Article A NEW PARADIGM FOR CHANGE MANAGEMENT implementconsultinggroup.com By Anders Baude, Imagine a whole new world where many of our assumptions [email protected] and Harry Wallenholm, about how we manage change are no longer true – where change [email protected], processes are much more condensed and much less unwieldy Implement Consulting Group than the ones we have gotten used to. We think that this is a real possibility and our claim is that resistance to change would be largely reduced in such a world. Four assumptions from the Assumption one: old paradigm Change is a top-down process For many years, we have planned and Change management is often seen as managed change processes by relying a top-down process, where strategic on a number of outdated facts and change initiatives are developed by top assumptions. Some are explicit, while management and subsequently rolled out others are more implicit and may not downwards through the organisation. always be obvious to us, although they The assumption has two historic roots, determine the way that we set up change each of which results in two different processes. Here, we compile the ideas perspectives on managing change: of the old change paradigm into four assumptions. 1. From early history, we see examples of organisations that use a top-down approach to management, i.e. the implementconsultinggroup.com 1 A new paradigm for change management church and the armed forces. Going on Once all the thinking has been completed to the beginning of the 1900s, scientific and packaged, the change activities begin management also developed methods and the broad mass of employees become based on hierarchical structures and involved in the process. top-down management. They devel- oped management models that sepa- Assumption two: rated the control functions from the Change is a linear process implementation functions, where the Another assumption about change is the manager’s role was to lead, manage “planning school”. Here, the belief is that and follow up. In the event of change, change can be planned and managed in a management had explicit responsibility linear process similar to a project with a for analysis, strategy and decision- clear start and end point. The most impor- making on the basis of managers’ tant representative of this school is Kotter knowledge, power and influence in a and his 8-step model. The model is the hierarchical organisation. If there were archetype for a whole raft of subsequent important questions within the organ- change management models and has isation, the best answers were found helped to make change management an at the top. The role of middle managers issue that occupies all top managers. and employees were to implement top management’s decisions. Kotter’s 8-step model brings together the two historical roots of change manage- ment into one process model that is business-driven, project-oriented and 2. In the 1930s, the organisational devel- sequential, but also takes the human side opment movement began conducting of change into account. scientific studies of groups, group processes, development and change. As the name indicates, the model Among its pioneers was well-known describes an 8-step linear process where thought leaders such as Kurt Lewin. most of the “thinking” is done by manage- Looking at a change process, they put ment during the introductory step and emphasis on the ability and power of where the following steps concern how the organisation’s employees and on the planned change programme should the different processes and methods be implemented and how resistance can for engaging and motivating people be overcome. to implement changes. But even this approach was based on the assump- Assumption three: tion that changes are initiated from the Change generates resistance top and will subsequently take place Generally, theory and models relating to at the lower levels of the organisation change management assume resistance and in the later stages of the change from the people who are the target group process. of the planned changes. A central theme be- comes how to overcome the resistance from the people who must change in accordance with what management has decided. Even in today’s change processes, most of the analysis, strategic thinking and plan- The assumption of resistance results in ning is carried out in closed rooms and avoiding resistance being a primary con- involves just a few people who dedicate cern in models, tools and communications themselves to describing (often in detail) on change management. And consequent- and preparing for the future changes. They ly, management training revolves around see their role as analysing reality in order overcoming resistance and persuading to formulate objectives, strategies and people in the target groups of the change change programmes on the basis of the initiative to do their work differently from analyses. how they previously did it and/or to change their attitudes. implementconsultinggroup.com 2 A new paradigm for change management Assumption four: that influence the paradigm of change Change is an issue for HR management. The focus on resistance means that change has become a HR issue. Based on Driving force one: the knowledge and methods of behavioural The exponential pace of change sciences, current change management Almost all businesses are affected by a mainly focusses on the “human side of number of major global trends and drivers. change” – on persuading people to do They represent fundamental changes in something that someone else has decided business logic which are driven primarily on and that has a major impact on their by digitisation, automation and globali- behaviour. The HR responsibility normally sation. This in turn leads to new types concerns the ownership of models, change of behaviour from customers, users and management training for managers and citizens and also to the emergence of new support for managers during the change competitors which are often based on an process. entirely different type of business logic from that of the existing players. In 2016, we conducted a study involving 25 major Swedish and global companies, This changing business logic has a dra- where the majority said that HR was the matic impact on the old change paradigm home of change management in their in two ways in particular: organisation. Only a few of the compa- nies had placed responsibility for change • The sequential, project-oriented management in a different place in the approach is severely challenged by the organisation, and in these cases, it was speed of change. We simply cannot closer to the executive management team. organise our change activities in the traditional way. Instead, we need to Several respondents felt that it was a move much faster. problem having HR as the home of change management. They felt that it resulted in • It is no longer useful to have a clearly too great a distance between the people defined objective for change processes responsible for the strategic issues of the due to the complexity of change and business and those who owned change the high level of innovation. Although it management. may sound irrational, the change jour- ney must be started and taken forward Our study also showed that the use of the without specific objectives. It’s change methods and tools which had been devel- for change’s sake – in a positive sense. oped and agreed on an organisation-wide level often worked well in the case of minor We have reached the stage of what changes organised by middle managers, could be called “hyper-change”. This is perhaps in co-operation with smaller a situation where change is constantly project groups. However, these methods taking place, often at a high speed, and and tools were often less effective in the where renewal is increasingly the result case of major initiatives covering the of innovation. Also, the boundaries and entire organisation, such as digital trans- rules concerning how we run a certain formations or large-scale restructuring type of business are repeatedly called into that is managed centrally. question. Against this background, the old rules of change management no longer apply. They were formulated at a time Five driving forces that call the when change happened at a very different paradigm into question pace and when the future was still to Times have changed. The old paradigm on some extent predictable. change management was developed in different times where the pace of change Driving force two: and the focus of work life was different Everyone knows everything from today. We see five main driving forces In the old change paradigm, it was implementconsultinggroup.com 3 A new paradigm for change management assumed that managers had a greater The wisdom of crowds can and must be knowledge and understanding of the busi- used if businesses are to remain compe- ness than other people in the organisa- titive. The old change model is being tion. While this of course may be the case, called into question and we must be managers’ knowledge advantage has gen- prepared to include far more people much erally decreased significantly over time. earlier in the process. In addition, this enables us to eliminate resistance and This is because: encourage employees to commit to the forthcoming change. • The general level of education has risen dramatically as more and more people Driving force four: go to university. This has increased Unlimited digital communication employees’ ability to understand and Social media and digital platforms have make a contribution to complex issues. changed the way we communicate. Through both channels, we can access a • The knowledge we need is often only large number of people quickly and have a mouse click away on the web.