The Law of Life (and Leadership)

I've love talking about leading and managing change.  To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes (by Former Secretary of Defense and Retired U.S. Marine Corps General James N. Mattis), leadership is about managing change.  If you don't like managing change, stay out of leadership (admittedly, General Mattis' exact quote is a little different, "A leader's role is problem solving.  If you don't like problems, stay out of leadership").  There are literally hundres of thousands of articles and books on leading and managing change.  There are probably as many quotes about leading and managing change.

According to the physicist Albert Einstein, "The measure of intelligence is the ability to change."  In other words, the only way we can develop and progress as individuals is through change, and the smartest individuals are the ones who recognize this point.  While most experts recognize that it is easier to lead and manage change when there is consensus (more on this point below), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."   

It's also important to recognize that leading and managing change isn't easy (and it's not always fun).  As a matter of fact, the philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli said, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things."

While there are countless models of change, I particularly like the following model developed by the business and leadership consultant Mary Lippitt in 1987, which was later modified and adapted by the education consultant Timothy Knoster in 1991 (it's actually really hard to find the original citations).  The model is typically called the "Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change".  According to Lippitt, managing change requires five components: vision, skills, incentives, resources, and a plan of action.  

First, successfully leading and managing change requires a vision for the future state that you want to achieve with the change.  As the great New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra quipped, "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up somewhere else." Your vision is your North Star, your guide, your beacon of hope for a new and better future.

Second, navigating through and implementing change requires knowledge and skills.  Similarly, the right incentives must be in place to help change behavior and make the change stick.  Most change initiatives require time, energy, and (often) money, so leaders of change have to provide the requisite resources up front to implement the change.  Finally, as Benjamin Franklin said, "By failing to plan, you are preparing to fail."  Not to be outdone, Winston Churchill said, "He who fails to plan is planning to fail."  Leading and managing change requires an action plan.

Timothy Koster modified and adapted Lippitt's original model by adding a sixth necessary component - consensus.  Successfully implementing a change requires the collective agreement and support from all the major stakeholders who may be impacted by the change.  When there is consensus, the change is collaborative in nature, which reduces the resistance to change and makes the change initiative more likely to succeed and be sustained.  Whether that consensus comes through the proverbial "burning platform" (what change guru John Kotter calls "creating a sense of urgency") or through negotiation and collaboration is not important.  What is important is that change leaders have building a critical mass of individuals who not only support the change, but are willing to work towards making that change a reality.  As Greg Shea, a Senior Fellow at the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management said, "If you are leading change and there is no sign of resistance, either you’re not being taken seriously, or the resisters are not telling you the truth."  Pay attention to those individuals who are most likely to help you, get them on board with your vision, and move forward.  Shea says, "The reality is that when you have a large enough group, you won’t get buy in from everyone."  Nor do you need it!  Shea goes on further, "There are simply too many conflicting interests, values, and agendas to get everyone on board. In every organization, no matter the problems, there are people vested in not wanting to change."

What I particularly like about the model is the following figure that tells you what happens when one of these six factors (vision, consensus, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan) are missing:

The 35th American President John F. Kennedy said, "Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."  Again, I will paraphrase and say that change is the law of leadership.