How I led change
Critical eye
12 August 2016
Complex change is like building a huge jigsaw without the picture on the box; while the overall strategy is clear, the view of the end state is largely unknown. Having led many business transformation programmes, I've found that assessing the nature of the impact and the organisation's ability to change helps you determine the best approach.
Analyse the nature of the impact. Change will often bring about a significant shift in behaviour, roles and responsibilities, organisational flow, processes and technology. A combination of any two of these creates conditions for complexity.
In 2007 to 2008, I worked on an international change project that affected thousands of people in 125 countries. I'd created a logical left-brained change plan and didn't think as much about how to shape the delivery. I learnt to look at things from the perspective of those who had to adapt their ways of working. Let this – and not the programme objectives or the senior leaders' views – steer how to deploy change.
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I also discovered that feeling uncomfortable is good. I ran workshops in which we imagined we'd failed in every element of the project. We each took the role of different leaders and captured the lessons learned, ranging from the technical issues down to how people were feeling. This really helped us to fine tune our approach and make it more resilient.
Rachael Brassey is a people and talent expert at PA Consulting Group
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