All the things...that make change fail

Kia ora Change Wranglers!

I've been less active on LinkedIn of late, as it can be a real-time sucker.

However, I check in regularly to see what others post; occasionally, there are some real gems.

Jeroen Kraaijenbrink posted this insightful truth bomb, a model showing why change fails.

It's deservedly gone viral on LinkedIn.

Note that I don't think it covers 'all the things' that cause change to fail, but it includes many of them.

In my experience, the most significant barrier is ineffective root cause analysis.

This means the problem you're solving isn't the right one to solve!

Or, you are solving the right problem but in the wrong way!

However, this model frames away from thinking that failed change is mainly about resistant people. That reframe is always a good thing!

Part of a change manager's tricky brief is often to gently coach leaders that upcoming change failure is a 'you' problem, not a 'them' problem!

The model calls out everything from no vision, consensus, skills, incentive, or resources to no action plan. It's more sophisticated than that, though, so click here to take a look.

If you're paying attention while reading 'Change Management that Sticks,' you'll have realised that the book is fundamentally about the status transaction between the change leaders and the recipients.

It should be a partnership, not a dictatorship.

That's why I've always hated the phrase 'change resistance'.

It implies people are stubborn about taking on good things through perverseness or sheer bloody-mindedness.

In my experience, that's never the case.

Instead, people 'resist' (if we really must use that word) 'dumb change'.

Thanks again, Gilbert Kruidenier, for that striking and oh-so-valuable encapsulation of what is a core message in change.

Speaking of Gilbert, he posts cracker change book reviews on LinkedIn.

Recently, he raved about Steve Hearsum's book No Silver Bullet: Bursting the Bubble of the Organisational Quick Fix, which I bought on his recommendation.

Steve is a consultant, but he's also an unapologetic truth-teller.

Which is a hard place to be, as it means you're potentially telling truths that bite the hand that feeds!

This is a tricky reality to understand about consultancies until you've worked with them and seen how they operate. For example, if they're too 'truthy,' they don't get return gigs.

Letting leaders know that the problem is THEM can be hazardous to your next pay cheque!

I'll let you know what I think of the book once I've chomped through my reading pile and got to it.

I recently used the phrase 'dumb change' to good effect in a Senior Leadership Team meeting when someone was ranting about how people resist change.

I said, "Or maybe they are just sensibly not keen to adopt dumb change."

(A profound silence greeted my statement!)

Some leaders must reframe their thinking considerably to realise that adopting change isn't a given; it's a choice.

You have to make the change sensible, palatable, and achievable in whatever ways possible.

Please don't think I'm saying all change has to be 'good' to get it adopted.

I've worked on plenty of 'about as welcome as a fart in space suit' changes - often regulatory and compliance-driven.

But the mantra still holds.

You must find what is in the change to make it sell.

With regulatory change, the sell is often that the alternative is so unpalatable that the change is still the lesser of two evils.

When I talk about the need for change managers to sell change, I don't mean it's all about flogging free Ferraris and Ginsu steak knives—there is a way to do it!

Check out the 'Sell Change with Confidence' course for more on this and to learn how to understand the difference between a change feature and a change benefit (selling features doesn't work, selling benefits does).

It also includes one of the original patented Barb change models, 'The Transformation Ladder' (not in the book).

Secondly, and speaking of viral LinkedIn posts, Will Bachman posted on getting access to a free download describing 60 change models.

I saw this post early and shared it with my LinkedIn network, as I'm always looking for high-quality content to share.

If you missed this post, find it here.

You have to DM Will to get the model guide.

You know I'm not so big on the models.

At least not when they're used as an end in themselves—they're just a tool, not a holy decree.

As I said when I reshared Will's post 'Situation before solution', but you can't apply it if you don't know about it!

So, awareness of the models is a good thing - and this will help!

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Occasionally, I post about AI.

It's a massive potential enabler of human potential if used right.

The education applications are immense.

But it does fundamentally change the bedrock of HOW we educate.

You have to think critically to get what that shift looks like.

If you want to see the inspiring, intelligent, articulate Sinead Bovell making the compelling case for why educators should stop hiding their heads in the sand, focusing energies on how to ban AI in schools, click here.

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The launch of 'Women in Change—Australia/New Zealand' is less than three weeks away!

It's on the evening of Thursday, 10 April, - 8.30 pm kick-off for the local NZ crowd.

I'm really looking forward to being on the launch panel and repping for Aotearoa!

Click here to see Sarah Bar-Lev, the Women in Change founder, discussing membership's benefits.

Click here to learn more about this and register for the launch event.

Your change fairy godmother, Barb 🧚♀️✨

Barb Grant

PS I forgot to include the podcast link to last week's newsletter, 'Whatever Happened to Critical Thinking?'.

If you prefer to listen to that as a podcast, click here.