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Change in the 21st Century is NOT Change-as-Usual

Discover what it means to be a transformation-capable enterprise in this 21st Century. Lead the paradigm shift from change-as-usual to unleashing and refining inherent capacities for profound evolution. Draw on insights from complexity science, organization and social psychology, leadership and organization development, philosophy, and our years of on-the-ground experience to help you navigate the unprecedented challenges of our time.

The Many Faces of Change

Not all changes are alike. Some changes merely skim the surface, while others involve operational overhauls that require project and program management. Many today go beyond these. They penetrate the core of an organization’s identity, demanding new organization designs and a collective shift in mindset and behavior.

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Match Your Thinking and Actions to the Change Challenge

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Transactional Change (T1)

This is local change or simple work practice change that you can support with training, management coaching, and motivating communication. 

Transitional Change (T2)

These are more complicated changes that alter relationships, require big skill shifts, and affect large parts of the enterprise and how it will operate. There are
often precedents and support is available from technology vendors and consultants (e.g., a CRM or ERP). There may be a clear destination, but this change requires some adaptation to your company’s unique requirements. Methods for T1 apply, but add complex project plans, lots of employee engagement, increased communication to keep end state visions alive, and more.

Transformational Change (T3)

There is a lot of uncertainty in this more complex T3 change. The full implications aren’t fully understood. So, management needs to quickly understand,
assess impact as the change unfolds, and pivot when needed. T3 changes have few or no role models (e.g., the large-scale digitization occurring today). Advantage comes from adapting and creating change before others. People in the enterprise must become partners in the change – helping create or tweak it – raising issues when they arise and without fear. T1 and T2 methods are part of the change arsenal, but it is the agility and resilience embedded in the change process itself that leads to wins.

Transformational Change-Inbuilt (T4)

T4 transcends change programs, focusing on the ongoing change capacity of the enterprise and everyone in it. A mindset of “change is normal” pervades. People
everywhere self-manage and self-transform and are continually evolving with the enterprise. Leaders invest in creating and sustaining this change resilience as a core capability. The culture is self-critical but not punitive, open but also disciplined, supportive of experimentation as well as bottom line performance. The enterprise is alive, adapting, evolving without needing to be dragged into the future by external rewards or punishments or debilitated by a culture that isn’t evolving with the times.

Navigating Transformation

If your organization struggles to keep pace with the rapid advancements in technology, you're not alone. Despite numerous "transformation" initiatives, statistics reveal a troubling reality: only 34% of planned changes meet leaders' expectations, with a troubling 50% ending in failure. Despite investments in new processes, structures, training, and change management activities, organizations continue to grapple with organization inertia, treating treat transformation challenges with traditional “change management (T1 and 2) methods. Transformation is a much different challenge that can only be nudged and unleashed.

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Fostering Transformational Excellence

McLagan International has been deeply involved in organization change and transformation support work – in the trenches and at the top of organizations for a half-century. We no longer do large-scale and ongoing consulting projects. Rather, today, we focus on education and awareness, researching, writing about, and providing fee-based advisory assistance to executives to support T3 and T4 goals.

We’ll happily send you notices about new articles and transformation support material.

Gear Up for T4: The Self-Tranforming Enterprise

1. Understand Your Organization's Landscape

Begin by examining your organization's internal mental models and operational practices regarding change. This entails:

a) Identifying the nature of the change challenge at hand, whether it's transactional, transitional, transformational, or self-transforming.

b) Evaluating your organization's Developmental (Maturity) Stage and its current capacity for change.

c) Scrutinizing power dynamics and communication assumptions that shape the cultural boundaries and opportunities pertinent to the success of change initiatives.

2. Align Actions with Inherent Dynamics of Complex Social Systems

Based on insights into your organziaiton’s capabilities and strategies, decide what level of change support you need (from T-1 to T-3 and if your ultimate goal is a self-transforming enterprise, always include system-wide change-related skills upgrade in your overall strategy – not as an add on.

3. Continuously develop your understanding of transformational change dynamics and how to influence them

You’ll find articles and other support here. Or contact us to collaborate on T3 or T4 strategies.

Keep Growing Your Transformation Muscle

Testimonials

“McLagan’s leadership was instrumental in negotiating and facilitating what is clearly the most profound and important collaborative working relationship between the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, key Malian government leaders and executives of Bamako University. Her keen understanding of the African culture, international business relationships and US Government politics were instrumental in guiding all parties in the design of a collaborative infrastructure to strengthen Mali’s science capacity and cement the long-term partnership between NIAID and Mali. Ten years later all parties continue to operate under the critical agreements Pat so skillfully navigated. This effort was the first of its kind and Pat’s contributions have had a profound impact on NIAID’s ability to conduct and further research capacity globally. “

Lynn C. Hellinger

”When the Defense Intelligence Agency decided to create an integrated Human Capital Organization, I turned to Pat McLagan to help guide the implementation team. In 100 days, Pat did the impossible, facilitating and mentoring the leadership team to consensus – minimizing disruptions to existing core functions while creating a more integrated and strategically focused Directorate. The initial plan was transformational, but the true transformation was in the toolkit of principles and processes that Pat provided. They institutionalized external and internal collaboration, actionable measures of performance and alignment – and realignment as necessary – to ensure mission success.”

John S. Allison, Jr.

”It would be difficult to overstate the impact of the work done by McLagan International for SAB Ltd (now SABMiller). The most visible result was our Business Performance Management system, still the foundation of how we implement strategy and manage people and performance, but the intervention delivered much more. It was seminal: it led to coherence, of culture and purpose, and was also liberating. Twenty years later, all round the world and in a company which is ten times the size it was then, Pat’s concepts, principles and language are still in explicit everyday use. They have withstood continual re-examination, rediscovery and redefinition. Other tools and systems – for instance the panoply of techniques within World Class Manufacturing – have been layered on top, but none of these would have taken root without the basic underpinning, and context-setting, of Pat’s work (and wisdom).”

Graham Mackay

“During my time as Governor, the State of Georgia focused on critical and diverse programs to significantly improve the management of the State. One key goal in making Georgia the best-managed state was improving customer service across the State’s many agencies. Pat McLagan’s dynamic leadership and know-how helped us construct, launch and maintain an initiative committed to providing better customer service to our citizens. The success of the Customer Service initiative was a significant part of Georgia’s rapid rise in the PEW state grading system from C+ to A- in just 5 years, making us one of the top three best managed States in the Union, and it remains to this day one of the accomplishments of which I am most proud.”

The Honorable Sonny Perdue