 |
| By Carey Nieuwhof |
“Never sacrifice the future of 90 percent of people you
lead because of the discontent of 10 percent.”
You’re probably trying to change something right now. And—if you’re honest—you’ve already thought about backing
off.
Change seems too difficult.
You’ve watched friends get hurt trying to lead
similar change.
You’ve heard the voices of opposition get a little
louder.
You really don’t want to be afraid to open your
inbox every morning.
But what if this is true?
Change is harder than it needs to be only
because it’s more mysterious than it needs to be.
And it doesn’t need to be quite that mysterious.
Here’s what I believe about change: Change involves common
human dynamics, and the dynamics can be learned. There are facts about
change that, frankly, too many leaders miss. Discover them, and change
becomes much easier to navigate.
In my book about leading change while facing opposition, I
outline the learned dynamics of change that I hope can help every leader.
I’m passionate about change because I’ve lived through it
and can vouch for the fact that change is more than possible.
I’m also passionate because if the church (and other
organizations) are going to reach their potential, change isn’t optional, it’s
necessary.
So, if you’re navigating change, here’s a short cheat sheet
of 13 key principles that I hope will help you maintain clear thinking amidst
the sea of emotions that leading change brings.
1. People aren’t opposed to change nearly as
much as they are opposed to change they didn’t think of
Everybody’s in favor of their ideas, but most
organizational change is driven by the ideas fostered by a leader or a
leadership team. That’s simply the way leadership operates. When you float an idea, there’s often initial resistance
from people who didn’t think of the idea or who weren’t involved in the
process. That resistance isn’t fatal though.
You just need to realize that most people will come on
board. You just need to give them time until the idea spreads widely enough to
be owned.
Great ideas eventually resonate, even if they’re initially
met with resistance.
How do you know you have a good idea? Like a fine wine,
good ideas get better with time. Bad ideas get worse.
2. Change is hard because people crave what
they already like
You have never craved a food you haven’t tried, and change
operates on a similar dynamic. Your people want what they’ve seen because people never
crave what they haven’t seen. That’s why vision is so key—you need to paint a clear
enough picture that people begin to crave a future they haven’t yet lived.
The reason leaders love change more than most people
is because they’re leaders. Your passion level is always going to be naturally and
appropriately higher than most people when it comes to change. Just know that’s
how you’re wired and don’t get discouraged too quickly if your passion for
change is higher than others. You’re the leader. That’s your job.
4. Most of the disagreement around change
happens at the strategy level
Most leaders stop at aligning people around a common
mission and vision, but you also need to work hard at aligning people around a
common strategy.
It’s one thing to agree that you passionately love God;
it’s another to create a dynamic church that unchurched people flock to.
One depends on vision; the other is a re-engineering around
a common strategy. When people are aligned around a common mission, vision and
strategy, so much more becomes possible.
5. Usually no more than 10 percent of the
people you lead are opposed to change
Most leaders are shocked when they hear that only about 10
percent of their church or team is opposed to change at any time. Almost all
swear it’s higher.
But usually, it’s not. When I’ve challenged leaders to write down the actual names
of people who are opposed to what they’re proposing, most are hard pressed to
write down more than a dozen or so. And often, that’s even less than 10
percent.
It may feel like 50 percent of the people you lead are
opposed to change, but that’s almost never true. The question, of course, then becomes this: Are you going
to sacrifice the future of 90 percent of people you lead because of the
discontent of 10 percent? I hope not.
I dissect the 10 percent rule in detail in my book, Leading Change Without Losing It. (I promise you it’s
good news for leaders.)
6. Loud does not equal large
So why do the 10 percent feel bigger than they are?
Because they’re loud. Conversely, the proponents of
change are usually quieter, even respectful. Just because the opponents of change are loud doesn’t mean
they’re a large group. The most opposed people make the most noise. Don’t make the mistake most leaders make when they assume
large equals loud. Almost every time, it doesn’t.
7. Most people opposed to change do not have a
clearly articulated vision of a preferred future
Most people opposed to change do not have a clearly
articulated vision of a preferred future. They don’t know what they want. They
just know what they don’t want. In fact, most just want to go back to Egypt. And you
can’t build a better future on a vision of the past.
8. Fear of opposition derails more leaders than
actual opposition
Fear of opposition derails
more leaders than actual opposition. Wouldn’t it be horrible to look back on
your leadership and realize there was little opposition to change—you just thought there
was? So push past your fears. And push past the opposition. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s the determination
to lead through your fears. By the way, this also does wonders for your faith.
9. Buy-in happens most fully when people
understand why, rather than what or how
What and how are
inherently divisive. Someone’s always got a better, cheaper, more expensive,
faster, shorter, longer way to do what you’re proposing.
Articulating why you’re changing something
is different. It unites people. Why reminds everyone why
we do what we do, and why we’re doing this in the first place. So focus on why when you’re communicating.
Why motivates. Always start with why, finish with why and pepper
all communication with why.
10. Unimplemented
change becomes regret
If you don’t muster up the courage to usher in healthy
change, you’ll regret it.
You’ll look back and yearn for what might have been, not
for what was.
Unimplemented change becomes regret. Remember that.
11. Incremental change brings about incremental
results
People will always want to do less, which is why many
leaders settle for incremental change, not radical change, even when radical
change is needed.
You’ll be tempted to compromise and reduce vision to the
lowest common denominator: incremental change. Just know that incremental change brings incremental
results. And incrementalism inspires no one.
12. Transformation happens when the change in
question becomes part of the culture
How long does change take? It takes a while, and it’s
important to persevere. Because over time, change becomes transformation. You can change some things in a year and almost everything
in five years. But transformation happens when people own the change. That’s
often five to seven years; only then do most people not want to go back to
Egypt. So how do you know transformation has happened? Simple.
Most people no longer want to go back to the way it was.
13. The greatest enemy of your future success
is your current success
As I wrote about in Leading Change Without Losing
It, success has its own problems. The biggest problem? Success makes leaders conservative.
The more successful you become, the less willing you are to change.
As a result, the greatest enemy of your future success is
your current success.
The best way to overcome that?
Keep changing. Keep experimenting. Keep risking.
Successful organizations create a culture of change because
they realize that success tempts you to risk nothing until decline forces you
to reexamine everything. Keep changing.
I hope these 13 principles can keep you focused on a few of
the toughest dynamics associated with change.
What would you add to this list?
And what’s been the most difficult aspect of change for you
and your team?
No comments:
Post a Comment