The Five Myths of Organizational Change—Myth #4 – Change is a specialty—you can hire experts to make it happen
I am about to irritate some very good people. They may even feel like I am betraying “my kind”. But what I hope to do here is share some realities that require reframing of what we do. The “We” in question here are those of us engaged in change or transformation for a living.
If this is your area of expertise and passion, yes, I am one of you. And I am concerned about what we most often do or are asked to do. When organizations talk about change, they talk about it like it is just another function that can operate somewhat independently like finance or sales. And we respond to decisions made with “change plans” or operate as “transformation leaders” for a transformation that has already been decided upon.
But that isn’t working.
We live and work in a world of increasing specialty (maybe specialness too, but here I am talking about specializing)—and this is our go-to approach to complex work. We value being able to find the best person or people to handle specialized tasks, set them loose, and assume the sum of the parts equals the whole. But, if change is individual, if change is about leadership changing first, if change is about engaging in dialogue (across the organization) on the right questions, then an expert specialist cannot do that. They are not us; they are them.
They are not leaders; they are hired by them.
They do not spread dialogue to everyone, they focus it to a small group of “experts”.
Change is not a system to be implemented or a process to be outlined. In the digital age we now live it, change is the number one job of our leaders (and our people) we can’t outsource it. If change is about “us” how can we think we can give it to “them”? We can be change and transformation specialists, but it is in our early engagement and development of the change skills of others that we contribute best. Our role after that is facilitation of others new skills not application of our skills in its stead.
Moving from the transactional “doing” to the learning and support of others is where we should focus.Working ourselves out of a role by democratizing change across an organization is what is needed.But, don’t worry my change peeps, we’ve a long time before that work is done and organizations need you (and me) now more than ever, if we can just reframe how we help.
Love to hear your thoughts, please hit "reply" to let me know.
Michael
Did someone forward this blog to you? Click here to subscribe my newsletter to transform yourself and your organization, for good.
► Connect with my social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelleckie_/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/leckiemichaelj
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leckie.michael/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjleckie/
⚡️Sign up for my Newsletter to receive free resources created for leaders like you:
https://skilled-maker-4688.ck.page/80dfca02ca
👇 Subscribe to my Youtube Channel 👇
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCofZXUpjyJies7QwKNkhiCQ