K & P - Change Opportunities (Chpt 7)
I am so incredibly tired of change for the sake of change or ‘change’ without plan, vision, or a clearly defined and communicated goal! I spend much of my time trudging through countless, poorly-planned ‘change initiatives’ passed down by my well-intentioned but reactive management. My colleagues and I have more new projects, processes, and initiatives than we have time to effectively respond. Initiatives are being precariously built upon the structure of earlier incomplete initiatives. Thankfully, this ‘quazi-change’ is not the type of change that Kouzes and Posner promote in chapter 7.
Given my current work environment, I was refreshed by K & P’s many examples of leaders who proactively looked for opportunities to make well-defined, positive change and then actively engaged and encouraged their employees to take ownership of those changes. It is very intuitive: 1) Be perceptive and connected to the internal workings of your organization as well as the external world that affects the function and purpose of your organization. 2) Actively search and be open to moments that represent potential growth and opportunity (large and small) for your organization and seize them. 3) Engender that same spirit of active participation in your organization.
I especially appreciated K & P’s focus on allowing ideas to “flow freely from the outside in.” (pg. 179) Frequently, changes seem to be initiated within my department without ever receiving input from the world outside. We do not solicit input from our industry peers, partners or customers on a consistent basis. Too often, changes seem to be initiated in my department as if we are actors within static surroundings. We see opportunities for making changes that we feel would be in the best interest of ourselves, our partners and our customers and we quickly act based on our sole perceptions. Allowing ideas to freely flow in to our department from the outside would help us to clearly define effective changes, resulting in less time spent on dead-end change initiatives and a sense of connectedness by our employees to the direction and mission of their department.
I did not see any real limitations to K & P’s chapter 7, but I did have a very small amount of caution. The opening quote of the chapter is from Robin Selden with Logitech: “I realized that my job as a leader was to make change each and every day.” (pg. 161) Perhaps I am being overly sensitive, but there are people in leadership roles who believe that their job is simply to “make change each and every day.” It falls under the guise of ‘shaking things up’ or ‘keeping everyone on their toes’ and has little other function. I am a big proponent of change. However, it should be change that is well directed and communicated, with a clear intent that is greater than just ‘shaking things up.’
As I write this entry, my main question to myself is: Why am I not challenging the status quo of my department? I certainly have a sense of ownership in my department. I know that many other people in my department feel similarly to me. Why do they not challenge the status quo? K & P puts at least some responsibility on the leadership to encourage initiative and self-efficacy of their employees (pg. 171). However, if we all sit around waiting on our leadership to engender employee self-efficacy, we could be waiting a long time and the cycle of unfocused change initiatives would continue. At what point do the employees acknowledge that they have a responsibility to make challenge the status quo even if an avenue for challenging and questioning has not been laid out for them?
- Nick Deffley
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Reflection on Kouzes & Posner Chapter Seven
“…proactive people tend to work harder at what they do. They persist in achieving their goals, while others tend to give up, especially when faced with strong objections or great adversity. ” (Kouzes & Posner, p.169) It gave me a lot of thoughts when I read this sentence. Leadership is everywhere, but only in favor of those who are prepared to success. Sometimes one has to wait for the opportunities to come; and sometimes one need to seize and create initiatively. Just as Kouzes & Posner noted “change requires leadership.” The only thing is that never give up one’s passion. In the words of Arlene, “the real dividing line is passion. As long as you believe what you’re doing is meaningful, you can cut through fear and exhaustion and take the next step (Kouzes & Posner, p.173).”
To prove this statement, I would like to use one Chinese idiom to show how it works and share with you. The idiom is wo xin chang dan(卧薪尝胆).
During the Spring and Autumn period （770－476BC）, the State of Wu launched an attack against the State of Yue. The King of Wu was seriously wounded and soon died. His son Fu Chai became the new King. Fu was determined to revenge. He drilled his army rigidly until it was a perfect fighting force. Three years later, he led his army against the State of Yue and caught its
king Gou Jian. Fu took him to the State of Wu.
In order to avenge his father's death, Fu let him live in a shabby stone house by his father's tomb and ordered him to raise horses for him. Gou pretended to be loyal to Fu but he never forgot his humiliation. Many years later, he was set free. Gou secretly accumulated a military force after he went back to his own state. In order to make himself tougher he slept on firewood and ate a gall-bladder before having dinner and going to bed every night. At the same time he administered his state carefully, developing agriculture and educating the people. After a few years, his country became strong. Then Gou seized a favorable opportunity to wipe off the State of Wu.
In my opinion, this case indicated a lot of aspects fit with the description from the text book, such as challenge with purpose, encourage initiative in others and make something happen. But, the most important thing is leadership—persisting in achieving the goal.
Posted by: Kun Yang | March 4, 2008 05:05 PM