Make Small, High-leverage Changes Small, high-leverage changes move the organization toward critical mass in transformation at a quicker pace with greater leaps than huge changes. Small changes are quickly implemented and generate less resistance. They can create a ripple effect through the organization. Create enough ripples and pretty soon the organization finds itself in a wave of transformation. Change Agents are trained to search out and develop the small ideas that create those ripples. The art of finding the right small change lies in seeking something called the "tipping point" (New Yorker Magazine, June 3, 1996). The tipping point is the instant at which a series of small actions create an unstoppable change in a larger system. At that point, the whole system begins changing and keeps on until it cannot change anymore. Here's a simple experiment to learn about the tipping point. Place a water glass on a flat surface where it won't slide. Put your finger one-third of the way down the outside of the glass and add some pressure. You'll see the edge of the bottom lift off the surface, but, if you remove your finger, the glass will rock back into its upright position. (You could see this as a change that didn't stick.) Now, with just one finger, place enough pressure on the glass so that it balances on a small part of its bottom edge; then add a tiny bit more pressure. The glass falls over. You have found the tipping point. The glass in this example represents your organization's complex web of systems and beliefs and processes that keep it from adapting to real world pressures, customer demands, competitors' advantages, stockholder requirements or employee needs. If you want to see the glass as your company's culture, fill it with artifacts from the past: a service pin with an outdated logo, old business cards, mementos of former leaders, ancient photos of company functions. What else would you add? Recently, we walked into the executive offices of a high-technology company and were surprised to see a 15 year-old typewriter near a secretary's state-of-the art computer. When asked about the typewriter, the secretary said, "We have to use it to fill out these forms." The forms she held were emblazoned with the logo of the company's former owner. These are artifacts of the past. The problem is that the "glass" that is your organization's culture might as well weigh as much as a mountain. A single Change Agent or Change Team -- even a powerful Sr. Sponsor -- will never move this mountain. You must look for small parts of the old system that CAN be moved by a team in a matter of weeks. Which ones? The ones that are already so imbalanced and unstable that a little push dumps them over. When the team accomplishes that, it quickly implements its reinvention plan. When scores of Change Teams are doing the same thing, the old order in your company soon reaches its own tipping point. How do you find small, unstable processes? Look for a way of doing work that nobody likes. Find a small process that consistently fails to satisfy customers and that employees hate performing and that wastes the stockholders' resources and that managers see as a pain in the neck. When you do this, you have found a process with little support, a process that may be near its tipping point. This may be the easiest process to change. If you have done a good job choosing the process to tip over, no one would think of refilling the glass with old, useless stuff. To get an idea of the resistance or opposition a proposed change will encounter, look for the elements of support enjoyed by the current way of working. If everyone but the customers hate the process, the customers will oppose your change (and they will probably quickly find allies). If everyone but the managers hate the process (or its byproducts or its results), then the managers involved will oppose you (and will use their authority to battle you). You may see resistance as someone else's finger (or several people's fingers) responding to your pressure on the glass. If the opposing finger is high on the glass (high leverage), you may find yourself in a stalemate, making no progress toward change. If your opposition's pressure is placed low on the glass, it could even help speed the change you intend. Change Agents select processes to change that are near their tipping points and have little support. Champions help Change Agents and Change Teams determine the leverage of opponents. Champions and Change Teams react to surprises and changes in the power of resistance as the change is implemented. Written by: Heidi Jeanne Hess and Doug Wesley (Veronica Boaz contributed, James Lloyd edited) Check Point (Please complete and submit the Form below) When
you are finished Updated: October 20, 1997 |
