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The Dawn of Something New

Guest post by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: January 2011 is the start of something new. Change is in the air. Perhaps we need to think a little about what makes us contemplate change as well as our role in facilitating any change that is required.

The Dawn of Something New

The start of any new year always brings with it a sense of a need for change – for something different. I guess that’s why so many of us make New Year’s resolutions – we want things to be different, in a positive way, from what has happened in the preceding year.

Two major events marked the start of 2011 for me.

On the evening of Sunday January 2 there was a major storm in Sydney, Australia. Our family was sitting around chatting when a bolt of lightning hit the house. Simultaneously there was a very loud “bang” a kaleidoscope of colours, and a smell of something having been burned. We were very lucky. Apart from the loss of some minor electronic equipment and the temporary loss of internet access, there was no damage. It took us quite a while, however, before the adrenaline eased and we again felt normal.

The second event occurred a few days later. An overseas friend was scheduled to be married on January 5. His father had been ill for some time and on the morning of January 5 I received a message from him: “Dad … passed away a couple of hours ago. We are making arrangements for his funeral now.”

These two events highlighted for me the fact that, no matter what changes we may consider necessary and no matter what changes we might want to happen, sometimes change is brought about by circumstances totally beyond our control. The change caused by the lightning – the need for a new facsimile machine and the temporary loss of the internet connection – was a minor, very short-term irritant, and easily dealt with. The change my friend experienced – the loss of a much loved father and the need to postpone a wedding – was intensely personal and will have long-term impact on him and his immediate family.

The lightning strike has caused no real change in my behaviour or that of my family. Something happened and, at the time, it appeared to be quite major. In fact it was trivial and was no impetus for significant change. The death of my friend’s father is different. No matter what, he and his family will experience long-term impact and their lives will never again be quite the same.

Over my years of facilitating change in individuals and organisations I have become increasingly aware of some truths relating to change:

1. It’s not whether or not something happens to us that is important, it’s how we react to this event that is important.

2. There is no absolute imperative to change. Unless and until an individual or an organisation “wants” to change, nothing will really happen. Of course there may be some cosmetic difference or there may be some immediate reaction to something that has happened, but overall the status quo will remain.

I was again reminded of these truths when I read the following:

“Most leadership strategies are doomed to failure from the outset. Leaders instigating changes are often like gardeners standing over their plants and imploring them: ‘Grow! Try harder! You can do it!’ No gardener tries to convince a plant to ‘want’ to grow: if the seed does not have the potential to grow, there’s nothing anyone can do to make a difference.” Peter Senge, The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organisations, 1999, Broadway Business, New York.

January 2011 is the start of something new. Change is in the air. Perhaps we need to think a little about what makes us contemplate change as well as our role in facilitating any change that is required.

I suggest that there are several levels of change.

First there is what I might call “material change” - change relating to new technology, equipment or other physical items. Such change may mean we need to learn something new in order to be able to use the equipment or work with the new material, but effectively this level of change is low risk and requires quite a low level of commitment from us. Examples of this might include such things as software updates for our computers, new technology relating to mobile telephony, or an artist starting to work in a new medium etc. For most of us this is simply a fact of life and, although at times an irritant, it is something we can deal with quickly and easily. This is the change level I was involved in after we had the lightning strike.

Second there is what I might call “process change” – change relating to what currently we are doing and how we do things. This level of change requires us to learn new skills as it challenges our current way of doing things. Sometimes this level of change arises from “material change” but often it is totally unrelated – matters such as the change in direction of the organisation for which we work would be an example of this, as also might be moving to a new organisation and needing to change one’s behaviour in order to fit into the new culture. This level of change is much more difficult to deal with. We tend to be creatures of habit and encountering the need to develop new habits can be scary. While most of us accept the reality of this type of change, it doesn’t mean that we like it or even that we will go along with it. Much of the opposition to change that I find in my work with organisations arises because people are not willing to modify their established behaviours – a bit of an issue but certainly not unsurmountable.

Third is what I might call “mind change” – change relating to the way we view our world and the way we interact with it. This level of change means that we come to realise that our current approaches to things are no longer adequate or appropriate – some shift in our thinking – our world view – is required in order to enable us to deal better with the realities we encounter. Accordingly we need to re-examine our deepest thinking systems, our values, and our beliefs about what ought or ought not to be. Sometimes this level of change is prompted by the effects of “process change” but very often it is triggered by some totally different event. This is the level of change that my friend encountered with the death of his father – something had occurred that could never be reversed.

This level of change can shake us to the foundations of our beings and it can be very, very scary.

While there can be (and very often is) resistance to change at the material or process levels, any reluctance to change is minor compared with our general willingness to change at the deepest level – “mind change”. This is why, so often, we persevere with using approaches that have been tried before and have been shown not to work. It’s a little like communicating with a person who doesn’t speak your language: sometimes, at least from my experience in New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and the USA, there can be a temptation to continue saying the same thing at increasing volume even though it is clear the other person has little or no idea of the message you are trying to convey.

The point made by Senge is valid. Unless a person has the desire to make changes and this desire is accompanied by the mental and physical ability to make changes, it is useless trying to force change or even to try and “motivate” people to change.

Our role as change facilitators is to work with people to assist them to make the changes that they want to make and that they are able to make. To do this we need to create an environment in which people can see the need for change; where they are able to buy in to that change; and where they are enabled to make the change. For this to be fully possible we require Third Generation Leadership – not traditional management approaches.

Now there’s a challenge for 2011.

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Article Tags: 2011, change facilitation, Change management, new year, Third Generation Leadership



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