Change Leadership versus Change Management
Last week’s podcast with Biron Pickens included so many great points! Let’s dig in further on two ideas Biron shared:
Change leadership is leadership
Change management frameworks are a starting point, not the final answer
Change Leadership is Leadership
It can be tempting to assign change management responsibilities to a change lead or to an organizational change management team, having them facilitate the process of equipping the organization to work through a big change. And yet, Biron said:
Change leadership is leadership. Being able to navigate change, being able to support your people, to me, that’s a core component of leadership, just like being able to communicate effectively.
This is such a shift in thinking! He described how his team at McKesson is building changing capacity, rather than simply supporting specific projects with change management expertise and activities. They’re working with people leaders in “building and strengthening their change muscle,” as he described it. But they don’t stop there: the change leadership team is working with employees to expand their change capacity, too, so that they’re all ready for change.
Consider your professional circumstances: can you remember a year when you didn’t have to work through some meaningful change, like adapting to a new teammate or process or technology solution? Change is constant. And yet we don’t want change to happen to us, we want to feel like we have a voice in the change.
Teaching change leadership as a key skill in leadership is equipping people to understand what is at stake for those around them in light of a potential change, address the real and perceived risks of going forward, and providing the knowledge and ability to thrive on the other side of the change. Change leadership is a component of typical leadership rhythms – setting a clear goal and expectations, checking in with people on how they’re progressing, being creative and compassionate as surprises and challenges present themselves along the way, and working together to achieve the goal.
The change part of change leadership includes heightened sensitivity toward the processes, tools, and ways of working that are expected to change for you and your team, navigating that journey together with curiosity and care.
Change Management Frameworks are a Starting Point
Biron also shared that change management frameworks are a big help in working through change, but he recommended that we not overengineer working through the prescribed steps. He urged us to keep it simple and to focus on the humans involved in the change.
He summarized several pearls of wisdom for managing change:
Be present, open, and transparent
Communicate clearly and effectively, and repeat the message more than you think is necessary
Have a vision and see the future, and also take time to get alignment, buy-in, and perspectives
Seek feedback, both on the change and on where your teammates are in their change journey
Each of these contributes to helping teammates feel connected, seen, and heard, which builds trust.
At FlexPoint, we do use change management frameworks to bring structure to our work, but it’s a good reminder that they are a starting point, not the final answer. We start with a change strategy reflecting insights from Prosci’s readiness assessments, and our change plans include working through ADKAR:
Awareness of the need for change
Desire to participate in and support the change
Knowledge of how to change
Ability to demonstrate skills and behaviors related to the change
Reinforcement to sustain change
And yet, the change plan is about people, about changing human behavior. And that means that we need to engage with the people, understand their point of view, and work with them to effect the change.
I’m extra energized to build change capacity in myself and in those around me after hearing the conversation between Michael and Biron. I hope you’ll take some inspiration and ideas from it, too.
