“Change agent” is overused. It’s simply a euphemism for leadership today. Organizational change today is a constant, leader-driven process, not a succession of singular events.
We forget that change is an ongoing cumulative process. After we plow through those initial, successful movements toward our change goal, we believe that we can expect the same level or pace of change in the future. We then become disappointed when our next “snapshot” or measurement of change doesn’t measure up to the first.
“What the heck happened?” we ask…
A large healthcare provider was concerned about the costs associated with a particular region of facilities. What became apparent was that the costs associated with clinical employee turnover–both direct, tangible dollars as well as those less obvious indirect costs–were weighing heavily on the organization. Reducing this turnover, then, became the focus of our initial work. Like all such efforts, we made really big strides at the beginning; low hanging fruit was summarily picked, then held as an expectation for future results.
Of course, when the pace of turnover reduction slowed, many began grumbling, and questioned the success–even the need–for these ongoing efforts.
This negative thinking after initial gains is common, and a mistake. A big mistake.
All organizational change efforts are cumulative, and our expectations–and the expectations of those participating in the change–must be adjusted to match those cumulative (realistic) measures.
I can best describe with a visual:
If we define our entire change goal in percentage terms, then you’ll notice in the graphic above that after the first year, we had achieved about 75% of our total objective.
Not too shabby, eh? Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back just yet…
Those initial, big results are not surprising. Actually, once we dig in and really get behind a change process–and defeat the near-omnipotent inertia–the first weeks/months/year(s) tend to show the greatest movement toward our objective.
Think low-hanging fruit mentioned earlier. Think, “united against a common enemy.”
Too frequently, we give up or decrease our efforts and focus after an initial burst of successful change. We overcome the hardest part of any change – inertia – then don’t follow through after we make those initial gains.
Years ago, my son was in middle school and struggling somewhat with a particular subject. He would seldom study much for the tests, and not surprisingly, his grade reflected his effort. Prior to one particularly important test, I clamped down on him, making him diligently study over a couple of days for the upcoming examination. Returning home from school that day, he was visibly upset with me, saying, “I don’t know why you me study so much—the test was easy!”
He couldn’t get his mind around the fact that it was the changed behavior that brought the different results.
We overcome the more obvious obstacles, changing the most egregious (but changeable) offending behaviors. Because, of course, we all knew what/who those were anyway. Making immediate change, then, is more a matter of resolve than effort.
Not so for later efforts to continue that change.
In the visual above, you’ll notice that Year 2 resulted in “only” 10% of our total change effort. Quite a downer from Year 1, right? We usually think so, but we shouldn’t.
If we changed 75% the first year, and only had 25% of the total change remaining, we actually accomplished about 40% of the remaining change in Year 2. Again, not too shabby, but we tend to view it more as the 10% instead of the greater 40%. And that depresses us.
Disappointment, disillusionment, and frequently, lack of continued focus often sets in. Don’t let that happen. Realize again, that:
- organizational change is an ongoing, cumulative process,
- we usually beat up on all the easy stuff first, so it looks like we’ve made big, honkin’ progress at the beginning,
- lasting change comes from long-term efforts, not short-term programs, and
- if we allow ourselves to “backslide,” reclaiming that same ground again is a helluva lot harder than the first time.
Stay the course. Measure efforts “from start,” not from “last measurement.” Remember that, like in golf, the goal is consistent forward progress, not always consecutive home runs.
And my sincerest apologies for mixing my sports metaphors. Just making sure you’re paying attention…
