Rules for Change Agents

I was recently reminded of how difficult change can be for some people.

A specific memory came to mind…  Reliving that experience was eerie, and I confess it frustrated me a little, even today.   I remember how my hill became a mountain, and my rock a boulder.

I knew then that I would keep pushing; its all I knew how to do.

With that memory I was compelled to revisit Rules for Change Agents.  The Rules were given to me by a friend a few years ago.  I’m not sure where he got them, so I really don’t know who to thank or give credit to.   Regardless, while the credit is not mine, the gratitude is.  These Rules have provided me with a framework within which to operate – a liberation which is difficult to explain.  For me, embracing the spirit of this document framed my purpose and validated my effort.  I am sharing them in hopes that you might find them equally empowering.

Rules for Change Agents

1. Start with your sand box: the parts of the organization you can change. Forget the rest.
2. Belief and the courage to act on those beliefs are the sine qua non of changing a system, large or small. “One man with conviction makes a majority.”
3. Do not ask for permission. Tell your Boss to follow you around with a mop & bucket.
4. You must have a model of organizational change to use as a roadmap and a gauge of progress.
5. The ability to present a clear and simple story of the problem and the solution to get a “shared vision” with all stakeholders is key to minimizing the resistance (note it does not say “eliminating”).
6. Politics is unavoidable. Get over it. The system is stacked against your agenda and it is tough to get real change to occur without air cover and building coalitions. Get the management chain and stakeholders lined-up in support of your direction, method, data & conclusions…make sure as many people as possible have a stake in the effort’s success.
7. Corollary to #6: Learn to love the opposition. There is valuable information there.
8. The system is stacked against you in terms of time sinks. Never underestimate that. It is like the emergency room: the triage nurse decides who lives, who dies, and who waits. Focus on the priorities, pick your battles, and make the rest wait.
9. Corollary to #8: Speaking of dying, you should try not to. Do not get yourself killed unless it is a matter of personal integrity.
10. Do no get seduced by organizational opportunity or title or anything that looks like a safe haven. If you identify more with your title than your mission, you are, de facto, not a change agent.
11. Corollary to #10: The moment you do not need your job is the moment you become the most valuable person in your company. If you want your job more than what you know is right, you cannot make change happen.
12. The job of a change agent is to ask for, talk about and focus on what people do not want to think about, talk about and focus on. You cannot make change without driving people out of their comfort zones.
13. Change agents who do not understand the financial performance of the company are next to useless.
14. The moment you compromise your integrity, you are rendered completely ineffective.
15. Do not announce your change program. Live it. People must feel your change agenda in what you focus on, how you spend your time, what you emphasize, measure, etc.
16. There is no better mantra for a change agent than Jack Welch’s “Three E’s”:

• • Energy – to blast through the system’s calcification
  • Energize – to enlist supporters
  • Edge – to make the tough calls