The Clueless Leader’s Guide to Change Management
A humble approach to a managerial skill
Management books, leadership gurus, business blogs, and the Harvard Business Review are brimming with A to Z guides for change management, teaching leaders how to steer their teams and companies through the turbulent seas of change. These guides break down the steps of change management with very clear how-to’s peppered with terms such as “effective,” “successful,” and “impact.” By all means, read them. They’re useful.
Still, I find that these guides are misleadingly neat and orderly, illustrating change as a predictable vector stretching from A to B to C. This is not true: change means creating a different reality — this hypothetical, future world is by nature unknown. So really, all leaders managing any change are, at least to some extent, clueless.
As the Covid pandemic permeates every country in the world, businesses are compelled to make rapid changes. It’s up to managers to steer the ship, manage the change, and respond to challenges. But, we can do this with a sense of humility. Let’s try that.
The current landscape: a change of scale, not essence
This pandemic is the first-ever crisis of its kind any of us have had to deal with. However informed and wise, incisive and analytical, knowledgeable and intuitive, all managers, all leaders, all people, are faced with an onslaught of surprises — some for the better, many for the worse — in the face of Covid.
But I realize lack of certainty is only different in magnitude, not essence. Stepping into the unknown is a core component of any change. So I’ve had the pleasure of being a clueless leader more than once. From complete structural transformations to more subtle and gradual alterations in the scope of activity, from rebuilding teams, sometimes in a matter of weeks, to smaller changes in process — every single change has contained an element of the unknown.
Say yes first, figure it out later
Here’s a story: I had been managing a team of content managers, writers, and editors for over a year when we began running content and copy A/B tests. The project started with a handful of tests inspired by research the team conducted. Intrigued by these tests’ success, it was decided that we exponentiate this effort: the goal was to grow from a mere 3 tests into hundreds a year. My team was tasked with this effort.
The truth is that while I agreed this would theoretically make for an interesting, impactful activity, I had little idea at the time how I would make it work. My team nor I had, at that point, the knowledge and skills A/B tests required. To be completely honest, while I could follow professional discussions about the topic, the extent of my knowledge was limited to that of an observer — far from a manager leading this effort. My team similarly had limited relevant knowledge — although, commendably, they did have the growth mindset and the passion for learning and thriving. So while it seemed like a surmountable challenge, the fact of the matter is that I didn’t know what it would entail. I accepted the challenge, and I think this is the only way to face change management: say yes, and figure it out later. The very worst thing that may happen is that you fail. In my example, it was an elective change. Many of the changes we find ourselves tasked with are forced upon us — we have no choice but to accept the challenge and then figure it out.
Dig into the detail
Change management requires knowing the details. Learning the details is a tough job, for at least three reasons that I can think of:
First, it’s a lot of work, a good chunk of which is, frankly, not interesting. Sometimes, to really understand something, you have to learn trivial details such as how long a certain task takes, how a specific excel sheet is structured, or who actually signs off on a purchase order amounting to less than $500. So many boring details, all in order to make a managerial decision.
After you took the trouble to learn all of this information, you have to delete the portions that are not needed. You have to carefully sift through the tedious data and concentrate on what matters only. Only then do you realize, for example, that the purchase order signoff is immaterial, but that excel sheet, oh boy, that excel sheet is the source of all the mess.
Lastly, and probably the hardest, is changing the register from the minute details plane to the strategic, zoomed out decision-making level, which is, dear manager, what you’re here for. Lift your gaze from excel sheet fiascos to grand budgeting and scoping.
How many minds can one manager have?
The good ones definitely have more than one.
Going back to my story: once we were tasked with running content tests at scale, initially, the team was giddy and excited, happy for the new challenge. But, the excitement quickly wore off, replaced by vague, overarching, deterministic statements, such as “this can’t work,” “this is too complicated,” “we will never be able to do this.” Obviously, the happiness quotient was dipping very low for my team.
The question: what is “this” that is ostensibly so complicated and not feasible? If no one can define it in simple terms, you have a gigantic knot begging to be untangled. The way to do that is… you guessed it, to dig into the details.
So I asked. I broke down the process of content tests into specific tasks, starting from ideation and hypothesis and ending with tracking and implementation. I then asked each team member — individually (this is crucial) — for their level of comfort with each and every step.
I quickly understood the situation: across the board, out of seven steps, two specific actions were challenging to the team.
This method turned out to be very useful for a few reasons:
First, zeroing in on the specific challenges enabled me to identify which parts of the process needed attention. It also surfaced which parts of the process were clear, freeing the team to focus where we needed to.
Second, it allowed each team member to voice their concerns — collectively and individually. I believe this had a tremendous emotional value.
Lastly, this method helped me share with the team that the effort was not doomed — there were just two challenging steps. When solved, the coast would be clear. Suddenly, from an undoable project, it turned into an achievable effort.
Change begets change
If you think that change is specific, neatly confined in a clear, bounded structure detailed on a deck or a spreadsheet — think again. Change rarely concludes with the boundaries of a set project. People react and engage with it — sometimes they like it, sometimes they don’t. New realities surface novel circumstances that entail fresh dynamics.
I’ve seen struggling employees no less than shining in novel projects that bring their qualities to the fore; I’ve worked with others who were no less capable but just weren’t all that interested, wishing instead to transition to other roles with other teams. This is in addition to the more usual changes that transpire in every workplace: management changes and new hires, people leaving and processes refreshed, new technologies introduced, and communication platforms adopted.
But here’s a note for the clueless change-enacting leader: you know where you’re starting. You don’t know how it will end. Keep an eye out on the shifts and turns this journey brings, and continue responding.
Managing change will cost you some popularity
People prefer the status quo. It may not be perfect, but it’s familiar and hence comfortable. If you’re implementing a significant change, it’s likely that some, maybe many, won’t like it. The change will inevitably have an impact on people’s routines or projects. A new change may threaten someone’s hitherto uncontested purview. In more extreme cases, the change can impact people’s working hours, their hierarchy in the organization, and even the very fact of their employment. Even bystanders, those who have no bearing on the situation, may be indirectly affected.
Whatever the reason, even in the cases where the change results in positive outcomes, increased profits, happier employees — brace yourself. It may not be fun.
Breaking news: change happens fast
Planning is a fundamental part of good management. Advance planning requires thought and analysis and research and conversation, and all of these take time. When managers have the luxury to plan for the change they’re enacting, they should undoubtedly use it.
Responsible planning aside, we tend to think change is slow. We say things like, “things don’t change overnight,” “people never change,” and “change needs time — give it some time.”
Here’s the news: change, in fact, can happen very quickly. Sometimes literally overnight.
Change is rapid; it’s just our perception that’s lagging and needs a moment, a month, a year, to catch up. This catching up manifests in various ways: nostalgia, anxiety, excitement, disbelief, confusion, or clear-cut rejection. These are all reactions to change that has already happened. Poof. Done.
Management does not equal control
However senior, prominent, high salaried and talented, leaders and managers do not have control over any situation. Market landscape, customer behavior, geopolitical fluctuations, and even smaller-scale shifts are beyond anyone’s control. And damn, how hard it is to accept, right? It’s the complete loss of control over our most basic facets of living that’s so devastating in the age of Covid.
Good leaders don’t have control. They have a different skill: the skill to choose well. I believe good leaders can demonstrate both the acceptance of lack of control (rather than a mock display of it) and their ability to choose wisely and skillfully, armed with available data and informed by their intuition and experience.
And yes, dare to be clueless.
