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Leading Change--Fighting the "New Normal" Contagion (Part I)

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Forgive me this ONE strategic rant; please…I’m speaking for your people!  Somewhere along the way, the good name of Organizational Change, once tied to real business transformation, was co-opted by two enemy tribes:  (a) The Make-it-Work Managers; and (b) The Next-Shiny-Object Executives.  That’s a sad state that leads to misappropriation of resources and a lack of focus resulting in huge opportunity cost and repeated failure with change.  Our teams end up defining change as that condition in which they only take on MORE…not something new and inspiring.  As a result, organizations lose focus, our best talent burns out, and top management loses credibility (in an environment where everything is important, nothing is important!).

Today, in Part I of this post, I’m going to talk about the first enemy tribe—The Make-it-Work Managers.  Everything these days is branded as strategic and critical change.  Organizations are suffering great fatigue.  Blaming a changing world, a global economy, or competitive pressure is a cop-out…not leadership.  Weak leaders spew poorly defined and over-used euphemisms for failed leadership like the following:

• (bad…)  “This path is not sustainable, we HAVE to change;”
• (sad…)  “We’re changing the tires while driving 70 mph;”
• (worse…)  “We’re all doing more with less;”
• (and, the worst…)  “It’s the New Normal…get used to it.”

Why do I call this failed leadership?...Because abdicating responsibility for adaptation to new circumstances and squeezing the last drop of blood from a rock is the poorest organizational strategy that I can imagine—unless you’re General Custer and the time for any strategy and clear thinking is way passed…leaving you only with grit and shooting the enemy while shielded by dead horses and comrades.  Too many organizations I see today are on the brink of complete disenfranchisement and loss of talent. 

Please don’t cite corporate HR B.S. and consultantese like “engagement” to me, friends.  This burn-out risk and opportunity loss that marks many companies today is a risk that is masked by the act of surveying employees about “engagement” when the economy is in a wreck (no options), management has exhausted any real thinking in favor of avoiding risk (no hope), and “lean” has been translated into some odd twist on Marxism like, “Each 1 doing the work of 3, no rest for thee” (no change comin’). 

Think your “engagement” scores are satisfactory?...Here’s a Test:  Ask your BEST employees what ONE resource they would like to have to increase service, productivity, and profit—their answer will NOT be a new organization structure, better corporate communications, or some omnibus technological solution like an ERP system!  (Hint, their answer will likely include more staff, more competent team members, or more hours in the day (a proxy for more human capacity—i.e., more humans)).  It is very likely that even “high” engagement survey outcomes are masking great risk.  Walk into many companies today; you can swing a short stick and knock down an army of committed, but tired, uninspired, and drone-like professionals who are looking for anything but the next change (or the New Normal!).

I am NOT saying it is time to stop growing and transforming companies—not by a long shot.  What I AM saying, is that we must be more selective.  Again, “When everything is important, nothing is important.” (Brian Mulroney, Canadian Statesman, 1939 -   ).  As leaders, how can we expect anyone to follow when we make this their reality? 

Watch for “NEW NORMAL” PARTS II & III at this blog site where I will:

PART II - Identify the threat of Enemy Tribe #2 (The “Shiny New Object” Executives)—how making lots of decisions reveals IN-decision!

PART III – Share the discipline that successful change leaders make to drive necessary focus—versus throwing in the towel and allowing the “new normal” to take their company under siege.

Can leading change by committing to clearly and consistently  focusing on the new (different), not just more, make change efforts more impactful in your organization?...How so?

Read more about Leading Change (…Simply!) on this website:  http://www.lastwordonchange.com.