Lead don’t just Manage change

I’m talking about how to lead during resistance to change. I was inspired by watching TV, honestly, all the protests going on in the world today, and I can’t help but thinking that the less you are a part of the change, the less you are a part of what’s going or have a decision in what’s happening, the more you want to resist.

It’s very common that the leaders/managers say to me “I have this idea that I want to get installed in our organization, but I need to get my people to think it’s their idea first” the base is that now they will like the idea. That, to me, is more manipulation and maybe not so sustainable over time. What we want instead is to include the people who do the work in the solution, which means that they create their own solutions. They all understand the solutions and will sustain them. People are less likely, much less even, to resist a change they are involved in. Maybe when you are facing resistance in change, it’s not the people you’re working with that is the problem, maybe it’s the process you’re using. The secret is to include the people in the solution, less resistance, much easier and they will care for it.

For the change/improvement to be giving you the right results there are more to it than to get ideas implemented. What you want to do over time is to reduce/eradicated your losses. The definition of a loss is “Everything outside of ideal”. Focusing on losses ensures you act on what’s is causing the lack of performance. Ideas is not necessarily focusing on better performance; how do you know if you don’t start by understanding the loss?

We’re building a process of change. A process that becomes the engine that keeps running and constantly build a momentum for the future. The process is built around the people in the organization, all of them, total unity. That’s what makes change processes work together with the focus on losses. This is The Game Changer…

 

Johan Majlov, Founder and CEO Lean Dimensions International

LetsDoIt@askldi.com