If you want organization change to stick, you need someone with authority to take ownership of the change.

 

When they take ownership, they tend to want to do it their own way, or at least add their personal stamp to it.

Being a change agent ultimately means letting go of what you are trying to implement in order for it to actually happen.  If the new state requires your presence for it to continue, then nothing has really changed.

What might you do to give up control of your change initiative to someone who can carry it forward?

The Ten Essential Tools include personal influence and structural influence methods, plus a focused foundation that every change agent needs to start with.  If your change initiative is stalled, use the Ten Tools as a checklist to see what areas might be in need of a boost.

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If you prefer to read a small synopsis of the list, see the previous post Ten Essential Tools for Change Agents.  However, you will miss out on a special offer that is presented at the end of the show!

1.  Change Knowledge

Change agents are the people in their organizations who understand how change works – or at least how it is supposed to work.  Your own change knowledge helps you know what to expect and understand what is really happening.  When the initiative is stuck in a rut, your knowledge helps you generate ideas for what to do next.

2.  Clarity

A lot is said about the importance of a clear vision.  In addition to making sure leadership has a vision and that it is clear, change agents also assess current reality and identify the barriers that stand in the way of achieving the vision.

3.  Your Role

When used correctly, your role as change agent can be a powerful tool.  As trusted advisor, you help leaders fill in the gaps to ensure that change happens.  It is necessary to strike a balance of ownership of the initiative and to manage relationships.

4.  Power

People who have power are able to take action, make decisions that affect other people, model behavior and open minds.  Since change agents don’t have direct authority, they need to build up indirect authority to influence others.

5.  Leadership Support

Also, since you don’t have direct authority as a change agent, you need to gain a partner who does have it.  When you have leadership support, you need to make sure it manifests as behaviors and activities that drive the change forward.  If you don’t have support, you will eventually need to get it.

6.  Conversations

The one-on-one conversations you have as a change agent will help get beyond fear and develop mutual understanding.  Conversations are a means of providing feedback and preserving relationships.  The most important conversations are the ones you don’t really want to have.

7.  Meetings

Most meetings are seen as drudgery, or necessary evils; however, when effective they can be a key means of moving a change initiative forward.  Whether you are meeting with a project team, a leadership team, or a work group or a steering committee, your job as the change agent is to make sure people are collaborating for results.

8.  Accountability

Without having direct authority, you will most likely not hold people accountable yourself.  As a change agent, your responsibility is to make sure a system of accountability is in place.

9.  Incentives

Although incentives can be tricky because they frequently have unintended consequences, effective change agents find ways to motivate desired behaviors or results.  The best motivation techniques are not external rewards but psychology-based nudges in the right direction.

10.  Communication

Some say the first law of change is communicate, communicate, communicate.  To be more specific, the key activity for change agents is to get the appropriate message to the right person and to have them do something about it.

Whether you are executing strategy, implementing technology, designing process improvements, or transforming culture, your role as change agent is fraught with challenges.  Use these ten tools to help navigate them successfully.

For a more in-depth look at the 10 Essential Tools, check out:

• The 10 Essential Tools webinar
• The INflux Change Agent Network

Not only do organizational leaders have the power to make or break your project on their own, but it is impossible to bypass them to change the organization below.  Individuals experiencing change will look to those in power for confirmation that they are committed to the new way of doing things.  It is under intense scrutiny that leaders are watched to see if their actions match their intentions.  If not, the change initiative will be dismissed as “flavor of the month” and not taken seriously.

Amid all this doom and gloom, there is a bright side.  You don’t have to settle for the level of leadership support you currently have.  As fellow human beings, leaders are capable of being informed and influenced.

Take the following steps to determine how to best garner the support of the most influential people in your organization.

1) Identify “Leadership”
When we use the term “leadership,” it typically means the group of people whose titles reside at the top of the org chart.  However, the list may be different for the transformation you are trying to achieve.  Start by identifying all individuals who might have a strong impact on the success of your initiative, including decision makers and influential employees who do not have leadership titles.

The key is to decouple the nebulous term “Leadership” from the names of individuals who can impact your project.  Since each leader has her own opinions, knowledge and motivations, it is important to treat leaders as individuals, and not as a faceless leadership group.

2) Assign Levels of Support
Before you can garner support for your initiative from your leadership list, consider that there are different levels of support.  Buy-in is the minimum amount of support required to be called support at all.  There are two other levels that rise beyond buy-in on the support continuum.

• Ownership:  An initiative owner takes personal responsibility for the success or failure of the initiative.  He plans, communicates and holds people accountable for task completion.
• Commitment:  Leaders who are committed to your initiative demonstrate it by taking action in favor of it.  They do not own the project per se, but they do their part to make it happen.
• Buy-in:  In the game of poker, “buy-in” is the amount you pay just to join the game.  When you have someone’s buy-in, it means she may agree with you, but may not act on it.
• Neutral:  These are the people who don’t really care about your initiative either way.  They either are not affected or are just along for the ride.
• Opposition:  Unfortunately, there will be people who don’t agree with your initiative.  There are different levels of opposition, from relatively benign disagreement to downright belligerent and argumentative.

Identify where on this support spectrum each leader is currently and where he needs to be in order for your initiative to succeed.  Then prioritize which leaders have the most support to raise, and thus which leaders need the most attention from you.

3) Specify Requirements
Different levels of support require different roles from leaders.  Determine what is required of individual leaders and in what ways each must change in order to demonstrate the support you need.

Each leader is in a unique position in the organization.  They make decisions, talk to others, and influence followers.  Your initiative would be more successful if they performed specific activities, exhibited certain behaviors, and conveyed and ideally held key attitudes.  These facets reflect the desired level of support for each individual.

To further define support for each leader, identify what you need her to start doing differently.  Also list what you want her to keep doing, and what you need her to stop doing.  In this fashion, you will specify a gap between her current activities, behaviors and attitudes and the desired ones.

4) Diagnose The Gap
Based on the requirements you determine, identify what factors are standing in the way of the full support you need.
The reasons leaders do not show support generally fall into six categories.

• Information:  The leader may lack knowledge of the details of the project, such as benefits.  Also, he may not know what is expected of him.
• Skills:  Some change initiatives require leaders to learn new skills and abilities.
• Motivation:  The project or the necessary behaviors may not be aligned with what the leader considers to be her best interests, or to the interests of what is important to her.
• Power:  When a leader is not allowed (real or perceived) to show the desired support there is a power gap.  Culture and feared repercussions are examples of power factors to explore.
• Fear:  Change involves an inherent risk.  Leaders may experience a number of different fears related to your initiative, which they may or may not express directly to you.
• Resources:  A frequent excuse or complaint is that leaders don’t have enough time or resources to take on or become involved in another project.  While this may be true, lack of resources is an easy excuse that may also hide any of the above reasons.

5) Design Action Steps
The last step is to make an action plan by closing the gaps you identified in the fourth step.

Provide information and training where necessary.  Develop incentives and work with leaders to understand how to reframe the project to fit with their personal motivation.  Map power gaps to the source and develop interventions to close them.  To reduce fear, reduce the real or perceived risk.  By clarifying your requirements and expectations you will pinpoint the appropriate steps to raise leadership support for your change initiative.

If you like this approach, you might also be interested in:

• Four Ways to Boost Your Organizational Power
• Tips for Leading a Successful Transformation
• The Beyond Buy-in Workbook

You are responsible for influencing the organization, usually without the direct authority to do so.

Leaders are quick to delegate ownership to you, even though they are the ones who really need to own the project. Although it’s much easier to maintain control if you handle things yourself, if the organization sees you as the project champion instead of the leaders, they will not take it as seriously.

On the other hand, try to guide (manipulate?) leaders too much into doing what you want and they will resist being a puppet.

So the ultimate change agent’s dilemma might be this:  How do you balance control and influence?

Fortunately, power is not something you can buy or take. It can only be given to you by others. Follow these four ways to earn more organizational power.

Shore Up Your Integrity
When it comes to leading change, your integrity is your most important characteristic. If you are not credible or trustworthy, you won’t earn the power needed to make change happen. When people know they can count on you, they give you the authority to take on responsibility and make decisions that affect them.

The only way to increase your integrity is to not do things that destroy it. Keep your promises, and match your actions to your words. Refrain from saying things that reduce your trustworthiness, like talking about others in their absence. Tell people the truth, even if the answer is, “I don’t know.” It might be helpful to partner with someone who can observe you at work and let you know when you do things that might be decreasing your integrity.

Increase Your Visibility
The more people see you and your cause for change, the more power you will have just by gaining attention. As you tap into a broader network, you will gain supporters, even detractors, but when they see you as the champion of the cause you will solidify your personal brand as a change advocate. Attention is power.

You also want leaders to take notice. To increase your visibility with them, schedule meetings, make presentations, and speak up. When management gives you their time and attention, they are giving you the opportunity to influence them. Take advantage of the power they are lending you in that moment.

Exercise the Power You Already Have
You probably have latent power that you are not using. Not using power you have is as useful as not having it at all. The following are examples of power that everyone has, but not everyone uses.

• Time. You exercise power by what you spend your time on. It’s the only finite asset that you have.
• Knowledge. Remember the old adage, “Knowledge is power.” Share your knowledge and skills with others.
• Attitude. A recent study showed that happiness is contagious. You have the ability to influence others by choosing your own attitude.
• Responsibility. You carry power in the tasks you personally manage. Take on more responsibility, and earn more power.

When you exercise power generously, it multiplies. Advocate for others in your organization who have less power than you, and they will give it back in return.

Ask For it
In some organizations more than others, power comes from having a title. If that is the case in your organization, ask for that promotion or title change! You might just get it. At the same time, don’t let not having a title be an excuse for not exercising the power you have.

Leaders can also bestow power to you by acknowledging your expertise and ownership of the project. Their attention and empowerment legitimize your efforts. If you feel like you need more support in one form or another, you might need to ask for it. Leaders may not automatically consider providing that for you, especially if it means giving up some of their own power and authority.

The goal of these four ways to boost power is of course not to gain power itself. Once you have more power, then it is up to you to figure out how best to use it to make change happen in your organization.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also like:

• How to Get Beyond Leadership Buy-in
• Four Steps to Light a Fire (Organization)