DISCUSSION In Chapter 11 of your textbook, you read the top ten factors that can lead to the initiative decay and the eight sets of actions to ensure sustainable change. Discuss the validity of these

CHAPTER 12 Chapter 12

The Effective Change Manager: What Does It Take?

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

LO 12.1 Recognize the nature and significance of the contributions of change managers at all levels of an organization, regardless of their formal roles or responsibilities.

LO 12.2 Appreciate the challenges and rewards that accompany performing a change management role.

LO 12.3 Identify the competencies in terms of the skills, knowledge, and other attributes that are ideally required to be an effective change manager.

LO 12.4 Understand the significance of political skill to the role and effectiveness of change managers.

LO 12.5 Develop an action plan for improving your own change management capabilities.

Lisa Cash Hanson, blogger and digital marketer

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LO 12.1 Change Managers: Who Are They?

This chapter explores the skills, knowledge, and other attributes that are required to design and implement change. First, we identify those who carry out these responsibilities, as this can involve significant numbers of people. Senior management, the chief executive or chief transformation officer, sometimes drives change, but this is rarely a solo performance. Some organizations create change support or delivery units (Wylie and Sturdy, 2018). Typically, many members of an organization, from across all levels, can be involved in initiating, encouraging, catalyzing, facilitating, and contributing to the implementation of change. That involvement does not have to mean a formal management job title. There may even be circumstances in which a formal title could be a barrier to getting support and instead stimulate suspicion and distrust. Having identified who an organization’s change managers are likely to be, we then consider what kind of role this is, in terms of the challenges and rewards. We will then explore the competency requirements, one of which concerns political skill, “street smarts,” “savvy,” or political astuteness (Buchanan and Badham, 2020).

Champions, Deviants, and Souls of Fire

Several terms have been used to describe change managers and change agents, suggesting the nature of the role and the kinds of people and capabilities involved. These terms are summarized in table 12.1. Some offer clues about those who become change managers: catalysts, champions, deviants, evangelists, generators, shapers, sparks, and “souls of fire,” which comes from the Swedish word eldsjälar meaning “driven by burning enthusiasm” (Stjernberg and Philips, 1993). Motivation and commitment matter as much as technical and professional capabilities.

TABLE 12.1

Other Names for Change Managers

These labels suggest that change relies on the complementary contributions, advice, and support of a number of different people. Some accounts suggest that change depends on transformational leaders—senior, powerful, visionary, charismatic individuals, who diagnose the organization’s problems and implement solutions single-handed. However,Page 389 as we will see, transformational leadership has a “dark side,” and there are advantages in allowing middle managers to take the lead in implementing both small- and large-scale initiatives.

Changing from the Top

With the perception that the pace of change was accelerating in the second half of the twentieth century, the role of heroic, powerful, visionary, charismatic leaders came to be seen as vital. These are senior management “superheroes” who orchestrate the large-scale organizational changes that global trends appear to dictate. James McGregor Burns (1978) described transformational leaders as charismatic individuals who inspire others to perform “beyond contract.” Transactional leaders, in contrast, manage relationships with followers in terms of trade, swaps, or bargains; this style is more appropriate in less complex, stable business environments. It has been argued, therefore, that the three main roles of transformational leaders are recognizing the need for revitalization, creating a new vision, and institutionalizing change (Tichy and Devanna, 1986). For Bass and Avolio (1994), transformational leadership involves “the Four Is”:

Intellectual stimulation. Encourage others to see what they are doing from new perspectives.

Idealized influence. Articulate the mission or vision of the organization.

Individualized consideration. Develop others to higher levels of ability.

Inspirational motivation. Motivate others to put organizational interests before self-interest.

As the pressures for major organizational change have intensified, the notion of transformational leadership remains popular today. A Google search for the term “transformational leadership” returns almost 36 million results. There are many leadership development programs based on the concept. In addition, charisma, which is at the heart of transformational leadership, can be learned (Cabane, 2013).

Find on YouTube, “Olivia Fox Cabane—Build your personal charisma” (2017, 44 minutes).

On the following pages, read our accounts of three twenty-first-century leaders, Tricia Griffith (Progressive insurance), Chip Bergh (Levi Strauss), and Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber). Are they transformational leaders? What other terms would you use to describe their styles? What aspects of their approaches to change leadership do you think you should copy in your own work? Do leaders have to be “transformational” to implement transformational change successfully?

If charismatic leaders inspire others, then more charisma is surely better. Vergauwe et al. (2018) challenge this claim. They defined charismatic leadership in terms of four personality tendencies: bold, mischievous, colorful, and imaginative. In behavioral terms, charismatic leaders are likely to challenge the status quo, take risks, and be self-confident, captivating, expressive, extraverted, energetic, optimistic, inspirational, and creative. Are charismatic leaders always effective? The researchers gathered information on 306 leaders in an international aerospace company. Subordinates, peers, and superiors assessed thePage 390 effectiveness of these leaders. The leaders themselves completed a self-assessment to get a “charisma score.” This study found that:

More experienced leaders saw themselves as more effective and were perceived as more effective by subordinates and superiors.

Leaders with higher charisma scores rated themselves as more effective.

Subordinates, peers, and superiors rated leaders with low and high charisma scores as less effective than leaders with moderate levels of charisma.

This research contradicts the “more is better” principle. Charisma is a strength. But it can be a weakness when bold, mischievous, colorful, and imaginative behaviors are seen by others as attempts to overwhelm, intimidate, and manipulate. In other words, too much charisma confirms the “too much of a good thing” (TMGT) principle.

Since the concept was first introduced, transformational leadership has been widely seen as a positive, desirable approach—as a solution to the problem of driving major organizational changes quickly and successfully. Increased job satisfaction, employee well-being, and lower sickness absence can also result from transformational leadership. However, transformational leaders have been accused of generating too much change, leading to management and staff burnout. One commentator calls transformational leaders “a dangerous curse” (Khurana, 2002). Leaders who adopt this approach often put their followers under pressure to perform “above and beyond the call of duty.” Are the outcomes for employee well-being always positive? Does transformational leadership have a “dark side”?

Tricia Griffith and Change at Progressive

Founded in 1937, Progressive, based in Mayfield, Ohio, is America’s third largest auto insurance company, also covering motorcycles, boats, RVs, and commercial vehicles. Progressive used to sell home insurance through other companies, but in 2015 it acquired the home insurance company ASI to “bundle” auto and home insurance for customers more effectively.

Tricia Griffith was appointed chief executive in 2016, having worked for the company for 30 years. She is not a typical holder of this role. There are very few CEOs who started work as an entry-level employee in the same company (she began as a trainee claims adjuster), and she was one of only 24 female chief executives of Fortune 500 firms. Senior colleagues say that she is good at encouraging teamwork, and she has rapport with frontline staff (having worked on the front line herself), often joining groups of employees at random for lunch on a Friday.

Traditional insurance companies are not known for their dynamic organizational cultures. Griffith set out to change the culture at Progressive, which now is “not only inclusive and inspiring, it’s—dare we say—exciting,” with hackathons, innovation groups, and employee-run experimental labs (Jenkins, 2018, p. 126). In 2018, Progressive was nominated by Fortune magazine as one of the Best Places to Work in America.

Since Griffith took over, sales have grown steadily, to $30 billion in net premiums in 2018, up from $20 billion in 2015. Sales growth has been faster than that of either Apple or Microsoft. In 2018, the share price rose 50 percent and profits doubled. Griffith likes to “set audacious goals” around key projects and investments. The number of “bundle” auto and home insurance customers increased over two years from 400,000 to 1 million, following an unsuccessful decade trying to grow this business.

Griffith invested in artificial intelligence, introducing in 2017 an innovative mobile app that uses analytics that calculate drivers’ premiums based on their driving style. This allowed Progressive to capture 1.5 millionPage 391 miles of driving data, which have been used to develop an algorithm to measure distracted driving, helping the company to better understand risks and losses in this sector. Also in 2017, the home insurance business launched a “HomeQuote Explorer” tool, so that customers could compare quotes from different companies.

Progressive faces two future challenges. One is climate change, which will affect home insurance. The other is self-driving vehicles, which could reduce demand for auto insurance. But Griffith says, “The world is changing, so we have to change with it” (Jenkins, 2018, p. 127).

What image or images of the change manager does Tricia Griffith adopt? What capabilities and attributes make Tricia Griffith a successful change manager?

Find on YouTube, “Progressive moves in 2019: One-on-one with CEO Tricia Griffith” (2019, 3:21 minutes).

Nielsen and Daniels (2016) studied the leadership of groups of postal workers in Denmark, looking at sickness absence rates over three years. They found that transformational leaders had groups with higher sickness absence rates and that groups with higher levels of “presenteeism” (coming to work and working excess hours even when unwell) had even higher levels of sickness absence rates. Leaders with a transformational style may therefore increase sickness absence among healthy employees. Vulnerable employees may also be encouraged to work when they are not well, and this self-sacrifice could lead to more sickness absence in the long run.

Chip Bergh and Change at Levi’s

Founded in 1853, and based in San Francisco, Levi Strauss & Co. is one of America’s oldest companies, best known for its denim jeans. Chip Bergh took over as CEO in 2011. Sales in 2010 were $4.5 billion, down from $7 billion in 1997. Bergh said, “When I decided to accept the CEO role, I saw it as a noble cause. I wanted to leave a legacy and make the company great again.”

Bergh first spent an hour with each of the top 60 executives, asking them four questions: “What are three things we should not change? What are three things we must change? What’s one thing you’re hoping I’ll do? What’s one thing you’re afraid I may do?” He discovered that the company had no clear strategy; people were working on different things. He also found that most employees thought the company was performing really well. Bergh explained that the company was underperforming and that this was an opportunity to do better. The challenge was to be contemporary, while exploiting the company’s heritage, in a business where product lines change every six months.

Early in his tenure, Bergh replaced 9 of the 11 members of the top management team. In his second month in the job, during a visit to Bangalore, Bergh arranged “in-home” meetings with customers to learn about lifestyle and interests. One young woman showing him the various pairs of jeans that she wore said, “You wear other jeans, but you live in Levi’s.” “Live in Levi’s” became the company’s advertising slogan. But the company also had to increase revenue and profits. Bergh’s strategy had four “memorable and easy to understand” components:

Build the profitable core. Eighty percent of profits came from men’s denim jeans and Dockers (a brand of khaki garments); market share was high, but sales growth was slow.

Expand. Market share in women’s clothing was low, and sales were falling, especially in developing markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China); people usually buy three or four tops to every bottom, but at Levi’s, the numbers were the opposite, and this was a growth opportunity.Page 392

Become a leading omnichannel retailer. Levi’s had 2,700 stores and online sales direct to customers (DTC). However, most sales were through department stores where margins were lower, and the brand was not always well presented. Levi’s had to grow sales in its own stores and online, recognizing that the latter were becoming increasingly important.

Achieve operational excellence. Bergh wanted to cut costs, become more data driven, and generate surplus to invest in technology and innovation. With a $2 billion debt, Levi’s was spending more on interest payments than on advertising.

Levi’s had an innovation lab in Turkey, but the designers were in San Francisco. In 2013, against the advice of his chief financial officer, Bergh moved the lab close to the company headquarters. The lab’s first success was a line of women’s “athleisure” wear, using a new type of soft, stretch denim. Annual sales of women’s garments went from $800 million to $1 billion. One way of leveraging the company’s history involved a partnership with Google to create a “wearable technology” version of Levi’s classic trucker jacket. The wearer can control their iPhone from the sleeve. Sales of trucker jackets increased by 40 percent in 2018. One-third of Levi’s sales are now DTC through their own stores and website, and this business has grown over 51 percent in five years. Bergh says, “Levi’s lost a generation of consumers in the early 2000s, but today our customers are younger than ever—and we’re gaining momentum as we bring them back” (Bergh, 2018, p. 39).

What image or images of the change manager does Chip Bergh adopt? What capabilities and attributes make Chip Bergh a successful change manager?

Find on YouTube, “Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh on innovation, strategies to reach the next generation of consumers” (2019, 9:20 minutes).

The Chief Transformation Officer

Gorter et al. (2016) argue that we are seeing the emergence of a new kind of change management role—the chief transformation officer (CTO). The CTO is a “high-level orchestrator of a complex process. He or she acts as the face of the transformation, sets the tone, spurs enthusiasm, and challenges current wisdom.” This means that:

CTOs should be independent (certainly not associated with the decisions of the past), have experience of similar turbulent corporate environments in their earlier careers, and enjoy support from the board, the CEO, and top management. Their mandate—responsibility for ensuring that the full bottom-line target gets delivered—must be clearly defined at the outset. They should be fully integrated into the executive team (not side-lined to a separate transformation unit), and their compensation must be linked to performance, with a significant bonus for overdelivery. Ideally, they should behave like an extension of the CEO or even the board and as such be able to hold the top managers accountable.

(Gorter et al., 2016, p. 1)

The CTO ideally requires a number of attributes. “Great CTOs accept nothing without facts and independent analysis. They are not only good problem solvers and business leaders; they have a high emotional quotient and strong interpersonal skills. The most successful transformations we have seen are the result of CTOs igniting passion and leveraging the efforts of a range of individual talents. They recognize and reward outperformance” (Gorter et al., 2016, p. 2).

Gorter et al. (2016, p. 3) note that CTOs have to deal with eight key issues if they are to be successful:

They must have the backing and confidence of the chief executive and board.

They have to deal with vested interests and challenge taken-for-granted norms.Page 393

They need to establish a new pace for the business, to reset the “clock speed.”

They have to understand the perspectives and frustrations of frontline staff.

They need to coach the top team with regard to how to lead the transformation.

They need to be realistic about the benefits of the change, and about where compromises can and cannot be made.

They should deliberately pick fights with senior leaders with a view to getting them to change.

They need to understand the dominant culture of the organization and how this has to change.

The CTO role is probably one that will be found mainly in large organizations, implementing large-scale transformational changes. However, change managers in smaller organizations will almost always have to deal with the same issues, even with smaller-scale changes. One of the intriguing aspects of the CTO job description is that the change manager should “deliberately pick fights” with other senior managers. As we will suggest when discussing the political dimension of organizational change, conflict can be valuable in opening up discussion, confronting and dealing with resistance, and identifying innovative solutions (see the discussion of the benefits of resistance in chapter 8).

Dara Khosrowshahi and Change at Uber

In August 2017, following a period of bad publicity and upheaval, Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Travis Kalanick as chief executive of Uber, the taxi ride-hailing company. Kalanick had led a company known for its “Uber Way” involving a “take-no-prisoners, win-at-any-cost mentality.” This had helped the company to grow rapidly to a $70 billion valuation. However, that same corporate culture had become associated with a series of public relations disasters that began to concern not just employees but also customers, regulators, and investors.

Uber’s cultural norms included “always be hustlin,” “toe-stepping” (i.e., “don’t hesitate to challenge the boss”), and “champion’s mind set” (i.e., “get Uber over the finish line”). These norms “took on a more sinister aspect in the workplace”; a former Uber employee said that “everyone used those values to excuse their bad behavior” (Wong, 2017). Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a blog that described a corporate culture that tolerated sexual harassment and sexism, with both being reinforced through disinclination to act on such behavior when it was brought to the attention of management. Following Fowler’s “bombshell blog,” other Uber employees were emboldened to report their experiences and around 200 claims of sexual harassment were made against the company.

During the first half of 2017, many Uber employees left, not wanting to be associated with the scandals or because they felt that they had been mistreated by managers. Eric Schiffer, CEO of Reputation Management Consultants, said, “Travis had almost a Rambo-style approach to leadership, which made Uber giant. But it came with a lot of fallout.”

Khosrowshahi started quietly, talking to people—drivers, customer support staff, and women engineers. In the words of Jessica Bryndza, Uber’s global director of people experiences and employer brand, “He didn’t come in guns blazing, he came in listening.” Months later, he was still listening. He also “made nice” with lawmakers in response to their removal of Uber’s license to operate in London, including stating in public, “On behalf of everyone at Uber globally, I apologize for the mistakes we’ve made.” Meetings were held inPage 394 cities around the world where regulatory disputes were occurring—something that Kalanick had not done.

One journalist said that Khosrowshahi being a “measured and diplomatic leader, doesn’t mean he’s meek. He’s dramatically reshaped Uber’s famously ‘toxic’ corporate culture” (Kerr, 2018).

Find on YouTube, “Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber” (2018, 41:12 minutes).

Changing from the Middle

Change is often led from the middle. A transformational leader or chief officer may not always be the best solution for the organization implementing large-scale change. We discussed in chapter 8 the notion that middle managers are better placed to initiate change because they understand day-to-day operations better than the top team (Heyden et al., 2017). Research has consistently shown how middle managers play a key role in organizational change. In chapter 8, we challenged the stereotype of middle managers as change blockers. Joseph Bower (1970) was among the first to recognize the importance of middle managers as change drivers, exerting upward influence on strategy based on their knowledge of the frontline operational context, and by nurturing, testing, and championing initiatives. Kanter (1982, p. 95) argues that “a company’s productivity depends on how innovative its middle managers are,” adding that loosely defined roles and assignments encourage managers to develop and promote their own ideas.

Who Are Your Most Capable Strategic Change Leaders?

Research by the consulting firm Pricewaterhouse­Coopers (PwC) found that only 8 percent of senior managers have the strategic leadership capabilities required to drive organizational change (Lewis, 2015). From a survey of 6,000 managers in Europe, the highest proportion of strategic leaders were women over the age of 55—a group which has traditionally been overlooked in the search for change agent skills. PwC defines a strategic leader as someone who has “wide experience of settings, people, and also of failure, which engenders humility or perspective and resilience, so that they know what to do when things don’t work” (Lewis, 2015, p. x).

Women over 55 were more likely to:

see situations from multiple perspectives

think and work outside the existing system

identify what needs to change

be able to persuade or inspire others to follow them

use positive language

be open to frank and honest feedback

exercise power courageously

One consultant (female) at PwC said, “Historically women over the age of 55 would not have been an area of focus, but as the research suggests, this pool of talent might hold the key to transformation and in some cases, business survival” (Lewis, 2015).

Supporting those views, Susan Ashford and James Detert (2015, p. 73) argue that “Organizations don’t prosper unless managers in the middle ranks identify and promote the need for change.” When it comes to sharing those ideas, however, middle managers are often discouraged by the top leadership style (“if an idea was any good, we wouldPage 395 have already thought of it”) and valuable opportunities are missed. Ashford and Detert asked middle managers to describe their experiences of selling three kinds of ideas: new products, processes, or markets; improvements to existing products and processes; and better ways to meet employees’ needs. They identified seven influence tactics that middle managers use to attract senior executive attention and resources. These are summarized in table 12.2.

TABLE 12.2

Tactics for Leading Change from the Middle

Source: Ashford and Detert (2015).

Ashford and Detert offer three further pieces of advice to middle managers. First, choose your audience; your immediate boss may not be the best place to start to promote your idea. Second, use several of these tactics rather than just one or two; they are more powerful in combination. Finally, choose your battles; some ideas can just be too difficult to sell.

The middle management role is not necessarily confined to implementing changes directed by others. McDermott et al. (2013) show how middle managers and other “change recipients” become change managers by tailoring, adding to, and adapting top-down directives so that they work better in particular local contexts. But middle managers may not always be free to play those organizational change roles. Donald Kuratko and Michael Goldsby (2004) identify the conditions that can discourage what they describe as the entrepreneurial middle manager from taking risks and innovating:

systems and policies that encourage consistent, safe, conservative behavior

complex approval cycles with elaborate documentation

controls that encourage micromanagement

top-down management and lack of delegated authority

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Middle managers can be key to change. Their understanding of frontline operations is usually better than that of senior management. They are able to mediate between the frontline and top team. However, the organizational context has to allow them to make these contributions. Otherwise, they may be a misunderstood and underutilized resource. The stereotype of senior “transformational” leaders is only one model of change management. We have highlighted the importance of creativity, ingenuity, interpersonal relationships, communication skills, risk taking, and working below the corporate radar. The organization’s most valuable change managers may not be visible and may not be those who have been formally appointed to change roles.

The Gang of Four: Middle versus Senior Management

Ole Hope (2010) examines how middle managers “redefined” senior management plans for change in the claims handling division of a Nordic insurance company. The claims handling process was time consuming and costly and was difficult for customers to use. Middle management, however, did not agree with senior management plans, and a back office management team, who called themselves “The Gang of Four,” decided to implement their own proposals instead.

The “micro practices” that they used to influence the change outcomes included:

disobeying management decisions about project representation

handpicking loyal and skilled people to fill project roles

taking control over the subproject staffing

controlling information gathering by deciding what questions were to be asked

producing a memo supporting their own position and aims

holding back information, and distributing information selectively

questioning the expertise of the external consultants

taking advantage of the new division head and his lack of direct local experience

rejecting unfavorable decisions and insisting on a “replay” to reach different outcomes

Middle management was thus able to implement their more effective proposals.

Change Support and Delivery Units

Given the scope and complexity of the change agenda, many organizations have established internal change departments or units. Wylie and Sturdy (2018) identify four main types of change units, each with distinctive characteristics, scope, impact, and challenges. These are transformers, enforcers, specialists, and independents.

Transformers are responsible for delivering large-scale change, and this kind of unit is relatively rare. They tend to work to a fixed timetable, using a consistent change methodology across a range of projects. Transformer units are likely to be “high profile” and may thus be expected to meet high expectations. They may face opposition from operational managers who wish to keep control over initiatives in their areas, leading to disputes over responsibility. As transformer units may have a limited timescale, they may be tempted to adopt directive, nonparticipative approaches to change.

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Enforcers are embedded in the organizational structure, perhaps as a form of chief executive support or strategy unit. Their role is to help senior executives to translate strategy and vision into specific projects, with a policing role, exercising central control to ensure consistency. As they may be seen as the “eyes and ears of the CEO,” operational managers who value their own links to top management may regard enforcers with suspicion.

Specialists are delivery units staffed by subject-matter experts, focusing on incremental change in specific functions and departments, and thus have more limited scope and impact. They are likely to be based in services such as human resources or IT, and they may have to overcome the negative stereotypes of those functions. Their narrow specialist focus may lead to limited problem-solving solutions where the change agenda does not align with their interests and expertise.

Independents are found where there is a need for a generalist change delivery unit. These units deliver specific, small projects within business units, and their impact tends to be localized. Unlike enforcers and specialists, they operate outside the management hierarchy, and they more closely resemble external consultancies. They may be expected to find their own work and be self-funding. The advantages of autonomy are thus offset by resource constraints. In setting up projects, a lot of time is likely to be consumed in relationship management.

Kaiser Permanente’s Innovation Consultancy

Lew McCreary (2010) describes the innovation and improvement methods of Kaiser Permanente, a managed care consortium based in Oakland, California. The company set up an internal Innovation Consultancy unit, which employs change experts to observe people, ask them how they feel about their work, take notes and photographs, make drawings, and identify better ways of doing things. This involves, McCreary (p. 92) suggests, “a combination of anthropology, journalism, and empathy,” exploring how staff and patients live, work, think, and feel before trying to solve a problem.

The approach involves “uncovering the untold story”—finding out “What is really going on here?” For example, to prevent nurses being interrupted during medication rounds and to reduce errors, a “deep dive” event was held, including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and patients. This generated around 400 ideas and led to the design of a smock with the words “leave me alone” on it (known as “no-interruption wear”) and a five-step process for ensuring the correct dispensing of medication. Another example is the exchange of patient information between nursing shifts. This used to take 45 minutes and delayed the next shift’s contact with patients. Nurses would also compile and exchange information in idiosyncratic ways, potentially missing important details. The revised Nurse Knowledge Exchange is faster and more reliable, with new software and with information presented in standard formats.

Members of the Information Consultancy unit do not dictate the changes to be made but work with staff as “codesigners” on change projects. This approach allows Kaiser Permanente to achieve the aim of implementing innovation and change quickly and economically.

The model, or models, of delivery unit that an organization decides to introduce thus depends on the nature and timescale of the changes that are under consideration.

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Identifying Your Souls of Fire

Studies of creative, innovative individuals have shown how to identify the “souls of fire” who are most likely to be passionate about development and change. But there is a problem. How many organizations want to employ people who are easily bored, act without permission, are not adaptable, and do not follow instructions? It is important to recognize that:

Change managers can be difficult nonconformists, mavericks who take risks, and may not always present themselves well in an employee selection context.

Change managers are often regarded as troublemakers who break rules, and they may be blamed when things go wrong.

An organization needs a balance of personalities—too many radical innovators can be just as ineffective as having too many conformists who do what they are told.

Thomas Davenport et al. (2003) studied the ideas practitioners who bring new management ideas into an organization. Consistent with the findings of other research, they found this to be a diverse and scattered group but with common ways of working. Ideas practitioners seem to work in four stages:

Scouting They read a lot, attend conferences, explore interdisciplinary perspectives, and look to other fields for ideas.

Packaging They translate and tailor their ideas for a wider audience and express ideas in terms of key issues—innovation, efficiency, effectiveness—that will interest senior management.

Advocating They sell, run marketing campaigns, find early adopters, and persuade other managers.

Implementing They make things happen, rolling change out from the boardroom to the front line.

In terms of personality, ideas practitioners tend to be intelligent, optimistic, passionate about ideas, intellectually restless, mild mannered (not fanatical), and self-confident. They also tend to be boundary spanners with extensive personal networks.

Networks are a recurring theme in studies of change agents. From their study of change in Britain’s National Health Service (one of the largest employing organizations in the world), Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro (2013, p. 64) also found that the success of change managers depended on their informal networks. They identify different types of networks. In cohesive networks, the members know each other and their actions are easier to coordinate. The members of divergent networks are connected indirectly by their link to the change manager, and these networks can be a source of new ideas and information. Change managers were more successful where:

they held central positions in the organization’s informal network, regardless of their roles in the formal hierarchy.

the nature of their network matched the type of change that they were pursuing.

they had good relationships with “fence-sitters” who were ambivalent about the changes.

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Case Study: Boosting Factory Yields

Aaron De Smet et al. (2012, p. 4) describe the following example of a change manager faced with a particularly difficult challenge. How would you assess his approach? Is this a style that you would be prepared to use in your own organization? Or would you consider this style to be too risky?

Conor, as we’ll call one European plant manager, needed to boost yields using the company’s new production system. In the past, the industrial giant would have assigned engineers steeped in lean production or Six Sigma to observe the shop floor, gather data, and present a series of improvements. Conor would then have told plant employees to implement the changes, while he gauged the results—a method consistent with his own instinctive command-and-control approach to leadership. But Conor and his superiors quickly realized that the old way wouldn’t succeed: only employees who actually did the work could identify the full range of efficiency improvements necessary to meet the operational targets, and no attempt to get them to do so would be taken seriously unless Conor and his line leaders were more collaborative.

Workers were skeptical: a survey taken at about this time (in 2009) showed that plant workers saw Conor and his team as distant and untrustworthy. Moreover, the company couldn’t use salary increases or overtime to boost morale, because of the ongoing global economic crisis.

Conor’s leadership training gave him an opportunity to reflect on the situation and provided simple steps he could take to improve it. He began by getting out of his office, visiting the shop floor, and really listening to the workers talk about their day-to-day experiences, their workflows, how their machines functioned, and where things went wrong. They’d kept all this information from him before. He made a point of starting meetings by inviting those present to speak, in part to encourage the group to find collective solutions to its problems.

Conor explained: “As I shared what I thought and felt more openly, I started to notice things I had not been aware of, as other people became more open. We’d had the lean tools and good technology for a long time. Transparency and openness were the real breakthrough.” As the new atmosphere took hold, workers began pointing out minor problems and additional areas for improvement specific to their corners of the plant; within just a few months its yields increased to 91 percent, from 87 percent. Today, yields run at 93 percent.

The organization chart is not a good guide to finding the champions, the ideas practitioners, the souls of fire, and the change managers. Lili Duan et al. (2014) argue that managers need to find these “hidden influencers.” They claim, however, that managers asked to identify the influencers in their organizations are almost always wrong. Informal influencers are those to whom other staff turn to for advice, and they can have a major impact on attitudes to change. Retail cashiers, for example, can have considerable influence because they are well connected with many others. Spotting the change managers thus involves understanding the informal organizational networks and how these function.

LO 12.2 Change Managers: What Kind of Role Is This?

What kind of role is this? What challenges and rewards does it bring? From our discussion about who becomes a change manager, it is clear that this is not necessarily a formal appointment; the most effective change managers do not always occupy senior positions on the organization chart. In addition, much of the work may be done behind the scenes, below the radar.

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The evidence shows that the experience of most change managers has two main dimensions. First, this can be a challenging, stressful, high-pressure, fast-paced, high-risk role. Senior management expects rapid results. There may be open and covert resistance from those who are affected. Any concerns, complaints, and anger may be directed at the change manager in person. Change managers thus have to be comfortable with and able to handle conflict. Those who need to be liked by others and who do not like to lose friends will be uncomfortable in a change management role. One study of an organization redesign program (Buchanan, 2003) found that change managers not only had to cope with personal stress, but also had to deal, at the same time, with the stress experienced by those involved in the change, who were described as “scarred” and as “hurt and bruised people.”

Given the pressure, pace, stress, risks, and vulnerability of the role, change managers ideally need to be resilient. Resilience can be defined as “the successful adaptation to life tasks in the face of social disadvantage or highly adverse conditions” (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011, p. 2). Conditions for change managers are not always” highly adverse” but are rarely problem-free. Other terms that describe resilience include adaptability, equanimity, perseverance, self-reliance, mental toughness, and bouncebackability. These are capabilities that we all benefit from on occasion. Change managers in particular, however, need to be able to “bounce back” when plans go wrong, and to persevere in spite of difficulties. Some of us are more resilient than others, but resilience is an attribute that can be developed. Exercise 12.2 provides a diagnostic, “How Resilient Are You?” This diagnostic invites you to assess your level of resilience and to consider actions to develop your resilience if necessary.

Confessions of a Change Manager

If the change manager’s role is so demanding, why would anyone accept the responsibility? We met a Finnish woman who was working with a large utility company in South Australia. She described her change manager’s role as risky, pressured, and stressful, just as we have discussed here. So we asked, “Why did you take this job?” This was her answer:

I wanted a job to look forward to in the morning, and not want to leave in the evening. I saw it as a great opportunity to learn. I get charged up with more learning. I need that. I needed to get my hands dirty. It gave me a chance to show my capabilities. It is a very tiring and frustrating job. On the other hand, it gives you a great opportunity to excel.

I am a risk taker. I need some excitement and power-play while at work. It gave me an opportunity to work with some highly motivated and committed individuals. Together we were able to make it happen. I believe that the only way to meet the challenges of the external business environment is to offer the customer what they really want.

I have thick skin. I realized that I was going to make some enemies during the change process—as well as some very influential and powerful friends. I was able to accept the challenge due to the stage of my personal lifestyle (boyfriend overseas, dog at home). I sacrificed my spare time for the company—and for the financial and non-financial rewards.

Even though I was an inexperienced change manager, I was confident that I had skills, knowledge and attributes to make it happen. Or that I could find an expert (internal or external) to assist me to make it happen. If I would fail, I could still work with [this organization]—or elsewhere, because I am tolerant of ambiguity.

This account reveals the second and more positive dimension of the change manager’s experience. Especially with “deep” changes (see Figure 1.1), the change manager is exposed to a wider range of internal and external corporate and strategic issues than is the case in most general or operational management positions, which tend to be morePage 401 narrowly constrained. The role of change manager can thus be challenging in an exciting, stimulating, energizing way. Here is an opportunity to demonstrate one’s capabilities, pick up new knowledge, develop new skills, and add powerful and influential colleagues to one’s network. Successful experience as a change manager has “resumé value.”

Our Finnish change manager made several comments that reveal aspects of her personality: “I get charged up with learning”; “I need to get my hands dirty”; “I am a risk taker”; “I need excitement and power-play”; “I have thick skin”; “I realized that I was going to make enemies”; “I was confident that I would be able to make it happen”; “I am tolerant of ambiguity.” These attributes appear to be appropriate for someone working in such a challenging role. Personality is only one factor contributing to personal effectiveness; capability and context are also important. However, the need for action, learning, excitement, and power play, along with tolerance of ambiguity, risk, and conflict, all appear to be useful personal attributes for a change manager to possess or to develop.

On the one hand, the role of the change manager is stressful and the position is a vulnerable one. On the other hand, the role can offer substantial opportunities for personal development and career progression. As we saw in chapter 1, when being interviewed for the next promotion, one is more likely to impress by telling stories about the success and impact of the (preferably deep) changes for which one has been responsible rather than tell stories about shallow initiatives—or no stories at all. Beeson (2009, p. 103) identifies the “core selection factors” for senior executive appointments. Most of these do not relate to business knowledge or technical ability but to “soft” skills. Here are four of those selection factors, all related to demonstrable change implementation capabilities:

Setting direction and thinking strategically; spotting marketplace trends and developing a winning strategy that differentiates the company.

Managing implementation without getting involved at too low a level of detail; defining a set of roles, processes, and measures to ensure that things get done reliably.

Building the capacity for innovation and change; knowing when new ways of doing business are required; having the courage, tolerance for risk, and change-management skills to bring new ideas to fruition.

Getting things done across internal boundaries (lateral management); demonstrating organizational savvy; influencing and persuading colleagues; dealing with conflict.

Change managers thus enjoy several intrinsic rewards: challenge, excitement, personal development, and job satisfaction. The extrinsic rewards in terms of career progression can also be substantial.

LO 12.3 Change Management Competencies

What competencies—skills, knowledge, and other attributes—do change managers ideally require? This question is significant for three reasons. First, change that is badly managed can cause serious damage to the organization and units involved, to those who are affected by the change, and to other stakeholders. Second, although full-time change managers and external consultants often carry out this work, many general and functional managers combine change responsibilities with their regular duties. Third, responsibility for change is increasingly distributed, and the demand for change management competencies is also now widespread.

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When discussing this topic, it is difficult to escape from competency frameworks, which itemize the various skill and knowledge requirements. These lists can make tedious reading, especially when one framework says much the same as the next. These frameworks tend to agree, however, on two fundamental issues. First, the change manager’s role is a multifaceted one. Second, change management roles make considerable demands on those who perform them.

Table 12.3 summarizes one of the most comprehensive competency frameworks, from the Change Management Institute (2017), a global not-for-profit organization headquartered in Australia. This model identifies 12 competencies relating to the full-time professional change manager who is heading up or working in a specialist corporate unit or has been hired as an external adviser or consultant.

TABLE 12.3

The CMI Change Manager Master Level–Competency Model

Source: Change Management Institute (2017).

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This model identifies capabilities that we would expect to see: understanding the change process, interpersonal and communication skills, influence and persuasion, and self-management. The model also emphasizes a strategic perspective, expecting the “master” change manager to have environmental knowledge and stakeholder focus. Based on this model, table 12.4 identifies the two or three key competencies that are particularly relevant to each of our six images of change management. For the director, strategic thinking and facilitating change are critical. For the nurturer, facilitation, learning and development, and communication are more important. Self-management and professional development apply to all six images.

TABLE 12.4

Images of Change and Key Competencies

The Great Intimidators

Roderick Kramer (2006) challenges the view that change managers must be nice and not tough and should be humble and self-effacing rather than intimidating. Kramer argues that intimidation is an appropriate style when an organization has become rigid or unruly, stagnant or drifting, and faces inertia or resistance to change. Abrasive leadership, he argues, gets people moving. Intimidators are not bullies, but they can use bullying tactics when time is short and the stakes are high. Kramer (2006, p. 90) makes his positive view of intimidators clear when he argues, “They are not averse to causing a ruckus, nor are they above using a few public whippings and ceremonial hangings to get attention. They’re rough, loud, and in your face.”

Intimidators have what Kramer calls “political intelligence.” Socially intelligent managers focus on leveraging the strengths of others, with empathy and soft power. Politically intelligent managers focus on weaknesses and insecurities, using coercion, fear, andPage 404 anxiety. However, working intimidating leaders can be a positive experience. Their sense of purpose can be inspirational, their forcefulness is a role model, and intimidators challenge others to think clearly about their objectives. Kramer (2006, p. 92) quotes a journalist who said, “Don’t have a reputation for being a nice guy—that won’t do you any good.” Intimidation tactics include:

Get up close and personal. Intimidators work through direct confrontation, invading your personal space and using taunts and slurs to provoke and throw you off balance.

Get angry. Called “porcupine power,” this involves the “calculated loss of temper” (use it, don’t lose it), using rage and anger to help the intimidator prevail.

Keep them guessing. Intimidators preserve an air of mystery by maintaining deliberate distance. Transparency and trust are fashionable, but intimidators keep others guessing, which makes it easier to change direction without loss of credibility.

Know it all. “Informational intimidators” who appear to have mastery of the facts can be very intimidating indeed. It doesn’t matter whether “the facts” are correct, as long as they are presented with complete confidence at the right time.

This is a style that will not work well in all situations. Kramer is careful to suggest, however, that this approach may be appropriate—even necessary—to overcome either apathy or resistance to change. As a change manager, do you feel that intimidation is appropriate in some circumstances? Are you comfortable using the intimidation tactics that Kramer identifies?

A Great Intimidator at Work

The movie The Devil Wears Prada (2006, director David Frankel) is based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger. The movie tells the story of a naive, young aspiring journalist, Andrea Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway), who gets a job as an assistant to the famous editor-in-chief of the New York fashion magazine Runway. The magazine’s powerful and ruthless editor, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), is a legend in the industry. At the beginning of the movie, we see Andrea arriving for her job interview as “second assistant” with Miranda’s “first assistant” Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), but Miranda decides to conduct the interview herself. Watch the movie starting when Andrea comes out of the lift and heads for the Runway reception desk. Stop when Emily runs after Andrea and calls her back into the office.

How would you describe Miranda Priestley’s management style?

What impact does Miranda’s style have on the performance of those around her?

Good boss or bad boss: What is your assessment of this management style?

Given her style, why do so many people desperately want to work for Miranda?

Why do you think Miranda Priestly gave Andrea Sachs the job?

LO 12.4 Political Skill and the Change Manager

Organizations are political systems, and change is almost always a politicized process. Why? Individuals, groups, and divisions have to compete with each other for resources of different kinds, such as people, money, and space. Political tactics are tools that can bePage 405 used in that competition. Change can often upset the established allocation of resources among stakeholders, thus triggering even more intense conflict. The change manager must be aware of the organizational politics but must also be prepared to engage with the politics—to “play the game.” Political skill is particularly important in addressing resistance to change (see chapter 8). Maslyn et al. (2017) found that political behavior is not always viewed unfavorably but can be seen as positive when it benefits the organization and its members. Buchanan and Badham (2020) argue that the change manager who is not politically skilled will fail. It is rarely possible for the change manager to escape from this dimension of the role.

Age and Treachery Win

Bill Bratton is an American police chief known for his achievements in “turning around” failing or problem forces.

In 1980, at age 34 one of the youngest lieutenants in Boston’s police department, he had proudly put up a plaque in his office that said: Youth and skill will win out every time over age and treachery. Within just a few months, having been shunted into a dead-end position due to a mixture of office politics and his own brashness, Bratton took the sign down. He never again forgot the importance of understanding the plotting, intrigue, and politics involved in pushing through change.

(Kim and Mauborgne, 2003, p. 68)

The advice is: Know who the key players are, understand how they play the politics game, and know their attitudes and positions in relation to change proposals.

Organizational politics is a topic that is generally regarded as unsavory and damaging, associated with backstabbing and dirty tricks. “Machiavellian” is an insult, not a compliment. Mintzberg’s (1983, p. 172) definition of politics is a popular one and has been widely cited:

individual or group behavior that is informal, ostensibly parochial, typically divisive, and above all, in the technical sense, illegitimate—sanctioned neither by formal authority, accepted ideology, nor certified expertise.

This is one source of the enduring negative perception of politics—parochial, divisive, illegitimate. How could managers in general, and change managers in particular, be advised to develop capabilities such as these? However, research has revealed the positive, constructive uses of political tactics. This involves the use of political skill, sometimes called political astuteness (Manzie and Hartley, 2015). Ferris et al. (2000, p. 30) offer this definition of political skill:

an interpersonal style construct that combines social astuteness with the ability to relate well, and otherwise demonstrate situationally appropriate behavior in a disarmingly charming and engaging manner that inspires confidence, trust, sincerity, and genuineness.

Ferris et al. call this “savvy and street smarts,” and they argue that political skill has four key dimensions. Social astuteness concerns the ability to observe and to understand the behavior and motives of others. Interpersonal influence concerns the ability to engage and influence others in a compelling way. Networking ability involves building a variety ofPage 406 relationships across and outside the organization. Apparent sincerity means being seen as forthright, open, honest, and genuine. This model is summarized in table 12.5 (Ferris et al., 2005a; 2007; Brouer et al., 2006). They have also developed an assessment inventory to measure individual skills in those four areas. Studies using university staff and students as participants produced the following conclusions:

Political skill correlates with measures of self-monitoring and emotional intelligence.

Those who score high on political skill display less anxiety and are less likely to perceive stressful events as threatening.

Political skill is not correlated with general intelligence.

Political skill predicts job performance and subordinate evaluations of leadership ability.

The dimension of political skill related most strongly to performance rating is social astuteness.

TABLE 12.5

Dimensions of Political Skill

Source: Ferris et al. (2005a)

The Political Grandmaster

The politically skilled organizational grandmaster reads people and environments in ways that yield the detection of cues and thus opportunities that others simply cannot see. These masters operate on and enact with their environments in ways that create new opportunities. Finally, it is capitalization on these recognized opportunities that allows the politically skilled to achieve their objectives—much in the same way chess grandmasters leverage their skills—which translates into heightened job performance, enhanced reputation, and faster promotions.

(McAllister et al., 2015, p. 33)

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To what extent do the statements in the “sample inventory items” column describe you? Are these not characteristics that all managers should perhaps have? Describing those with a high degree of political skill, Ferris et al. (2005b, p. 128) observe:

Politically skilled individuals convey a sense of personal security and calm self-confidence that attracts others and gives them a feeling of comfort. This self-confidence never goes too far so as to be perceived as arrogance but is always properly measured to be a positive attribute. Therefore, although self-confident, those high in political skill are not self-absorbed (although they are self-aware) because their focus is outward toward others, not inward and self-centred. [ . . . ] We suggest that people high in political skill not only know precisely what to do in different social situations at work but how to do it in a manner that disguises any ulterior, self-serving motives and appears to be sincere.

Political skill is only one factor affecting the personal effectiveness of change managers, and of managers and leaders in general. Used effectively, political skill can be a powerful way to influence others and to motivate action to change, while strengthening the change manager’s reputation. How does political skill work in practice? David Buchanan and Richard Badham (2020) identify 12 categories of political behavior, from relatively harmless image building to disreputable “dirty tricks” (see table 12.6).

TABLE 12.6

Categories of Political Behavior: A Typology

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One category of political behavior in table 12.6 is networking. This is a key political skill, but it is often neglected by change managers: “This takes time, where is the pay-off?” Furnham (2015) argues that networking is key to career success, having a map of who’s who and who holds power and influence, using “elevator” and “water cooler” moments to start up conversations. McAllister et al. (2015, p. 29) cite this example:

F. Ross Johnson, the infamous former head of RJR Nabisco described as having a knack for corporate politics, recognized the importance of being embedded in networks comprised of influential individuals. Shortly after his move to New York as head of Standard Brands International (his first American corporate post), Johnson positioned himself among the major players in Manhattan by wrangling a coveted seat on the New Canaan Club Car, a hangout for executives on the commuter train. Further, Johnson immediately ingratiated himself with Standard Brands board members. This opportunity-rich network led to his promotion to president and a seat on the Standard Brands board 1 year after his arrival in New York.

As a practicing manager, you have been using these kinds of behaviors already. How you behave is of course dependent on your goals, the context, and those whom you are seeking to influence. Is image building harmless? This is also called “impression management” and involves behaving in a manner that presents the public image or “persona” that you want others to see. Dress and act differently, and others will see a different persona. Image building can be a good way to manipulate the perceptions, beliefs, and behavior of others. At the bottom of table 12.6, can you imagine circumstances in which “dirty tricks” could be seen as useful, ethical, appropriate, professional management actions?

Take a Moment and Think about a Leader

Take a moment and think about a leader in your organization whom you would consider to be political. How would you describe that leader? Some common descriptions that may immediately come to mind are self-serving, manipulative, phony, or untrustworthy. You may conjure up images of secret pacts made behind closed doors or on the golf course. Or, perhaps, you came up with descriptions such as influential, well connected, trustworthy, or concerned for others. Often, the idea of a leader being political is associated with negative perceptions and behaviors. In reality, though, political skill is a necessity and can be a positive skill for leaders to possess when used appropriately. Indeed, when we view political skill through this lens, it is difficult to envision any leader being effective without it.

(Braddy and Campbell, 2014, p. 1)

Issue-selling is a political tactic of particular interest to change managers. Many managers have a built-in bias against novelty. New ideas are risky and drain resources, assessment is often subjective, and there is not enough time for comprehensive evaluations. Most organizations find it difficult to resource all the ideas that are circulating at any one point in time. All these good ideas for improvement and change are competing with each other, and good ideas do not always sell themselves. How can you, as a change manager, increase the probability that your ideas are implemented? Jane Dutton et al. (2001) identify three sets of issue-selling tactics, which they call “behind-the-scenes moves to promote ideas for change.” Packaging moves concern making ideas more appealing and urgent, for example by linking them to (wrapping them up with) profits or market share. Involvement moves concern usingPage 409 relationships to build support for ideas, knowing who to involve, clearing ideas with a senior sponsor, and using committees to legitimize ideas. Process moves concern groundwork before selling the issues: how much background information do I need, when should I move and when should I delay, and should I make formal or informal approaches?

Lu et al. (2019) argue that issue-selling methods alone are not enough. They explored the use of idea enactment, which is “the illustration of abstract ideas in more tangible forms using demos, PowerPoint presentations, or other physical objects such as prototypes, animating boards, drawings, mockups, and simulations” (p. 580). The aim is to present ideas in a concrete way, showing how they will work in practice. The researchers conducted a study with 200 employees in a video game and animation company in China and a lab experiment with 300 students in an American university. To attract favorable management assessments for new ideas, the combination of issue-selling and idea enactment was most effective. Lu et al. (2019, p. 599) conclude, “By putting their ideas into tangible forms and making persuasive arguments on their behalf, employees can make their ideas more intelligible and noticeable to their supervisors, thereby increasing the odds that their ideas will be recognized and ultimately implemented.” The ideas themselves, of course, have to be novel and useful.

Political behavior is not always damaging, and it can benefit individuals and the organization. The nature of change puts a premium on political skill for those who manage the process. The change manager who is not comfortable playing politics will find the role challenging. Some managers argue that playing politics is a time waster and a diversion from the real work. For the change manager, dealing with the politics is the real work, and although this can take time, an investment early in the change process often means that events move more quickly at later stages, because barriers have been addressed and support has been won. Skilled organization politicians experience less anxiety and stress. Some change managers even enjoy the political dimension of the role.

Killer Gestures and Trigger Images

If you have an idea to “sell” to top management, you will be advised to write a business case. At some point, however, you will probably have to present the idea in person, and the business case alone may not be enough. For example, Cornelissen (2019) asked experienced investors to watch a video that showed an entrepreneur presenting an idea for a new product. There were four versions of this presentation. One used colorful language to make the presentation more dramatic and interesting, one included lots of hand gestures, one used both rich language and gestures, and one used neither. Those who saw the third video, with the gestures, were more interested in investing. Nonverbal communication is important. But why were the hand gestures significant?

When the “entrepreneur”—an actor we’d hired—used his hands to explain the idea, investors were more interested in it than when he described it in straightforward technical terms or with metaphors, analogies, and anecdotes. Gesturing had a more direct impact than either kind of language did. The data suggests that the hand motions gave them a better sense of what the product would look like and how it would work. The unfamiliar idea was made more concrete. We think this kind of information is especially important in uncertain, high-stakes contexts like pitch meetings, where investors are looking for a variety of cues that will help them evaluate ideas’ potential. When we surveyed the investors who’d watched the pitches, we found that people who’d seen the gesturing version were more likelyPage 410 to say they had a good understanding of the new device. (Cornelissen, 2019, p.36).

Cornelissen et al. (2019) suggest that you find some “killer gestures” that illustrate the nature and benefits of your idea. They also advise practicing the use of body language: “We’ve seen lots of tech entrepreneurs coming right out of university who just stand behind the lectern and give very dry, technical pitches, without any hand movements at all. These don’t stand out as much as pitches by skilled presenters who gesture frequently” (p. 37). Change managers with new ideas should take note.

Visual imagery is often used to capture people’s attention. Barberá-Tomás et al. (2019) studied a not-for-profit organization that was encouraging people to reject plastics instead of recycling them. The image that they used to trigger this behavior change was the “Midway albatross”—an iconic photo of a dead chick with its carcass opened to show plastic items lodged in its gut. The image was designed to trigger feelings of rage, sadness, and guilt, and the implicit messages were “plastics are harmful,” “you are responsible,” and “end the throwaway culture.” Choice of image, they point out, is critical, to avoid alienating potential supporters. The not-for-profit used a multimodal approach, combining that image with briefings and talks and the use of social media. This is an extreme example of the use of a shocking photograph. However, the researchers argue that this “emotion-symbolic” approach can be used in organizational change situations to influence responses and behaviors.

How can the change manager develop political skill? This requires a combination of self-awareness, careful observation and modeling of the behavior of politically skilled colleagues, and practice. This also involves finding and nurturing your inner Machiavelli. Playing politics involves taking informed risks, and one has to be prepared to make mistakes—and to learn from those. Phillip Braddy and Michael Campbell (2014, p. 15) developed the self-assessment in table 12.7, based on the political skills model introduced earlier. More checks on the right indicate that you are already effectively using political skill. More checks on the left indicate room for improvement.

TABLE 12.7

Political Skills Assessment

Which statements describe you? For each pair of statements, place a check mark by the statement that best describes your behavior.

Source: Braddy and Campbell (2014).

If necessary, how will you develop your profile? To develop social awareness, for example, focus on understanding the language and body language, feelings, motives and agendas of others, and on how your proposals can help them to meet their goals. To develop interpersonal influence, ask more questions, listen actively, use self-disclosure, play down power differences, learn about others’ professional and personal interests, and sell your ideas instead of imposing them. Networking ability can be developed by monitoring whom you approach for advice, giving them something in return, building a more diverse network through new relationships outside your team or department, and taking time to maintain those relationships. To strengthen apparent sincerity, follow through on your commitments, ensure that others see you as authentic, do not appear to be withholding information, be prepared to reveal your emotions and vulnerabilities, and “Don’t rush trust; it takes a long time to build and only a short time to lose” (Braddy and Campbell, 2014, p. 19).

Machiavelli’s Memorandum

So if, in the coming months, you find that your enemies call you Machiavellian, do not be disheartened. It means you are doing something right.

(The Economist, 2013)

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LO 12.5 Developing Change Management Expertise

We explored the development of political skill in the previous section. Finally, we will consider, using a six-step approach, the development of this and other change management capabilities.

1. Career Moves

First, is this the right role for you at this point in your career? You know what being a change manager involves, and you understand the capabilities that are required to be effective. But do you still want the job? This is not a job for everyone, because it can bePage 412 demanding, tiring, and risky, as well as satisfying. David Hutton (1994) describes the desirable and undesirable characteristics of change managers (see table 12.8). The question is: Which of these profiles fits you? If you have more of the undesirable characteristics, then it may be advisable to consider other career choices or to change your behavior where appropriate. Become more persistent and enthusiastic, more flexible, and approachable. Become less impatient, less arrogant, less risk averse, and less adversarial.

TABLE 12.8

Desirable and Undesirable Characteristics of the Change Manager

2. Repositioning

Second, refer back to Figure 1.1 “Assessing Depth of Change” in chapter 1. Where does your past and present change management experience sit in that framework? Mostly shallow, mainly deep, or a mix? Although all experience can be useful, deep change is more challenging and risky, because there is a higher chance that things could go wrong. However, deep change offers much greater potential for personal development and also increases the visibility and reputation of the change managers responsible, as long as things go well. Interview panels and promotion boards are likely to be more impressed by involvement in successful deep change than in shallow change. Given this assessment and your recent and current roles, do you need to consider “repositioning” yourself with regard to current and forthcoming change initiatives in your organization? Do you need to become associated more closely with the deeper, high-impact changes, as long as you are confident that these are likely to succeed? Where possible, of course, avoid association with initiatives that are likely to fail.

3. The Politics

Third, are you comfortable with the political dimension of change management? As we have seen, some managers see this as unethical and time-wasting. However, this is anPage 413 aspect of the change management role from which it is difficult to escape, and political skill is a prerequisite for success in most, if not all, general management and leadership positions. Given the contested nature of much organizational change, political skill is at a premium for the change manager. Political skill can be developed, as we explored in the previous section, but if you are not comfortable with these behaviors, these “games,” then developing and using political skill will be difficult.

4. Strengths

Fourth, refer back to table 12.3 “The CMI Change Manager Master Level—Competency Model,” and add intimidation and political skills to the list of competencies. Most of these competencies apply to most general management positions. As an experienced manager, you will probably find that you are already well equipped to handle the challenges of change, if you have not already done so. However, it may still be useful to confirm what skills, knowledge, and other attributes you already possess that are relevant to a change management role. The question here is: How do you plan to maintain and to build on those capabilities and strengths? Will this involve further training and development, careful “repositioning” with regard to future experience (step 2 above), or internal and external job moves to consolidate, diversify, and improve those existing skills?

5. Gaps

Fifth, looking again at table 12.3 and the other competencies identified in this chapter, where do you see personal gaps? Realistically, is it going to be possible for you to fill these gaps? Remember that this may not be necessary, as other colleagues are likely to have different and overlapping skill sets. Decide which areas of competence you feel that you must develop as a matter of priority, which areas are less important for you, and which you feel would be acceptable to avoid.

6. Action

Finally, prepare a personal action plan that covers these three issues:

Building strengths. How will I maintain and build on the strengths that I currently have as a change manager?

Allowable weaknesses. Which of my weaknesses will I not try to develop, as this would be unnecessary, time consuming, or particularly difficult for some reason?

Filling gaps. Which skills, knowledge, and attributes do I need to strengthen as a matter of urgency? What are my options for building those capabilities: taking on further change responsibilities, partnering with others in change management teams, secondments, networking, mentoring, specialist training and development, guided reading, other?

The actions required to develop change management capabilities are not necessarily costly. Most of the possibilities are free, because they are experience based, but they do involve a significant time commitment. In terms of personal and career development, however, that investment can generate returns in the form of personal skills development and career progression.

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EXERCISE 12.1

Networking—How Good Are You?

LO 12.3

Networking is a core change manager capability. Use the following diagnostic to assess your own networking skills and to determine what action you may need to take to improve.

Tick whether you agree, or disagree, with each of the following statements.

Networking: How Did You Score?

Give yourself one point each if you agreed with these items, scoring up to 9:

Give yourself one point each if you disagreed with these items, scoring up to 7:

Add these two scores to produce your final total score out of 16:

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Source: Based on Yeung, R. 2003. The ultimate career success workbook. London: Kogan Page.

EXERCISE 12.2

How Resil­ient Are You?

LO 12.2

Rate your agreement with each of these 25 statements, and put your score in the right-hand column.

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Resilience Scoring

Add the scores that you have given to each of the 25 items. Your resilience score total will lie between 25 and 175. Higher scores reflect higher resilience.

The scores of adults on this test normally lie between 90 and 175, with a mean of 140. A resilience score of 150 or above is considered to be high.

If you have a low resilience score, say below 140, what steps do you think you could take to improve your resilience?

How would you advise a colleague with a low resilience score?

Source: This diagnostic is based on Wagnild, G. M., and Young, H. M. 1993. Development and psychometric evaluation of the resilience scale. Journal of Nursing Measurement 1(2):165–78.

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EXERCISE 12.3

How Political Is Your Organization?

LO 12.4

To what extent do the following statements describe your organization? Tick the appropriate box on the right.

Scoring

Give yourself:

1 point for each item where you ticked “disagree.”

3 points for each item where you ticked “maybe.”

5 points for each item where you ticked “agree.”

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This will give you a score between 15 and 75.

The politics-free zone. If you score around 25 or lower, we are all coming to work with you. Your organization has a relatively low level of political behavior. Either that, or you are just not aware of the degree of politics going on behind your back. In such a politics-free zone, are you concerned that:

There is not enough discussion and debate before key decisions are taken?

There is not enough constructive conflict and debate to stimulate creativity?

The free-fire zone. If you score around 65 or above. There is a high level of political behavior in your organization. Either that, or you are reading too much into routine decisions and actions. In such a free fire zone, are you concerned that:

Too much time and energy is going into the politics game, and not enough into strategic thinking and performance improvement?

The discussions and debates are motivated more by personal goals and are less related to the organization’s strategies and goals?

The average behavior zone. If you score between 30 and 60, your organization is typical, middle-of-the-road in terms of the degree of political behavior that you can expect to witness. In such an average behavior zone, are you concerned that:

There is still too much political behavior to stimulate the quality of discussion and debate around key issues and decisions?

On the basis of your scoring, what advice applies to you and to other change managers with regard to dealing with the politics in your organization?

Source: Buchanan and Badham (2020).

Additional Reading

Battilana, J., and Casciaro, T. 2013. The network secrets of great change managers. Harvard Business Review 91(7/8):62–68. Describes the nature and functions of two different kinds of networks—cohesive and divergent. The power and influence of change managers depends not on formal title or seniority but on position in the organization’s informal networks. Offers practical advice to change managers on developing and leveraging these networks effectively.

Buchanan, D. A., and Badham, R. 2020. Power, politics, and organizational change: Winning the turf game. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications. Comprehensive discussion of the nature, tactics, and ethics of organizational politics. Describes the constructive use of political tactics to maintain personal reputation and further organizational objectives. Offers guidance on the use of political behavior and advice on the development of political skill or expertise.

Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O’Neill, R. M., and Lawrence, K. A. 2001. Moves that matter: Issue selling and organizational change. Academy of Management Journal 44(4):716–36. Describes the seminal research work that developed the “issue-selling” tactics described in this chapter—tactics for “successfully shaping change from below by directing the attention of top management” (p. 716).

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Pfeffer, J. 2010. Power play. Harvard Business Review 88(7/8):84–92. Argues that power and influence are prerequisites for management success, and offers advice on leveraging power. Concludes:

So, welcome to the real world. It may not be the world we want, but it’s the world we have. You won’t get far, and neither will your strategic plans, if you can’t build and use power. Some of the people competing for advancement or standing in the way of your organization’s agenda will bend the rules of fair play or ignore them entirely. Don’t bother complaining about this or wishing things were different. Part of your job is to know how to prevail in the political battles you will face. (p. 92)

Roundup

Reflections for the Practicing Change Manager

How would you describe your role as a change manager using the terms introduced in this chapter: champion, soul of fire, positive deviant, disruptive innovator, chief transformation officer? How is this reflected in your behavior? Would you become more or less effective as a change manager if you “dropped below the radar”?

How effectively do you use your informal networks to drive change in your organization? How could you develop and make better use of those networks?

Do you feel that you have the resilience required to operate effectively as a change manager? If necessary, what steps can you take to maintain and strengthen your resilience?

As a practicing manager, you probably already have most of the required capabilities of the change manager. But how do you feel about using intimidation to motivate others to change? Are there circumstances when this would be appropriate in your organization?

Are you politically skilled? Do you use political skills to advance your change agenda? What approaches and tactics do you use to “sell” ideas to colleagues and top management? Who are the other “politicians” in your organization? Are you able to manage their support and block their attempts to interfere with your change agenda?

Here is a short summary of the key points that we would like you to take from this chapter, in relation to each of the learning outcomes:

LO 12.1

* Recognize the nature and significance of the contributions of change managers at all levels of an organization, regardless of their formal roles or responsibilities.

Change managers can be found at all levels of an organization. Given the pace and scale of change in most organizations, the shared leadership of change has become a necessity. Contrary to the popular stereotype, middle managers are often among the most important change managers in an organization. The power and influence of manyPage 420 change managers come not from a formal, senior title but from their position in the organization’s informal networks. Those with more informal connections can be more influential, and the organization chart is not a good guide to identifying them. The terminology that commentators have used to describe this variety of change managers offers insights into the nature of the role and of those who take on these responsibilities: champions, evangelists, positive deviants, souls of fire, tempered radicals, stealth innovators, ideas practitioners, and disruptive innovators. Those innovators and souls of fire are highly motivated and assertive, but they are also nonconformists and do not follow instructions, so they can be difficult to manage.

LO 12.2

* Appreciate the challenges and rewards that accompany performing a change management role.

The role of the change manager is often a demanding one: challenging, lonely, stressful, fast-paced, risky. Dealing simultaneously with senior management expectations and different modes of resistance from those who are going to be affected can make the role particularly pressured. However, the opportunities for personal development and career progression can be significant, and the role is especially satisfying and rewarding when the change process is successful. Given the pressures, a high degree of resilience is often required. Resilience can be developed, and Exercise 12.2 offers a personal diagnostic.

LO 12.3

* Identify the competencies in terms of the skills, knowledge, and other attributes that are ideally required to be an effective change manager.

We considered the competency framework designed by the Change Management Institute. Their model identifies 12 competency headings: facilitation, strategic change, judgment, influencing, coaching, project management, interpersonal and corporate communications, self-management, facilitation, professional development, and learning and development. Although this appears to be a daunting specification, most of those capabilities are relevant to most general management positions. We also discussed “intimidation” as a change management style. Many managers feel uncomfortable with this approach, but it can be appropriate in certain circumstances, particularly when an organization has become rigid, apathetic, stagnant, and change-resistant. We also discussed a small number of intimidation tactics: confrontation; the “calculated loss of temper”; maintaining an air of mystery; and “informational intimidation,” which involves the appearance of having mastered the facts.

LO 12.4

* Understand the significance of political skill to the role and effectiveness of change managers.

Organizations are political systems, and change is a politicized process. Politics is often seen in negative terms, as damaging and unnecessary. However, effective leaders and change managers need political skill to exert influence over others. Change managers must be aware of the agendas and perceptions of other stakeholders and be able to engage them in consultation where their views are valuable, and also when necessary to counter attempts to subvert or resist change with political tactics. We identified several types of political tactics: image building, information games, structure games, scapegoating, alliances, networking, intermediation, compromise, rule games, positioning, issue-selling, and dirty tricks. One model of political skill identifies four key dimensions: social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity. We offered a self-assessment covering those four skill dimensions and suggested how to develop political skill.

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LO 12.5

* Develop an action plan for improving your own change management capabilities.

We set out a six-step approach to personal development. First, do you still want this job, knowing how challenging and stressful it is, and what kinds of attributes contribute to success? Second, do you need to consider your personal positioning with regard to the depth of the change initiatives for which you are responsible or with which you are associated? Deeper changes can be more risky, but they offer greater opportunities for personal development. Third, make sure that you are comfortable with the political dimension of the role and follow the guidelines for developing political skill—if you feel this is relevant with regard to your current and future change management roles. Fourth, identify your strengths as a change manager and determine how to maintain those capabilities. Fifth, identify gaps in your capability profile and decide whether or not it is possible and desirable to address those—or to delegate those aspects of your change management role to other team members. Finally, develop a practical action plan to build on your strengths, recognize and manage allowable weaknesses, and address the gaps in your profile with further development.

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Source of opening quote from Lisa Cash Hanson, blogger and digital marketer https://fairygodboss.com/articles/inspiring-leadership-quotes

Source of the chapter opening quote: Inspiring Leadership Quotes, Fairy Good Boss, https://fairygodboss.com/articles/inspiring-leadership-quotes.

Chapter opening silhouette credit: FunKey Factory/Shutterstock