World Class Change Agent
(Interview with Milan M, Organization Effectiveness consultant.)
Interviewer: What behaviors are synonymous with a world class change agent?
Milan: Individuals at all levels have the untapped potential to be change agents. With expert coaching, tools and practice they can all get better at it. They'll learn the ropes to influence the organization from within. Here are some pieces of advice for change agents:
- It's hard to be a change agent unless you have the support of a "boss" who explicitly honors and recognizes contributions to all parts of the organization.
- You'll be the "odd person out" sometimes despite your natural desire for acceptance and affiliation. Change agents have to manage their fit with the culture.
- Being a change agent isn't a full-time job. You'll have to handle your other roles and work as well.
Appreciating people is not enough; you have to tap their strengths and relationships:
- Ferret out the best opportunities and collaborators, where you didn't see them at first.
- When you find people who deviate from the prevailing practice in a positive way, get them to deviate a little more.
- Forge alliances with people who seemed, at first, to be unreachable.
- Protect innovators and publicize their successes.
Don't operate on only one level of the hierarchy.
- Scale up to be visible and influential.
- Scale down to work one-on-one with each manager and leader separately.
- Facts have limits on influencing people. Tell a story: deliver direction, information and inspiration.
- When a meeting of the minds isn't enough, try a meeting of emotions.
- Channeling the diffuse power in professional organizations is like herding cats.
- Nurture the burgeoning momentum with outcomes.
- Respect participation without diluting responsibility.
- Continue forward with stealth.
Amplify the voice of the unspoken, uncomfortable truths.
- Use examples, providing details
- Sense timing as you facilitate ways forward.
Don't take yourself seriously. After all, in good times, almost anything works.
Like everyone else in the 21st century, change agents will occasionally lose jobs-but not necessarily because of their change agent activities.
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