Change Management: Of Babies And Bathwater

By Harvey Robbins

The age of change in organizational thinking - sometimes called New Age management theory - is occurring in part because of the influence of the baby boomer generation. The previous generations flourished in the mass-production economy that grew steadily from the 1920s through the 1960s. It is no Oedipal coincidence that the next generation has done everything it could to trash the success of the generation preceding it.

Organizations in the 1990s and 2000s are picking up and trying on new initiatives like a teenager in front of a mirror, uncertain of much, only sure that it does not want to be like its mom and dad. The New Age must be better; it is, after all, new. But you cannot discuss change in our time without addressing the enormous demographic and psychographic blip of our time, and why they (we) can't help trying out every new thing that comes along - and are unable to make many of them stick.

Some of the factors behind the fads:

Globalization: Where the older generation made and sold to a single American market, baby boomers make and sell to (and compete against) the whole world.

Technology: Baby boomers possess much more intimate information processing technologies, and are thus prone to greater decentralization and individualization. Can you say Blackberry? Can't be caught dead without your new iPhone?

Speed: Baby boomers are impatient because technology has given them that luxury. Previous planned changes, like the moon landing, took years; this generation does not feel it can wait that long. If an idea doesn't take hold and yield quick results, they move on to another idea. Some leaders are specifically chosen because they appear to have an ichy finger poised atop the change button.

Education: Business schools taught only one approach to business in the first half of the century; today there is zero "conventional wisdom," even in the most hidebound academy. Years ago there was no "management theory" section in bookstores; today there is an avalanche of offerings. I even recently noticed a "new age management" section of the local bookstore.

Experience: People today travel more, read more, pursue continuing education, change jobs more frequently, encounter greater diversity, work across functional lines, and interact with people from other countries, cultures, and industries.

Diversity, cross-functionality, and "dress-down Fridays" (currently under reconsideration in many companies) all have their roots in the rebellious mod of the '60s that railed against conformity, squares, button-down collars, and gray flannel suits. "The leader as servant" idea owes more to the I Ching and Che Guevara than to Iwo Jima and Dale Carnegie.

Truth be told, though, conventional wisdom of the industrial age is no less wise in the age of change. Organizations are remarkably like machines, no matter how we "humanize" them. Bureaucracies remain efficient ways to organize complex systems. In-the-box is still the place where most of us dwell, and think, and are happiest. A wise generation would take pains, in tossing out the bathwater from the previous generation, to conduct routine baby checks.

About The Author:
A world class speaker, author, and educator, Dr. Robbins focuses on transformational leadership by providing leadership skill training, team building / team leadership training, management development training, and executive coaching. See more on http://www.harveyrobbins.com

---

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

Change Management Strategies: Change And Personality

By Harvey Robbins

Back on March 25, 2002, I wrote a newsletter on personalities. But I didn't go far enough when it came to telling how these personalities effect the way change takes place. Personality type naturally plays a role in one's ability to meet change head on. You remember the grid that I described showing Controllers, Promoters, Supporters, and Analyticals. The same grid, with a little change, tells a story about change potentials.

Each type is perfectly capable of normal change. The center of the grid could be shaded in as "OK about change". At their extreme edges, however, like when a Controller is a very strong Controller, or an Analytical is a very strong Analytical - pronounced differences become apparent.

Drivers love to lead, and true to leading implies change, so it is logical that Drivers have a special knack for changing. Pure Drivers are metaphiles, cheerful embracers of the new and untested. But, the change has to make sense or it's not worth doing.

Expressives like to play. Their natural mode is exploration, and that is an intrinsically useful part of change. Pure Expressives are metamaniacs, so enamored of change that they have to be changing in order to function. They live in a world of constant change. They embrace change to the point that if they feel nervous if things are not changing regularly. In leadership positions, Expressives force change whether it makes sense or not…just 'cause.

Amiables are the people everyone else loves to have around. They are the perfect antidote in a marriage to a strong Driver - they smile, they shrug, they love, they forgive. Not exactly hard chargers. Thus, Amiables have a tendency to be metaphobes, people disinclined by nature to enjoy change much. They'll change, though, as long as others do too.

Analyticals are usually right, but they can be awfully tight about it. They are the perfectionists of the world, dotting every "i" and crossing every "t". At the extreme, they become metamorons, people to whom change is completely unacceptable - because change ruins their data, their level thinking field.

What does it mean? It means you don't load a change initiative team with metamaniacs - there will be hamburger all over the highway. Neither do you assign a metamoron the task of leading a team in a pilot change project.

Most teams contain people from more than one group. This is not a bad thing. A team with a metaphile on it will likely galvanize everyone else to follow. A team with a metamaniac on it will benefit from the reassuring foot-dragging effect of a metaphobe.

As always, the beauty of teams is the diversity of their members. A team of all metamorons - all people with a strong Analytical bent, like a lot of functional teams in finance, engineering, and the other analytical arts - is going to have a hell of a time moving off the dime.

By the way, in my practice, I have learned that not many people enjoy being called metamorons. Just remember that only extreme, off-the-chart Analyticals qualify for this august title. Chances are, you're much too balanced to deserve such an epithet.

About The Author:
A world class speaker, author, and educator, Dr. Robbins focuses on transformational leadership by providing leadership skill training, team building / team leadership training, management development training, and executive coaching. See more on http://www.harveyrobbins.com

---

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.

Change Management: Four Attitudes Towards Change

By Harvey Robbins

There are four attitudes toward change, created by leaders, with which an organization can be managed. They run the gamut from maintaining control (Old Age management) to distributing control (New Age management). Four points can be designated to demark four attitudes about control.

1) Pummel. Terror. "Do what I say or you will die." The bad old days. This time-honored method seeks control at any cost and can be used to force either change or non-change. The worker is a slave. The leader says, "My way or the highway". It's a very tense and stressful environment…and it's created solely by the leader.

2) Push. Distress. "Do what you must do or the enterprise will die." This is conventional motivation, the deliberate use of fear to galvanize positive action - the burning platform from which people must jump (change) or perish. Push uses force, like Pummel, but it is not brutal force. It encourages people to act by loading them up with negative information. In the hands of some, this is the big lie. The worker is a rat in a Skinner Box. The environment is just as tense and stressful as under Pummel, but the pressure is now not created by the boss, but by the information the boss is providing. Kind of like hitting people with bricks.

3) Pull. Eustress. "Do what you must do to achieve the future you dream of." Imagination, inspiration. It is less control than a willingness to lead coupled with a willingness to follow. Pull is Push plus empowerment - workers motivate (scare) themselves. The manager is a human being with no power to coerce; the worker is a human being with free will. A kind of fear is involved. Urgency might be a better word for it. This is the hardest way to achieve change, but the way with the best long-term results. It combines both the tension of a perceived threat combined with an exit strategy…a way out of the stress. A step by step process towards a future positive state.

4) Pamper. Torpor. "Do what you feel like doing." This is the realm of entitlement, the supposedly good new days. Pamper is Pull minus accountability. Zero fear, maximum empowerment, slack performance, scant measurement and evaluation. The worker is a child. The first two are related, characterized by fear, manipulation, and disrespect for the worker. The second two are also related, characterized by an acknowledgment of the worker's humanity. The first and last categories are the extremes, but these extremes are common. Anyone who has been in many different organizations knows that a lot of them operate on these extremes of sadism and permissiveness.

The best hope organizations have for making successful change lies in utilizing a balanced combination of the middle, more temperate two - Push and Pull. Push to get people's attention and start them thinking. It gets their attention, like the impact of a two by four to the forehead. Then it is combined with the Pull where people are rallied to follow the escape plan out of the pain. Pull to leverage people's knowledge and creativity to put the change over.

About The Author:
A world class speaker, author, and educator, Dr. Robbins focuses on transformational leadership by providing leadership skill training, team building / team leadership training, management development training, and executive coaching. See more on http://www.harveyrobbins.com.

---

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.