Your Team's License To Make Changes

Change Teams can't use the normal chain of command to make change. If they did, nothing would get accomplished because the Change Team's work threatens the stability of the normal chain of command. So, there must be some mechanism to give them the authority to make the changes they intend, by-passing company bureaucracy.

Change Teams must have great freedom to develop their own initiatives for transformation. But, the team's initiative must also be aligned with the vision the outlined in the Charge for Change. The Change Initiative must adhere to other rules and criteria the organization has adopted to set boundaries and direction for the transformation effort.

To address these challenges, each Change Team must work under a "License to Change" which provides the authority to work only on legitimate initiatives.

A Change Team creates (in writing) its own License to Change. The Change Team's license defines its relationship to the company. In its license, the Change Team declares its Change Initiative legitimate: within the boundaries, rules and criteria set by the organization's leaders. It also identifies where in the company it will focus and who will likely be affected by the team's work.

So, can the Change Team do anything it wants as long as it writes out a License to Change? Not for long. Both Champions and Team Coaches are trained to carefully check a team's license before agreeing to work with the Change Team. They must decline if they believe the initiative is out of bounds. No Champion? No Coach? Then there is no legitimate Change Team. Most faulty licenses will be caught by one or both of these people.

Anyone in the organization has a right to see -- and challenge -- a License to Change (expect strong opponents to do this early on). When someone challenges the team's license, the Change Team should advise its Champion and Team Coach as soon as possible. Then the Change Team must carefully consider the merits of the challenge. If the team decides that it is, indeed, in bounds, it must notify the challenger, and then it can continue with its change work. If the team realizes the challenger is right, it must revise its license to get in-bounds and then get back to the work of change.

Senior Sponsors can always step in and revoke a license they judge to be out of bounds. After all, the authority to transform the company came from them in the first place.

What about Change Initiatives that are in-bounds, but just stupid? Or impossible? Or too expensive? Or way too disruptive? In that case, you can bet a Change Team will find it nearly impossible to get the resources needed to proceed. And, if the Change Team does get the resources, we bet the resistors and the opponents to the initiative will bog it down and stop all progress.

The License to Change works to keep all on-going initiatives headed in the same direction and also helps the Change Team focus its initiative. Typically, a License to Change answers such questions as:

1. What process is to be changed?
2. What are the Success and Failure Indicators?
3. How does the change serve the stockholders?
4. How does the change benefit our customers?
5. How does the initiative advance the mission set forth in the Charge for Change?
6. Who are the Change Team members and what makes the team diverse?
7. How does the initiative stay within the boundaries set by the Senior Sponsors?

Change Teams functioning without a valid license rarely last long. There are just too many people out there who would like to see the team go away.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Veronica Boaz, Heidi Jeanne Hess
and Doug Wesley

Check Point

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