Leading Change

Abstract
In this paper, we consider leading change as part of leadership style and ways of doing work. We
propose that leading change consists of some aspects that need to be considered as a whole, not
separately, to drive change towards success. Because change is currently a norm in any
organization, sector, or region; it’s important to tackle it as a journey that creates value internally
and externally, while catalyzing teamwork, morality, motivation, and employee’s empowerment
to develop the needed assets and tools needed for change. We found that leading a change is a
state of art that requires modelling the efforts and directions to create a sound and integrated
direction for everyone involved while ensuring that past patterns need to be considered as inputs
into this model, resulting in efficient and effective change leadership towards the desired end
results. Furthermore, we show that uniting behind a purpose and progressing towards a clear
vision are important to align the change teams and thus align the change among the different
areas of the organization, while ensuring continuous communication among all levels of the
organization to explain the needed change, share successes and exchange ideas and perceptions
among employees and leaders.

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Introduction
Change in any organization is currently becoming the norm of their structure and how they
tackle internal and external issues. Moving to a new market or introducing a new product or
service or even a feature is considered a change, also introducing a new process or policy or
guideline inside the company is also considered a change. Despite whether change is small or
big, it needs to be managed and tackled properly and leaders should accept that managing change
should become part of the culture to continuously build on and improve, instead of considering it
once in a time thing that we tackle and close (Robert H. Schaffer 2017).

Managing change considering the different parties and tools involved is a matter of importance
while it’s important also to consider a full model to do so. This is where you can oversee what is
involved and what areas need to be identified and tackled to have a sound and integrated
approach towards leading a change that is lead and managed completely, with flexibility and
enough room for learning and improvement (EFQM 2020).

The world in continuously changing and now it’s faster than ever, with a new forth industrial
revolution, new and more technologies and digital disruption being presented and offered around
the world which affect almost all organization despite the sector and region they work in (Ravin
Jesuthasan  and Marie S. Holmstrom 2016).

While these effects can be considered as opportunities or threats or both, Leaders still need to
align them with internal strengths and areas for improvement to fulfill strategies and identify a
complete strategic direction to act upon the external environment using capabilities now and in
the future. All of this means that we are in a storm of changes and those who succeed and sustain
are the ones who can lead these changes efficiently and effectively. Leaders need to be ready, not
only using their past experiences but also by absorbing the changes around them and develop
their skills, competencies, and ways of doing work to be able to manage the current era’s
workforce, embed innovation in how things are done, and tweak challenges for the benefit of the
change to succeed (The KPI Institute 2019).

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Leading change is a journey

Most CEOs focused in leading change on cost cutting like Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn and JP
Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon; however, Fred Hassan the CEO of Schering-Plough who undertook
multiple acquisitions focused in leading change on restoring sales performance, which he
believed it will positively affect other areas of the business and support the long-term initiatives.
As a CEO and top leader, he believed that being the one who unites the business behind the right
purpose and direction, care about people and provide needed support, is the important aspect that
supports the growth of the business and the harmony between people. Differences in culture
between people shouldn’t be spotted as a disadvantage in terms of managing salespeople or to
need to change strategies in managing sales as they are usually extroverted and understand what
needs to be done and even care more about their linkages with the company and how they are
being rewarded and cared for (Thomas A. Stewart and David Champion 2006).

It all starts by identifying the need for change and creating the importance of such a change that
is bought equally by all people inside the organization. Such importance for change is shared as
high enough, when not less than 75% of company management believe that change is needed,
and that current business can longer sustain itself. The change any organization wants to
undertake needs to be aligned with sound and clear vision that is integrated in the change.
However, achieving a vision can take time, while during the journey, people need to realize they
are doing well and that they are achieving part of this vision and to get rewarded for such
positive progress. Accordingly, setting clear milestones along the way with clear results to be
achieved, shared with everyone, is needed among change teams. This will boost motivation,
collaboration, productivity, and satisfaction for involved teams and team members (John P.
Kotter 1995).

Defects are easy to be created during change, thus control gates need to be identified and
constraints need to be eliminated, this includes acting upon any of such constraints in timely
manner and make sure that decisions are taken in alignment with the change with no fear of such
decisions as everyone agrees that they are needed to move forward efficiently (The KPI Institute
2021).

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Leading a change also affects leaders not just by expecting them to lead the change but also to be
ready for such a change. Leaders may act slowly trying to absorb the change and reflect in their
management style on how to manage work during or after the change; a failure in reacting
efficiently to the change may cause damages in the relationship between leaders in the
organization and will put pressure on all efforts made to succeed in any transformation or
change, as they may not be ready to deal with it or didn’t realize what is needed to be done. So,
it’s not only the organization that requires transformation and change to meet new needs or
changes in the external environment, but also there is another layer for this change which is the
company leaders who need to work in parallel and identify what is needed from them to change
or to create to be the right ambassadors for needed change and also be able to manage it
(Cassandra Frangos 2018). Leaders need to acknowledge the past to build on the future and drive
the new change forward, this includes learning from past experiences whether they are driving a
change in their current company or even if they join a new company and start a new change. It
doesn’t mean that previous challenges and failures if done by other leaders that they don’t relate
to current leaders trying to drive a new change, but all leaders need to acknowledge the past,
acknowledge the disappointments of employees and their lack of trust of new initiatives.
Learning from the past includes, conducting a baseline assessment of the current situation in the
organization, trying to understand what are the internal factors that negatively affected the past
changes and how these factors can affect the new change. Such assessment needs to be shared
with change teams and employees to explain what was going on and what we have now in hand
to use for the new change (Ron Carucci 2019).

Leading change and value creation

It’s a matter of differentiation. Leaders focusing on differentiation should not only link it with
brands but also with the customer experience driven by salespeople who will need to add value
to it; thus, building the right trust with customers. This also includes the customers of the
customers along the value chain of the sales, so adding value will always be important to enrich
the experience of customers throughout the chain. Changes we make in business models are not
only about aligning them with the brand and what we deliver to customers but also aligning them
with employees and what they believe in; this is what matters and what supports efficient

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alignment across the company that will drive the change forward and delivers the right value to
customers (Paul Hemp and Thomas A. Stewart 2004).

IBM realized that to continue create value and manage their company in 170 countries; they have
to do this through their people by empowering them to take the right decisions that are aligned
with their direction and mission. This could be done by ensuring they identify the gaps between
what values they call for, and what is being practiced on the ground, this is where leaders were
continuously striving to live the values and ensure everyone does this to lead the changes forced
by the external environment and to meet the needs of their internal environment that is based on
their human resources (Paul Hemp and Thomas A. Stewart 2004).

Building the right value along the new change in any organization need to be aligned with the
right culture for change, this includes eliminating the blame culture and admitting mistakes by all
and especially leaders. Leaders need to set the example that we are human beings, and we always
make mistakes, but what’s more important is to admit these mistakes, allow people to tell us if
we do something wrong and do our best to learn from it and transform it into a success
afterwards (Harvard Management Update 2008).

Value is always created through a journey of developments and improvements which then get
reflected into whatever services or products are offered to customers. Managing the value
creation in any change or transformation requires managing efforts in modelled way where all
aspects are interrelated like a red thread and intersects in a way that they push each other forward
and affect each other positively towards the result of the change needed. Such model can include
multiple criteria like; organizational chart which needs to be analyzed and reshaped to support
the change and drive it forward; workplace, in a way where we need to identify how people
involved in the change can interact with each other, do their work, and add the needed inputs.
This can involve physical workplaces, virtual or even hybrid where we embed flexibility in
accordance with the organizational structure and ensure more agility are in place; people skills
and competencies, these act as an important criteria of the model as they are considered as an
important asset in any organization and enablers for change, if needed skills and competencies
are missing or not at the required levels, then they need to be built internally or acquired from
external sources; Rewards and penalties are another criteria in this model which plays a vital part
of it, as rewards are the sparks needed along the way to celebrate successes, even small ones, to

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motivate employees and bring in a sense of recognition. On the other hand, penalties are also
important, not to punish employees or to demotivate them but they can be used as the red lines
that we don’t need to cross, not because we want to limit creativity and innovation but because
crossing these lines has proven negatively in past experiences and based on set expectations for
the future; this takes us to the fifth criteria which is tasks, this refers to the existing processes that
manage work and ensures inputs, operations, outputs and outcomes are well defined, understood
by everyone and linked properly to the objectives of the change. The alignment between change
objectives and processes and tasks is very important to support that more efficient work is being
conducted with most possible utilization of resources, thus more efficient operations driving the
change; The sixth criteria of this model is information distribution, which refers to the flow of
information among the change team and inside the whole organization. What information are
shared, when they get shared, with who, who is responsible to share the information. The seventh
criteria is decisions allocation, which refers to the governance structure in the change team and
how its aligned with the governance structure of the organization. This is mainly relating to
identifying who takes decisions, how, when and based on what.. Measurements are another
criteria, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it (Peter Drucker). Measurements are
collected after setting the right key performance indicators (KPIs) that will measure the
performance associated with the change from all aspects (Gregory Shea and Cassie Solomon
2013). KPIs can measure; risk, outputs, outcomes, impact, efficiency, effectiveness, quantities,
quality, and other aspects depending on the change being lead. Such measurements will be
associated with targets to help identify where we stand compared to our planned results and what
we achieve from them (The KPI Institute 2020).

Leading change in a demanding industry will be always affected with communication directed to
customers from the different channels like TV, Radio, word of mouth …etc.; since this will
trigger the need to have more accurate and on the spot information about the products, and this is
where the trust is built between customers and salespeople. Those customers will rely more on
the right and well-equipped salespeople to enrich their knowledge whenever and wherever
needed (Thomas A. Stewart and David Champion 2006). Leading change also wants intensive
communication internally that is conducted among all levels and on continuous bases to ensure
everyone realize the need to change and understand clearly where they are going, how, when,
and through what means. Buy-in from everyone is important and it’s the spark for any change;

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this is where leaders should play their role by embedding but not forcing the change; by
convincing people with the need for change but not under-communicating the related details; by
opening channels with people to express their opinions and support them to digest the need to
change (John P. Kotter 1995).

Leading a change and managing communication internally with change teams and employees
move hand in hand, this includes using all means of communication like emails, newsletters,
executive meetings with employees, inviting experts from outside the company to explain the
change, one-to-one meetings with employees and many more; all of this requires efforts from
leaders but its highly needed to ensure change is understood and enough buy-in is granted from
people inside the organization (Harvard Management Update 2008).

Leading Change and teamwork

Catalyzing teamwork and supporting people to work towards the company’s vision is very
important but what is needed first is to have a common belief of people inside the company.
People beliefs are referred to here as the guiding principles of the organization which are the
values. Values need to be set with input not only from management but also employees who will
then need to follow. IBM leader (CEO) has done this when he was leading a change from a
mainframe maker to a robust provider of integrated hardware, networking, and software
solutions back in 2002, and proposed 3 value statements which then changed as per input from
employees and after they were shared with them to comment on. However, this is not the end of
the story, collaborative effort to set the values is one side of the coin but believing in them and
steering the company forward through these values is the second side which compliments the
first (Paul Hemp and Thomas A. Stewart 2004).

Teamwork is always a key for change and creating the right team that evolves and gets bigger
along the process of change is important to create the needed collaboration and energy to change.
Putting this team together can start with few numbers of people then it gets bigger, while using
different tools to create harmony between team members and ensure they all follow the same
direction to the desired change is important and crucial to succeed. Creating harmony among
teams and team members involved in the change is important to minimize resistance and share

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same direction; resistors are everywhere and can be created at any time due to the fear of change
or even because of not understanding the big picture and how they will fit in; this is where
leaders of companies and leaders of change teams need to create the urgency to continue and
even if an achievement was gained, it still need to be reflected on other areas of the organization
and to be absorbed by the culture to maintain and sustain. Such sustainability can’t be achieved
in short periods but require continuous efforts to build on any achievement and inject smartly in
the surrounding environment (John P. Kotter 1995).

Attitude and behaviors of employees are important to maintain in high levels during any change,
and to steer this positively, employees need to be the ones who acknowledge the small changes
related to the big change in place, they need to share their perceptions of how they see things are
being lead and how this is resulting in new consequences that can relate to the big change.
Employees are the ones who are executing the change and to acknowledge this and empower it;
leaders need to listen to employees and use their perceptions and insights as valuable input to
make any modifies to the plan for change (Ron Carucci 2019). Getting the buy-in from
employees means that they need to be part of setting the actions forward and develop the plan for
change, asking them how can we do this and how you can contribute to this or how you can
support us in this; all of that is important to bring people in one group feeling empowered and
cared for and letting them be convinced that their leaders truly believe in them and that no
change can happen without such important asset which is the employees (Harvard Management
Update 2008).

Creating common purpose for employees and drive them forward with hope, and motivating
them to realize the need to change are essential for value-based management towards more
agility and objectives achievement (Paul Hemp and Thomas A. Stewart 2004). Motivating
employees to be part of a change is not easy especially if there were previous attempts for
change which have either stopped or failed; this can cause employees to not trust any new
change or chose not to be part of it or even not to put forward all their potential during a new
change. Therefore, it’s important to build employees resilience to change and maintain it along
the way, keep them part of the developments and achievements and share successes with them
(Ron Carucci 2019).

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Conclusion

Change is part of any business now and leading it efficiently and effectively is needed to sustain
business and be able to tackle the external factors affecting business any where in the world
while building on internal capabilities, assets, and employees. Leading change require leaders to
work hand in hand with their employees to handle the different details and aspects of the change
and transformation in their businesses. This can be done by strengthening the teamwork between
employees, team members of change team and between departments to eliminate silos and
develop a collaborative environment between everyone.
Leading change is always aligned with value creation, and we always look at value of what is
being delivered to customers, we need also to understand that value goes through different stages
to be created and this chain of stages need to be supported with having a clear guiding principle
shared among all employees and having leaders talk the walk and walk the talk to be the role
models for their teams.
Communication is another aspect that is very important for leading change; it needs to be well
managed and executed to ensure it’s done in the proper way to get the needed buy-in from
everyone while also keeping them all in the loop of achievements, success and progress. This
will support building the needed motivation among employees who are executing the change and
empower them to share their perceptions and ideas continuously while knowing they will not be
put aside but referred to and considered by their leaders to ensure the success of the change
journey.
They say excellence in journey and change is also a journey that doesn’t end by achieving the
result of change but will require continuous efforts to embed this change in the business, working
environment and daily operations to ensure its sustainability and reflection on customers and the
financial numbers.

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References

Cassandra Frangos, 2018, 3 Transitions Even the Best Leaders Struggle With, HBR
EFQM, 2020, EFQM Excellence Model, EFQM
Gregory Shea and Cassie Solomon, 2013, Change Management Is Bigger Than Leadership, HBR
Harvard Management Update, 2008, Leading Change Without a Burning Platform, HBR
John P. Kotter, 1995, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, HBR
Paul Hemp and Thomas A. Stewart, 2004, Leading Change When Business Is Good, HBR
Ravin Jesuthasan  and Marie S. Holmstrom, 2016, As Work Changes, Leadership Development
Has to Keep Up, HBR
Robert H. Schaffer, 2017, All Management Is Change Management, HBR
Ron Carucci, 2019, Leading Change in a Company That’s Historically Bad At It, HBR
The KPI Institute, 2019, Strategy Business Planning, The KPI Institute
The KPI Institute, 2020, Key Performance Indicators, The KPI Institute
The KPI Institute, 2021, Agile Strategy Execution, The KPI Institute
Thomas A. Stewart and David Champion, 2006, Leading change from the top line, HBR

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