditions and the equity of processes. Even people in favour of the change have their own concerns. How can the rapid implementation be ensured, and how can customers continue to be serviced during the change? Adopting a contingency approach means not being content with the premises relating to resistance to change, but to seek to accurately determine the real stakes and challenges of the main stakeholders (not forgetting to include those important players who are not necessarily within the corporation such as suppliers or customers). This knowledge will be valuable. It will enable a change programme to be developed which will have a meaning for the employees as it will be in step with their real concerns.

Verifying its value system and adopting a fair approach.

The concerns linked to global warming have popularised "The Butterfly Effect" (small causes, big consequences). As far as change is concerned it is the "Pygmalion effect" that we should be concerned with. Created in the 1960s at Oak School in the USA, by Rosenthal and Jacobson, a traditional psycho-sociological experiment demonstrated that the greater or lesser favourable expectations of teachers, in relation to their pupils, had a significant impact on their school results, with everything else being equal. This is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy where the fact of believing in something contributes to creating the reality of the said thing. The change agent must therefore be wary of his own representations.

The first step is to explain one's own belief system, ("know yourself") in particular in relation to the motivation of individuals, as this will have a profound influence on the change levers that one will tend to favour.

A second step may be to contrast one's convictions with scientific theories of motivation.

Let's cite for example Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory. It purports that individuals have an innate tendency to satisfy three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competency (be in control of one's work) and relationships with others (having satisfying relationships). If the Pygmalion effect is to be taken seriously and experience shows that it is, it can be understood that adopting a vision of motivation consistent with the self-determination theory will lead to change being structured and piloted in a certain way. For example, by favouring learning as a transformation lever rather than exerting control by objectives.

Such an approach does not mean an end to pragmatism and it is also not incompatible with directive approaches to change. For example, if one has to announce a "directive" approach, one will make sure that (i) the decision and/or the objective is clearly announced (ii) the reasons for the decision are explained, (iii) that the

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existence of possible conflicts or dissatisfactions (on the part of the recipient) are recognised and (iv) that maximum flexibility in the implementation of the decision is permitted. In fact it is important to remember that the feeling of justice or injustice has two main ingredients: the basis ("distributive justice") and the process ("procedural justice"). In other words the feeling in relation to the decision-making process has a powerful impact on the reactions to this decision. This in turn leads to a subsidiary question: How can a just process be characterised? Long explanations would be required to cover all aspects of this question. However, let's cite a few "best practices": 1. Request inputs from the people concerned and incorporate them into the decision-making process.

2. Consider other people's points of view.

3. Quell any personal bias.

4. Apply decision criteria consistently from one individual to another, and from one period to another.

5. Provide rapid feedback on decisions.

6. Explain decision criteria (these criteria must be well-reasoned and communicated sincerely, and perceived as such).

A final element can also be added here - the exemplary behaviour of managers. In the context of large organisations in particular, strategic changes are often complex and difficult to interpret by employees and this situation sometimes lasts for many months. In such situations attention is turned towards figures of authority, the head of service and the executive leader(s) of the corporation. Their behaviour becomes a reference point which will be used by employees to interpret the just or unjust nature of the change. They also determine the overall perception of the change13.

Mentoring individuals along their change trajectory A common distinction is made between three phases in change programmes: mobilisation, transition and consolidation. It is appropriate to associate individual transition phases to this, whilst at the same time differentiating them. Several theoretical models describe the transition phases that an individual passes through after the announcement of a significant change. We can for example use the works of Adams, Hayes and Hopson (1976) who distinguish 7 phases: shock, denial (sometimes accompanied by anger), then the more or less rapidly gained awareness of the inevitable nature of the change, which is frequently accompanied by a depressive state, acceptance which marks the end of the depressive period, learning and finally the two stages in the consolidation phase: The creation of meaning and social integration.

The transition curve is a useful concept for the change agent. We do indeed know that the actions to be put in place to support individuals vary from one phase to another. For instance, in the mobilisation phase, individuals must be helped to accept the change and leave the past behind, whilst at the same time trying to minimise the shock. This can be accomplished by announcing the intentions and methods of the change as early as possible, whilst expecting resistance at the same time14.

13 See Chapter 2.2, p54 14 See Chapters 1.4, p32 and 2.4, p70 CELERANT CHANGE CLUB

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It is better to consider this resistance as "normal" whilst seeking to understand the causes rather than combating the symptoms.

In the consolidation phase, successes can be celebrated and new practices institutionalised within the new structuring processes which include recruitment, promotion and mechanisms for staff incentives. One will also seek to support individuals in their new roles and encourage a distancing in relation to the change and the new learning that has been acquired. This leads us to consider a final recommendation, namely the development of a collective competency in change implementation.

Developing an "ability to change" by capitalising on the experience The frequent inability of organisations to capitalise on their experiences of change is one of the reasons for the failure of such change projects. Academic research into management is still undecided as to the nature of organisational transformation processes. Is it a gradual accumulation of micro-changes, like snow that builds up and up before the avalanche? Or, is it rather a question of short periods of abrupt transformations, triggered by violent external shocks, or even hybrid forms incorporating the two mechanisms? Some experiences in corporations such as Apple or Google tend to show that it is possible to "organise instability". This occurs primarily through the exploitation of unforeseen situations that are treated not only as diversions to be eliminated but also as learning opportunities. The classic dichotomy between reproduction and innovation, optimisation and change, is perhaps, in fact, a duality.

Or a duality is certainly possible. It is translated as the development of a collective competency in change.

Building this type of competency should be a strategic long-term objective for most organisations - at least, all those facing a dynamic environment15. But what clues are available? First of all, change agents must be trained (in systemic analysis, and in all the techniques and concepts relating to organisational change). It is advisable to consider change implementation as a genuine managerial competency and to develop it formally. Then the organisational transformations must be carried out from a long-term perspective. As a human community, an organisation has a memory which is not limited to that of its members. It is also recorded in its processes, its culture and its operating standards. The characteristic attributes of the organisation such as trust, of which we are aware of the virtues, as far as mobilisation of employees is concerned, are "historical" products. These collective properties, together with the individual competency of change agents, are built on over time.

A change programme is full of pitfalls. In this chapter we have suggested a global socio-political approach. Many "grains of sand" may nevertheless jam the change "mechanics" as can the bad management of the speed of the programme, the subject of the next chapter.

15 We refer the interested reader to the literature on learning organisations.

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Guillaume Soenen, a graduate of HEC, is a Professor of Strategic Management at EM LYON Business School. His main research and papers relate to change implementation and strategy execution. He has worked for companies such as Alcatel Lucent, Arc International, Bouygues Telecom, GDF SUEZ, Renault, Somfy, The Enterprise Group, etc.

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‘...one must set the pace, beat the rhythm, manage the speed, respect the duration and implement the change all together...’

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3.2

Managing the Rhythm and Pace of Change: Sprint or Marathon?

By Tanguy Appert Time management is a key element for mobilising and motivating teams. It is essential to divide the project into milestones defined by their objectives and the activities to achieve them. A weekly pace of activity reviews and the rhythm of celebrations when milestones are passed, establishes the change as significant, inexorable and inevitable. By moving fast over a short period, a sense of urgency is created which contributes to engaging the teams in successful change. To move from this intent to the implementation, one must set the pace, beat the rhythm, manage the speed, respect the duration and implement the change together with all the men and women in the organisation, whether their temperament errs more towards a sprint or a marathon. n organisation faced with change receives an injection of energy. In an ideal world, everybody affected by the change project is convinced of its necessity and wishes to participate in it. The objectives to be achieved plus the means to reach them have been clearly defined, the intentions are clear and everyone is encouraged to participate. However, soon the reality of the change will have to be confronted. This is when the injection of energy is transformed into stress. If this stress becomes all-consuming, it may provoke aggressiveness, even reactions of flight. On the other hand, if the change programme is run to a drum beat, by avoiding dead periods, stress may be transformed into a powerful adaptive agent. Succeeding in making it your ally is both a question of pace and rhythm.

A

Advancing in stages to drum out the change message When running a project it is important to define the route to follow and to stake it out with landmarks which divide up the project into several stages. For each stage, objectives must be defined and shared, actions developed to achieve, assign and implement them, measure the results and communicate them. It is a question of mobilising the energies over a pre-determined period, in order to reach a landmark when one or several controllable intermediate results are delivered. At the end of each stage, the results obtained will be communicated to all the teams. These results will secure buy-in by demonstrating the effectiveness of the transformation.

It is important to make sure that the whole organisation receives this communication - a real lever for boosting the rhythm.

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The first communication is the one launching the project. Its aim is to convince each person to gather on the starting line, ready to respond to the starter signal, irrespective of whether the race ahead is a sprint or a marathon. It must explain the need for change and describe its impact on the organisation and on each person.

Dialogue with rank-and-file employees, in addition to information meetings, is crucial in demonstrating the commitment of the management team and in trying to respond to any concerns.

This is then followed by the implementation period of the change project and the associated requirement to communicate the results when each milestone is passed. The objective here is to present the progress status to the management team but also to secure everybody's buy-in to the project. This requires communication with the rank-and-file, illustrated by specific examples of the impact of change in every person's daily work. In a way it is a question of celebrating the victories secured. To sum up: "We said that we would get here, we have done it together, and here's the result in our daily work. It is now time to celebrate the victory."

These victories must be shared, and for the most significant ones, rewarded. If one wants to change behaviours, then the rules of remuneration must also change. With a real communication effort to celebrate the successes, when each milestone is passed, the team will unite.

Celebrating victories is the means of mobilising and channelling energies. When each milestone is passed, these celebrations become a ritual. The change must be drummed out, its omnipresence demonstrated and at the end of the day it must be proven that things are moving.

Marching at a rhythmic pace to implement change For each stage the work required to achieve each intermediate objective is divided into a succession of step-by-step activities and by monitoring and tracking them, the project can be piloted forward. The "pilot" must follow the progress, correct things if necessary using the levers and verify that the corrections have been effective.

These activities are more often than not planned on a weekly basis with this regular weekly review fixing the pace of the project, in turn enabling available resources to be aligned with the work load. When unfinished tasks pile up and are deferred from one week to another, a feeling of being totally overloaded immediately sets in which triggers a stress situation. If the pace imposes a sprint each week, there is a risk of the project being abandoned.

A constant implementation pace gives an impression that the activities are under control which can however conceal the reality. In fact, only the attainment of an objective can pass a verdict on the effectiveness of the activities executed. "Coldly" reporting that 80% of the activities have been accomplished is not very motivating.

It is more stimulating to those concerned to announce that only 20% of the activities are still to be accomplished to achieve that last set objective. This underlines the importance of frequently drumming out the change after several phases in order to break the monotony of the project pace.

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The project rhythm corresponds to the duration of each phase, i.e. to the time that has passed between each milestone obtained. This period is often between 4 and 8 weeks.

• A 4-week rhythm at the start of the project ensures that the energy expended by the teams is well-targeted and that the players involved can be quickly convinced by presenting them with the first results. Later on it becomes more difficult in a 4-week cycle to communicate specific and confirmed improvements taking place from one week to the next. The rhythm can then be felt as frenetic and a stress trigger.

• An 8-week rhythm can often cause a slight drop in the mobilisation after passing one milestone as the next one initially seems very far away. The period gives the false impression that the delay can be made up. Problems are often raised belatedly.

• A 6 week rhythm and/or the combination of 4 and 6 week rhythms are often considered as a good compromise. It is a sustained rhythm that is possible to maintain from the beginning to the end. It also separates the change implementation from monthly business operations.

This pace characterised by weekly activity reviews and the rhythm of celebrations when milestones are passed, establishes the change as significant, inexorable and inevitable. A fast rhythm set by short milestones favours convergence and makes buy-in easier leaving little room for resistance mechanisms. When viewing the path that has already been completed, it is more and more obvious every day that there has to be participation now, before it is too late. It's a long distance course, a marathon.

Competing for agreeing the change rhythm It is not enough to set the pace and conduct the rhythm. The change players also have to be coordinated so that they agree with this and maintain this agreement.

One recommendation is that the project organisation be divided up into several teams with their own objectives. The "pilot" then takes it upon himself to ensure that each team is aware of the progress made by the other teams. If one team does not respect the pace and/or the rhythm, this causes beneficial pressure on each of its members as they then spend most of their time ensuring that that they regain their place in the rankings so as not to be left on the margins of the organisation over the long term. It is absolutely essential to work with the teams on a daily basis. One way of doing this is to "coach" those team members who have been identified as key players in implementing the change. The coach, external to the organisation, will be constantly providing these individuals with the necessary tools and knowledge to implement the change. He will help them overcome obstacles on their own and will be available informally between each weekly review to answer any questions. He will also provide regular formal feedback with the objective of reassuring, but also unequivocally defining the points to improve. This coach steers the action to avoid any divergence from the rhythm. He's a real orchestra conductor.

If precision and discipline are required to respect the rhythm, the consequences of any divergences must be managed. The project management must be informed of any lapse in the pace without waiting for the next milestone to be passed. A corrective

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action plan will also be required from the team at fault, together with their commitment to the deadlines. Any intentional repeat of these lapses must be penalised.

This coordination is based on the competition between the teams. It also relies on coaching and requires that everyone competes in accordance with the rhythm. It is uncompromising as only the sum of all individual behaviours will create the change in culture. Every divergence risks breaking the rhythm and thus giving the existing culture the chance to endure.

Managing to adjust the rhythm of change The succession of milestones imposed gives the flow of the project an alternate rhythm of compression (reaching deadlines with a precise knowledge of the objective pursued and the methods for attaining it) and decompression (developing new activities, learning, setting new deadlines). This alternate rhythm is important as it does not suggest favouring one single mode of time management. Sometimes, you have to delay and at other times, accelerate. The "pilot's" skill lies in his ability to ensure that the change follows an appropriate rhythm for the circumstances, mixing advisedly both the phases of compression and the decompression.

In athletics this is humorously called the "pacemaker" who is in charge of running at the front, to drive on the runners by setting the rhythm. He sets the pace whilst at the same time listening to the others. In change implementation, the pacemaker is the change manager16. When the need for change is not due to any particular urgency, he must jostle the men and women involved to encourage them to modify their habits. In this case he imposes a rhythm which will be perceived as a sprint.

Conversely, when there is an urgency, he must pay attention to those men and women so as not to bruise them. In that case he imposes a rhythm which will be perceived as a marathon.

Running to impose the pace of change Once the rhythm of each person has been agreed, the movement as a whole will be perceived as rapid by those who feel they have been overtaken, but also by those who are doing the overtaking, to achieve the objectives. Speed is after all a very relative concept. It is a function both of people and the environment. It is disquieting to hear that today it takes 5 or 10 years to change individual behaviours, the sum of which forms the culture of the corporation. Pre-conceived ideas that people end up believing and translating into their own change programmes must be fought against. If the organisation wants to remain in charge of its role in its environment, it must evolve more quickly than this environment. Specific and visible results must occur in the weeks or months which follow the launch of the project, and not years later. There are more arguments for moving faster to change the organisational culture than there are arguments for going slowly.

Speed may cause anxiety and provoke a sense of impetuosity and fear of a loss of control. But it is more often the lack of speed which is the cause of this. When people are very established in their daily work, supported by their networks and their 16 See Chapter 2.1, p46

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knowledge of the corporation, they have to be jostled to be mobilised. Hesitations, doubts and fears provoke more errors than speed, which removes any chances of old behaviours and practices persisting. The sense of urgency places a tension over the organisation and helps secure the teams' commitment to the success of the project. This is why it must kick-off quickly and do its utmost to gain speed.

However, you can always go more quickly than you think you can. When the project is completed one can often note that it would have been possible to finish it off more quickly!

Finishing the race to seal the change Change is a long course between a reassuring present and an uncertain future. It is preferable to remain cautious on the skill of the organisation to sustain the effort over the long term. Employees risk losing their courage or quite simply the thread of events until finally nobody knows why the project was launched in the first place. To avoid this situation, objectives must first of all be selected pragmatically. You should not try to resolve all the opportunities identified during the inventory phase. Then you must cascade these objectives throughout the whole organisation to increase the resources. Rather than a programme stretching out over several years, it is preferable to mobilise the energies over short periods of 6 to 9 months and, if applicable, segment the change implementation. To limit the number of withdrawals from the race, it is better to run several marathons rather than to try and participate in a super-marathon, an "Ironman" which would leave many runners on the side of the road.

The world continues to advance, step by step, with a revolution from time to time.

To run a change programme in a corporation, it is preferable to sign up to a transformation project rather than envisaging a dramatic rupture. It is then a question of implementing the change by mobilising each person so that they advance, march, compete, manage, run and finally finish the course. To move from this intent to the implementation, one must set the pace, beat the rhythm, manage the speed, respect the duration - with the mission of implementing the change together with all the men and women in the organisation whether their temperament errs towards a sprint or a marathon. The creation of a solid road map will be a key element for setting the right time management of change.

Tanguy Appert is a founder member of the Celerant Change Club. As Industrial Director for Rohm and Haas, he has led projects to achieve industrial performance improvement, which he secured through modifications in techniques and the empowerment and commitment of employees by taking action on the organisation, performance monitoring systems and processes.

After the purchase of the corporation by Dow Chemical in 2009, he was responsible for the integration of the industrial sites of Rohm and Haas in the EMEA region. In this role he implemented new organisational models and processes in order to achieve the synergies expected by the merger of the two companies.

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3.3

Design and Implementation of the Road Map

By RĂŠgis Brachet The road map is an essential element in setting up a change process. It is based on an in-depth analysis of the existing situation which must enable the best adapted strategy for implementing change in the corporation to be determined. or 24% of corporations17, change programmes do not fail due to lack of resources, but mainly due to careless planning and objectives that have not been clearly defined or which are difficult to achieve and which make it difficult to evaluate any progress attained. Are you ready for change since its implementation cannot be improvised? To ensure you have all the success cards stacked in your favour to minimise the risks of failure, you must prepare your road map carefully.

F

What is a road map and what is it for?

We can state immediately that without a road map your change project has absolutely no chance of success. The road map is an essential element in this. It is the backbone around which all the organisation, the actions and the rhythm of change will articulate in order to achieve the objectives which have been set. It outlines the itinerary to be followed from the existing situation to the one which you are aiming for. It can also be seen as the contract that has been made between the project team and the executive management team.

The executive management team fixes the framework and its vision of the change, out of which the project team is charged with drawing up the road map which is then validated by the steering committee. The project leader has the heavy responsibility of ensuring the smooth running of the operations, the cohesion of the teams and the harmonisation of the action plans in order to coordinate the decisions to be taken. The road map will enable him, as well as the steering committee, to monitor the progress of the change process.

It generally consists of a detailed planning document specifying precisely the actions to be accomplished and the key stages to pass through and where the roles and responsibilities of each person are clearly defined. The stated objectives must be realistic. Any variations in your process can be visualised using indicators which help you evaluate and recognise all the progress that has been achieved. Defined and validated by the project team, these indicators must be relevant, or in other 17 Change management. The phases of successful change in the corporation.

Report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, op. cit.

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words, they must have a direct link with the objective that you have set yourself, and be founded on data that can be genuinely measured and verified in the field. ]For example, this may be a graph showing the evolution of the efficiency of a machine which, at the start of the project, is at a rate of 65% and which, due to the modifications applied and the organisation put in place, will indicate that it is now moving towards 80%. Or another example could be a client service indicator representing the time gap between the deadline requested by the client and the deadline delivered by the factory or workshop before, during and after the project.

Displaying your indicators is the best way of making them visible to all employees and of challenging your teams.

It is also recommended to include the coaching and training phases which will punctuate the road map at certain key stages in the process. This will also have the effect of visibly demonstrating the will and determination of the project team to mentor and empower the employees in the change operation that it wants to put in place.

These road map elements are key determining factors in obtaining the buy-in of the teams and in preserving the dynamic in the corporation. It will be a difficult course to follow. The executive management team and the project team, assisted by human resources, must communicate regularly to all the employees in a way that is both open and transparent. It is a fundamental point in order to retain trust, remove doubts and capitalise on the motivation18.

Every corporation has its own identity, history, culture and operating modes. You must take this backdrop into consideration and adapt your road map based on the men and women working in the corporation. The change that you will be rolling out will inevitably generate upheavals in actions and in their minds. But these upheavals do not have to be synonymous with revolution or chaos.

Road map pre-requisites If it is difficult, even impossible, to pilot a change programme without a road map, then it is equally difficult to imagine building a road map without an in-depth analysis, at the outset, of the landscape in which the change has to operate. First of all, do you know exactly how a particular service operates? Do you know the links between the services and the means of communication? Are there visual controls19 and, if so, are they effective? It is very often observed that managers have a perfect knowledge of their own sphere of activity but a limited vision of the overall operation of their corporation.

You will have understood that the prior analysis is essential and determining when selecting the strategy to take and the tactics to deploy.

The analysis is piloted by the project team and must be forward-planned on a maximum horizon of five to six weeks, so that the information gathered and the events studied are still relevant when the change process begins. During these several observation weeks, interviews must be conducted with all the employees affected from the operator to the manager. Some executives will prefer to call upon the assistance of 18 See Chapter 2.4, p70. 19 For example, the use of electronic display boards ensures that the evolution of hourly production or the buffer stocks between two workshops can be monitored and tracked.in real time. Visual management is directly inspired by the Toyota model.

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consultants in this phase. This has a dual objective, namely to go into more depth in the questions asked to the employees and to enable them to express themselves more freely. Communication is again essential here and it must be carried out before and during the analysis process. Human resources also have an important role to play and they must be involved from the very outset of the project. Their support is indispensable for the managers and the project team in order to explain the process and if required to take the heat out of a particular situation.

The summary analysis will enable you to understand the operating modes and current communications and to quantify any possible points of improvement. And this will form the essential basis of your road map in order to determine the axes and working groups, plus the resources and methods required to implement the change. You will also have a better assessment of the complexity of the project, the costs and the expected results. The gaps that have been ascertained between the existing situation and the objective to be achieved will enable you to position the level of maturity of the corporation in the face of the change and to potentially revise downwards your initial objectives.

We must insist on the fact that this prior analysis must be carried out as openly and as honestly as possible. So the courage must be found to admit any present weaknesses.

If the starting point is truncated, the failure risk of your plan will be all the greater.

The implementation: Blitzkrieg or urban guerrilla?

Once you have finished your analysis you are in a position to align your choice with the tactics to be deployed. Your resultant and carefully prepared road map has now placed you in a position of having your battle plan ready in your hands so now you are ready to kick-off the change process in your corporation. But have you given any thought to people's behaviour when faced with the change?

It can be said that there are three camps in the corporation: The allies, the opponents and the undecided. The first camp wants the change and are ready to put effort into it whereas the opposing camp refuses it. These are the people who have to be fought against and won over. And in-between are the people who are passive and who do not want to commit but who will rally towards the winner at the opportune moment. It is easier to manage an opponent because his game is clear. The passive individual, even if he appears neutral, never actually is. He is simply waiting for the right moment to choose his camp and his own interest. Therefore these types of individual must be quickly identified so that they do not put the brakes on the project and attempts must be made to convince them to become stakeholders in the change process.

How can this be done? One method may be the desire to "strike" fast like a blitzkrieg and in a command-and-control way. This favours the surprise effect in order to minimise the impact of upheavals caused to the organisation and the employees.

This would result in the immediate instigation of the road to change in the corporation, in making the actions relevant and in energising the teams by breaking habits.

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This "top down" tactic may pay off for a very short-term, small sized project where you have to act with urgency and the sphere of action is therefore restricted.

However, the people involved (players, managers) must be in total alignment with this strategy. Compromise is not possible in this scenario and project ownership by the stakeholders themselves has no place here as the project is advancing at a forced march. The disadvantage of such a tactic is the lack of consultation with the stakeholders themselves. One therefore foregoes any suggestion or new idea coming out of the "base" and runs the real risk of a sense of frustration in the team at all levels. The sustainability is therefore not guaranteed.

Another, radically opposed approach is that of an urban guerrilla type configuration.

The change process will then be rolled out simultaneously on several fronts in different sectors of the corporation. Here the tactic will consist of understanding and then infiltrating the organisation in place by small work groups, but with cohesion and then overcoming the hurdles through successive assaults and by consolidating the territory acquired. The acquired positions will be reinforced by daily backup support to the teams engaged in the field. This also implies the setting up of highperformance information and communication networks. The goal is to clearly show to everyone that change is ongoing, that it is necessary and that it can unite the teams around one and the same objective, namely of moving forward and achieving success.

This tactic has the advantage of deploying change simultaneously across the corporation, whilst initiating a participatory approach. It also serves to quickly spread the awareness that the process is taking place, therefore favouring the dynamic of the change. More complex to implement than the blitzkrieg, it does require a more structured road map and must be perfectly orchestrated.

So blitzkrieg or urban guerrilla? In most cases the right tactic is actually positioned between these two extremes, which runs the risk, if you are not careful, of quickly placing you in permanent chaos where control of the situation will elude you and with, as one can imagine, disastrous consequences at the end of the day.

Winning methods and tactics. The SKF case A change programme completed at SKF, in a unit in the Industry division which manufactures rolling bearings at its site at Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, France.

Context: The business of this unit was experiencing strong growth and was in an increasingly competitive sector. 80% of its production was sold from stock. SKF wanted to retain its current markets and develop others. Responsiveness and flexibility were therefore key factors in meeting these expectations and optimising stocks.

Project: The management of the Industry division decided to launch a change programme in order to hugely decrease the restocking period for finished products from an average of 90 days to less than 10 days whilst maintaining a service level of 96% for all its customers. A timeframe of 10 months was set to achieve this objective with the assistance of consultants. The directors and management of the

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unit opted for a very targeted kick-off strategy for the project and chose the most complex production line. The experience acquired would then enable them to deploy the project more easily onto the other production lines and in other factories in the group. The scope of the project included factory service planning, purchasing and sub-contracting, production and all the support services.

Communication: A communications meeting was held immediately for all staff concerned in order to explain the strategy of the division and the stakes of such a project.

Analysis: It was planned over 5 weeks then launched and piloted by the project manager and the consultants. It involved more than 80 people every week. The analysis focussed initially on the understanding and organisation of the factory, its specific attributes, the roles and responsibilities of each person and the complexity of production. This data was then studied. The production and communication flows plus the IT support functions were meticulously examined. The analysis highlighted quantifiable improvement points and the necessary resources. A project structure with its associated teams and work axes could then be set up.

Road map: A detailed plan was drawn up for each work group specifying their role, their tasks to accomplish per week and the objectives to attain. Indicators were defined and the key phases to be overcome every 10 weeks represented the milestones underpinning the planning.

Implementation: Very structured weekly meetings plus a summary meeting were set up for each work group. They were sanctioned by an efficiency audit which noted and quantified any gaps in relation to the objectives and triggered corrective actions. After the summary meeting, a report was sent to the local management and to the directors of the division.

Accompanying activities: Information meetings were held regularly for all the employees in the unit. These gauged the motivation of each person and responded to any ongoing expectations or concerns.

A monthly meeting was scheduled with the directors of the division and the project team. Each group leader presented his indicators of the state of progress of the project. A site visit was generally organised to judge in situ the progress carried out and the objectives achieved.

These were very propitious moments for taking decisions, exchanging and celebrating the successes achieved with the change stakeholders, but also for discussing the difficulties and the blockages encountered. A communications campaign was organised internally and externally to the site, in the form of presentations, displays and articles in the in-house magazine.

Result: The assumption of ownership of the change process by the players was achieved through a participatory approach, an acceptance of the method and the

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tools used. Some mistakes were made but the teams backed up by the top management knew how to take advantage of them to bounce back stronger. The project registered a delay of 3 months. The restocking period reduced from 90 days to 14 days.

You will have understood that there is no ideal method or tactic here. The best tactic is, based on fixed objectives, knowing how to structure and adapt the identity and situation of the corporation, the communication and the relationships that one wishes to establish with the people already in place. A recognition of the progress achieved must be shared with everyone and continue throughout the entire change programme. A realistic road map that is accepted by the change stakeholders is the best way of ensuring ownership of this process and of contributing greatly to its success.

RĂŠgis Brachet, a founder member of the Celerant Change Club, is the Supply Chain Manager and Deployment Champion 6 Sigma at SKF, the leading worldwide supplier of products and solutions in the markets for rolling bearings, lubrication systems, mechatronics, seals and services. As part of his remit, he coordinates the activities of five production units located in Europe, the USA and the Far East. He has implemented several international change projects.

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‘Change, like health, cannot be decreed. It cannot result from will alone...’

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ADMINISTERING CHANGE: CUTTING-EDGE MEDICINE

3.4

Administering Change: Cutting-edge Medicine

By Jean-Marc Bouillon Just as a patient who has suffered an illness, the corporation must adopt best practice to manage the "alarm signals" of change. If it selects cutting-edge medicine, it will then surround itself by an experienced team with many different competencies.

Generalists and change specialists will deploy their expertise and work alongside the corporation on a daily basis undergoing the transformation. Change, like health, cannot be decreed. It cannot result from will alone: Objectives, methods and specific expertise are also necessary, as in the deployment of cutting-edge medicine. hanges and transformation are at the heart of today's corporation.

Customers are changing, new markets emerging, competitive environments are transforming, financial criteria are evolving and new technologies are appearing. All these factors impact and influence the health of the corporation.

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What are the links between health and change?

On the one hand health can be defined as a state of equilibrium and harmony over an extensive period of time. And on the other, change qualifies what evolves and changes. Therefore it seems that both change and health, each in their own ways, illuminate the living path that links together the past, present and the future. One certainty is that at the heart of both change and health, one finds a human being in movement. Specifically, when a person is suffering an illness, they are faced with multiple "alarm signals". What reaction carries them along? Is it fear, denial or the desire to grab this test to advance further? What decisions are to be taken? And what competencies should be mobilised? For a corporation, implementing change asks the same questions.

Recourse to cutting-edge medicine Cutting-edge medicine is medicine centred on the person and oriented towards their health. It combines care and prevention. It makes use of precision expertise.

It is a profoundly human medicine which changes in accordance with the rhythm of scientific discoveries and world evolution.

Different phases structure a cutting-edge medical journey: • The diagnosis in response to symptoms or in a preventative approach. • Treatments which can comprise many different therapies.

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• Convalescence, an essential period of time. • The medical assessment which ensures a regular re-evaluation of the patient's state of health. Each assessment can be the opportunity to draw up a new diagnosis and to instigate new adapted treatments.

Over time and a few meetings, a multi-disciplinary team is deployed and surrounds the patient who takes a proactive position. General practitioners and specialists, nursing staff and therapists lavish him with care and interact with the patient. With the recent development of transversal disciplines, cutting-edge medicine facilitates the deployment of a systemic and holistic approach to illness. All the competencies of the nursing team can then become attuned to the patient.

Three vectors of change implementation In the light of this practice of cutting-edge medicine, three vectors structuring change implementation emerge: The capacity for resilience, emotional intelligence and the behavioural factor. These are perceived more easily on the individual level, but also apply to a team, an organisation or a corporation.

The capacity for resilience Resilience is this capacity to develop self-confidence despite the shocks. It enables a person to advance through an uncertain environment towards the specification of clearly identified objectives.

In cutting-edge medicine the resilience of the patient plays a determining role in the diagnosis and care phases. At the organisational level, resilience is the ability to effect a transformation whilst continuing to operate. "Business as usual whilst the works are going on". This slogan illustrates the ability of some very resilient organisations to permanently adapt their operations within very evolving environments.

An organisation with low resilience will plunge into crisis much more easily in a context of big changes.

At an individual level, in daily business transactions, some will experience their problems as blockages. And sometimes, without being aware of it, they will move into "resistance" mode. Others on the other hand perceive their problems as opportunities. They invest time in analysing the situation, developing and nourishing their vision in order to prepare and plan the actions which will lead them to bringing them to reality. They are demonstrating unwavering confidence: They are in "resilience mode".

Another specific and very current example of resilience in the world of the corporation can be seen when project management software is implemented. At the end of such projects some people remain blocked in their difficulties whereas others have adapted and are benefiting from the new tools that have been implemented.

Emotional Intelligence At an individual level, emotional intelligence is characterised by the ability to perceive

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emotions, take them into account and to control them. These fundamental competencies are expressed both in individual skills ("know oneself") and in inter-personal skills ("know others").

It is the emotional intelligence of people and teams which "produces" the results of change actions undertaken, in terms of collaboration, productivity and creativity.

For instance, let's consider fear, one of the fundamental human emotions and which is encountered both in the worlds of business and of health. The person paralysed by fear will have difficulty in being proactive in a change process. He will need to be mentored in order to understand how to identify his fear and work through it.

Sustained by their fears, some people obstinately reject any change process.

Another example is the way in which an entrepreneur manages his emotions. This is crucial in the different phases of the development and steering of his activities.

The emotional intelligence of the entrepreneur is essential for running his business.

If he "drowns" himself in his emotions or he ignores them, his management capacities will quickly become fragile and his business will soon move into a very risky area.

A person who works alongside change like the doctor must demonstrate huge skill in managing his own emotions. He must also be able to intervene if the decision maker is in "emotional" difficulty. Who has not known a manager, who, if angry when taking decisions, lets his emotions push him into vague and risky management practices?

The behavioural factor These are the observed behaviours which provide the proof that the initial intention for change has finally been implemented. In cutting-edge medicine, the behaviour of the patient, like that of the members of the nursing team, plays its part in the quality of the therapeutic treatments.

To encourage new behaviours, the general context in which they play out must be taken into account as must their consequences. Every case of change, whether it is a question of an individual or a corporation, is at the same time a universal and specific case - and unique. To paraphrase the anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn, in relation to the behavioural factor: "Every individual is like every other one, like some other individuals, and like no other individual."

Performance coaching is a clear illustration of the importance of the behavioural factor. It is currently proposed in change programme implementations in industrial environments and is specifically used as a targeted measure for those with production responsibility and team leaders. It enables everyone to work in individual meetings with an external coach at the production unit over a period of several weeks. At the end of this type of programme, the achievement of better production performance is closely correlated to the implementation of new daily behaviours.

Another example of the importance of the behavioural factor is when organisational

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evolution programmes are implemented on the basis of voluntary participation.

This is a strong indication of proactive behaviour by the employees who visibly buy in to the change proposed and show that they understand the positive consequences that relate to them.

Resilience, emotional intelligence and the behavioural factor reveal that the mechanisms on which change implementation is based, are at the same time highly complex and very specific. Change, like health, cannot be decreed. It cannot result from will alone: Objectives, methods and specific expertise are also necessary, as in the deployment of cutting-edge medicine.

Change, a profession for both generalists and specialists Many players will be involved in a change programme in a corporation and some professions will be totally dedicated to it. Consultants, project leaders, specialist practitioners are all involved in preparing and piloting large-scale change projects.

These are the professionals called upon to put in place new information systems for tens of thousands of users within international corporations or to restructure the means of production in industrial sites of significant size.

Other professions, which are less specific, integrate an implementation and contribution dimension to the change such as supervisory, communications, innovation or development assignments.

As in the world of health, it is the teamwork that enables the multiple competencies and expertise required by a change programme to be combined between the generalists, who coordinate the overall approach, and highly qualified specialists, deploying very specific expertise - the cutting-edge methodologies - in a given context.

Whatever the functions dedicated to change or those which integrate a change dimension, they all rely on a daily basis on the capacity for resilience, emotional intelligence and the behavioural factor of those who are involved in the change.

Change practitioners must as a necessity implement different specific skills such as: • A capacity for general analysis to extricate the overall cohesion from the change undertaken. • Specialised techniques to deal with the specific problems of change in an open and evolving environment.

Let's take the case of a corporation with several thousand employees which is transforming and repositioning itself in its markets. The team which will be piloting the change may soon typically be under the responsibility of the person in charge of the programme who has a high level of general education and training. This person will be responsible for half a dozen sites where there will be specialists from different areas such as operations, logistics, human resources, finances etc, who will have an excellent higher education level. The experiences of each of them will be

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sufficiently long and diversified so as to enable the relevant development of the change programme across its different phases. Teamwork will be the favoured way of working and it will enable a close collaboration with the middle management which will deliver the change to the heart of the corporation.

It therefore appears that, far from being in confrontation with each other, generalists and specialists are both necessary and complement each other within the team which is driving forward the change.

It must be noted that in some small or medium-scale change programmes, nobody is dedicated full-time to implementing the change. This may be, for instance, the management team which divides up the different roles with the support of a consultant who intervenes from time to time during the preparation and implementation of the change. Very targeted training of this management team in change management and its different techniques may be a very effective contribution to the success of this type of approach.

Road map proposal for a change implementation Let's develop an example road map in the same way a change practitioner may implement an action within an organisation. Some people start by preparing a detailed road map in the specific context of the change considered, similar to a health programme. The generalist will consider the road map in its entirety whilst the specialist will concentrate more specifically on some of the stages. • Stage One: Mobilise, or create the feeling of the urgency of the change. Change has to be made a priority that is widely shared within the organisation. Just as the diagnosis phase in the medical process, this mobilisation, which may be a shock wave, is aimed to get things moving.

Key questions: - Are there enough people who share a feeling or urgency and who will mobilise themselves for the change?

- How will the organisation react to the change? Will it be in crisis mode, reactive or anticipatory mode?

- What are the external and internal change vectors?

- What are the cases of changes which show the dissatisfaction generated by the status quo and the urgency to change? • Stage Two: Identifying and uniting the allies. Here a group must be created which will have the power to influence and pilot the change.

Key questions: - Who will be part of the coalition that guides the change? Who are the change agents, the fence-sitters and the resistors? Do they have the necessary mindset and skills to adopt the changes proposed?

- What are the levels of influence and resistance of each of them?

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-

Who are the innovators?

Who are the change champions?

Where does the silent majority sit?

Who are the conservative ones?

• Stage Three: Develop the vision, to guide the change efforts and develop appropriate strategies.

Key questions: - Does the change considered rely on growth activities in a significant external context?

- Is it a question of investing in new resources and specifying a motivating challenge?

- Or is the change considered based on productivity gains with an internal focus on the organisation?

- Is the objective to make savings by reducing costs?

Once the vision has been structured it must be communicated clearly and in an acceptable way. What will be the benefits, the gains and the difficulties? On which elements can the aspiration to change rely? What is it that feeds the sense of commitment and encourages ownership of this vision? • Stage Four: Once these different elements have been prepared, an action plan can be set up to establish the change locally and overcome, by-pass and decrease the obstacles encountered.

A credible and effective plan must be developed and which has to be sufficiently relevant to "stick to the ground" and sufficiently structured to express an overall cohesion. At this stage it is very beneficial to take previous experiences into account to clearly identify some foreseeable major obstacles.

Key questions: - What obstacles have been encountered? What type are they (strategic, organisational, technical, human)?

- How can they be overcome?

- How do we communicate regularly on the vision, the change plan and on the ongoing actions?

- How do we ensure the equity of the changes implemented?

- Will each person have an opportunity to be heard?

- Will decisions be taken consistently?

- How and when will information feedback following any decisions be considered?

- Are the gains obtained identified and systematically communicated?

- Are those who contribute to the changes recognised and rewarded?

- How is the professional development guaranteed of those who work actively towards the change implementation?

- What areas should be focused on to actively develop the change dynamic?

- How can we better anticipate and prepare the stages to come?

- In what way is the culture of the corporation evolving?

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- What are the specific observations here?

- How are the change objectives and expected results measured?

- What dashboard is implemented?

To complete this road map some practitioners strongly recommend that a space should be made available for creativity by setting up an "isolated room” where creativity and resourcefulness are encouraged.

As in the case of health, change implementation requires specific attention and vigilance.

In change, as in health, there is impermanence and movement. What is true at one moment in time, is not necessarily true at another. On a daily basis health and change exist in the present. Learning about change, and experiencing it, are two necessary and complementary activities for the deployment of the relevant and quality practices of change implementation.

To develop professionally in the field of change implementation, both the generalist and specialist route is possible. Teamwork will always be favoured and will make each change programme a unique experience.

One day one of the slogans which will light up business life may be: "When change works, everything works!"

Jean-Marc Bouillon is an active member of the Celerant Change Club, and is Corporate Chief Engineer at Nestlé Waters (Groupe Nestlé). He prepares and monitors the execution of industrial investments in high-growth markets. He has piloted various change implementation programmes in industrial environments both in operational and project roles. A qualified engineer from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG), he started to study change management during his MBA with the Open University Business School in the UK.

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‘In terms of pace, a change programme should resemble a marathon with many intermediate sprints.’

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THE ART OF MERGING TECHNIQUE AND TACTICS

SUMMARY

The Art of Merging Technique and Tactics

By Philippe Jaspart

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hange is a question of human beings and is therefore not infallible. Just as any well-oiled machine, a change programme runs the risk that a grain of sand obstructing the mechanics and leading to their failure, as occurs in 66% of cases.

A clear definition of the road map and the adoption of the latest techniques in change management are not sufficient in themselves. Leaders with a strong emotional quotient are required who will persevere, know how to listen, detect the grains of sand and implement the measures required to eliminate them.

In every change programme, as in medicine, the initial diagnosis is crucial. It is important to allocate sufficient time for it whilst undertaking it quickly in order to avoid the illness propagating too quickly and which would then require a longer healing period. It is this diagnosis which will quantify the symptoms and their importance, identify the ills of the corporation and define the most appropriate treatment. It must include dimensions which are emotional (highlighting the individual interest to change), rational (factual and costed analyses of the situation) and political (reassuring the corporation leaders in their decision-making and healing the ills) but it must also create a feeling of urgency through which the entire corporation will feel affected and will have to get involved.

At the end of this diagnosis the key success factors will be to have: • Achieved an exhaustive and factual analysis of the reality which does not pass judgement and which is not contestable.

• Evaluated the impact of the problem on the company.

• Defined the vision of success (the direction).

• Built a detailed road map which will enable this vision to be achieved and takes the culture of the corporation and its level of maturity into account.

• Motivated the organisation around the programme having ensured the buy-in to the conclusions and convinced of the urgency of dealing with the problem.

A lack of commitment by the change players is often a major reason for failure. The definition of the road map must involve those whom the company has identified and mandated as the carriers of the project as far upstream as possible. It is essential to know how to give them direction whilst at the same time allowing them the freedom

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of execution. They must feel that they have been entrusted with a critical mission for the corporation and have strong support from the board, human resources and communications management as soon as the programme is launched.

As soon as the project team has been created, it must immediately get to work bringing on board the remainder of the people involved. The team must understand the needs of each population group, its expectations and fears, what motivates it and what the programme can provide them with. Identifying the population groups at the start of the programme will enable how much time to be dedicated to each group to be defined. It serves no purpose to spend too much time with the 10% who are "resistors". It is much better to devote it to those who are "convinced" and who will know how to gain the buy-in of those who are undecided and will carry them along on the road of success. A tool such as a commitment matrix is very useful for drawing up a regular assessment (on average twice a month), adopting the correct tactics and undertaking effective actions according to the phase of the programme.

The length of a change programme, its pace and its rhythm, given by the project team, will also set the conditions for the success of the transformation. A programme that is too long risks running out of steam whereas a program that is too short will not enable a deep enough transformation to ensure the sustainability of the changes.

Generally a duration of one year is a good compromise, with tough but realistic objectives which enable a justification of the high pace and the priority given.

In terms of pace, a change programme should resemble a marathon with many intermediate sprints. The management of the rhythm and the ability to accelerate or slow down depending on the signals returned by the organisation are important.

The project team must ensure that most of the organisation is following. It must also know how to accelerate in order to avoid things from prevaricating too much for fears to emerge and also how to slow down to allow time for assimilation. There will always be disagreement between those who are undergoing the change and feel that "things are going too fast" and those who are piloting the change and who are enthusiastic for the distance achieved in such a short time.

It is essential that in this context the project team acts with pragmatism and favours effectiveness even if it means a momentary drop in quality to develop their buy-in.

Effectiveness = Quality x Buy-in The programme must have daily, weekly and monthly milestones. The daily milestone manages the progress of the activities of the team members, the weekly milestone the stumbling blocks and the coordination of the project axes, whereas the monthly milestone tracks the overall progress of the project in relation to its key marker posts and its interaction with other corporate initiatives and entities.

And always with the same concern of achieving the commitment of those involved, all corporate communications must follow the same rhythm of the programme and

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reinforce it by communicating the first successes, highlighting the change and presenting the reality of the transformations. It is however often the first thing that is forgotten in many change programmes.

Once the programme has achieved its objectives, as is the case for any illness that has been treated, the sustainability of the changes - the cure -must be assured whilst at the same time dismantling the project team. Sustainability does not mean that all the changes applied will still be in place a few months or a few years later, but more that the company has subscribed to a culture of continuous improvement.

The change programme must have contributed to the training of a large number of managers who will henceforth be capable of recognising any drifting away or any new difficulties, to anticipate them and take any necessary actions in advance.

As in all cases of a patient who has been cured, a regular audit (the medical assessment) of the sustainability of the changes by an external eye is useful in order to ensure the transition from the project mode, where the recovery of the company, piloted on a daily basis by the project team, is at the heart of all their concerns and successfully navigated into "business as usual" mode where the corporation can ensure its own survival and steer its own performance.

Does this mean that corporations will in time be able to self-diagnose their ills and become change specialists? Are they condemned to launch permanent change programmes to ensure their survival?

In answer to the first question, I would say that consultants still have a future. Change managers in a corporation will always reach a stage where even they are no longer able to view things with sufficient "perspective" as they will always be absorbed in daily issues and "not seeing the wood for the trees". They will also one day be caught up by political stakes in the corporation or their own career development and will lose their objectivity, their ability to challenge at all levels of the organisation and to bring about change. And that is the value-add of the consultant.

I would answer the second question by saying that the corporations of tomorrow will be those which will know how to adapt their operating methods to the rhythm of the change in their environment. This will require gradual and permanent phases of evolution but also phases of radical change which the corporation must be capable of anticipating in order to place itself quickly in a fighting position and to clear the hurdle in the best conditions possible.

Philippe Jaspart Founder Member of the Celerant Change Club Principal Manager, Celerant Consulting

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CONCLUSION

Moving from Intent to Implementation

By Bart Le Clef

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n today’s world with its constant and faster pace of change and where markets are subject to the pressures of a globalised economy, the aptitude for change is an essential criterion of maturity and vitality of a corporation.

But it may also be the opportunity to achieve a competitive advantage.

As this book shows, change embodies many different facets including the need to change, the tactical part, the management of resistances and the durability of the transformations. But whatever the extent and complexity of your particular challenges, and whatever your business sector department, one certainty remains: People hold the key to successful change.

It is fascinating to observe, to what extent, behind the positions which we display such as ‘team spirit’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘information sharing’ our DNA reminds us that we are above all individuals. The first questions which a person involved in a change programme will ask without any doubt at all is "what impact will the change have on me?" Therefore, the more change managers are able to transmit a clear and transparent message on the reasons for change and especially on the impact on teams and individuals, the more they will optimise their chances of success.

During my experience of working with corporations through their change programmes, I have never really had any difficulties in assisting people to communicate about the change as this presents a picture of the situation, provides an audience and a message to transmit. The real difficulty starts later, when one must face up to the reactions of those who will be impacted by the changes. That is when the enthusiasm is dampened by fear, optimism by scepticism and confidence by doubts.

I have sometimes had bitter discussions with managers, not so much about the tools and methods, but because they were aware that I was tackling something more important, namely that I was questioning their ability to bring about the change!

And when people ask me what are the key success factors for a change programme, I always think of one of the first projects that I ever managed in a factory. In a huge production workshop several teams had been doing the same repetitive work for years with only two certainties - they started work at 6.00 am and finished at 3.00 pm. At the time of launching a significant change programme (a lean management approach) everything went back to the drawing board - communication, project planning, management statements, work meetings etc. The programme lasted two

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years and to their great surprise, the objectives were achieved much sooner than predicted. When I went back to see the workshop teams to discuss this experience over a coffee, I understood that all my theoretical knowledge about change had not been the most important aspect of this project. And when I asked them to what they attributed this success, they replied: ‘We have been working in the same teams but now there is a concept of positive competition with other teams’... ‘we are proud to have achieved tangible and measurable results’, ‘the lean approach has given us the opportunity to talk to each other’ and above all ‘we enjoyed ourselves’.

This discussion changed my point of view on the best way to move from the intent to the implementation of change. Of course, the tools and models, processes and procedures facilitate the execution of change but they alone do not guarantee the success. And as far as those people who have to carry out a change programme are concerned, I am convinced that their key success factors are to listen, emphasise, work collectively around a specific project and to take decisions. And ever since then I ensure that the concepts of ‘team’, ‘pride’, ‘results’, ‘competition’ and ‘enjoyment’ are present to create genuine conditions for success.

Is the rest not just a walk in the park? No of course not. As is always the case, it is the people involved who hold the key to successful change - everything starts and ends with them. From the Germans who tend to consider the tools and the methods as an end in themselves to the Dutch who never stop debating the relevance of the programme, even during its implementation phase, it would be illusory to imagine that there could be a global approach to change. The different types of resistance to change also clearly illustrate our cultural divergences - from the American ‘Yes we can’ to the typically French or Belgian response of ‘let’s organise a lunch or dinner to discuss it’ to ‘let’s define a detailed plan’ which reveals much of the German mindset, it is obvious that the power of the cultural factor cannot be underestimated.

Change programmes implemented simultaneously in several European countries have demonstrated this complexity very clearly. For many corporations in this situation, cultural differences and leadership style are the main obstacles to a rapid and effective implementation of a change programme. Should our experience not enable us to meet this challenge? We must also not forget that it is only fifty years since we were at war with each other! Many long years will still be required until we can join forces to create a joint approach for change in Europe.

Perhaps the first book published by the Celerant Change Club may play its part in working towards this. These testimonials from French professionals who have lived through or piloted change programmes in their corporations, will I know, inspire other people across Europe and reveal other aspects illustrated by their experiences on a subject, that we all know, transcends all frontiers.

Bart Le Clef, SVP - Director of European Operations, Celerant Consulting

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Lewin (Kurt). Field theory in social science. Harper and Row, New York, 1951.

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Other articles and interesting reference works Armenakis (A. A.) and Bedeian (A. G.). ‘Organizational change: a review of theory and research in the 1990s.’

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Piderit (S. K.). ‘Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change.’ The Academy of Management Review, 25(4): 783-794, 2000.

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Schneider (B.), Brief (A. P.) and Guzzo (R. A.). ‘Creating a climate and culture for sustainable organizational change.’ Organizational Dynamics, 24(4): 6-19, 1996.

Wanberg (C. R.) and Banas (J. T.). ‘Predictors and outcomes of openness to changes in a reorganizing workplace.’

Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(1): 132-142, 2000.

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We warmly thank the authors for their time and inspiring insights based on personal and professional experience. We hope their life-based experience will help you to understand and conduct change programmes in your companies, organisations or life. We also thank them for their active participation to the Celerant Change Club workshops in sharing experience, ideas and ambitions around change management.

We would like also to thank all contributors who helped us in this project and especially consultants from Celerant Consulting to make the Celerant Change Club an active and human capital-based organisation.

A special thank to Bernard Leblanc and Bart le Clef for their kind support, and Mathilde Leroy who brought her 15 years experience in change, executive training and knowledge management and talent management at the beginning of this project.

C-Cube Book UK Artwork COVERS final 2

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The Celerant Change Club, created at the end of 2008, welcomes professionals from all walks of life who want to exchange points of view, encourage reflection and share best practice for implementing change in the corporation. Change: Moving from intent to implementation is the first work created by its members. Journalists, University academics and people with operational experience from many different sectors explore the many facets of change, its practices and its alchemy.

Based on a wealth and diversity of experiences over many years, the contributions to this work are valuable testimonials which will provide a relevant commentary and toolkit for any executive or practitioner to follow when the moment comes to implement a change programme.

CHANGE: MOVING FROM INTENT TO IMPLEMENTATION

Change: Moving from intent to implementation

CHANGE

MOVING FROM INTENT TO IMPLEMENTATION

Written by The Celerant Club

Written by The Celerant Change Club