Research Paper By Ingrid Kuehtz
(Leadership Coach, GERMANY)
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Thor Olafsson and Alexander Brückmann from Strategic Leadership GmbH. Their support in an ongoing business change management project and coaching me as the change leader was the inspiration for this paper.
In Business
Change management has been defined as ‘the process of continually renewing an organization’s direction, structure, and capabilities to serve the ever-changing needs of external and internal customers’ (Moran, 2001).
According to Burnes (2004) change is an ever-present feature of organizational life, both at an operational and strategic level (Burnes, 2004).
Therefore, there should be no doubt regarding the importance to any organization of its ability to identify where it needs to be in the future, and how to manage the changes required getting there.
In Individuals
“I want to change from here to there”; “How do I get from this to that” is how many individuals today express their wish to renew their direction and capabilities to cope with the ever-changing needs of external circumstances and awareness about themselves. Therefore, the importance for many individuals becomes clear to identify their growth path and manage the changes required getting there.
These two paragraphs read very similar to identical – yet what drives an organization to ultimately sustain and grow financially might be different from what brings this alive for an individual. As individuals besides job/business success we might want to grow in our well-being, health, as a partner or family member or in our full life approach. However this paper will not investigate the drivers for change but the approaches to manage them.
In fact it will analyze to which extend the most famous business change management method of the last two decades – Kotter`s 8 step to change (Kotter, 1996) is similar to what coaching is providing to individuals. It will show that a coaching process based on the core competencies developed by the International Coach Federation, ICF (International Coach Federation, 2015) will support an individual managing change and achieving what is desired.
Furthermore it will bring up reflections and a proposal for further research of including individual coaching as a mitigation against change failure in organizations – adding a step to Kotter`s model which is needed as an integral part of all 8 steps for business change management in excellence.
Step One: Create urgency
Kotter says: For change to happen, it helps if the whole company really wants it. Develop a sense of urgency around the need for change. This isn’t simply a matter of showing people poor sales statistics or talking about increased competition. Open an honest and convincing dialogue about what’s happening in the marketplace and with your competition. If many people start talking about the change you propose, the urgency can build and feed on itself.
What you can do:
Coaching is: to support an individual, once the move is clear to understand and respect the level of urgency in the change journey. In the coaching conversation it will become clear what will be impacted by moving in an appropriate pace, not holding back or delaying.
What the coaching process will achieve:
Step Two: Form a powerful coalition
Kotter says: Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong leadership and visible support from key people within your organization. Managing change isn’t enough – you have to lead it. To lead change, you need to bring together a coalition, or team. Once formed, your “change coalition” needs to work as a team, continuing to build urgency and momentum around the need for change.
What you can do:
Coaching is: Building an intimate coalition between the individual and the coach in order to achieving self-awareness that change is necessary. The coach in this case is the key person who leads the individual through the process of self-directed learning. Coach and client work as a team, in which the coach continues to build the urgency and keeps the momentum around the need for change.
What the coaching process will achieve:
Step Three: Create a vision for change
Kotter says: When you first start thinking about change, there will probably be many great ideas and solutions floating around. Link these concepts to an overall vision that people can grasp easily and remember. A clear vision can help everyone understand why you’re asking them to do something. When people see for themselves what you’re trying to achieve, then the directives they’re given tend to make more sense.
What you can do:
Coaching is: Supporting an individual to achieve a clear vision of his/her future behavior, feelings or personal skill. In many cases an individual has only a vague picture of what he/she wants to change. It is therefore important to gain clarity on this, maybe even necessary to reiterate this vision in the process, checking if it is still true and worked towards.
Through clear communication the person will be able not only to easily remember this, in addition will understand for him/herself the value of this change. The overall achievement will be the design of an action plan, in which the individual will fully buy in.
What the coaching process will achieve:
Step Four: Communicate the vision
Kotter says: What you do with your vision after you create it will determine your success. Your message will probably have strong competition from other day-to-day communications within the company, so you need to communicate it frequently and powerfully, and embed it within everything that you do. Don’t just call special meetings to communicate your vision. Instead, talk about it every chance you get. Use the vision daily to make decisions and solve problems. When you keep it fresh on everyone’s minds, they’ll remember it and respond to it. It’s also important to “walk the talk.” What you do is far more important – and believable – than what you say. Demonstrate the kind of behavior that you want from others.
What you can do:
Coaching is: an ongoing platform for the individual to talk about his/her vision. More important a safe place to challenge the progress in applying it and making new decisions. The desire to change will be strengthened because the vision will be present in the coaching sessions and used to address and solve current problems. An individual change usually needs lots of energy and discipline to prevent falling back into old structures. Every coaching session will refresh the goals and will offer chances to practice and learn what wants to be reached.
What the coaching process will achieve:
Step Five: Remove Obstacles
Kotter says: If you follow these steps and reach this point in the change process, you’ve been talking about your vision and building buy-in from all levels of the organization. Hopefully, your staff wants to get busy and achieve the benefits that you’ve been promoting. But is anyone resisting the change? And are there processes or structures that are getting in its way? Put in place the structure for change, and continually check for barriers to it. Removing obstacles can empower the people you need to execute your vision, and it can help the change move forward.
What you can do:
Coaching is: Identification, releasing and removing the obstacles which are in the way to achieve the personal goals. In many cases an individual has quite a clear understanding what to go for and is able to set up a doable action plan. However he/she does not follow this plan at all or not enough to be successful and questions why this is. It comes from barriers and resistances due to inner beliefs, even fears. Coaching will uncover these and support the individual to identify supporting resources and set up structures to manage them. In addition coaching will enable self-appreciation, rewarding and gratitude – all fundamental elements for a sustainable change.
What the coaching process will achieve:
Step Six: Create Short-term wins
Kotter says: Nothing motivates more than success. Give your company a taste of victory early in the change process. Within a short time frame (this could be a month or a year, depending on the type of change), you’ll want to have results that your staff can see. Without this, critics and negative thinkers might hurt your progress.
Create short-term targets – not just one long-term goal. You want each smaller target to be achievable, with little room for failure. Your change team may have to work very hard to come up with these targets, but each “win” that you produce can further motivate the entire staff.
What you can do:
Coaching is: Creation of success by the individual. Here it is true as well, that a quick win or better each and every win will contribute to the change and growth, it will help to reduce resistance and increase the energy level. It is about breaking the long-term goal down into small pieces and to bring them into the right order, to follow up on them continuously and to celebrate every little success.