If change feels performative, something upstream has almost always gone wrong.
Change both drives and relies on the Purpose, People and Planning work I’ve posted about previously.
Change is weird. We often view it as unknowable, despite knowing exactly how to do it and exactly what makes it successful. We recognise the breadth of its remit and then bury it under project management. We agree that it’s big, business-altering stuff and then stand back and watch as a small team with no real decision-making authority tries to ‘deliver’ change. Why?
It’s December and you make a New Year’s resolution to ‘get fit’.
You join a gym and buy a new training watch…and fail. There is a reason the gym being full in January and empty by March is a trope.
Or you join a gym, buy a new training watch, engage a personal trainer…
AND prep your training gear the night before…
AND wake up an hour earlier…
AND decide what ‘fit’ means for you…
AND measure your progress…
AND re-assess as you go…
AND eat healthier…
AND do it consistently until it’s habit…
Now you’re changing.
How does this help us?
When new behaviours and ways of working remain front and centre, the change becomes personal and harder for people to disengage from. It includes everyone by default in a way that technology deployment never does. It shifts the story from project delivery, which is easy to outsource, to how I behave and exist at work, which is impossible to outsource.
This is the change mindset that drives success in Purpose, People and Planning.
When it’s ignored, the strategic drivers for the change tend to be ticked off as ‘done’ and the focus switches to delivery of new technology. The new behaviours and ways of working are left to manifest out of thin air. I’ve written some decent comms and delivered some great training in my time, but none that changed behaviour across the entire business.
This is one of the biggest reasons why change is often deemed to have failed.
This mindset also helps us make sensible choices when it comes to change as a practice. This is critical as we often default to a handful of well-known and widely accepted tools and practices, many of which are outdated (Lewin), ineffective in today’s workplace (Kotter, ADKAR) or just plain nonsense (change curves, learning styles).
And, finally, it lays some groundwork for the final two sections in our Readiness Guide – Governance and Technology. When change considers the work environment and associated behaviours and habits, governance and technology decisions become much clearer.
If change feels performative, something upstream has almost always gone wrong: purpose was unclear, the wrong people were left out of the conversation too long or planning focused too much on delivering technology and not enough on changing behaviours.
The Readiness Guide available on our website walks through Change and five other focus areas that determine whether you're delivering a technology project or transforming your business. It's free and it might help you out if you’re stuck.