This document discusses change paradigms and patterns for leading change. It identifies key elements for successful change including having a change agent who believes in the idea and has the skills to implement it, creating a culture that allows flexibility and freedom to experiment, and understanding that different people adopt change at different rates. It also outlines patterns for testing new ideas, taking time for reflection, celebrating small successes, and implementing change incrementally and step-by-step. The overall message is that successful change happens gradually through patience, persistence and recognizing both successes and failures along the way.
2. The “Double Three” Plus One
Change Paradigm
•The Change Agent
•The Culture
•The People
Change Patterns
•Test the Waters
•Time for Reflection
•Small Successes
•Step by Step
“Fearless Change” Mary Lynn Manns, Linda Rising Pearson Education 2005
3. The Change Agent
You need three things:
• Belief in the idea or change
• The drive to bring it to your org
• The skills to make it happen
And a couple more:
• Persistence and
• Patience
Good
Communicator
Appreciate
People
Work Well
with Others
4. The Change Agent: Gandhi
• Raised the son of a merchant
• Studied law in England
• Changed the world for now 1.25
billion people
• Started small, with a single
village in South Africa
• Pacifist, patient, persistent
5. The Culture
Lacking these means either
• Longer implementation time
• Failure of new ideas (not just
yours, but all)
Helpers
Flexibility to
Experiment
and Fail
Nurturing
Environment
6. The Culture: Freedom to Fail
• Freedom to fail means freedom
to explore, venture, experiment
and succeed in uncharted
territory.
• Failure provides great
opportunity to learn.
• It is only by trying lots of
initiatives that we can improve
our chances that one of them
will be a star.
7. The People
Innovators
2%
Early Adopters
14%
Early Majority
33%Late Majority
33%
Laggards
18%
Change Groups You also need
• Mavens: information specialists.
• Salespeople: convincers
• Connectors: know many
different types of people
8. The People
• Seek the change agents you
need at the stage of change you
are in.
• Accept this truth -->
(it isn’t worth fighting) -->
• Be kind to the slow adopters—
they may be slow, but they may
adopt.
10. Pattern: Test the Waters
• You see a new idea and you
wonder if your organization
could benefit from it.
• When a new opportunity arises,
see if there is any interest by
doing small things and gauging
the reaction
• Move slow, be prepared for
disappointment
• Fail fast…
• Talk with a co-worker over coffee
• Just do it, then give a demo
• Schedule a brown bag to discuss
• Tack the conversation onto a
regularly-scheduled
event/meeting
• Plant the seed “Hey, what do
you think about…”
11. Pattern: Time for Reflection
• You are an Evangelist or
Dedicated Champion using “Test
the Waters” to try and introduce
a new idea into your
organization.
• Pause in any activity to reflect
what is working well and what
should be done differently.
• Take time at regular intervals for
reflection.
• “Fail Fast” – you catch your
failures by reflection, or they
end up catching you.
• Reflect as a group with a project
retrospective.
• Reflect alone too.
• Ask
• What, why, how, why not, and
what if?
12. Pattern: Small Successes
• You are an Evangelist. You’ve
applied patterns for change;
some worked and some didn’t.
• Every organizational change has
its ups and downs. It’s a difficult
process.
• As you carry on step by step,
take the time to recognize and
celebrate successes, especially
the small ones.
• Large-scale change can be a
long, formidable undertaking.
• A number of early victories, even
if they’re small, create self-
confidence and the belief that
bigger successes are possible.
• Doesn’t have to be big.
13. Pattern: Step by Step
• You realize there is interest in
your idea.
• You wonder what your plan
should be for introducing the
new idea into your organization.
• Use an incremental approach in
the change initiative, with short-
term goals, while keeping your
long-term vision.
• We climb ladders one rung at a
time, slowing and surely.
• Trying to build the entire plan all
at once is worthless, since the
plan inevitably changes the
moment it’s begun.
• Identify things you can achieve
quickly, then work toward early
wins to bring about any change.
14. Lessons Learned in the Trenches
• People and companies take
change best when it’s one step
at a time.
• “You can’t boil the ocean”
• Long-term vision is best kept to
yourself. It generally scares off
anyone but other visionaries.
• “Gazelle-like intensity” on the
day-to-day goals and patterns
yield the results.
• Change is best accepted when
it’s couched in self-interested
terms.
• Talk to a CIO about reduced
production interruptions.
• Talk to a CFO about return on
investment.
• Talk to a CEO about filling board
expectations.
• Talk to an engineer about learning
new things.
“Focus on the positive and you will move toward it with deliberate speed”
“Do as little as you can, every day, without doing nothing.”
Don’t become so caught up in the destination that you miss the journey. If we just keep plowing past milestones without pausing to catch our breath, we will quickly become burned out.
Success can come in many forms. Look for it. For example, at the end of the week, ask yourself what you and your team have learned or done differently This simple question can go a long way in promoting continual, but focused, change. Focus on the gains and the lessons, rather than the losses. Even when you don’t get all the things you wanted, you can still celebrate the things you didn’t get, that you didn’t want.
“Writing is like driving a car at night – you can only see as far as the headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” (E.L. Doctorow). You don’t have to see your destination or everything you’ll pass on your way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.
“As long as we are more secure today than we were yesterday…”
