Blog Article Written By: Ray Attiyah, Chief Innovation Officer

Obstacle #4: Safe Change Mode

Last month I started blogging about the seven mistakes leaders make that prevent them from implementing transformational changes.  After a few worthy interruptions, it’s time to continue that theme.

Is it better to try to do one thing at a time or several things at once?  When it comes to transforming your organization, I have seen companies try to play it safe by making changes in sequence, but I have never seen it work.  Here’s what typically happens and why it doesn’t work.

A company will start the transformation with a process improvement effort and hire a consultant or use internal resources to score some quick wins.  Once that is complete they turn to leadership training, only to find their process improvement wins dwindling as they shift focus to personnel.

People learn through experiences and what this approach fails to capture is the opportunity for managers and supervisors to learn how to lead through the experience of putting process improvements into place.  When you integrate the leadership development and the improvement effort, change happens much more quickly and becomes sustainable.

I often compare it to a golf swing.  A quality swing demands attention to club set up, stance, grip, wrists, hips, shoulders, head, swing plane, and follow through.  You can’t do one at a time and expect to hit a long straight ball.  You have to put them all together.