Change Leadership
This past week, Greg and I facilitated a Jazz Leadership Project session with a group of senior vice presidents and vice presidents of an organization that has grown rapidly over the past two years. Their work around the nation is crucial to effecting change in public safety and we have witnessed the depth of their commitment to serve a greater purpose. A dedicated leadership team, they’ve struggled through uncertainty and reorganization stress while grappling with silo mentality and confusion.
It was a privilege to work with these change leaders who had weathered the storm and still remain strong in their passion to make a difference. The road will continue to test their resolve. They are, without a doubt, up to the challenge. In 2020, during the pandemic, I wrote the post below attesting to change as the landscape in which to seed possibility and harvest potential.
Change: Inevitable and Constant
All that you touch you Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.
—Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
Change can be frightening.
Change can be empowering.
Change can instill and generate hope.
Change shapes and molds us. Change has the power to bring us to our knees with inconsolable anguish or to point the way to deep, heart-centered joy—and everything in between. Under layers of change we discover solace, growth, pain, surprise, delight—a myriad of sensations and emotions that bring depth to our humanness. We are actually experiencing change every waking moment. The past couple of years have brought a tsunami of change, a roiling sea, upending what we know as our personal and professional lives.
As individuals, and in families, organizations, and communities, we’ve developed distinctive patterns of interaction and decision-making that are recognizable and characteristic. These systems make sense and that’s why change is so difficult. We’re rooted in the familiar, the comfortable—the behavior that gets us what we need and want without too much angst. But, inevitably, the security of that knowing is shattered and we must forge a different path based on core values, our guiding principles.
Change is inevitable, Growth is optional.
—John Maxwell
Neuroscience Behind Change
The evolutionary brain chooses the path of least resistance—the one that holds little or no danger and the most reward. Tasks that are performed again and again are stored deep in the brain’s core. This area uses less energy and doesn’t need a lot of awareness to perform habituated tasks.
The interplay between working memory and focused attention is where the challenge to change can happen. When new information is compared to information already stored, the brain engages the prefrontal cortex — the center for rational thinking. Energy-intensive and easily fatigued, it can only hold a limited amount of information at a time. The brain is also wired to recognize perceived differences between an expected outcome and the actual outcome—or “errors.” Too much variation puts the brain on high alert, engaging the fear circuitry which, of course, is highly counterproductive to any change process.
The good news is that the brain’s neuronal connections are able to change through insight and experience. Neuroplasticity is the ability to rewire our brains by actively focusing attention in constructive ways for sustainable, positive change. If we redefine the threat as an opportunity for personal growth, or as a choice to do something in a different way, the benefits can be tremendous.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
—Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi
A Model for Change
The ADKAR Model for Change
Change is a process, oftentimes a complex one, as evidenced by the upheaval of our current liminal moment. Human systems change in response to system tension. The question becomes: what manner of change do we strive for to relieve the tension?
The ADKAR Model provides an outcome-oriented change method for individuals and organizations. The framework above offers three distinct phases to work through the change process. Each state has milestones to be met to achieve successful change:
1. Current: To move out of the current stage, an individual needs AWARENESS of the need for change and a DESIRE to participate in and support the change.
2. Transition: Successfully moving through the transition stage requires KNOWLEDGE on how to change and the ABILITY to implement the required skills and behaviors.
3. Future: In the future state, individuals need ability and REINFORCEMENT to sustain the change.
Giving structure to the process enables us to ask life-centered questions, open up to go more deeply, and harness both our individual insights and the cultural wisdom of those we are co-creating with.
Strong emotions, such as fear, anger, and frustration can be powerful catalysts for life change. As we look around for the change leaders, we must also recognize that ability within ourselves. Change is potential and begins with a shift in perspective to re-evaluate and re-frame our approach. We make sense through the familiar but can seed and cultivate the emergent courage to embrace change as meaningful.
