Tag Archives: Change Management

THE SIMPLEST MODEL OF CHANGE – LEWIN’S FREEZE PHASES

Posted on 7 September 2012 by Wendy Mason | 3 Comments

THE SIMPLEST MODEL OF CHANGE – LEWIN’S FREEZE PHASES

In the early 20th century, psychologist Kurt Lewin identified three stages of change that are still the basis of many approaches today.

Unfreeze

People like to feel safe, and in control,and their sense of identity is tied into their present environment; particularly if it has been relatively stable for a while! This creates a feeling of comfort and any challenges to it, even those which may offer significant benefit, can cause discomfort. See why change hurts!

Talking about the future is rarely enough to move them from this ‘frozen’ state and significant work is usually required to ‘unfreeze’ them and get them moving. In frustration some managers start using a Push method to get them moving – coercing them into a change. This can create a lot of unhappiness and frustration.

The Pull method of leadership, persuasion and modeling behavior takes longer but has a better long-term effect . The term ‘change ready’ is often used to describe people who are “unfrozen” and ready to take the next step. Some people become ready for change fairly easily, whilst others take a long time to let go of their comfortable current realities.

Transition

For Lewin change is a journey. This journey may not be that simple and the person may need to go through several stages of misunderstanding before they get to the other side.

A classic trap in change is for the leaders to spend months on their own personal journeys and then expect everyone else to cross the chasm in a single bound.

Transition takes time and needs leadership and support! But sometimes transition can also be a pleasant trap – it may feel better to travel hopefully than to arrive – particularly for the team leading the change.

Refreeze

At the other end of the journey, the final goal is to ‘refreeze’, putting down roots again and establishing the new place of stability – embedding new processes and developing a new culture.

In practice, refreezing may be a slow process as transitions seldom stop cleanly, but go more in fits and starts with a long tail of bits and pieces. There are good and bad things about this.

In modern organizations, this stage is often rather tentative as the next change may well be around the next corner. What is often encouraged, then, is more of a state of ‘slushiness’ where freezing is never really achieved (theoretically making the next unfreezing easier). The danger with this that many organizations have found is that people fall into a state of change shock, where they work at a low level of efficiency and effectiveness as they await the next change.

If you are serious about being a better leader and doing your best in your career while having a good life at home, I think you will find our new programme interesting! http://gettingtherewithwisewolf.com/

Wendy Mason is a career coach working mainly with managers and professionals who want to make that jump to senior level while maintaining a good work/life balance. Before working as a coach, Wendy had a long career in both the public and private sectors in general management and consultancy as well as spells in HR. She now divides her time between face to face coaching, and coaching and blogging on-line. You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com and find out more at http://wisewolfcoaching.com

Getting There – Wendy’s Career and Personal Development Programme

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Posted in change, Change Competence, Change Gurus, Change Models, Job Skills, leadership, Management, Programme Management, Project Management, Work

Tagged advice, business, business change programmes, change, Change Management, Freeze Phases, Job Skills, Kurt Lewin, leadership, Leading Change, Management, Managing Change, organisational change, Organizational Change, ready for change, resource, support, tips, Transtheoretical model

A Charming Introduction to Leading Change – Our Iceberg Is Melting

Posted on 24 August 2012 by Wendy Mason | 3 Comments

Leading Change – Our Iceberg Is Melting

Below is a charming trailer for an entertaining little story about a penguin colony in Antarctica. It is a story with a purpose because it illustrates key truths about how to lead and manage change.

If you can handle the challenge well, you prosper! Handle it poorly and you and your organization at risk.

The penguins are living happily on their iceberg as they have done for many years. Then one curious penguin discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home – and pretty much no one listens to him. The characters in this fable are like people we recognise, even ourselves. Their story is one of resistance to change and heroic action, confusion and insight, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. It is a story that is occurring in different forms around us today – but the penguins handle change a great deal better than most of us.

Based on John Kotter’s pioneering work on how to make smart change happen faster and better, the lessons you can learn from this short and easy-to-read book will serve you well in your job, in your family, and in your community. And these lessons are becoming ever more important as the world around us changes faster and faster. you can find a link to the book on Amazon here – Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

Our Iceberg Is Melting trailer_John Kotter_Kotter International.mp4

If you are serious about career and personal development, I think you will find our new programme at this link http://gettingtherewithwisewolf.com/ interesting!

Getting There – Wendy’s Career and Personal Development Programme

Leading Change – knowing what a sense of urgency really means! (wisewolftalking.com)
Bewildered by the change you have to make – here is help!(wisewolftalking.com)

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Posted in Change Management, Leading Change

Tagged change, Change Management, John Kotter, leadership, Leading Change, Management, Managing Change, Our Iceberg is Melting

Leading Change: High Levels Of Engagement Could Actually Put Your Change At Risk

Posted on 25 May 2012 by Wendy Mason | 1 Comment

Leading change: high levels of engagement could actually put your change at risk

New research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Kingston University Business School’s Centre for Research in Employment, Skills and Society (CRESS) has emphasized the distinction between people whose man engagement at work is with doing their immediate job to earn a living and others whose emotional attachment is much wider and extends to the organization itself – colleagues, line managers and customers.

Those engaged primarily with their jobs might enjoy and take pride in their individual work but they just want to do it and get on with rest of their lives. It is interesting that the study found that these people who are transactionally engaged (their interest is mainly in the technicalities of own work) report higher levels of stress and difficulties in achieving a work-life balance than those who are emotionally engaged with the organization.

It can become more complicated when, for example. someone is emotionally engaged mainly with their profession and perhaps even their clients, but only transactionally engaged with their current role and the current organisation.

Now ,this presents some interesting challenges for those leading change, particularly in how they communicate about the change.

A change that is being made for the perceivable good of the organization is more likely to be supported by someone emotionally engaged with that organization. That is, if the well being of colleagues is seen to be a priority and there is a clear commitment to managing the change well.

However, a change that threatens the work of an individual who is transactionally engaged may present a much greater risk. Most change managers have encountered the committed and brilliant technical specialist who decides they have no alternative but to subvert a change for the good of their work.

So how can you respond?

Well, for a start you need to understand your group and have a care with the results of engagement surveys which may not distinguish between different kinds of engagement.

What kind of people are in your group and what kind of work do they do? Walk the talk – get out there and meet them. Have conversations and be prepared to listen and to deal with feelings and anxiety.

When you communicate the change be aware that the impact will be different for different kinds of people. Take those different needs into account when you are planning the message. Then recognize the risk that different kinds of engagement might present. If your change threatens the organization itself then you need to manage the risk that presents for those committed to it. But handled the right way they will come with you on the journey.

Those committed mainly just to the job may well simply remove themselves, together with their precious technical skills if they can see nothing in the change for them. If their skills are critical to the organization you may need to consider incentives to stay – these could range from money to opportunities for professional development or even enhanced technical facilities.

As with all change programs, success lies with inspiring people to follow the vision but that inspiration may come with different strokes for very different kinds of folks

If you need the support of a coach in developing your career as change leader or change manager, then get in touch – I’ve been there before you.

Wendy Mason is a Career Coach with Life Coaching skills and expertise in helping people have the confidence they need to be successful at work while maintaining a good work/life balance. You can email her at wendymason
@wisewolfcoaching.com

Be Successful – Making A Personal Change – Part 1 Admit A Change is Needed(wisewolftalking.com)
Career Development – Dealing With a New Boss(wisewolftalking.com)
Job Search – Saying Thank You After The Interview Is A Must(wisewolftalking.com)

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Posted in Leading Change, Managing Change

Tagged Be Successful, career, Career Coaching, Career Development, Career Sucess, change, Change is needed when, Change Management, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Kingston University Business School’s Centre for Research in Employment, coach, Definition, different kinds of engagement, Employment, Engagement, leadership, Leading Change, life coaching, Management, Managing Change, Personal Change, Personal development

The Leader’s Way: Business, Buddhism and Happiness in an Interconnected World – Leadership Lessons from the Dalai Lama

Posted on 14 May 2012 by Wendy Mason | Leave a comment

Effective leadership is an underlying theme throughout the teachings of the Dalai Lama.

International managerial consultant Laurens van den Muyzenberg identified the business leadership undercurrent in the 1990s after he was hired to advise the Dalai Lama.

Realizing the great potential in combining their respective expertise, van den Muyzenberg and the Dalai Lama co-authored The Leader’s Way, applying Buddhism to business practices.

“Most of my clients do face difficult ethical problems,” says van den Muyzenberg, who consults leaders. “It’s hard to find somebody with the kind of ethical prestige that [the Dalai Lama] has.”

Professor C.O. Herkströter, former CEO of Shell and Chairman of the Board of ING wrote this when reviewing the book.

“This book examines capitalism and Buddhism in a fascinating way. Everybody in business who is seriously interested in responsible entrepreneurship will recognise the issues. The book adds a valuable dimension to the values and ethical standards that form the basis for responsible leadership in business.”

The approach represents the synthesis of East and West and provides an inspiring manifesto for business change. The first part of The Leader’s Way two-part message is this: in order to lead, you must understand the reasons for our actions then you can act to solve problems through integrity, respect and sensitivity toward others.

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Posted in Ethics, leadership, Leadership styles, Leading Change

Tagged Buddhism, Change Management, Compassion, Dalai Lama, Empathy, ethics, leadership, Leadership Styles, Leading with Heart, Management

Leaders versus Managers – I think not!

Posted on 2 November 2011 by Wendy Mason | Leave a comment

Leadership versus Management?

On a LinkedIn Group that will be better not named, I saw the following subject suggested for a blog post.

“Leadership vs. Management: Highlights the differences between the task orientation of managers and the inspirational orientation of leaders.”

Now I know what they mean, but I thought how sad! Is one really to be set against the other and is there the difference in value implied?

Yes, at its core, leadership is about creating a vision for the organization and inspiring people to march out into the world to achieve it.

Leadership has fascinated people for many hundreds of years.

As soon as we could organise ourselves into groups we needed a leader. Someone had to decide in which direction to go for the hunt – democracy doesn’t appear to be in-built!

By the time of Plato and Socrates, the qualities required for leadership had become something of an obsession.

Leadership depends on a process of influence through which people are “inspired” to work towards common goals.

So the leader has the vision and inspires us to work together towards something.

So what of management?

Well management too has been around for millennia – try Sun Tzu’s The Art of War written in the 6^th Century BC.

Management gets the job done – it gets us safely to our destination.

Management takes the vision and turns it into a blueprint – something we can create and a real vibrant destination. Management plans, organizes and resources! It creates and nurtures the team for the journey. Management ensures that what is delivered is of the right quality and that we get to our destination intact.

The verb manage comes from the Italian maneggiare (to handle — especially tools), which in turn derives from the Latin manus (hand). The number managed (handled) can range from one person in a small firm to hundreds of thousands in a multinational company.

Managers are artists and craftspeople creating with the most volatile material known, the human spirit.

So next time you think about the task orientation of managers and the “inspirational” orientation of leaders remember this. A president of the United States had the vision that man would go to the moon but it was managers, lots and lots of talented managers, that got us there.

A question!

In my view, managers and leaders need each other. They should not in some way be set against each other. In my experience excellent managers are as scarce as excellent leaders in this world.

Well that is my view, but what do you think?

Wendy Mason works as a Coach, Consultant and Writer.