Chapter 12 The Effective Change Manager What Does

Chapter 12 The Effective Change Manager: What Does It Take? Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights. reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education.

Change Managers: Who Are They? Change Emerging From the Middle (or Below) Change Managers; What Kind of Role is This? Change Management Competencies Political Skill & the Change Manager Do You Want to be a Change Manager? • ‘Change manager’ is a term that has broad application to people with a diverse range of involvement in organizational change processes. • This diversity of involvement is captured in the wide range of terms used to describe people with some organizational change role, for example: – change manager, change agent, change sponsor, change implementer, change adapter, change generator, change catalyst, process helper, product champion, resource linker • Change management can be found at all levels of an organization. • The management of an organizational change process is likely to require the complementary contributions, advice and support of a number of ‘change managers’ Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education. 12 -2

Change Emerging from the Middle (or Below) Change Managers: Who Are They? Change Emerging from the Middle (or Below) • • ‘Quiet leaders’, ‘tempered radicals’, ‘ideas practitioners’ and Change Managers; What Kind of Role is This? Change Management Competencies Political Skill & the Change Manager Do You Want to be a Change Manager? Despite their traditional characterisation as change resistant, middle managers often play a key role in bringing about organizational change (see e. g. , Wooldridge et al, 2008) • ‘stealth innovators’, ‘disruptive innovators – some of the names given to people who may not have a senior or even middle management role but who through their ingenuity, receptiveness to new ideas, networking, risk-taking and political skills can be driving forces behind organizational change. Implications: – an organization’s most valuable change managers may not be visible and may not be those who have been formally appointed to change management roles – Managers should try to find the ‘hidden influencers’ as the latter can have a significant effect on the extent to which people ‘buy into’ a proposed change Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education. 12 -3

Change Managers: What Kind of Role is This? Change Managers: Who Are They? Change Emerging from the Middle (or Below) Change Managers; What Kind of Role is This? Change Manager Competencies Political Skill & the Change Manager Do You Want to be a Change Manager? 1. Challenging in a way that is stressful, highpressure, fast-paced and high risk/vulnerable, placing a premium on resilience. 2. Challenging in a way that is exciting, stimulating and energising through exposure to a wide range of strategic and operational issues, enhanced network-building opportunities and opportunity to demonstrate capabilities. Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education. 12 -4

Change Management Competencies Change Managers: Who Are They? Change Emerging from the Middle (or Below) Change Managers; What Kind of Role is This? Change Management Competencies Political Skill & the Change Manager Do You Want to be a Change Manager? • Mc. Ber Competency Model (Cripe, 1993) • Buchanan-Boddy Change Manager Competency Model (Buchanan & Boddy, 1992) • CMI Change Manager Master Level Competency Model (Leys, 2012) • A counter view – the role of intimidation (Kramer, 2006) Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education. 12 -5

Political Skill and the Change Managers: Who Are They? Change Emerging from the Middle (or Below) Change Managers; What Kind of Role is This? Change Management Competencies Political Skill & the Change Manager Do You Want to be a Change Manager? • While ‘being political’ is often a term of criticism, being viewed as ‘politically skilful’ is often a compliment which may refer to such things as a person’s ability to – understand the behaviour/motives of others (social astuteness) – recognise different power bases – influence others to support their position – build relationships (networking) – access and effectively use information – recognise what tactics will be most effective in a given situation. • Being politically skilful (in this positive sense) is often a key part of being a successful change manager. Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education. 12 -6

Do You Want to be a Change Manager? Change Managers: Who Are They? Change Emerging from the Middle (or Below) Change Managers; What Kind of Role is This? Change Management Competencies Political Skill & the Change Manager Do You Want to be a Change Manager? 1. Career Moves: Given all of its challenges, is the right role for you? Is it the right role at this point in your career? 2. Repositioning Is the current change ‘deep change’ with high stakes associated with its success or failure and, in light of this, how do you wish to position yourself? 3. The Politics Are you comfortable with the political dimension of change management? 4. Strengths What capabilities do you already have that are relevant to the change manager role? How will you build on these? 5. Gaps Where are your gaps in regard to the capabilities that you would need as a change manager? 6. Action Prepare a personal action plan that covers how strengths will be maintained and built, what weaknesses are allowable, and how gaps in capability will be filled. Copyright © 2017 Mc. Graw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of Mc. Graw-Hill Education. 12 -7