In his February 2022 article “A New World Needs A New Approach To Change Management” published on Forbes.com, Mark Samuel discusses the challenges faced by organisations where he says keeping up with changing consumer demands, stakeholder expectations, public safety policies, competition, technological shifts, and evolving cultural understandings is crucial.
B-State Change Management
Samuel proposes that traditional change management approaches can be frustrating for leaders due to requiring extra training, the potential for reversion to old habits, and the many distractions that exist. But, he says, there’s good news: breakthrough change management - referred to as B-State - offers a different path.
He outlined four ways B-State change management differs from the traditional model:
Outcome-Driven Approach
Traditional Change Management starts by educating people on change management principles and processes. However, because these processes may not be adjusted for today’s pressures. B-State Change Management takes an outcome-driven approach. It begins with the leadership team defining what they'll do differently to achieve goals while considering real-time constraints. Training and education occur later, in a more focused manner.
Sounding somewhat akin to agile processes, B-State promotes learning by doing to accelerate the progress of change.
Shared Ownership and Accountability
Traditional Change Management would promote the wisdom in training individual leaders in change management skills, including emotional intelligence, communication, and coaching.
So, while leadership buy-in is sought, uncertainty can hinder leadership commitment. On the other hand, B-State Change Management utilises leadership teams to identify necessary role and expectation changes at each level.
Again aligned to agile ways of working, shared ownership and accountability empower the entire team. While leaders provide direction, the team collectively owns the change process.
Support from HR and Project Management departments
In Samuel's view, traditional change management introduces the change and leaves it to the HR and project management departments to drive the change and individual leaders to manage their people through change from their functional role in the organisation.
While this does not align with my experience of change management, I believe Samuel may be talking about a handover approach where business as usual (BAU) departments assume responsibility for delivering change activities defined by the change manager. Samuel proposes that B-State change management would create a smoother handover by having leadership teams prioritise the most important areas to improve upon immediately.
These then become the areas that HR and project management support with training and systems to ensure success, saving time and effort on everyone’s part.
Change behaviours
Traditional change management is usually tracked against the business goals, not always effectively linking to the necessary culture or behaviours to achieve those goals. This means that change is reliant on willpower, a very ineffective way to create change. While people can change their behaviour for a short time using willpower, they will inevitably go back to their old ways the moment things get stressful or difficult, which is an inescapable part of making a big organisational change.
Samuel combats this with B-State change management which starts by creating a unified picture of success; linking business results and new role and behaviour expectations. Then team relationships are inextricably tied to team outcomes and behaviours, a fact that Samuel says is often missed by traditional change management consultants.
By tracking all three factors - business results, change behaviours and culture - you can identify any areas of breakdown and improve upon them by creating team habits that focus on both behaviour and mindset.
In summary, B-State change management attempts to achieve meaningful, measurable, and sustainable results within a shorter timeframe, fostering a culture of responsiveness and accountability.
How to get to the B-State
Samuel proposes that testing out B-State change management with your team is relatively easy. To give it a try, take these steps and examine the differences in the approach and results you might usually expect.
Define Necessary Changes:
Examine your team’s goals and priorities for the year.
Discuss what needs to change for success.
Identify three to five key differences as simple titles or statements.
Choose High-Impact Change:
Select the change that will have the most significant impact.
Create a straightforward plan.
Ensure everyone on the team shares responsibility for implementation.
Follow Up:
Set a date for review.
Ask three questions:
Did we do what we said we would do?
How well did we achieve the outcomes?
What adjustments are needed to continue achieving those outcomes?
A Change Manager's Evaluation of B-State Change Management
As a change manager, B-State offers some promising features, let's first look at its strengths.
Strengths of B-State Change Management
Outcome-Driven Focus: B-State prioritises outcomes over processes. This is refreshing because it aligns with the ultimate goal of any change initiative - to achieve meaningful results. By starting with a clear vision of what success looks like, B-State appears to encourage practical action.
Consideration for Real-Time Constraints: What change manager doesn't love it when organisations acknowledge real-time constraints? B-State’s emphasis on agility and adaptability allows organisations to respond swiftly to changing circumstances. Building in responsiveness to solution design - such as in the agile software development lifecycle - could become a game-changer.
Shared Ownership and Accountability: Involving leadership teams collectively fosters a sense of shared responsibility. When everyone is invested in the change process, it increases the likelihood of successful implementation. B-State recognises that change is a team effort.
Predictable Timeframe: The promise of achieving measurable results within 4-6 months is appealing. Organisations can sometimes drag on traditional change management indefinitely, starting new initiatives before completing the first. This causes fatigue and diminishes momentum. B-State’s shorter timeframe keeps the energy high and focuses on single, jointly-agreed priorities.
Challenges and Considerations
B-State potentially throws up some challenges from a change manager's point of view.
Depth of Training: While B-State defers change management training until later stages, it’s essential to ensure that when training does occur, it’s comprehensive and promotes alignment. Leaders and team members need the necessary skills to navigate the change effectively. Change management training is often used as an alignment tool to ensure leaders and teams are seeing the change in the same way. Rushing this step could lead to gaps in understanding.
Sustainability: B-State’s focus on rapid results is highly appealing, but sustaining those results over the long term requires ongoing effort. Change fatigue can set in if the organisation constantly shifts gears without embedding new habits and behaviours. While the predictability of the delivery time-frame is a strength, achieving this by chopping off the sustainability tail could result in reduced adoption, thereby undoing a significant amount of great work by the team.
Cultural Fit: B-State assumes that high-performance habits will withstand pressure. However, organisational culture plays a significant role. If the existing culture doesn’t support agility, accountability, and collaboration, B-State may face resistance. The delivery team may be a high-performing oasis in a stagnating culture. Without addressing solutions towards the existing culture, resistance and lack of adoption could be very real risks.
Balancing Urgency and Quality: We know that speed is essential in business, and that has never been truer than in the digital age. However, change management is essentially an enabler of quality and quality should not be compromised. Rushing change initiatives can lead to half-baked solutions and unintended consequences. Change managers need support from business leaders to strike the right balance.
Ever heard of B-State Change Management?
Prior to reading the Forbes article, I had never heard of B-State change management. Given that was published in 2022, I wonder where it is today? It doesn't yet appear widely recognised in mainstream circles. While it does offer a fresh perspective on achieving outcomes efficiently, it hasn't been adopted into the industry toolkit.
However, the principles it embraces are not unheard of, some having strong kinship with agile methods. The success of B-State still depends on thoughtful implementation, ongoing support, and alignment with the organisation’s unique context. And this is not dissimilar to traditional change management.
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