Traveling Light Ezine

Hi!

Welcome to the twenty-second edition of Jennifer Selby Long's Traveling Light. Are you blessed with the talent and opportunity to lead? Traveling Light will skyrocket your impact and lighten the load inherent in your life. It's based on the work of executive coach and management consultant Jennifer Selby Long.

Copyright 2008 Jennifer Selby Long. All rights reserved.

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Have you ever tried to lead a major organizational change that failed? I did years ago, and it hurt! I still remember the sting and the embarrassment of having to retract all of my bold statements and retreat from my position.

That's why, ever since, I've been an avid student of how to make organizational changes successful. Today, after leading and consulting on dozens of big organizational changes, I advise clients on how to avoid all of the mistakes I made and ensure that their changes will be smoother and more successful.

O.k., it's time to spill the beans: The #1 reason changes fail is NOT that the change was driven by a bad business decision, although that sometimes happens. It's not IT's fault. People love to blame IT for failed change ("If only their technology had met our needs, we could implement a whole new way of doing business..."), but that's rarely the reason a change fails.

No, the #1 reason organizational changes tank is this: the failure to manage the subjective human side. This includes aspects such as:

• The uncomfortable individual process of experiencing change - the loss, feelings of uncertainty, denial, and general discomfort that nearly everyone experiences to some degree, from your most seasoned director to your youngest individual contributor
• Inattention to organizational politics - the change initiative gets sabotaged, intentionally or not
• Inattention to developing the information, knowledge, skills, and capabilities needed to sustain the change
• The counteracting pressures on individuals, that you and the other leaders may not even realize you are putting on them

You CAN be successful, though, by using a structured process to manage the human aspects of implementing a complex change - in much the same way that you use a structured process to manage any other project.

Here are the key steps to make sure YOUR change is one of the 25% that succeed:

1. Widen the circle of involvement to ensure that key stakeholders are involved, not just informed, every step of the way.
2. Assemble a change leadership team. Some members of this team may be needed for just the project start-up, but others will need to stick with it through the entire change. Keep the membership flexible enough to accommodate this.
3. Choose an appropriate organizational change methodology for the scale and depth of the change. If you need to incrementally improve processes, it will require a different approach than if you want to radically alter the fundamental way you view and manage the business.
4. Regardless of the scale and depth of change, create and sustain:
   • highly visible leadership
   • a means to effectively develop any skills and capabilities the organization will need
   • a two-way process for communication throughout the change
5. Pay attention and adjust as you receive feedback throughout the change. You can't predict everything that will happen. There will be surprises.

Remember, failure to manage the subjective, human aspects of the change will slow your efforts and create a poor end result. Apply this process so your organization can not only survive through a big change, but thrive.

I guess anyone who knows Kirk already knows I've found my Prince Charming. But little did I know I really did marry royalty. What you see behind our grins are the walls of Kirk's family castle in Turegano, Spain.

Kirk's dad turned up this bit of intriguing family history years ago while doing genealogical research. It turns out Kirk's mother's ancestors had been wildly successful medieval war lords who controlled a swath of Castile until they formed an alliance under Queen Isabella in the 15th Century.

The castle is full-on medieval, with a moat, crests showing the family's affiliations and loyalties, crosses worked into the stonework all over the place, and a massive wall with huge turrets beyond the moat.

Storks with enormous nests sit high atop the façade and towers. They are all over Castille, in fact, nesting on every castle and cathedral we saw. Swarms of swallows darted all over when we were there, and eventually an amazing, powerful thunderstorm came across the high plain and drenched everything. The whole day was a ball!

Since the first book corner was such a hit, I'll do it again. This week I'm reviewing The Four-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferris.

This young man has a very different set of assumptions about work than do the Boomers, and this is what makes his writing so intriguing. I believe it took a young person to write this book, to question assumptions made by the previous generation, and to ruffle a few feathers, and Ferris has no fear of ruffling those feathers.

Many Boomers (and those of us on the cusp between the generations) place a high value on work and seek a sense of purpose and meaning in our professions. In my experience, I see many Boomers become absolutely distraught if their work loses its sense of meaning and purpose. The two are tied very closely together for this generation.

By contrast, Ferris makes the assertion that the best job for most people is just the one that takes the least time, so you can get out and experience the rest of your life.

Pro's:

• Those of us who happen to enjoy our professions (and yes, find meaning and purpose in them) can still broaden our perspectives and pick up useful tips from this book.
• Ferris explains in great detail his methods for maintaining his lifestyle by working very few hours in a specific manner.
• His methods clearly would work for self-employed individuals who sell products (not services - sorry to all the consultants who read this eZine!), for individual contributors whose jobs are truly independent of other employees, and for those with talent and passion for marketing or product creation.
• His stories provide an interesting and useful primer in product creation and internet marketing.
• For those of you interested in the lexicon of Psychological Type, I believe Ferris may be that rare author of the ISTP variety, or perhaps of the ESTP variety. Excitement and freedom are his key themes. I rarely come across books written in such a concrete and energetic manner, so this alone gives me a different perspective. It's a business book that's actually fun to read.

Con's:

• Some of Ferris' business methods, while legal, do push the envelope a bit too far for my comfort level.
• I am not entirely comfortable with the idea that I would outsource all headaches to a hard-working, low-paid team while I dink around in Buenos Aries, sipping coffee and taking tango lessons.
• It is very difficult for me to imagine how his approach could apply to someone whose talents lie in operations. In fact, the complete outsourcing of these functions is a key part of his strategy, because they are impossible to streamline into a very short workweek.
• Likewise, leaders need to be visible, and that takes more than four hours a week.
• Many people get great personal satisfaction from working with their team mates. Working for a company satisfies personal needs for belonging, inclusion, and connection. For those considering a very short workweek, it would be essential to face up to how much interpersonal satisfaction you get from your current work and have an alternative way to meet these needs, or you will find yourself feeling lonely and isolated instead of excited and joyful.

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© 2008 Jennifer Selby. All rights reserved.

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Jennifer Selby Long
Selby Group

Email: Jennifer.selby@selbygroup.com
Web: www.selbygroup.com