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the role of a change master.

FROM CHANGE AGENT TO 'CHANGE MASTER'
By Ruth Tearle.

A change agent may be a full time organisational development professional, a leader of a division or a middle manager charged with the responsibility of bringing about a change in his/her area. Anyone involved in helping a team achieve something new becomes an agent of change. Depending on the type of change he/she is tasked with, a change agent may perform any of the following roles. 

However a change master, is able to perform all of these roles.

diagnostician & developer of clear change goals.

Like a medical practitioner, the change agent will begin by diagnosing what the real issues are, and then proposing clear goal directed solutions. He/she will begin by analysing:

  • The existing problems or issues. 

  • The current reality of the organisation/division.

  • The desired future ideal state. 

  • The barriers preventing the organisation from achieving that desired state.

  • The forces for change that exist within the organisation.

  • The dreams, goals and values of the key stakeholders within the organisation

  • The organisation's future strategy.

  • The organisation's values.

  • The organisation's readiness and capacity for change.

  • Changes occurring in the organisation's external environment that may impact on the organisation and its customers.

From this the diagnostician will determine the type of change required by the organisation.

the facilitator 

The most complex role of a change agent, is getting others to 'buy in' to the change process, and getting them committed to taking relevant actions. The facilitator gets involved in:

  • Identifying the key stakeholders of the change.

  • Involving these stakeholders in the diagnostic process. This means helping them to achieve consensus on the changes the organisation needs to make. When done in a participative process, this helps create ownership for change.

  • Helping the stakeholders to set clear goals for their change process.

  • Educating these stakeholders about the changes they want to make and helping them to understand how the changes they've selected will impact on the rest of the organisation. (systems thinking.)

  • Helping the stakeholders to understand how these changes will benefit the company, their division and themselves. This in turn builds commitment to the change.

  • Helping the stakeholders understand the 'costs' of these changes to the company, their division and to themselves personally. 

the designer

Designing a change process that will achieve specific change goals, is a creative process. This involves:

  • Reviewing all the change tools and interventions that are available.

  • Selecting those specific change tools and interventions that will help the organisation to achieve its change goals.

  • Creating additional activities and interventions to fill any gaps.

  • Checking that each intervention supports every other intervention, and that all interventions support the company's values and strategies.

  • Arranging and integrating these interventions into one simple, seamless, step by step process.

  • Deciding on the roles that need to be played to support the process.

The project manager

Many different roles are required for a change process to work. Often a change agent will play the role of a project manager and co-ordinate the activities of the different role players. Typical roles in a change process include:

  • A change steering committee.

  • The CEO of the company.

  • The executive team.

  • Regional coordinators (in large scale changes).

  • External consultants.

  • Internal consultants.

  • Middle managers.

  • Departmental or divisional change agents.

  • Communications coordinators.

  • Change web designers.

  • Marketing professionals.

  • Individuals within the company.

the educator

Those involved in managing the change, and those who will be affected by the change, often are surprised by their feelings when confronted by change. Resistance, frustration and confusion of common emotions associated by change.

A successful change agent educates people about what to expect from the change process. This includes topics such as:

  • The psychological phases people go through when experiencing change.

  • How to deal with these feelings. How to help others understand and deal with  their feelings. 

  • How to deal with 'resistance to change'.

  • How to make a change process fun, exciting and developmental rather than scary and frustrating.

  • How to overcome barriers to change.

  • Tools for making your change process successful.

  • The role of creativity in a change process.

The marketer.

  • Many individuals dislike change. While they see that it may benefit the company, change to them simply means additional work, inefficiencies, feelings of incompetence, and maybe a more limited career path.

  • The skillful marketer creates the belief that participating in this change will be: 

    • Fun and rewarding.

    • An opportunity to develop new useful skills.

    • An opportunity to increase one's visability within the organisation.

    • Like embarking on an exciting adventure through which every individual discovers his/her personal magic.

To do this, the marketer applies innovative marketing techniques more often found in the advertising, communications industries. These includes :

  • Advertising.

  • Competitions.

  • Participative media such as web sites, theatre, and clubs. 

  • Creative media such as themes, logos, slogans, story telling, art, music, songs and 'war cries'. 

  • Themed gifts to reinforce the change.

  • Awards and prizes.

  • Role models and success stories.

INSPIRATION AGENT.

Why is the Oprah show so successful? People react with love, energy, excitement and creativity to anything that touches their soul. An inspiration agent finds ways to use the change process to:

  • Help individuals discover the magic they have within them.

  • Help individuals to dream of the personal greatness they could achieve.

  • Encourage individuals to take risks to use their special magic

  • Help individuals to overcome barriers to personal success

  • Celebrate individual's small successes

Systems integrator and co-ordinator.

Often individuals who contribute to a change, get discouraged when they find they are being punished rather than rewarded for their efforts. This situation arises when the reward and recognition systems in the company are not aligned to the change. The change agent often needs to ensure that the following systems support the change he/she is making.

  • Budgeting.

  • Performance management.

  • Compensation systems.

  • Incentive and reward systems.

  • Reporting systems.

  • Measurement criteria.

  • Promotions criteria.

Monitor

Since organisations are integrated systems, any change to one part of the system may trigger or unexpected changes to other parts of the system. Similarly, unless you consider changes to the culture of your company, you may find that certain elements of the system may prevent your change from working.

The monitor role regularly measures progress towards the change goals. He/she constantly questions "what is working", "what isn't working" and "what do we need to change". 

He/she provides regular feedback on progress to:

  • The CEO

  • The executive team

  • Other change agents or change roles

  • Managers

  • Individuals involved in change.

He/she encourages them to:

  • Identify obstacles to change and find creative ways of overcoming these at their own levels. 

  • Identify obstacles that require changes to the entire system and may require approval from the CEO.

  • Identify and share success stories 

  • Turn successful people into role models to encourage others.

  • Recognise and reward those who contribute to change

Qualities of a change Master

While many people will find that they can perform one or two of the agent agent roles with ease, a change master would be able to perform all the change roles.

The ideal change master would have the following qualities:

  • Common sense. And the courage to use it.

  • Credibility and trust - the ability to work at all levels in the organisation.

  • A wide range of business knowledge - preferably someone with experience in 3-4 different areas, or an MBA, or a general management experience.

  • Knowledge of change management.

  • The ability to work with teams of people both inside and outside the organisation. This includes the ability to work with people across all departments. 

  • The ability to do very unstructured work.

  • Creativity. The ability to custom design processes to meet the goals of the organisation.

  • Self confidence balanced by humility. 

  • Facilitation skills

  • Design skills.

  • Coaching skills. 

  • A love of innovation and new ways of doing things.

  • A sense of humour and a sense of fun.

  • A spirit of caring.

  • The ability to inspire people. To bring out the magic within every individual and every team.

More on change agents.

To develop skills to become a change master, 
see the change master series of workshops for change agents and consultants.

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