The 3 Degrees of Change

One of the first steps in initiating and managing change is to acknowledge the reality that change is a leadership issue. The leadership of change begins with a reading of reality and a determination to respond to it effectively and responsibly. Since change doesn't occur in a vacuum and always happens within a cultural context, the key task of the leader is to know and understand their own organizational character and culture.

The leader must know the institutional story, its historical trajectory over time, and what in the story conveys the organization's code of change management. The code can unlock key changes the organization has experienced and show how it responded and the impact on the organization. Determining the code of change helps to assess the internal organizational capacity - strengths upon which to build and weaknesses that need to be eradicated or in some way compensated for.

Leaders of change are not just historians; they are analysts. Once they understand the past they can articulate an assessment and a plan for how to best proceed. This plan is a first draft blueprint for change that clearly explicates what initiated the change and what the intended purposes, goals, and the processes are for achieving success. A thorough organizational assessment and analysis can also reveal the degree of change being proposed and how those affected are most likely to respond.

Degrees Of Change

Not all change is of the same degree. Culture is complex and the effective leader of change needs to determine how to match the type of change with the level of their organization's culture. There are primarily, three degrees of change:

1. Cosmetic: Cosmetic changes occur at the artifactual level of culture and focus on visible external issues, i.e., signage, publication and dissemination of annual reports, selection of furniture, physical renovation, etc.
   
   
2. Structural: Structural changes occur at the organizational level of culture and affect how work is accomplished in internal operations, communications, and staffing relationships within the organization. Examples include the redeployment of staff, the addition or reduction of resources, an increase or decrease in employees, the acquisition and use of new technology, a change in leadership (especially when the latter involves a redistribution of control or power within a system).
   
   
3. Philosophical: Philosophical changes occurs at a deep level of an organization's culture, where the origins of identity, purpose and/or core values reside. The fundamental and underlying assumptions within an organization are created and reinforced here. Philosophical change reexamines and questions their existence and value. These underlying assumptions are often unconscious but greatly influence an organization's behavior. Because this level of culture is the bedrock of organizational character it can be the most difficult to change.

In sum:

Change and Culture®:

The leader of change discovers and ensures the appropriate match between type of change and level of culture. This knowledge determines the most effective strategies for initiating and managing change. The leader must assess an organization's capacity, readiness, and skill level.

Aligning Types of Change and Levels of Culture

For transformative change, a leader may find it prudent to begin with several cosmetic or structural interventions as preparation.

Philosophical change asks more of the business - it requires the company to trust its leaders, to possess adaptive skills, and to support and comprehend the business' overall vision and direction. The deeper levels of organizational culture demand a higher level of consultative skills. Changes in these areas benefit most from bringing someone in from an outside perspective to reduce a leader's blind spots and provides him with a broader picture.

An inaccurate or incomplete assessment and analysis by an organization's leadership can cause an intervention that sends the wrong messages. The use of cosmetic changes at the philosophical level of culture can create the impression that the leaders are, at best, out of touch or in denial and, at worst, insincere and/or inept. This is sometimes why change efforts fail even though good intent and great effort was expended in the process.

Whatever the level at which change is introduced, the leader's task is to ensure that as much alignment and congruence as possible exists between the types of change and the levels of culture. This engenders trust in leadership, and enables those being asked to change to leave their comfort zone and take the necessary risks to achieve organizational transformation.

Throughout this article I have placed the responsibility of leading and managing change on the leader or on leadership in an organization. Organizational change at any level, especially at the Structural and Characterological level, requires a team of leadership.

Ki ThoughtBridge helps organizations build lasting internal leadership capacity, one's that are able to engage in the adaptive work of leading change. The more that adaptive leadership is dispersed throughout an organization, the higher the chances of success in achieving transformational change. Utilizing the eyes and ears of a leadership team at all levels can increase the accuracy and comprehensiveness of organizational assessment and successful interventions.

Organizations that value and invest in the skill of assessment - reading reality truthfully - are more likely to develop effective processes and strategies for leading change. An honest appraisal of organizational reality is the gateway to organizational greatness; and it begins with leadership.