Let’s say you are the executive that is in tune with both people and business.
You have had corporate initiatives that have been successful and a few not so. Because you are wise you see that that the successful initiatives were those where corporate strategy somehow tied neatly into individual and team motivation. And those not so successful were the ones where change was forced and resistance was almost guaranteed.
Success managed motivation. Un-success battled resistance.
Knowing the difference between clarifying the goal and then defining the path versus focusing on the process to change to a future state, you look for a consultant or firm to help with the next success. You look in a few forums, some LinkedIn questions and answers, a few websites, maybe you read a few change management books. And they all seem to have the second of our two perspectives. Why is that?
Internal politics tends tends to tug at change as revenue needs tend to tug at consulting firms. Process and task win out in both cases.
Most change management practitioners are enamored with process. They love to guide stakeholders toward their future state. They love models, theories and their own approaches. Secondary to process they love guiding people. They are not necessarily “people persons” (those lean toward training and communications) but they like the energy of collaboration. These are excellent qualities for the middle of change management. The middle of the organization, the middle of the change process itself and in terms of expertise the middle of the change practitioner skill set.
But you are an executive interested in high level usually transformational change. The type of change that is tied to strategy. That type of change is not typically seeded in the middle of the organization.
For high level strategic change management you need a consultant, yes initially you will benefit from the relationship with a single trusted individual, who is drawn toward business equal to people. Someone who is focused on goals, end states, results before process and task. You realize process and task are learnable while strategic skill is practiced and intuitive. And you have seen initiatives fail because they were wrapped up in the approach of the consulting firm rather than the culture of your organization.
Keep searching.
You are a knowledgeable, astute, ahead of the curve executive. Hold your ground and approach change as a business + people = results equation. Successful change management for the future is the alignment of resources and energy toward a goal. It is not managing the process of changing minds. Like you stakeholders have matured past that. They understand change is inevitable and often beneficial. They do not like it when you force change and they do not like it when you assume change is forced (overcoming resistance). What they do like are leaders who are clear about direction, choose the right path and articulate the goal. Getting there is actually the easy part.
But you knew all that right?