Managing Change
“Who put this thing together? Me. That’s who! Who do I trust? Me!” Tony Montana, Scarface (1983)
“Either you’re part of the problem or you’re part of the solution or you’re just part of the landscape.” SAM, Ronin (1998)
Last month I wrote about “Continuous Improvement”. Continuous improvement is the cornerstone of Lean practice management. All of “Lean” is geared towards improving your practice on an ongoing basis.
Like any change, the effort to implement continuous improvement is going to take a lot of energy and commitment up front. It will depend upon the compliance of everyone in the practice. So, how do you manage change? How do you make change – and ongoing change, at that – a part of your practice?
I’m pretty sure my experiences with change have been much like yours. Usually one of two things occurs:
1 – We talk about it and then let the chips fall where they may; then we look back and see how it went.
2 – We have meetings and training and pass out reams of paper, or we have consultants come in and we pay them great sums of money to tell us what’s wrong. We use the enthusiasm generated to keep us going for a week or two, then it’s back to the old ways.
Inertia is a strong force and fighting against it can be exhausting and discouraging. Inertia has always been with us. You are not the only one who has had to fight it:
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” Harry Warner, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1929
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” C. Duel, Director U.S. Patent Office, 1899
“Ruth made a big mistake when he gave up pitching.” Tris Speaker, 1921
“Space travel is utter bilge.” Sir Richard van der Riet Wooley, The Astronomer Royal, 1956
There are always going to be naysayers and spoilers in any organization, but as a leader, you will have to either control them or winnow them out of the organization to effect change. You have to decide how important change is to you. If you’re not onboard, forget it. If you are convinced and enthused and have stamina, you can make it work.
What are some effective ways to make change and overcome inertia?
1. Determine as a group that change will be good for the practice. Look at where you are and where you want to be. Discuss the benefits that will accrue for all involved.
2. Make the process collaborative. Don’t manage the change, lead the change. Brain-storm ideas.
3. Consider all the stakeholders. Who will be the most impacted? For whom will the changes be most difficult and what are the difficulties? To whom will it be most beneficial and what will be the benefits? What can you do to help those for whom the change will be most difficult? What are the rewards for helping the changes go smoothly? And: Who or what is most likely to block this change and who or what is most likely to sabotage the change when implemented?
There are five issues to look at to help you obtain adoption and acceptance of change:
1. Relative Advantage: find and outline the economic, personal, and strategic advantages of the new state versus the current.
2. Compatibility: This is where your practice values and goals come into play. Make sure the changes are compatible with these.
3. Complexity: If the desired changes are too complex to explain to those involved, you will fail.
4. Trialability: remember that no answer is perfect. Provide opportunities to try without condemnation for failure.
5. Communicability: The change(s) need to be explainable in a few sentences.
To help your staff “un-freeze” from their current state:
- Create ownership. WIIFM? (What’s in it for me?)
- Make sure some success is achieved initially. Build winners. Tolerate mistakes. Avoid scapegoats
- Allow them to try out changes for fine-tuning. Determine before rejecting an idea if it has potential.
Finally, make sure your organization becomes a learning organization. Leaders always need to remember that people do things for their own reasons, not yours. Re-invent past failures as the successes they were meant to be. Mistakes and their resolution are vital. You only fail when you give up.
Next month: Continuous Improvement Implementation