What Not to Presume About Large-Scale Change

Changing direction, strategy, culture, or approach is difficult in any organization, no matter its size.

Leading a transformation presents a challenge that typically exasperates both leaders and team members.

Best practices for guiding the change come from experts and consultants but are often at odds with what seems logical to leaders.

Leaders commonly trust their own instincts when it comes to introducing and driving the change forward. They often make presumptions about the change process that severely limit their ability to successfully achieve their change goals.

Of the many flawed beliefs leaders commonly hold, four presumptions stand out for their influence in undermining an effective change process.

First on the list is the commonly held belief that the majority of the organization is supportive of the change.

Leaders typically believe there is more support for change than actually exists. This false belief prevents leaders from investing the time and resources needed to create the differences they are after.

The better presumption is that everyone needs to be convinced and engaged with the change, as most will remain skeptical or uneasy until they can visualize the benefits of making the shift.

Another falsehood often embraced by leaders is the idea that the change will take hold and materialize quickly. Organizations of any size are designed with processes and activities that resist change.

Moving to a new way of doing things always takes considerably more time than leaders generally anticipate. Presuming the change will take much longer than expected is the smarter call.

Leaders also naturally presume that team members are rational and willing to be convinced to take a new direction.

Unfortunately, for most people, change is stressful, uncomfortable, and unwanted. People prefer what they know and strongly resist accepting a new path.

While good leaders make the case for the need to change, many team members view change as giving up something dear to them, so they remain hard to persuade.

Effective leaders understand it is persistence, and not just advocacy, that wins the day.

Viewing change as a binary decision is yet another faulty presumption. Leaders often believe people either accept the change or don’t. The more accurate view is that acceptance operates on a continuum between agreement and disagreement.

Even after the change has been implemented, some team members will reject and resist it in any way available to them. Some team members will disengage, while others may openly bad-mouth the change and the leaders who promoted it.

Presuming that not everyone is completely bought in helps leaders recognize that the change process does not have a clear endpoint. Change will take a good, long time. Sometimes years.

This means continuing the education process long after leaders typically believe it is necessary.

As a general rule, people resist big changes. It slaps them in the face, and they often find a way to slap back.

The best leaders approach an organization’s transformation by first understanding that change means movement. And movement inside an organization creates more friction than they can see.

Creating change almost always takes more time, resources, persistence, and education than leaders expect it to. Good leaders buckle in for the long ride of success.