- Identify agents for change — and let them lead. Take time to recognize
middle managers as change agents and let them be the leaders of that change.
Middle managers will not just activate a transformation program — they will
know before anyone else whether it’s working. Their resistance to change, which
might look like inertia to senior management, could in fact be a sign that the
transformation initiative is failing to win people over. The message: Listen to
them and trust them. It’s what Dan Cable in his book Alive at Work calls “freedom
within the frame.” Leadership sets the strategy; managers and teams work out
how to deliver it.
The BCS study concluded that the middle managers most successful in
implementing change were those who performed strongly in four areas, all related
to human skills:
- Their level of engagement with change initiators (i.e., top management)
- Their resilience (i.e., their ability to overcome team members’ resistance to
change) - Their ability to make sense of the change strategy
- Their willingness and ability to learn change skills.
When managers with these skills have the freedom to lead and the necessary
support, they are more likely to come up with the solutions themselves.
A second set of change agents can also help; some will be middle managers,
but middle managers will also recognize these informal leaders in their team.
As Derek Sivers points out in his TED Talk “How to Start a Movement,” a
formal leader, the one who instigates a movement, is the catalyst, but it’s the
informal leaders, the very early adopters, who see the value in change and
ultimately influence and decide whether it takes hold. Informal leaders tend
to self-select, rather than be nominated. They participate of their own volition
and lead by example. These are what Jon Katzenbach of the Katzenbach Center
of Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business, calls “authentic informal
leaders,” who should be celebrated and rewarded. Middle managers, with their
close connection to their teams on the ground, are ideally placed to harness
these informal leaders’ energy.
- Upskill wisely. Leadership must make the case that acquiring new skills
is essential. Everyone is faced with difficult trade-offs between doing a day job
es
say (^)
or
ga
niz
ati
on
s (^) &
(^) pe
op
le
43