Framing Change | Knowledge Base

Framing Change: Why Good Ideas Go Nowhere

The Brutal Truth About Organizational Change​

"It's impossible to change things here!"

We've all heard some version of this before. While it is a touch dramatic and overly-defeatist, there's some hidden wisdom in there.

Typically the pattern is that someone has a vision for a big change which will improve something. They might be new, in the company for years, the CEO or even at the bottom of the food chain. They might see an obvious fix. They can articulate exactly what bits of technology, strategy, or process need to change.

And then... nothing happens.

**The issue isn't that change is impossible. **

The issue is that most change-makers skip the initial work that is required when making a big change. They invest deeply in technical, process, and strategic solutions, thinking deeply and even directly building a fix.

Yet, those efforts don't bring results. Either they get shut down, blocked, or delayed. Even worse, they launch but nobody uses them. Worst of all, nobody maintains the standards, and the good parts slowly rot away because people don't understand why things changed or care as much as the change-maker do.

And of course, pouring weeks or months of work into those changes only to see them fizzle out is a well-known recipe for burning out. If the change-maker pushes too far, they'll become cynical, blame things on "politics", start looking for a new job, and possibly even drag that negativity into their private life.

While all this unfolds, the problems remain unsolved. The organisation continues its slow march toward mediocrity or crisis. All because the change-maker worked on changing a thing before changing the minds of people who anchor that thing in the status quo.

Moreover, not all changes need to happen. It is fully possible that while you see a change as essential and urgent, it might not be true on a global level. Before looking to disrupt the status quo and dedicate resources, ensure the change is aligned with what is important at the level that the change takes place. As an example, a company-wide change that is urgent at a team level might be the type of change where taking a moment to really think through all perspectives on a company-wide level and discuss the need with trusted peers is the right thing to do before starting to petition for a change. Unfortunately there is no simple rule here, you will have to use your own judgement.

But assuming the change does need to happen, why do so many smart people keep failing to create a change that is so clear in their own minds?

The Expert Trap​

Efforts can easily fail because experts focus on solutions instead of stakeholder motivations. Experts instinctively start researching and working on to changing products, technology, process or strategy instead of changing motivations.

Often, this can sound like circling a high-level solution:

• "We need better processes"
• "We should implement this framework"
• "The solution is obvious, why aren't we doing it?"

Those solutions aren't necessarily wrong, they just can't be effective yet. We must not avoid the challenge of changing the minds of people who anchor the problem into its present problematic state. This is like attempting to open a door without unlocking it.

Pushing changes without preparing people for it leads to predictable consequences: passive resistance, active sabotage, or resource starvation.

• People do the minimum, undermine the initiative, or keeps getting funding cut so it fails to get off the ground.

And after multiple rounds of these issues, we can even see long-term challenges that are harder to shift away from: Initiative fatigue and leadership frustration. The organization becomes hardened against proposals for changes as a learned behaviour.

The problem isn't identifying what needs to change or even knowing how to change it. The problem is winning over enough stakeholders to make the change successful.

Why does this stakeholder challenge catch so many smart people off-guard?

Why Multiple Stakeholders Matter​

The answer lies in a fundamental misunderstanding about how organizational change actually works.

If you want a system to change, you need to bring people to that change. This means as a leader of change you must bring people on the journey with you towards the solution.

There is no one single person who can make it all happen. There is a common myth that a CEO clapping their hands like an ancient sultan will make changes simply happen. While CEOs are highly influential, they are not immune to the predictable consequences we outlined in the last section. Failure to create the right message creates the conditions for failure to change.

To win change, you need to win over a big enough majority of influential people relevant to your change so they can all help to pull the initiative forward. You don't need everyone and you will never get everyone, but you do need a critical mass of enough people with influence and interest to get things in motion. This means crafting messages that make each stakeholder group feel personally invested in the outcome.

Example Cases​

The Consistency Challenge​

These different messages must be coherent with each other and with the organization's mission.

You can't tell developers that automation will reduce their workload while telling management that it will increase productivity through longer hours. You can't tell QA that their jobs are safe while telling executives that you're eliminating manual testing.

Moreover, compelling change requires more than just stating "things are bad now, in the future they will be not bad." We need to resonate with each stakeholder personally while maintaining narrative consistency. That means checking that all versions of the story are aligned with the same goal and not introducing new directions for a change or confusion about what is changing or why.

Framing change well means creating stories that make each key stakeholder see they win while advancing the overall mission, and we all win too. It's not a sacrifice they have to make, it's a plan.

The Real Work of Change​

Your domain expertise is always the foundation for making changes happen. However, your ability to frame change is what determines whether you succeed or fail in our multi-player environment.

The graveyard of organizational change is littered with brilliant solutions that never made it because their champions couldn't effectively communicate why the change mattered to the people who had the keys to make it happen.

Change isn't about having the right answer either. It's about building the right coalition around that answer. Getting people on board with change requires understanding that different stakeholders need different reasons to care about the same change. You don't need everyone, but you need enough people with high interest and high influence to keep the change going. this is not about appeasing all nay-sayers or making everyone who is passive about the change into cheering fans, it's about building the critical mass needed to change.

This tool helps you think through the explanation of what needs to change and why, and how to explain it to your key stakeholders relevant to making the change happen to get them on-board.

Tips for Success​

• Start with clarity - Be specific about what's actually changing.
• Balance urgency and opportunity - People need both push and pull motivations. It can be tempting to write just one statement, but such a technique is less likely to convince stakeholders.
• Think stakeholder-specific - Different groups have different concerns and benefits, there is no one message for everyone. The message that resonates with you is not the message for everyone.
• Aim for coherence - The mission, the negatives, positives, and individual-specifc parts should all be related and focused on the same topic. We are only aiming to change the way we tell the story, not change the thing that is being changed.