Resilience for Organisational Survival

Hello and welcome to Leading Digital Transformation with Rob Llewellyn and the Digital Transformation People. In this podcast series, Rob interviews experienced practitioners, authors, and thought leaders whose stories and experiences provide valuable insights for digital transformation success.

There's never been a need for organizational change management and a focus on the people side of change more than today. And while most leaders won't disagree with that, a lot of organizations still struggle with it. My guest today is Karen Ferris, who's the author of several books about organizational change management. One is called Balanced Diversity and her most recent publication is called Game Change Is Constant. Karen helps organizations thrive in the face of volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous change, providing new tools and approaches for a new age in organizational change management. Effectively, she's trying to break the mold. Let's jump into the interview with Karen. Karen, welcome.

Thank you, Rob. Great to be here.

Karen, you've published a book back a number of years ago called Balance Diversity. I know you've got another book coming out called Game On. Tell us why you've written those books in the course of your organizational change management career.

Good question, Rob. So the Balanced Diversity book, when I wrote that, my background was primarily IT service management, but always with a focus on the people side of change. And I stumbled across a framework and of course IT love frameworks for embedding change into an organization and really presented 59 different activities that you could use to embed change. And that was really welcomed by the IT audience that it was intended for because it tended to use formal activities to embed change, you know, like, oh, we've done an audit or we've done some maturity assessment. And that was really the downfall from an IT perspective. We need more informal activities. And then Game On Change Is Constant was published earlier this year, and the subtitle of that is Tactics to Win. When Change is Everybody's Business, Our leading change is everybody's business. And that really is how do organizations manage, or hate the word manage, deal with the people side of change when change is now constant, you know, it's happening all the time. It's more disruptive. So what do we need to do to successfully transition through all of that change? And it's happening. And the third book is sitting on my desk as we speak, which is called It's a Bit Unleash the Resiliator Within. The resiliator is a superhero, if you like, with 20 superpowers that anyone can pull on at any time to be resilient in the face of constant change. The driver for that one, I think we need to do a lot more to enable our workforces to be resilient when change is as uncertain, ambiguous as it is today.

Karen, tell us, why is organizational change management needed today more than ever, ever before due to digital transformation?

Yeah, so organizational change management, just so everyone is on the same page, because a lot of people think you're reorganizing the organization. And it was probably the worst title that the industry could have or the profession could have given itself. So it's all about helping with the people side of change because whatever we do impacts people. And when we're talking about digital transformation, the statistics are out there, the organizations are really struggling with it. And one of the reasons that is that we tend to focus on the technology side of things. And McKinsey last year did some research and they found from the just under 1800 business executives that they spoke to, only 14% of them said that they've got any sustained performance improvement from the digital transformation effort. And that's crazy. And only 3% of those 1800 said that the transformation was a complete success. So something seriously going wrong. And what I'm seeing is that we're not looking at the people side of change as we should. And if you think about, you know, we're using the word transformation, I think we've been transforming forever and I think it's probably the wrong word. I think the digital disruption is more appropriate and it is disruptive and it's affecting when we do it. It's going to require technology change, infrastructure change, process roles and all of those impact people. And it's a massive change. So we need to make sure that everybody is part of that program of change or the continual improvement. And you also need a good cultural foundation, because digital disruption or transformation is going to require new ways of working, new ways of thinking. So fundamental mindset shifts and we need to have the foundation in place before we embark on that journey. And just one other thing to add. You know, we're all guilty of the new shiny thing and grabbing it and running with it, and I think organisations really need to ask the question, and OCM should be driving this, you know, why are we doing it? Why do we need to transform digitally? Why do we need to be more agile? Why do we need to do whatever it might be before we jump on the bandwagon? So we should be having a real good business case and it probably is there. But organisations aren't asking that fundamental question, because if we don't have that answer to that question, then what is the message of sending people in the organisation about why we're embarking on this very disruptive journey.

So Karen, why do you think that organizations don't give ocm? And just for the audience, OCM is short for organizational change management less of a mouthful. Why do you think organizations don't give OCM the focus that it really deserves?

I think, and this probably is a generalization, but people always seem to be the afterthought in many organisations. You know, for years we've seen projects, you know, remove training, remove organizational change management activities as they're running up to a deadline, it's the first thing that gets dropped. And I don't think organisations actually yet see the return on investment. And I think that's partly because the profession itself has struggled to put measurable outcomes on organisational change management activities. And you know, the organisational change management profession is still a relatively young one and I'm not quite sure it's really found its place and its feet. So organizations talk about organizational change management, ocm and you know, I'll go into an organization and let's say, you know, 4,000 employees and you look, okay, where's your organizational change management capability? Oh, it's that person sitting over there and it's like, well, there's your problem. Because they can't do, when we're doing as much change as we're doing today, that one person can't be doing everything for every initiative or every project. So I don't think the organisations are, you know, looking at that people side of change the way that they should be. And there needs to be, because when change is getting as constant as it is, you know, we're all hearing about, you know, anxiety and stress in the workplace and fatigue and burnout and all that sort of stuff. So the time really is now for organizations to stop just giving lip service and actually do something.

Karen, I've got a big smile on my face here because what you just said is really the question I was going to ask because you know, we both go in and out of organizations, as do a lot of people listening to this podcast. And I have to say that I've not been into an organization over the last 20 years where somebody has not mentioned organizational change management. But it comes down to, as you just alluded to, having, you know, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40,000 people in an organization and they point to that single person or they take care of ocm. As you say, organizations are often paying lip service to ocm. They're acknowledging the fact, yes, we need to do that. It's the right thing, but they're not investing in it, correct?

Absolutely. They hiring a couple of people maybe who've got organizational change management capability and they didn't think that's it because they can tick the box. Yes, we've done something, but I think there's also not an understanding of what OCM really is. And you know, we will talk about this a bit later I guess as well, but, you know, oh, it's just about communication. So that's what we need. When you need two or three people, they can do all the communications we need. Well, OCM is a lot more than just comms.

Karen, how does OCM have to fundamentally change then, when change is constant, as most people know these days, and it's quite uncertain in the digital world that we're living in because things are just changing so fast. So what has to fundamentally change with ocm?

So for me, this is where I've been pushing a few buttons across the industry over the last couple of years. The organizational change management approaches, methodologies, frameworks, whatever we want to call them, the majority of them, if not all of them, have been based on a 1940s alluded statement. And I'll expand on that in a moment from American German psychologist Kurt Lewin, who said change could be done in three steps. You unfreeze the current situation, you make the change and then you refreeze. So there's some stability. And I won't name them, but all the frameworks basically are based on that. I mean, even William Bridges said, you know, letting go and transitioning and new beginnings, it's all 1, 2, 3, stop. Well, change isn't like that anymore. It's not linear. Change is cyclic and it's rapid and it's fast. And you know, the days of organizational change management professionals saying, well, okay, I'll write my change strategy and I'll write my change communication plan and my training plan and my reinforcement plan and my sponsorship roadmap and my stakeholder engagement. And now I've done all those things. Ready to go. Well, I'm sorry, guys. The project's left the building, the world's moved on. But those are the things, those documents and artifacts are what people have been equipped with generally through the training and the certifications they've done in organizational change. So there's a few people now saying, okay, well how do we. And some people are saying calling it agile change, or, you know, people are talking about the science of change management and really shifting the industry. But yeah, it really has got to Move away from that concept of it being the role of a couple of people to one where change is everybody's business. It has to be an organizational change. Management really needs to strategize about how we create a resilient workforce.

So, Karen, we've talked a couple of times now about the fact that organizations are not investing sufficiently in OCM capabilities and that's probably not going to change overnight. So, you know, in light of that challenge, how can OCM deal with the amount of change happening when there are generally only a few OCM practitioners in these organizations, some of which are really large, tens of thousands of people in some instances?

Absolutely. So, Rob, I use the analogy of a soccer team. You know, I'm from Liverpool, so I have to. I talk about. You could use any sporting analogy to explain the capability that I think organizations need to develop and be driven by ocm. If you think of a soccer team, for example, every week, every game they play is different. The pitch, the supporters, the weather, the opposition, the tactics, the composition of the team. And even during a game, you know, there can be red cards and reduction in numbers. People change position, the opposition changes the tactics and they don't resist those changes. They say game on, hence the name of my latest book. And they're resilient in the face of that constant change. They just embrace it. And that's the workforce we need today. We really have to have. Yeah, change is constant. Bring it on. So we have the players. What OCM need to do is become the managers. Like a soccer team manager. You don't have to call them these titles, it's just the analogy. But the managers, you know, get off the pitch and they set strategy, working with the players and the coaches, but they set strategy. How are we going to build a resilient workforce? What's working, what's not? Do we need to change our direction? Do we need to change our approach? And the third aspect in that coalition are the coaches. So these are what traditionally organizations have said, the change agent, the change advocates or the change champions distributed throughout the organization. But what's traditionally happened as well is these people have put their hands up to be a change champion. They've been given a lanyard that says change champion and that's about it. They haven't been equipped to do organisational change management at all. So OCM in that management, strategic management role need to educate and give people the capability and create a competent change network. Every level of the organisation throughout the organization that can make sure that the players have the right training the right equipment, the right resources to win the game that the organisation is playing. So it's about OCM stepping back and looking at the big picture. Because at the moment most OCM professionals are doing the doing and get this competent network to drive change throughout the organization. That's the only way we're going to deal with the amount of change that's happening. And the coaches feedback, they get feedback from the players, the feedback to the managers, you know, what's working, what's not working, what do we need to do differently? And until we make change, everyone's business, as I mentioned before, organisations just aren't going to cope with the rate of change that's happening. And I've talked to OCM professionals and they go, oh well, there's two or three of us and we just get allocated to what people think are the highest priority projects or programs. So all the others are just going ahead without any organisational change. So organisations are not going to suddenly invest in, you know, a team of 50 organizational change professionals to be the managers. So they need to equip the rest of the organization and change agents.

Karen, why do you think that companies, many companies, not all, but many companies are not taking OCM seriously enough? I mean, the reports are out there from all the big consulting firms, the academic research is out there. Most of the large organizations that are helping companies implement change and transformation talk about OCM and even we're hearing CEOs talk these days more about people. Why is it, do you think that despite all of this, there's still not enough investment in ocm?

Yeah, I think it's a good question and I'm not sure I have the definitive answer. You know, I talk to a lot of, you know, potential clients and they go, yes, yes, the nodding. And then it's like, but maybe, maybe not just now. And I think they're not feeling the pain yet. And you know, as you say, there's lots of reports and statistics that say, you know, if you don't do it, this is what will happen to you. And you know, there's some shining examp, like if you don't get people to innovate, you'll go down the roads of, you know, Kodak and Blockbuster and we've just had what's the holiday company that just gone under, you know, resting on their laurels because of their existing success. So yeah, they're not feeling the pain themselves and some of the statistics are out. Generally globally, employee turnover is at the lowest it's ever been. Generally globally, the lowest so organisations probably going, whoop, that's really good. Low turnover. The other statistic alongside that is that employee engagement is at the lowest it's ever been globally. So that means people aren't leaving the organisation, but they're also totally disengaged. So that's complacency where people are just tearing up for a paycheck. Now, what that means to those organisations is they will fail to innovate, they'll fail to respond to competition, they'll fail to respond to consumer and customer demand and they will start to die a slow and painful death because someone else is going to do it faster than them, sooner than them, better than them. And I feel until they feel that happening and it's happening more and more, that maybe organizations are not just sitting up and taking note, they're sort of getting away with it, they're surviving, but I don't think they're going to thrive. And until we have more of those stories that says if we'd done ocm, we wouldn't be in a situation where are, then maybe people will sit up and listen.

I didn't want to jump in there, Karen. I know it was on the tip of your tongue, but he couldn't quite get it out yet. It was Thomas Cook.

Thomas Cook, yeah, exactly.

I didn't want to jump in because I know we got a big time lag. For those of you listening, I'm in Spain and Karen is in Australia, so we've got a bit of a time lag going on that we need to deal with. But, yeah, really sad to see an organization that was, I mean, Mr. Thomas Cook founded that in 1841 and it's gone bankrupt this week. So sad. But anyway, let's move on. What are some of the myths, Karen, about ocm? I mean, everybody mutters the words ocm, but they don't necessarily know, you know, the right things of ocm. Tell us some of the myths that are being, you know, banded around organizations.

Yeah, so what I mentioned earlier that people seem to think, oh, OCM is about communications, it's just comms. And, you know, we hear people say, oh, we sent out an email telling them this change was coming, so why don't they get it? Well, that is not communication, that's broadcasting to start with. And, you know, OCM is a lot more than just sending communications out. Communications is a big part of it, but it's also about what's the right comms, what's the right channel, what's the right frequency, who is the audience what's the context? What is it they want to know? And it's more having a open dialogue conversation and it's a two way conversation. So it's not just about comms, it's about engagement, it's about stakeholder position, it's about where people are in terms of the feeling about the change we've talked about. It's just the job of a few people. It can't be. As we've explored the myth that people resist change, I say all the time people don't resist change when it's done with them. They resist change when it's done to them, which often happens. They don't know why the change is happening, they don't know what impact it's going to have on them. So of course they'll resist it if they haven't been engaged and had the conversation. So people don't generally resist change. And also the myth that resistance to change is a bad thing. Well, not really because as an OCM professional, if people are resisting change, I either haven't communicated effectively, so it's informing me that I need to up my game. So that's a good thing. So it informs your strategy if a large amount of people are resisting change? Well, it might be that your change is a bad idea. They might actually have something to say that we don't believe this is the right way to go. So yeah, it's not always a bad thing. And the other one, people think there's no return on investment, which I think is why one of the reasons they don't give it the focus it should have. And you know, again, the evidence is out there. If you have ocm, you will have longer term adoption your change, it'll contain costs from rework in terms of getting people on board, getting people to use new processes, getting people to use new tools. It reduces the time to implement a change. I often say projects install change, OCM implements them and makes them happen and it ensures that you know, everyone's on the journey. So you're going to get a smooth transition to a new way of working or whatever it might be without disrupting business as usual, which can be dangerous.

Karen, in your latest book you talk about killing the hierarchy. What do you mean by that?

Yes, so I think hierarchy and especially bad bureaucracy, we just have to get rid of it. When change is constant, complex, ambiguous and it's just getting faster and faster and it's getting more and more disruptive because we can't foresee often where the change is coming from. So we need to make change everyone's business. But if we have a hierarchy with the traditional sort of command and control approach, then the organization is going to be too slow. If the decision has to go up a chain of command before an answer can come back down, the opportunity that was facing us or the challenge or the issue we were dealing with, that's gone. It's either blown up on our face or an opportunity has been missed. So we've got to decentralize decision making. You know, I often see people going, you know, if we give everybody the power to make decisions and drive change, it'll be chaos. Well, it isn't because we give people alongside the autonomy we give them, we give them guardrails within which to operate. And they are basically principles to say these are the things you can do. And this is a very simple example. But tick these boxes, I will do right by the customer, I'll do right by the company, and I'll do right by my colleagues. And if I tick those boxes, I am doing something with the right intent and therefore I have permission to do it. If I think I'm going to adversely impact one of those three parties, then I shouldn't do it. As simple as. So, yeah, we need to give people autonomy. We need to start treating our workforce as adults and give them your time to get on and do the job. So we need to get rid of that bureaucracy of hierarchy where it's only people with a certain title that can actually initiate and drive change.

Karen, I could continue speaking and hearing from you on this because I'm really passionate about this subject, but I'm afraid we're going to have to wrap it up. But before we go, tell us, where can people go to learn more about what you've got to share on the subject of OCM?

Absolutely. Just head over to my website, which is KarenFerris. All1Word.com I'm active on LinkedIn. Seek me out there. And if you're interested in Game On, Change is Constant, then the book's available as a hard copy, also as an ebook on Amazon.

Perfect. And we'll put links to those in the show Notes. Karen, thank you much so, so much for joining me today. It's been a real pleasure speaking with you.

Thank you. Rob. Enjoyed it.

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