 Change Management. Date published 1 January 2017. Messer Sergeant Phillips is the superintendent of the pharmacy. She's just been told that the Air Force will change to a new system that will track the number of patients visiting the pharmacy each month, along with the most commonly prescribed medications. Messer Sergeant Phillips believes this new system will not only slow down her high-performing section, but will be difficult to train her people on. In order to train on this new system, she would have to shut down the pharmacy or at least go to minimum manning. Her pharmacy supports a large population with multiple training missions. Shutting down the pharmacy even for an hour would cause a huge backlog. At this point, she doesn't know if the new system is actually worth the pain she'll have to go through to implement it, but her leadership says it must be done. What should she do? There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Machiavelli. Inside this chapter. Adaptability. Definition of adaptability. Three elements of flexibility. Resistance to change. Reactions to change. Minimizing resistance to change. Requirements for change. Pressures for change. Synthesizing requirements for change. Leading organizational change. Roger's diffusion of innovations theory. Lewin's phases of change. Impact of change management. Subordinate. Senior NCO. Mission. Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to. Terminal cognitive objective. Terminal cognitive objective. Comprehend change management concepts and or their impacts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Terminal cognitive samples of behavior. Number one. Identify change management concepts and or their impacts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Number two. Illustrate change management concepts and or their impacts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Number three. predict the impacts of change management concepts on the subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Effective, objective. To value change management and its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Effective samples of behavior. Number one, enthusiastically dedicate yourself to read and listen to all material about change management and its impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Number two, voluntarily complete all coursework related to change management and its impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Number three, openly accept change management and its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Number four, willingly develop a preference for change management and its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Number five, strive toward a commitment to apply change management because of its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. In today's environment, change is an inevitable part of Air Force life. You've probably dealt with organizational change associated with personnel reductions, deployments or missions, either as the one tasked with implementing a change or as someone who dealt with the effects of a change. You might have even had to help your subordinates deal with the ups and downs associated with an organizational change. If you have, how did it go? Did your subordinates respond positively? Did you have to deal with people that didn't want to get on board with a change? How you manage change personally and how you lead your subordinates through organizational change are critical to your success as a senior NCO. By remaining flexible and learning to anticipate some of the pressures for change, you can help your subordinates and organization navigate through the uncertainty and ambiguity associated with change in order to become more effective in meeting mission needs. This chapter begins by covering adaptability. Here you'll go over some key attributes in the definition of adaptability as well as the three elements of flexibility. You'll then move on to dealing with resistance to change. At this point you'll learn about the importance of addressing the reactions to change your people might have along with a few tips to minimize resistance to your change efforts. Next your focus will shift to understanding the requirements for change. Explaining the strategic pressures that drive change can help your people better understand why change is necessary. After that you'll combine prior knowledge of change theories you learned in the NCO Academy like Roger's Diffusion of Innovations with concepts from this chapter to see how you can effectively lead organizational change. Finally you'll end this chapter by covering the impact of change management on subordinate, senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Before this chapter begins you need to have an understanding of its focus and intent. At the Airman leadership school level change management was focused on you as a change target maybe even a change agent of small changes. Most of the changes you dealt with probably impacted you and your subordinates or small work team. At the NCO Academy level change management was focused on you as a change agent and target maybe even a change sponsor if you were the NCO I see in your work center. More than likely the changes you had to implement dealt with work center level practices and procedures. In this chapter change management focuses on you leading your people through organizational change. These types of changes impact your entire organization and you're more than likely serving as a change agent tasked with implementing the change. So as you progress through this chapter keep that focus you're implementing an organizational level change in your area of responsibility. Understanding the flow and focus of this chapter can help provide some context and perspective as you cover the material presented. With that in mind let's get started with the concept of adaptability. Organizational change is generally considered to be an organization wide change as opposed to smaller changes such as adding a new person into the work environment. It includes leading and managing changes to organizational culture, unit level processes, environment, responsibilities, and policies and procedures. Dr. Gary Evans. Adaptability. Take a moment to think about how you respond to organizational change. Do you adapt faster than your peers or do you find you have a harder time doing so? What is it that allows some people to adjust more effectively than others? As a senior NCO how you adapt to organizational change could have an impact on how your people respond positively or negatively. In this section you'll cover the definition of adaptability and its importance in leading and managing change. You'll build on that foundation by breaking down adaptability into three elements. Cognitive, dispositional, and emotional. If at that time you find you need to improve in one or more of these elements don't fret you'll also learn how you can develop your own flexibility as well. Before you can lead and manage change effectively you should ensure you and your people maintain a certain level of adaptability before, during, and after the change. You can start by first looking at the attributes that define adaptability. Definition of adaptability. Adaptability is the ability to adjust oneself to changed unexpected or ambiguous situations by actively seeking information and by demonstrating openness and support of different and innovative change ideas. In the working definition of adaptability there are two attributes that really stand out. First, actively seeking information means senior NCOs should be proactive in researching a pending or in progress change. You shouldn't wait for a change to happen then find out information about it afterwards. That might be too late. As a leader you should try to obtain as much information as possible as early as possible. After all your people and other stakeholders will almost certainly have questions and you'll be the one they come to for answers. Next, demonstrating openness refers to establishing a welcoming communication style. AFI 36-2618 states you should promote a culture of airmen capable of adapting to evolving air force requirements throughout a career of new and different ideas while withholding judgment until those ideas can be fully explored. By allowing your people the opportunity to share new ideas or opinions you help create an environment of trust and mutual respect. This trust and respect can go a long way when trying to make or impact a change and may be the difference between success and failure. AFI 36-2618 states you should promote a culture of airmen capable of adapting to evolving air force requirements throughout a career. Why is it important for you to be adaptable? Well the more adaptable you are the easier it is for you to ready yourself for change. By actively seeking information as early as possible you can arm yourself with the necessary knowledge to be able to process the change internally and help others do the same. And by demonstrating openness in support of new change ideas you can employ strategies that help you translate your subordinates good ideas into great results. Adaptability can be broken down into three different elements that when considered can be a factor in how your people respond to change. Three elements of adaptability. Senior NCOs need to respond effectively to change. However sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't. What is it that allows some people to adapt to change more effectively than others? The answer involves three types of flexibility cognitive emotional and dispositional. According to Calarco and Gervis from the Center for Creative Leadership this three-part framework was originally developed by Steve Zekaro of George Mason University in 1999 and was expounded upon by others since. Their studies have shown leaders must exhibit at least two of these three characteristics in order to be perceived as adaptable. So let's start by tackling cognitive flexibility first. Cognitive flexibility. Adaptable leaders with cognitive flexibility scan the environment to detect coming change develop an understanding of the coming change and create multiple strategies to address the change. Cognitive flexibility involves incorporating different thinking strategies and mental frameworks into your planning, decision-making and day-to-day activities. But what does this really mean? Well possessing cognitive flexibility means you're able to keep multiple scenarios in mind so you can adjust to changing unexpected or ambiguous situations. When presented with a situation that needs a solution you would execute plan A while having a plan B, C and D available just in case something changes. Otherwise if plan A fails you may waste precious time effort and resources figuring out why the plan failed and what you need to do to fix it. Cognitively flexible leaders have already considered the what might go wrong scenarios and are ready to execute another plan if necessary. Here's an example. Let's say you've completed over 20 years with the Air Force and you're getting ready to test again for promotion to Senior Master Sergeant. If you're cognitively flexible you'll study hard for the promotion plan A but you'll also start working on your resume and conducting initial job searches just in case plan B. If you aren't promoted you could easily switch to plan B without a hiccup. You may even have a plan C staying in the Air Force one more year so you could test again. However imagine what would happen if your plan A failed. You didn't get promoted. You had all your eggs in that one basket. You'd probably be in a panic situation trying to figure out what you're going to do next. That sounds frustrating. To develop cognitive flexibility you should 1. Be curious about what's happening in your organization. Find out what is happening as well as what should be happening. Basically diagnose your situation. What's going well? What needs to be improved? What is your organization missing? Ask questions of your leadership and your people in order to collect data before you make a decision and act. Once you understand what's going on in your organization you can adapt more easily to change that could improve some of the shortfalls you may have identified. 2. Accept that different is not right or wrong. It's just different. Just because an idea or solution someone presents to you is different from something you would develop doesn't make it wrong. Everyone in your organization is not going to be like you or see things the same way you do. You're a member of a diverse organization. Adaptable leaders take advantage of the ways we are all different versus forcing everyone to conform to their way of doing things. Being open to this difference in thinking might require you to do some reflection on how you approach change. 3. See and be seen. Walk around and see what's happening in your organization. Don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and help out with some of the daily tasks your people have to do. This is a good way to get their perspective on how things actually are on a day-to-day basis. It can also benefit your people because during difficult changing times they need to see you're interested in finding out what's going on firsthand not by word of mouth. 4. Have a plan. Know ahead of time how you'll deal with problems, resistance, crisis, etc. if they arise but don't get too attached to a single plan. Always have a plan B and plan C ready to execute when needed. This plan could include things like how you might get additional resources if needed, who you might need to reach out to in other organizations if you come across a roadblock you don't have the experience to remove or even what you can do if the change just won't work. However the expectation isn't for you to have a plan for every possible situation that would be impossible. Being an adaptable leader means you can put thought into what might go wrong and create a plan to address it if you need to. 5. Understand resistance. Be informed about the underlying concerns and issues that may account for your people's possible resistance during the change. This doesn't mean every time a change is instituted your people will automatically resist. It just means some of your people might have unique circumstances that could prevent them from getting on board with a change initially. For example, what if a change involves drastically reorganizing the unit's duty schedule? If some of your people have childcare issues that would make it difficult to conform to the new hours they might be initially resistant to the change. Adaptable leaders know their people's unique circumstances and issues up front so they can be better equipped to deal with the reasons why their people might resist early in the change process. 6. Observe what's going on so you can stay informed about the changing pressures facing the organization. Talk to your people about the things they have experienced as you make the transition. This might include engaging them in a discussion about what they need in order to do their jobs better or even ways to improve processes or procedures. Scan your environment to identify changes and diagnose their implications early on. 7. Commit to learning. Adapting requires learning. Continuous education is essential to developing and honing your cognitive abilities. The ability to critically think is an essential trait in effective leaders. Critical thinking. Using the intellectual standard of depth, you can consider the complexities of the change, not just what you see on the surface in order to ensure you have plans to address them. Also, using the reasoning element of information can help ensure you have all the data you need in order to construct your plans. Emotional flexibility. Adaptable leaders with emotional flexibility. Understand and manage their own emotions. Connect with and address the emotions of others. Engage emotionally to help others get on board with the change and maintain a balance between emotion and actions. Emotional flexibility is the ability to change how you deal with your own and others' emotions. An emotionally flexible leader is comfortable with the process of change, including grieving, complaining, and resistance without giving into or getting pulled off course by emotions and concerns. Developing emotional flexibility isn't a tough undertaking. In order to develop emotional flexibility, you should. One, use your support systems. Look to mentors, supervisors, friends, family, and trusted peers for support during a difficult change. Sometimes it might be helpful to vent to someone that can empathize with your situation. Additionally, encourage your subordinates to do the same. Two, offer feedback. Provide prompt feedback, both positive and negative, that's specific and clear. This might include feedback to the change sponsor or to the people that have to implement the change. Providing honest feedback can give you practice dealing with the emotional reactions of others while facing your own emotions and or resistance. Three, act decisively when faced with a difficult decision. Communicate clearly and make timely decisions. Even though doing so may be hard, it's more harmful to your people and the situation to waiver or avoid reality. Four, avoid bulldozing change. Take time to explain why the change is important versus bulldozing your way through it. Patiently explain the details of the change, answer any questions your people might have, and listen to their concerns. Five, change your approach if necessary. Based on how the change is progressing, you might have to change your approach in how you address emotional reactions towards the change effort, etc. Your approach might have to become more directive or more participative depending on the situation. You might have to use more disciplinary type activities or more motivational type activities to deal with negative emotions and get the change effort back on track. Become comfortable using a variety of methods and techniques so you can adjust your management style to changing situations. Six, face reality. Adapt to changing situations with realism, openness, and optimism. Be honest with yourself and others about how the change will impact them and how the change effort is progressing. Otherwise, you could damage your credibility during the change and with future change efforts. Seven, find ways to motivate others. Let's face it, sometimes changing from something known to the unknown can be unnerving and difficult. Everyone at some time or another needs a little motivation. Consistently encourage and motivate those individuals impacted by the change. You can use techniques such as transactional, contingent reward, or transformational, inspirational motivation, leadership to motivate others. However, you should understand this isn't a one-size-fits-all situation. Try to ensure the technique you select is appropriate for the individual. Eight, address resistant individuals. Resistance isn't always negative, something you'll learn later in this chapter. Someone might be resistant to a change because his or her issue or situation hasn't been addressed. Remember the earlier example of changing the unit duty hours? If someone's daycare issues aren't addressed promptly, the resistance, as a result of frustration, stress, anger, etc., might evolve into negative behaviors. If you moved quickly to address the individual's concerns, you might prevent negative behaviors from emerging. However, if you don't address the concerns or handle issues promptly and effectively, you may hurt morale, foster resentment, and or stifle the change. Nine, listen. Learn to use effective listening skills to help identify how your people are dealing with the change emotionally. Listening to others helps you gain clarification on issues associated with the change while modeling the preferred behavior. Ten, collaborate. Involve others in the beginning stages of a change initiative. Showing concern and considering your people's ideas helps you gain their commitment to the change. Critical thinking. If the decision is critical and you have the time, consider using system two, reflective thinking, in order to arrive at a decision. That way, you can reduce the chance that you make a reactive decision that might do more harm than good. Air Force core value, excellence in all we do. The virtue of discipline states you must commit to a life of discipline and self-control, demonstrating it in your attitude, work ethic, and effort. The ability to adapt to your people's various emotions is important when managing change. As they experience the transition, you may see your people displaying emotional reactions. You'll learn more about these later in the chapter. However, instead of ignoring them or taking a harsh position, you should use a supportive attitude using the actions above to address them. Doing so helps create a more inclusive environment and can help your people adjust to the change with less apprehension. Dispositional flexibility. Adaptable leaders with dispositional flexibility are optimistic about change, support others through change, balance uncertainty with a positive attitude, and are aware of their own preferences and tendencies related to change. Leaders who display dispositional flexibility operate from a place of optimism grounded in realism and openness. They can acknowledge a bad situation while simultaneously visualizing a better future, despite the difficulties and challenges, and see change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Increasing your level of dispositional flexibility can help you see change as something positive that can make your mission and subordinates more effective. To develop dispositional flexibility, you should, 1. Be genuine. Leading change by example requires honesty and authenticity. Understand your own reactions to change so you can be straightforward with others. 2. Immerse yourself. Jump right in to meet the people involved with the change and learn all you can about the upcoming transition. 3. Accept change as positive. Look for the benefits of change for yourself, peers, subordinates, and organization. 4. Adapt your plans. Be prepared to shift plans based on unexpected or unplanned changes during the transition to a new norm. 5. Cast a wide net. Involve key people in the design and implementation of change. This requires building good networks and relationships. 6. Rehearse. Take the time to practice new skills and behaviors to help make them familiar. The more you rehearse and practice, the quicker the change can become a part of the new norm in your organization. 7. Be a mentor or coach. These relationships allow you to guide individuals in how to meet expectations and may provide opportunities to assist those that may be resistant. 8. Pay attention to life beyond work. Shifting between work and family as well as other personal interests requires you to be adaptable. Attend to work and life issues and encourage your people to do the same. 9. Seek feedback. To balance your perspective, seek feedback positive and negative from a variety of sources both up and down the chain of command in your organization as well as peers in other organizations. AFI 36-2618 states you should use your own experiences and knowledge to mentor others. As a senior leader, your attitude towards change can be contagious. Your people are looking at you following your lead. If you display a pessimistic disposition towards the change, your people might too. However, you shouldn't be overly optimistic about it either. They may see right through that. Exhibiting behaviors from either extreme end of the scale, pessimistic or optimistic, could result in a failed change effort. Additionally, it could also negatively impact your credibility as a leader as well. Just try to be as honest as possible about the change and use the techniques above when needed. This should help them process the change in a more authentic way. Cognitive, emotional and dispositional flexibility are important skills you should develop and encourage in your people in order to be truly adaptable. They represent a balance of thought, emotion and optimism that can be useful when managing change. Failing to develop these elements and encourage them in your people could impact the successfulness of your change effort and may increase resistance along the way. Change is ever-present and often occurs quickly. For leaders, the implications are both personal and organizational and the consequences of not adapting to change can be severe. By learning to develop your cognitive, emotional and dispositional flexibilities, you should be more effective for yourself, your people and your organization. The key then is to embrace change and use it as an opportunity to grow and learn. The more positive experiences you have with change, the more you become comfortable with and skilled at adaptability. This in turn can help you lead change more effectively in your organization, especially when faced with resistance as you attempt to institute the change. Leadership is the ability to see what no one else sees, to listen when others talk and be optimistic when others are pessimistic. George Cummings. Resistance to change. It's been said the only thing constant in the world today is change. In the Air Force, dealing with resistance to change can be one of the toughest jobs you have as a senior NCO. Not only are you held accountable for getting yourself through a change effort, as a change agent you're also responsible for leading your people through change as well. Your success in implementing and leading your people through change hinges on your ability to address the reactions your people might have towards the change. How your people react to change emotionally and cognitively can either enhance or hinder your change effort. In this section you'll learn how you can enhance your ability to minimize resistance to change by addressing your people's reactions to the change. You'll start by briefly covering two theories that explain some of the common reactions people have when change happens. Then you'll go over how you can minimize resistance to change by first recognizing that resistance is normal but is something you must work to reduce. At the end of this section you'll be provided with tips you can use to help minimize resistance in your organization. To minimize resistance to change you first need to understand why people react the way they do when presented with a change. Reactions to change. If you were to go to the internet and search for change management you'll find many articles and websites dedicated to helping managers and leaders address change management in their organizations. However one of the things you might discover is many of these articles and websites give advice based on the work of two experts in their fields of study. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Klaus Janssen. Let's start with Kubler-Ross. Kubler-Ross. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a psychiatrist that specialized in a study of how people handle death, grief and loss, developed a five-stage model, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance to help explain the reactions some people might experience. Although this model was originally intended to address grief and loss for some people change can also be viewed in the same way depending on what is changing. For example if your organization is downsizing this can be seen as a loss for some or if your unit experiences a major shift in organization where people are uprooted from their current positions and moved to new positions this could also cause a period of grief and loss as well. Your people might react to major change or potential loss in the following ways. Denial. In this stage your people might initially attempt to deny the change. They might say things like I can't believe this is happening or leadership will never buy off on this change. Psychologically this stage can be positive in that it gives your people time to let the change sink in. However you don't want them to stay in this stage. Anger. Once the initial shock of the change sets in some of your people might experience anger. Have you ever heard your people say this isn't what I signed up for when faced with a major change. Your people might start picking apart the details of the change attempting to find reasons why the change won't work. As a leader your first reaction to this stage might be to respond in a harsh way. Just remember your people are human beings and that this is a normal reaction to dealing with major change. However you should expect and require your people to express this reaction in a professional way. Later in this section you'll learn how you can help people get through this stage. Bargaining. In this stage your people might attempt to put off the change or find ways to not implement the change. They may recommend alternatives to the change something they may find more comfortable implementing or try to put off implementing the change until the time is right. For example if attempting to implement an organizational change that adjusts everyone's duty hours your NCOICs might counter with ways to keep the same duty hours while making changes in other areas. While this isn't necessarily a negative thing if your role in the change is that of a change agent bargaining can delay the implementation of the change. Depression. When your people realize their alternative plans won't work or they can't derail the change depression sinks in. Remember change can be viewed as a loss by some. This loss can be felt internally loss of stability or comfort or externally loss of the normal way of doing things. Signs of depression in your organization might manifest in ways such as a decrease in motivation from those that are normally motivated or a decrease in unit and work center productivity. They may make statements like why should I work hard now? Things are just going to change anyway. Acceptance. As your people realize the organizational change is going to happen they should move into the stage of acceptance. Since they now understand the change is inevitable this could turn out to be a very creative and productive stage. They may start to come up with ways to make the implementation of the change less painful. You might also find that your support base starts to grow as people say things like well since we can't do anything about it let's try to make sure the change is at least successful. As a supervisor and leader this could be a good time to encourage and support your people and their ideas. It's important to note that not all of your people will be in the same stage at the same time. Some of your more innovative people might get to the acceptance stage faster than some of your more adaptive people and this is okay. Additionally according to Kubler-Ross people can cycle through these stages or regress to previous stages. In a situation involving change this could occur based on the introduction of new information or changes to the change. That's why it's vital you keep the communication flowing up and down the chain of command as much as possible. If you understand these are normal reactions people have to change you can prepare yourself to address them as your people experience them which may lead to less resistance to the change itself. Another popular theory that explains how people react to change which was based in part on Kubler-Ross's theory is Janssen's model of change. AFI 36-2618 states you should take an active leadership and supervisory role by staying involved with subordinates on a daily basis. You should also assist subordinates in reaching their full potential. Klaus Janssen According to Marvin Weissbord Janssen, a social psychologist developed a tool for visualizing how people experience change. Janssen's model is based on the perceptions, feelings, or aspirations triggered by external change. Weissbord states that Janssen's model represents cyclical phases not unlike the process of death and dying which is captured in Kubler-Ross's model. Janssen's model consists of the following phases contentment, denial, confusion, and renewal. Contentment In this phase, people are satisfied with the status quo and are calm and comfortable with how things are. Productivity in your organization should be high as the norms are being maintained. Like a well-oiled machine, everything is running smoothly and the mission is being accomplished. At this point, your job as a senior NCO and leader should be focused on grooming and growing your people as well as ensuring that standards are being maintained. You can groom and grow your people by ensuring expectations and standards are communicated and understood at all levels in the way intended and by ensuring that training is occurring. You should conduct periodic checks of your people's training records and make yourself available to answer questions and provide feedback. You should also consider assessing training by conducting no-notice evaluations and observations of your people using the current procedures. Another thing you can do to help your people perform to the best of their abilities is to provide recognition to those that are excelling in your duties. You should ensure your recognition program is fair and equitable and your people will be consistent in your submissions. And finally, don't micromanage or micro-supervise. Do the expert to ensure things aren't done improperly. How long will you should ensure there's room for learning opportunities? People learn from their mistakes. By effectively leading your people in this phase, your organization should be operating as a synergistic team. However, once an organization changes introduced, your people might move into the next phase. Denial. Denial. As the changes introduced, your people might go through a period of denial. They might deny the change is coming, even to the point where they might not believe leadership will execute the change or follow through with it. In this phase, you might encounter emotional reactions from the people, such as anger or fear because they may be unaware of the details of the change or simply afraid of the uncertainty the change may cause. If you're faced with these emotions, you should understand the abnormal reactions people experience when they are pushed outside the comfort zone. They experienced incontentment phase. Because of the reactions your people might experience in this phase, your organization's productivity might drop to a low level depending on the type of change being introduced. By exhibiting emotional flexibility, you can help others navigate through the denial phase by listening to their concerns, providing feedback and addressing issues that may be preventing them from moving forward and finding ways to motivate those that might be in denial or resistant to the change. In this phase, it's very important for you to conduct an assessment to see where your people are concerning the change and how they're reacting to it. Each will have his or her own perception about the situation. Whether you realize it or not, the people around you may begin to feel threatened, stressed out, worried, or may begin to lose trust in you and or the organization. Assessing your people can help you focus on your future decision-making strategies and plans. During this time, your interpersonal skills, as well as your technical skills, should aid you significantly in helping others through the change process and the reactions normally seen in this phase. As stated earlier in this chapter, your senior NCO responsibilities include leading and managing teams, translating leaders' directions into specific tasks and responsibilities your team understands and executes, helping leaders make informed decisions, studying decisions to understand goals, and promoting a culture of adaptable airmen, acting on the ground, acting on these responsibilities should reduce the time you spend in the denial phase. Simply put, you can be in this phase internally or mentally for as long as you feel as necessary. However, externally, you must do everything you can to lead others through this phase with a tone of confidence and forward-looking optimism. The integrity-first virtue of accountability states you must maintain transparency and seek honest, constructive feedback. Fortunately, there are a few interpersonal skills you can apply to help you better understand those in the denial phase and help them work through their concerns to get them to confusion or renewal. According to Weissbord, you can, one, share information. You should be honest with your people about the change by providing them with as much background information as you can. The more your people know about the change, the easier it might be to usher them out of the denial phase. This should be a face-to-face communication exchange with you explaining what you know about the change while giving your people the opportunity to ask questions about it. Attempt to share information about the change as often as you can. This can help bring back the trust that might have been lost at the beginning of this phase. Two, welcome input. Work on creating an organizational environment where input is welcome. Using effective, appropriate, and positive interpersonal skills, you can encourage others to open up and express their concerns about the change. By being open to your people's input, you might find that they see holes in the change plan that you, or senior leadership, don't see. Transformational leadership. Individual motivation. To help you move your people past the denial phase, you should attempt to paint an optimistic and enthusiastic picture of the future in order to motivate and inspire your people to achieve the goal. When dealing with those in the denial phase, you should always treat them with respect. Listen to their concerns without judgment and show them that you appreciate their input. You can also rely on your interpersonal skills to help you answer any questions they may have and address any issues or concerns they bring to you. Hopefully, by being open and honest when sharing information with them and by welcoming and respecting their input, you can help them leave the denial phase and move on to the confusion phase. The service before self virtue of respect states you must treat others with dignity, that all airmen possess worth as human beings. Confusion. In this phase, your people are starting to accept the change is going to happen. However, they might be a little scattered and unsure as to what to do next. They might be trying to understand how they fit into the new change and what the new standards and expectations will be. Depending on the type of change being implemented, they could experience a bit of depression and anger due to the loss of the old way of doing things. Longing for the comfort they experienced in the contentment phase where everything was comfortable. To help those in this phase, you could use your connection power to find out as much information as you can to help fill any gaps in what's known about the change. You may have provided enough information to get others out of the denial phase, but now more detailed information is needed so you and the others can begin to form a picture of the new state. Now that some, if not everyone, has moved out of the denial phase into the confusion phase, you should rely on your observations and conversations to determine who the adapters and innovators are. Remember AI theory? Who the creators, advances, refiners, and executors are? Remember team building? You can use these people to help reduce confusion and create some excitement and energy concerning the change. This is also when the change supporters and those with constructive action ideas can get with those still having difficulty or those who don't know what to do to assist in reducing the confusion. Due to this interaction, you might see positive changes in productivity as people attempt to accept their role and responsibility in the change. You should also set and explain short-term goals. Setting short-term goals may break up the change into manageable parts, making the change seem easier to execute. Focusing your efforts here sets the foundation for commitment to core tasks and activities brought about by the change. This is where your knowledge of others could assist you in determining who may help you in carrying the change forward. Getting others by and now can assist you as your people transition into the renewal phase. Renewal. In the renewal phase, try to display the essential intellectual trait of confidence in reason as the change gains momentum. Encourage your people to develop ideas on their own while having faith in their ability to do so. In this phase, the change effort has gained momentum. A new sense of energy and commitment may be displayed toward the change. At this point, emotionally, your people should be ready to help out. The exciting part about this phase is people start to develop ideas to help carry the change forward. Let them brainstorm, but keep them focused. Give people enough structure so they can build in the new environment or implement the change as a unit. As the senior leader, you should spend time offering to help where your skills are needed. Make yourself available as a coach, mentor, mediator, and flexor. A lot of your positive energy should be centered on the future. Committed leadership and energized people can make the change happen successfully. Why sport's notion of enacting dignity, meaning, and community can help you down the path of being the most effective, appropriate, and positive change leader possible. With a thorough understanding of the reactions your people experience when they go through change, you can help push them through the chaos and lead them back to a contentment state of maintenance, operating like the well-oiled machine they were, but with the new norms established as a result of the change. Productivity should be high once again and everyone should settle into a comfortable zone just like before the change was introduced. Before moving on, it's important you understand a few key items about this model. First, like Kubler-Ross's model, not all people in your organization will be in the same phase at the same time. This may require you to offer different types of support and handle different types of emotional reactions throughout the introduction and implementation of the change. It's vital for you to remain adaptable using an encouraging emotional, cognitive, and dispositional flexibility throughout this process. The excellence in all we do virtue of mission states the complex undertaking of the Air Force mission requires us to harness the ingenuity, expertise, and elbow grease of all airmen. Encourage continuous improvement and innovation in renewal. Next, you should understand that it's possible for your people to regress to a previous phase depending on your level of involvement with them or based on the change itself. For example, your people could be moving out of denial into confusion, but if you aren't providing enough information or if they feel as if you might be withholding information, they may regress back into denial. Or if they are moving into renewal but there's a change to the change introduced, they could regress back to the confusion or even the denial phase. Using Kubler-Ross's and Janssen's model as a way to understand the psychological and behavioral processes at work during change should allow you to act with greater power and precision in leading effective lasting change. If you know what your people are experiencing when a new change is being implemented, you can help them through their reactive ups and downs of the change process by providing information, structure and support. People react to change in many different ways. How they react may result in resistance to the change effort. However, how you address these reactions as a senior NCO and change agent can determine how much resistance you might face. Abraham Maslow, a psychologist credited with creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, once said, if you only have a hammer you tend to see every problem as a nail. As you progress through the change process and deal with your people's reactions, you shouldn't view reactions to change as a nail to be hammered. Instead, you should understand that seemingly negative reactions, fear, anger, denial, depression, etc. to change our normal parts of being a human being. Once you understand this, you can use other tools to address the reactions with a sense of dignity and community, hopefully reducing the amount of resistance you may face. By dealing with change in this way, you can create and maintain a productive organization. Transformational leadership, individual consideration. As your people transition from the old norms to the new norms, you should understand that each person won't respond in the same way. Your people have different needs and abilities. Try to empathize and support them as they transition. By providing guidance and support as your people react to change, you can address potential issues early in the change effort. However, if the reactions turn into resistance, you must work to minimize it in order to keep the change moving forward. Minimizing resistance to change. Active resistance includes finding fault, ridiculing, and appealing to fear and manipulating. Passive resistance includes agreeing verbally but not following through, feigning ignorance, and withholding information. Albert Bolognese. Resistance to change is a normal part of the change process. Some might say that as a change agent, you'll always be faced with some level of resistance, whether it's active or passive. However, it might seem unrealistic to walk around your organization telling people that resistance is futile. That action alone could cause a negative reaction and increase the level of resistance. Dealing with your people's reactions to change is something you can have an impact on. By addressing the reactions, you can quite possibly reduce the amount of resistance you may face. Although there's no secret formula to eliminate resistance, you can start by one, recognizing resistance, and two, learning a few tips to help you reduce it. Recognize that resistance is normal. In an article titled Employee Resistance to Organizational Change, Albert Bolognese explains that if senior leaders don't understand, accept, and make an effort to work with resistance, it can have a negative impact on even the most well-intentioned, well-thought-out change effort. He also states that as a senior leader in your organization, it's your responsibility to create and maintain a climate that minimizes resistance behavior, reactions, and encourages acceptance and support. AFI 36-2618 states you should 1. Study senior leadership decisions to understand their rationale and goals. 2. Translate leaders' direction into specific tasks and responsibilities their teams can understand and execute. Positive resistance As stated previously, resistance to change is a normal part of the change process. However, when we hear or read the word resistance, we tend to automatically think of it as something negative. But that's not always the case. Resistance can be useful. According to Bolognese, insightful and well-intended debate, criticism or disagreement doesn't necessarily equate to negative resistance, but rather may be intended to produce a better understanding of the change as well as additional options and solutions. Resistance to change can cause the change agent to slow the process down and take more comprehensive look at the change plan. Maybe there is a part of the plan that needs more work, or maybe there was a detail in the plan that was overlooked. When faced with resistance, you should take a step back, analyze the reactions your people are exhibiting, why they are resisting, and critically think about the way forward. Once you understand that, you respond with effective actions to help minimize that resistance. Tips to minimize resistance In order to minimize resistance, you can use the following. Use and encourage cognitive, emotional and dispositional flexibility. When faced with organizational change, you want your people to be able to adapt as quickly as possible. Connect with your people by providing as much feedback as possible. You should also get out and see what's going on, what your people are dealing with, using your own eyes. Finally, collaborate with your people as early in the change process as possible, help them identify with and create a sense of ownership during the implementation of the change. Know why the change is necessary. How can you effectively lead the change effort if you don't know why your organization has to change in the first place? When it comes to change at the organizational level, people will look to you for answers. So do your homework, educate yourself about the need for change. The idea that anyone who questions the need for change has an attitude problem is simply wrong, not only because it discounts past achievements, but also because it makes us vulnerable to indiscriminate and ill-advised change. Peter de Jagger If your people are stuck in the denial phase, you can use management by exception active MBEA a leadership behavior that involves exercising more control over your people to ensure standards and expectations are met. Or use contingent reward, a leader behavior that involves providing rewards, positive reinforcement when the standards are met in order to help increase motivation. Communicate before, during and after the change. You should always keep your people aware of what's going on with the change. You may be privy to information they don't have or sit in meetings they don't attend. When you learn something new about the change, pass it on. Remember, earlier it was stated the amount of communication shared can have an impact on the amount of trust your people have in you during this challenging time. Allow time for the change to sink in. Let's face it, not everyone is going to get on board with every change when it's first announced. Communicate with your people early enough so they have time to let the change to sink in. This gives them a chance to think about how the change will impact them professionally and or personally or even write down some questions to ask when the time arises. Additionally, giving your people time to digest the change may help them progress through the denial and confusion phases faster. Offer to help those that might be struggling with the change. Be a hands-on, visible leader. Even though you may have NCOs under you that interact with the airmen on a daily basis, they all need to see that as a senior leader in your organization, you're willing to roll up your sleeves and jump in the trenches to help all your people having difficulty understanding or implementing the change. This shows them you're not only committed to the change, but more importantly, you're committed to them. Be the change you want to see. Let your people see you walking the talk as it relates to the change. They should see you're motivated to make the change work and you have a positive helpful attitude about the change itself. If the change involved implementing new procedures, let your people see you following them. This might require you to do a little self-reflection as to where you stand internally about the change. However, remember that in order to be considered an adaptable leader, you should practice dispositional flexibility, seeing opportunity for growth and success, even in a difficult and challenging situation. Encourage proactive instead of reactive responses. As your people go through the process of implementing the organizational change, listen for and encourage proactive responses from them while addressing the reactive ones using your leadership toolbox. Here are some examples of both reactive and proactive responses. This change is terrible or this change is going to be challenging. We have no say in what goes on. We can talk to Master Sergeant Jones if we have a problem. We have to protect what we've been doing. It's working, right? Or the change is different from what we've been doing. It might take some time to get used to. Leadership never listens to us. Or let's share our ideas with Master Sergeant Jones. There's a fault in the plan. Leadership needs to do something about it. Or there's a fault in the plan. Let's show our leadership that we're creative problem solvers. If you find that you're hearing a lot of reactive responses, this may be a warning sign that there is some resistance to the change and your people might be stuck in the denial phase or merely exhibiting fear of the change. Although this is natural human behavior, it can have a negative impact. Lower morale, stall the change, etc. if you don't properly deal with it. First, try to address the reactive responses by using emotional and dispositional flexibility. If that doesn't work, you may have to use a more transactional leadership style to get the results you want to see. Resistance to change can stall your change effort if not properly managed. Using your understanding of how people react to change based on the Kubler-Ross and Janssen models, you should be able to identify and address behaviors before they turn into resistance. Communicating important information with your people before during and after the change is just one thing you can do during the transition to help minimize resistance if it does occur. Maybe if you explained the strategic level requirements driving the change, they may become more receptive to your change initiative. Requirements for change Have you ever wondered why change happens so often in the Air Force? How well does your organization adapt during change? What elements either help or hinder your organization during change? Powerful forces have changed the landscape for organizations, particularly over the last several decades. Organizational re-engineering, downsizing, restructuring, mergers, globalization, world conflict, and political influences have impacted change for every level of the Air Force. As a senior NCO, you should understand what drives Air Force level change in order to determine what requirements you must meet to implement the change. The ability to master these skills separates a good leader from an extremely skilled and competent leader. This section focuses on the requirements for change. You'll start by uncovering some of the pressures for change. Here, you'll discover how the environment, demographics, and other sources cause your organization to undergo change. Next, you'll learn how to decide if change is necessary by synthesizing change requirements. With this in mind, let's get started with the pressures for change. Air Force Core Doctrine states that strategic vision requires an awareness of the processes of our government and of the global, regional, and cultural issues surrounding a given mission. Pressures for change. Effective leaders understand that change in the strategic environment is a continuous process. What drives this constant state of change? At its essence, change is about survival. Powerful forces in the environment continuously pressure organizations to change structures, policies, and practices to adapt to the changing world. Organizations that don't adapt or are slow to adapt can lose their competitive advantage, become irrelevant, or cease to exist. In this section, we'll take a look at pressures from the internal environment, external environment, globalization, peace, and demographics. Let's start with the pressure that's closest to you, your organization's internal environment. Internal environment. This pressure for change is driven by what happens in the internal environment, your organization. Within this environment, your organization may have to manage and deploy resources in ways that help attain and maintain optimal mission effectiveness. This may require changes in how you plan and budget for necessary resources, and any additional adaptations you might have to do in order to stay competitive and cost effective. As a result, policies and standard operating procedures, as well as current structures and internal processes, may need to be altered in order to reflect the transitions in your organization. On the surface, you might not think of PCS-ing as something that drives change internally on an organizational level. That's just the nature of the military, right? However, personnel turnover, depending on the role and responsibility of the individual leaving or coming in, could cause a change in leadership philosophy or management style your people will have to adjust to. For example, you may have a new commander that has different priorities or leadership philosophy than the previous one. Or, a new first sergeant that revitalizes programs that have been dormant for a while. These are all examples of pressures for change that happen in the internal environment. External environment. Pressures for organizational change also come from the external environment. Innovations in technology are never-ending. The rifled musket, steam-driven warships, and the jet engine are just a few examples of advances in technology that led to major changes within military environments. More recently, innovations in information technology and the resulting information age put continual pressures on organizations to change. Changes driven by information technology may facilitate structural decentralization. It may be more advantageous to spread out geographically since changes in technology make it easier to stay connected. And downsizing. Since the military can spread further out, the need for large forces or multiple organizations decreases. As a result, power often shifts from centralized functions to operating units. Finally, changes in technology, new systems, software, etc. in your organization could require people to develop new skills in order to continue to perform the mission. Globalization. Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. It is usually driven by international trade and investments aided by information technology. SUNY Levin Institute. With globalization comes greater competition, especially for a workforce quality. Wider differences in the skills, attitudes, and needs of an internationally diverse workforce can cause an increase of communication problems within the organization. Also, geographic dispersion caused by globalization might create conflict between regional offices and central headquarters. For example, a conflict between USPICOM and NATO. Or conflict among regional offices. For example, between USAPICOM and USAFI. Globalization creates the challenge of building cohesion and common purpose in the face of cultural and organizational differences. For change leaders, all of this has made more complex because many of these variables are not under your control. Peace. Peace creates other pressures to change. Peace or increased stability causes in the minds of some people the need to reduce the size of military forces. As a result, the remaining smaller forces must increase their capabilities. For example, when a particular region becomes more stable and the number of forces in that area is reduced, the smaller remaining forces must continue to complete their missions and the missions of those forces that left. Additionally, due to the decrease in military forces, the budgets that supported them can be reduced. This might create friction between the combatant commanders or between the services. Demographics. By practicing the essential intellectual trait of intellectual perseverance, you should start to become comfortable with the frustrations and confusion caused by the pressures for change. You may have a hard time understanding the why behind the change at first. However, you can use the universal intellectual standards of precision to get the most detailed information you can and logic to make sense of it all. Demographic changes in the population can create enormous pressure for change in organizations. Due to demographic diversity friction and conflict may develop. To reduce this conflict, organizations should make structural changes to policies and procedures that guarantee inclusion and equal treatment for all. Additionally, demographic pressure could cause organizations to develop new training programs, educating personnel on the various needs of the diverse workforce. For example, religious beliefs and practices and language differences. Pressure for change never stops. Managing organizational change requires strategic leadership to constantly scan the external environment to determine and even anticipate when the change may be necessary internally. They should be proactive in these endeavors. This could involve, for example, understanding when environmental change necessitates organizational change and when it does not. Making an internal change to accommodate an external change that has already occurred is reactive. For example, let's say you've been following the news and learned Congress has decided to reduce military forces as a way to cut the DOD budget. They've also decided to drastically reduce the number of forces in a particular foreign country your unit largely supports. Your organization provided security and training, but now the country's government is at a point where its people are ready to assume responsibility for their own security. Since you know this reduction will eventually impact your personnel levels, you develop a few plans or vision to address how your unit can continue to complete its mission, current and future, with a reduced number of people. This is an example of being proactive to accommodate an upcoming external change. A well-crafted, well-managed strategic vision can help balance reactive and proactive changes. Understanding the pressures for change can provide insight into why the Air Force changes and how your organization and mission can be impacted. For example, like in the previous scenario, a peace-driven change can have an impact on the number of new personnel arriving in your organization. Reductions might cause you to have to rethink how your unit goes about its daily mission. Changes driven by the external environment could also mean your unit receives new equipment that might require adjustments in training for your people. Finally, your unit could receive a new commander that might have a different leadership philosophy than the previous one. As a senior NCO, it becomes your responsibility to help your people make the transition as seamlessly as possible. If you can understand the pressures for change, the why behind changes that happen to our Air Force and your unit, you can use this information to brainstorm what you need to do to help your organization get through the change effectively and efficiently. Synthesizing Requirements for Change As a senior NCO, you may have little to no control over the ever-changing strategic environment. However, it's your job to adjust as a result of the changes in the strategic environment. Remember, you should be proactive. You can start by assessing the potential change initiative. Assess the Potential Change Initiative When assessing a potential change initiative, you should take a look at what's going on in the external environment and in your unit's internal environment. Has a change in technology resulted in a new process or a new piece of equipment in your unit? Do your people have the right skill set to make the process effective or utilize the new equipment? Next, assess your organization's ability to handle the change. Are there sections in people that can handle the new process or equipment with no adjustment? Are there sections in people that might struggle with the change? Think about what changes you need to make. Consider if there is a way to get those that are ready and can cope together with those that aren't ready and might need a little more help coping with the change. Ask these questions when assessing a potential change initiative. What has changed in the external and internal environments? What parts of my organization can cope with the changes and don't need to change? What parts of my organization can't cope with the changes and need to change? What are the necessary changes you need to make? Making the change happen. Once you've assessed the parts of your organization that can or can't cope, then you need to start processing the change itself and decide what you need to make it happen. You can use the next series of questions to help you figure this out. Who do you need to tell? This may include informing your unit's leadership about potential pitfalls or explaining to your people how the change might impact them. Who can you get to help you make the changes? You should think about organizing a group of people with the skillset you need in order to get the change moving. In the case of a technological change, this might be people in your unit or even outside your unit with experience in operating the new equipment. In the case of a process change, this could be peers that have had to put the new process in place in their units. How should you go about making the changes? Once your group is organized with the right people, start brainstorming how you might go about making the changes. You might consider putting together a change plan that takes into account all the people and processes that will be impacted as well as proposed timelines. How will you know if you have effectively implemented the right changes? You should also include in your plan metrics that should let you know if the change was right for your unit and if it was implemented effectively. What are the opportunity costs of making or not making the changes? Another item you should add to your change plan is the opportunity costs of the change. You can use a tool called the SWOT analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to help you figure this out. The SWOT can help you identify opportunities the change window will allow your organization to take advantage of as well as potential strengths, weaknesses, and threats. You'll learn more about the SWOT analysis in the continuous improvement chapter. What resources will you need? Your group should discuss if the change will require additional resources such as money, time, facilities, etc. If this is the case, you should estimate this cost in your plan. AFI 36-2618 states you should ensure money, facilities, and other resources are utilized in an effective and efficient manner and in the best interest of the Air Force. What are the personnel costs of the change? The biggest resource, people, should be considered separately since this might be the hardest resource to manage. Will the change require more people? Will it require them to work more hours? What will be the potential impact of the change on your people? You can use the universal intellectual standards of clarity to ensure you understand the requirements needed for the change, as well as breadth to ensure every relevant point of view has been considered. By asking these essential questions to synthesize change requirements, you can accomplish two goals. First, the answers should help determine if the change is actually necessary. And second, if the change is necessary, the answers should provide valuable input for developing a change implementation plan. Failing to synthesize change requirements could lead to the wrong people being put in the wrong positions, poor planning, lack of direction, lack of leadership, and ultimately, a failed change effort. At this point, you should now have an understanding of the requirements that drive change both inside and outside your organization and even the Air Force. While you may not have any control regarding these strategic level changes, you can impact how they are implemented. You've been provided information to help you assess whether or not your organization has the capability to implement the change, along with questions you can use to determine what needs to happen in order to make the implementation successful. To manage change effectively, you should understand the requirements that impact change in your unit and the Air Force. You can use this understanding to help your organization adapt to the change quicker and even lead your people through the transition more effectively. Leading organizational change Strategic management of change is all about identifying and embedding in the organization those changes that will ensure the long-term survival of the organization. In order to do this, there are a few theories that if appropriately applied can help you lead your organization through the change effort. In this section, you'll receive a brief overview of Roger's Diffusion of Innovations Theory and Lewin's Phases of Change. Then you'll discover how the concepts in this chapter when applied to these theories can help you lead change more effectively. Roger's Diffusion of Innovations Theory According to Cynthia Scott, author of Managing Change at Work, when 5% of the people in a group adopt a change, it becomes embedded. It has started to grow roots within the organization. When 20% adopt it, that change is unstoppable. To push change to an unstoppable level, it's important to understand how people adopt change. Have you noticed that some people in your organization are always willing to try anything new? They look forward to change, while it takes more convincing to get others to adopt the change. Everett Rogers, a sociologist, communication scholar, and writer, popularized a theory called the Diffusion of Innovations, which he says explains how, why, and at what rate new innovative ideas are adopted. Rogers identified 5 categories of adopters that are based on how quickly a person adopts new ideas. Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Innovators are those individuals in your organization that see potential and operational potential and opportunity in almost any situation. This small population of your people is willing to adopt the change the fastest, maybe because they are likely to be more adventurous than the others, or maybe because they enjoy being on the cutting edge of innovation. Innovators imagine the possibilities and will be eager to give the change a try. For example, when an electronics company first announces they are going to put out a new product, let's say a new smartphone, innovators are going to be those people that get really excited about the phone before it is even in stores. They are going to pre-order it. They will be the people camping out at the stores, hoping to be among the first to purchase the new product. They don't care if the product has proven itself to be stable and reliable. They just want to be the first to have it. Innovators can be useful in your organization. You don't have to do much to get these people on board with the change early since they are not hard to convince. As a result, they can make it easy to get started on that 5% of people you need, according to Scott, to embed the change in the organization. Early adopters are usually your social and opinion leaders, unlike the innovators. They should be able to see the advantage in adopting the new ideas early on in the change process. Although they still represent a small portion of your population, but a bit more than your innovator group, they're comfortable with adopting new, well thought out ideas. However, unlike the innovators that are going to jump in feet first to appeal to early adopters, you need to provide them with information about the change. If you have it early on in the change process, provide the change plan or other strategies and information on the change implementation. Some of the information might even come from the innovators based on their feet first experience. Since early adopters are respected in their organization, they're going to make judicious decisions about the change, because others are looking to them for advice and guidance. So, by focusing your efforts on the early adopters, or social and opinion leaders, you have a better chance of getting the change moving. In the example of the electronics company and the new smartphone, the early adopters will read reviews from people already using it, the innovators. Before they purchase the product, they might download the product manual or even compare it to another product before purchasing it. They might go to the store that sells the product and try it out, ask some questions before deciding to buy it. This group doesn't just buy it because it's the latest and greatest thing, like the innovators. They buy it because they can see its potential to be useful. Innovators and early adopters adopt new ideas quickly, but make up a small percentage of your organization. However, they'll have a huge impact on the next group that when they come on board with the change will make it unstoppable, the early majority. The early majority provide an important link in the change process because they tend to represent mainstream thinking. If you can tap into the early majority group, you can get a feel for how people are feeling and reacting to the change. These are the people that are going to sit back to see how the change is going to work first. They're waiting to see what the trusted and respected opinion leaders, early adopters, are going to do since they're only going to get on board once they know the change has a chance for success. The early majority might want to see a few short-term goals accomplished before they get on board. Look at it this way. They won't be one of the first to adopt the change, but they won't be the last either. Continuing with the example of the electronics company and the new smartphone, the early majority is going to wait until the innovators and early adopters identify problems and bugs in the new product and give the company the chance to work them out first. Once they are sure the product is good, they will go make the purchase. They might also see someone they respect with the new phone thinking, well, if Chief Smith has it, it must be good. I think I will buy one too. In the change process, once this group gets on board with the change, it's already at a point where it's unstoppable. However, since they do represent typically what a large percent of your people are thinking, you still need to focus some effort here to ensure they stay on board with the change. Share some success stories of the change. Maybe, depending on the change, you could provide some testimony from peers at other bases where the change was implemented successfully. Or if you've been tracking metrics on the change, show them what the numbers say about the change's success. The late majority is the other large part of your population. However, unlike the early majority, this group tends to be more skeptical of the change. They might not adopt the change until the early majority has adopted it, maybe even after feeling the weight of peer pressure from the early majority. In the case of the new smartphone, the late majority might not get on board with the change until they see the average person using it. Have you ever heard someone say, geez, when are you going to trade in your old flip phone? If you've been the one to say this to someone, you might have had to show the person how the smartphone works, what it helps you do, how it has made your life easier. If the late majority experiences this enough, along with a little light-hearted peer pressure, they will go out and upgrade to the smartphone. Those in the early majority and late majority categories are slower to adopt change, but make up the largest percentage of the population. Laggards, on the other hand, are the last population and the slowest to adopt a change. Laggards tend to be very traditional in their views. They might be the ones that say, we've always done it this way. This way works. We don't need to change. Laggards may be less educated and or uninformed about the change, which tends to make them more closed-minded and afraid of moving to a new norm. They're content with what they have and may only adopt something new because they feel they have to. This group tends to be suspicious of change and sometimes even the change agent. They must be absolutely certain that a change won't fail before they get on board. In the phone example, Laggards are going to hold onto their flip phones because it works. They're comfortable with it. It does what they need it to do. There's no reason to change. However, when their flip phone breaks and they can't replace it with another one, they will change to the smartphone, reluctantly. They may even come to someone in the early groups to ask for help on how to use it. On the surface, it might seem like the Laggards want to stall your change effort. However, try using the universal intellectual standard of fairness to ensure you've considered their viewpoint even though it's different from your own and to ensure you aren't biased to their perspective concerning the change. By using your understanding of the diffusion of innovations theory, you can identify those individuals that can help you get the change started in your organization, the opinion leaders that can sway more people to get on board with the change, and finally, those individuals that might need a little more information in order to buy off on your change effort. Another theory that can help you succeed in your change effort is Luen's phases of change. Luen's phases of change, unfreezing, changing, refreezing. You may recall from the NCO Academy that Kurt Luen described change as a process of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. Here's a quick review. Unfreezing. This phase is intended to motivate your subordinates and help get them ready for change. Unfreezing involves, one, creating a felt need for change. Two, dealing with possible resistance to the change by developing an implementation plan, if you haven't done it prior to unfreezing, using effective communication skills, and actively seeking buy-in for the change. Changing. This phase includes the movement from the old way of doing business to the new way. Changing involves the actual modifications to technology, tasks, structures, or people. The change phase involves, one, monitoring progress. Two, adjusting the plan as necessary. Refreezing. This phase involves the locking in, or refreezing, of the new processes and procedures until they are a permanent part of daily operations. Refreezing involves, one, observing subordinates and evaluating the results of change. Two, ensuring new procedures are documented. Three, rewarding and recognizing individuals who have adapted. Four, reinforcing benefits of change with resistors. These phases can give you better insight into what you need to do in order to get your people from the current status quo to successfully adopting and adapting to the new state. But let's take your understanding of these phases, the diffusion of innovations theory, adaptability, and resistance to change up a notch. In totality, you can use these concepts to effectively lead and manage change in your organization. However, before you start, you should do a little preparation first. You need to determine if you're ready and if your organization is ready before you start the change process. Preparation. Are you ready for the change? When preparing for the change, you first need to determine if you're ready for it. To start, you could tap into your cognitive flexibility. You should be curious about what's going on and collecting data before the change begins. You should also get out from behind your desk and get your people's perspective on how things currently are. Once you have a baseline of the current state, you can better assess what needs to be done in order to transition to the new state. As a cognitively flexible senior NCO, based on the information you've gathered, you should also have multiple plans to address problems that might occur before, during, and after the transition. Additionally, in order to get ready for the change, you could also use the universal intellectual standards and reasoning elements associated with critical thinking to help you get a better idea of what's driving the change. Here are some examples. The intellectual standard of clarity can help ensure you have a clear understanding of what's changing and what your responsibilities are in the change process. If you don't, you can make mistakes during the actual change process due to misunderstandings. The reasoning element of purpose can be used to figure out what's your goal or objective should be. This should help you create an initial roadmap of the transition to the new norms. The intellectual standard of depth can help you find answers to questions that address the complexities or multiple layers of the change. As you probably know, not all problems or situations are one-dimensional. During the change process, you need to be aware of all the details that could possibly derail your change effort further down the line. Applying depth to the reasoning element of information can help you figure out if you have enough data to explain the change to others. When you initially announce the change to your people, they most likely will have questions. You should make sure you're as prepared as possible to answer them. The intellectual standard of fairness should be used effectively when considering the reasoning element of point of view, looking at the change from the perspective of all that might be impacted by it. Otherwise, you can make a decision that doesn't account for an important perspective. This mistake might stall your change effort later down the road. Is your organization ready for the change? Next, you should determine if your organization is ready for the change by looking at the requirements and your people's abilities. Then you should develop a change plan. Requirements for change If possible, try to find out what pressure is driving the change at the strategic level. For example, is it a peace-driven change or a change-driven by globalization? Understanding the change driver can help you see why the change is necessary so you can be prepared to explain to your people why it's needed later in the change process. Readiness and Expertise Once you know what's driving the change, you should figure out if you have access to the experience needed to make the change happen. For example, perform an assessment of where your people are at. Determine if they have the ability and or capability to operate in the new state. Find out if your people have the right skills now or the potential to develop the skills necessary for the change. Also, you need to know which sections in the organization are ready and which ones aren't. One solution you could use to address any gaps in skill proficiency is to use those that are ready to help those that aren't. Develop a Change Plan If you determine the readiness of your organization and people, you should develop your Change Plan. It should include answers to important questions that might help you organize and execute the change. These questions can help you identify your requirements to see where you might need support from others, what type of metrics you're going to use to assess the change as it's being implemented. And help you determine what type of resources you might need in order to make the change successful. Preparing yourself for the change can help you set the foundation for a more effective change implementation. There's one final thing you should do before you start the change process. Proceed with caution. Currently, your people should be in a state of contentment. Everything is running smoothly, like a well-oiled machine. Your people are most likely comfortable with their roles and responsibilities, as well as the current norms. But you're about to throw a wrench in their machine, so get ready. Now it's time to start the change process. However, you can use the concepts from this chapter to help make this process more effective. It might seem as if leading and managing your people through a change effort is a lot of hard work, and it is. However, if you prepare for the transition, rely on the concepts from this chapter and your leadership toolbox, as well as monitor your people and the change, your actions should ensure the movement from old norms to new norms is as effective as possible. Hopefully, you can now see how all the concepts in this chapter come together to help you deal with the ups and downs of organizational change. It's important that you remember transitioning from old norms to new norms can be a fragile process. Your people shouldn't have to go through it alone. Therefore, you should be as visible, helpful, and supportive as possible. Lewin's phases of change provide a structured approach to help you move your people through the change effort. You can make the journey more effective and less stressful for everyone if you consider how your people react to change emotionally and psychologically as well as the difference in the rate at which they adopt change. Some people don't jump on board with change right away. By using the concepts in this chapter and other tools in your leadership toolbox, you can work to put out fires and keep everyone and the change effort on track. The results of this change journey can have an impact on your effectiveness as well as the effectiveness of your people and mission. Impact of change management Much has been written about the nature of change and the best method to manage it. You now have a better understanding of change management concepts so what's most likely to happen if you apply them? Why should you use them? How have leaders around you apply them? As you read the following material, you should ponder how you can enhance your success by employing change management techniques. Subordinate effectiveness Institutional competency Managing organizations and resources Change management You should apply influential skills to address change resistance. Additionally, you should help individuals overcome resistance to change. According to AFI 36-2618 the enlisted force structure paragraph 5.1.11 you should promote a culture of airmen capable of adapting to evolving Air Force requirements throughout a career. Every change even organizational change presents an opportunity for you to model and encourage your people to be more adaptable. Adaptability can impact your people's effectiveness in several ways. Their effectiveness may be hindered if you don't employ adaptability. This is especially true with emotional flexibility. Leaders who don't possess emotional flexibility are dismissive of others' concerns and emotions. This could cause your people to feel as if they aren't an important part of the change and disconnect from it. If this happens, your change effort could become more directive in nature and cause a reduction in input into the process or maybe even a decline in their morale. However, leaders who work on their emotional flexibility deal effectively with their people's emotions and concerns in order to move the change effort forward. Leaders that show concern for their people's emotions can help them feel like their issues and concerns are important. That way, if their concerns are addressed they can focus better on the change effort. Additionally, if you collaborate with your people during the transition you can help them develop the experience they might need to lead change in the future while also creating buy-in for the change effort. These actions should increase their effectiveness. Leaders that don't address their people's reactions to change will most likely hinder their effectiveness. Reactions can turn into resistance and resistance can stall the change effort. They're going to be the ones that will have to adopt the new norms. By not addressing their reactions or by ineffectively addressing them you could negatively impact the trust they have in you and might negatively impact future change efforts. However, understanding how to minimize resistance can help your people become more adaptive and effective. You can use your understanding of reactions to change to help develop an adaptable organization climate capable of responding to evolving conditions and directives. Remember some of the general guidelines from Kubler-Ross and Janssen. First, people react to change differently. Second, it's normal to have reactions such as anger, denial and or confusion during the change process. Treat your people like human beings not nails to be hammered. And finally how you address and deal with resistance can have an impact on how your people execute your change effort. These general guidelines can enhance your subordinates effectiveness. They'll need help moving through the process. Senior NCO effectiveness According to AFI 36-2618 the enlisted force structure paragraph 5.1.1 Senior NCOs are mandated to provide highly effective leadership. A senior NCO's primary purpose is mission accomplishment. They must lead and manage teams while maintaining the highest level of readiness to ensure mission success. In addition, paragraph 5.1.3 states that senior NCOs must translate leaders' directions into specific tasks and responsibilities their teams can understand and execute. Senior NCOs support and explain leaders' decisions. Senior NCOs study the decisions to understand their rationale and goals so they can fully leverage their personal experience and knowledge to more effectively accomplish the mission. Institutional Competency Managing Organizations and Resources Change Management You should synthesize requirements for and implement and assess change efforts utilizing sound approaches to manage and minimize complexity, paradoxes, risks and contradictions and their impact on the change initiative. Over the last two decades, the very nature of the Air Force centers on change as our force and culture have been honed by decades of warfare, austere financial environments and force downsizing. The senior leadership of the Air Force has determined the current time to be an interwar period where historically the U.S. military has prepared for future wars. The only constant for our future is that change is certain and the U.S. Air Force will continue to rely on the senior NCO core to execute those changes to ensure successful mission accomplishment so that we are able to defeat our enemies. Much has been written about the nature of change, the best method to manage it and more importantly the personal characteristics necessary for effectively leading it. From your study of this chapter you should now possess the ability to understand the strategic level pressures that drive change, recognize change when it occurs and apply change management concepts when the opportunities present themselves to A, improve leader effectiveness, B, ensure successful mission accomplishment and C, reinforce effective leadership to those you're charged to lead. Institutional competency, strategic thinking, adaptability. You should analyze self-behavior and quickly and proactively modify behavior to deal effectively with changes. You shouldn't persist with ineffective behaviors. Instead you should manage change and maintain continuity for self and others when mission requirement varies or becomes ambiguous. Situations involving change are undeniably ambiguous. Indeed, ambiguity lies at the root of all stress associated with changing and the subsequent evolution of learning to operate in ways different from the status quo. Using change management concepts can impact your effectiveness as a leader. It may be hindered if you don't strive to be an adaptable leader and see opportunities inherent within change. For example, you probably won't be able to shift your behavior to changing and ambiguous situations if you don't analyze your own reaction to changing conditions first before acting. It's exactly the ability to self-evaluate and adjust accordingly based less on your initial feelings and more on the greater mission needs that are signs of an adaptable leader. Further, your effectiveness should be increased if you continuously strive to be an adaptable leader. Adaptable leaders know themselves and find ways to increase their adaptability. They see the bigger picture and understand their strategic obligations. They employ strategies to translate good intentions into great results. They accept change and shift behavior to accommodate new situations and challenges. Focusing your efforts to be more adaptable should increase your effectiveness. To employ effective strategies and achieve desired mission results, you must also remember how to deal with resistance to change. You can use your understanding of Kubler-Ross's theory and Janssen's model of change to move your organization through the change effort. Also, you can employ the right people, especially innovators, early adopters, and early majority, to help facilitate the change process thereby ensuring effective mission accomplishment. Mission effectiveness Referring again to AFI 36-2618, the enlisted force structure, 5.2.1. Master Sergeant Master Sargents are transitioning from being technical experts and first-line supervisors to leaders of operational competence skilled at merging subordinates' talents, skills, and resources with other teams' functions to most effectively accomplish the mission. They continue to develop their leadership and management skills. This rank carries significantly increased responsibilities and requires a broad technical and managerial perspective. Using change management impacts your mission. Adaptable leaders impact the mission positively because they understand the questions and issues behind concerns and doubts. Often, this can lead to constructive brainstorming and conversations, and it frequently uncovers new approaches and solutions to move the mission forward. Kubler-Ross' theory and Jansen's Model of Change concepts can help you realize that you and others react to change in different ways. This understanding allows you to respond to reactions with greater precision in order to enable effective lasting change. Ultimately, the quality of engagement among those involved in a change should help catapult the use of those concepts to their greatest effect, enhanced mission effectiveness. Effectively managing organizational change is all about being proactive with a strategic plan. Here's a list of several reasons that a solid strategic plan could enhance the mission. People are less likely to revert to old behaviors or methods. Thus, the unit gains better quality and or quantity and cost effectiveness. Future changes will likely be accepted, possibly even embraced by all. Ownership of the change process is shared. Your people should begin to feel as if they are truly valued and play an integral part in the organization. Successful change can encourage your people to research and seek out new and improved ways of doing things. Much has been written about the nature of change and the best method to manage it. Not only do you now have a better understanding of change management concepts, you should also see how change management concepts can help you, your subordinates, and your mission become more effective. Summary This chapter on change management began with an examination of the three elements of adaptability, cognitive flexibility, emotional flexibility, and dispositional flexibility, and practical strategies for improving those skills. Next, the chapter shifted to dealing with resistance to change, which involves addressing the reactions to change your people may have with a sense of dignity and community as they progress through your change effort. Then, you explored the pressures for strategic level change and how they can drive change in your organization. After that, you combine your understanding of the change theories you learned at the NCO Academy with concepts from this lesson to lead your organization through the change more effectively. Finally, you wrapped up the chapter by gaining an understanding of how change management impacts you, your subordinates, and your mission. In today's environment, airmen face change constantly and often are required to respond quickly. For senior leaders, the implications of change are both personal and organizational. The consequences of not adapting to change can be severe. By understanding how change affects people and then using effective methods for managing organizational change, senior NCOs can be better positioned to lead their organizations and ensure successful mission accomplishment. However, effective change management begins with you, how you adapt to change, your level of flexibility when dealing with change, and how you lead your organization through change can determine whether or not the change effort fails or is successful. Key terms. Active resistance, page 14. Adaptability, page 3. Cognitive flexibility, page 4. Dispositional flexibility, page 7. Emotional flexibility, page 5. Janssen's model of change, page 10. Kubler Ross's five-stage model, page 8. Lewin's phases of change, page 23. Passive resistance, page 14. Positive resistance, page 14. Pressures for change, page 16. Roger's diffusion of innovations theory, page 20. Synthesizing requirements for change, page 18.