IMMUNITY TO CHANGE

Leading change:  What leaders must do

Is leadership simply innovation—cultural or political? Is it essentially inspiration? Mobilization of followers? Goal setting? Goal fulfillment? Is a leader a definer of values? Satisfier of needs? If leaders require followers, who leads whom from where to where, and why? How do leaders lead followers without being wholly led by followers? Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.

What is the change?

Why is the change needed?

How will the change affect me personally?

Will I win or lose?

What do I do first?

How do I manage all the details?

      Is the effort worth it?

Is the change making a difference?

Who else should be involved?

How do we spread the word?

How can we make the change even better?

1)     Leading change must be a way of life.

2)     Leading change is as multifaceted as a diamond. (Change is constant or variant. Leading change is, as such, a many-sided and far-reaching enterprise. It requires leaders that are perceptive and favorably adaptive to change.)

3)     Leading change requires commitment from all involved.

4)     Leading change means “sloughing off” yesterday and today.

5)     Leading change involves avoiding the “boiled frog” syndrome. (If you put a frog in a frying pan and slowly turn up the heat, the frog will not jump out but will rather fry to death. If you put a frog in boiling water, however, it will immediately jump out. Hence, if people in an organization do not sense a momentous gap between where they are and where they need to be, they will stay in their “comfort zone” and, so to speak, “get passed by,” become “obsolete,” or perhaps “perish.”)

6)     Leading change must establish relevance.

7)     Leading change means asking the right questions.

8)     Leading change means creating early victories. (People need to see some initial evidence that a new idea is working and that it produces results).

9)     Leading change means recognizing the paradox of change. (Change is again constant. Leading change means understanding that a new idea may need to be changed further along the continuum of time. Thus the “irregularity” and “capriciousness” of change.)

10) Leading change involves creating a learning organization.

11) Leading change means competing against oneself.

12) Leading change means building coalitions.