Change success (the accomplishment of business objectives near and long term) requires connecting work and motivation to vision/idea/change and vice-versa. That means strategy must make sense and the "make sense" must be transferred to the employees in a way they will accept.
While this seems obvious I find most executives understanding it only on a surface level.
If this loop of idea and work does not exist and/or is not understood then that is the first step in the process of introducing change ideas. With a clear understanding of what it takes to get things done, assuming a change idea will facilitate that process, anyone in the organization should be able to communicate an idea.
Convincing may be a more data/emotional discussion.
An organization that does not have a communication channel for ideas for change has a serious structural problem.
In my own work with change management I make a point of weaving that channel somehow into the formal or informal structure to make it easier for the next idea to be heard.
This was a question I posted on LinkedIn to elicit a variety of responses, which it did http://tinyurl.com/ygl4u5p.
Which led me to the next level of thinking. What is or should be the nature of coaching for an external consultant within an engagement?
For my engagements I like to have one or two individuals that I work with as a coach. Either they pick me, I reach out to them or the buyer and I choose them for development and/or succession planning. This is a less formal version of what I think of as a coach. My formal version (there appear to be about as many versions as there are people who call themselves coaches) is someone who helps an individual build skills. The most formal of the helping is a specific plan with exercises and tasks to practice and perfect the skills.
For newly minted managers this can be the first introduction to the differences between coaching and consulting (I think they are distinct and calling that out is helpful). Developing the skill to deal with, leverage and profit from external influence is a core competency for managers. Building multiple skills to form competency in an area is using coaching to facilitate consulting.
That is a version of the coaching that a consultant can provide.
From the other direction, yes of course the consultant can be coached. I typically develop trusted relationships with the internal resources I partner with. Those people are part of a feedback loop that I am either not in or would not access to protect my position/influence as an external. The perspectives of the people in those loops and their reactions to my influence are crucial for initiative success and my own development.
Addressing the level of coaching involved in change engagements is a chance to multitask operational development next to change. It addresses the WIFM (what’s in it for me) and creates a way for stakeholders to participate at both the individual and the corporate strategic level (contribution and development) and, in all honesty, gives the consultant a chance to have clear tangible effect under the umbrella of large initiatives.
Is coaching happening in your initiatives?
If I were a stakeholder (have been many times) my answer would be something like-
A process that clearly illustrates to me the positive effects for both business and people of my contribution.
If I were an executive responsible for change-
The realization of a corporate strategy through productive, efficient utilization of resources.
For Vision to Work it is-
Both of the above plus a change in the organization itself for the better.
Truly successful change management starting at the highest levels and flowing through the organization would:
- Develop employees
- Put a magnifying glass to operations and efficiency
- Call out collaboration and horizontal effort and reward accordingly
- Test the balance of people and business and adjust
- Improve the PMO and project functions
- Illuminate the organization positively to the outside environment
What is the one word to put in front of Change Management that represents change that is directly tied (as in owned at the first horizontal) to organizational strategy?
OCM (organizational) seemed like a fit until practitioners turned it into an old fashioned OD approach (too much about the people and not enough about the business).
ECM was my first choice but IT has grabbed it to mean big software changes. And Prosci is also using it (that contrary post will take a little time and come later, but as a hint they are approaching big change just like small change with old assumptions).
SCM could work except that stands for Supply Chain Management (system would have had a ring).
HCM is human capital management (overlap there but bad associations).
The Visual Thesaurus http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ (for this English major spatial learner a cool site) did not help. None of the words described- at the top, across the whole, involving all and a path to the future. That is the word I am grasping for. That would be TWAFCM. Scary like some I have seen…too clunky.
Because I have not found it I am going with Corporate (I know dull) CCM.