- Involving individuals in processes of change is the lever for every other transformation in a group and therefore in the organization as a whole.
- Lethargy, complacency, and maintenance of the status quo drive an organization toward accelerated obsolescence and premature aging.
- Stephen Covey’s keys to change include awareness of the need to change, involvement, inner security, legitimization, accountability for results, letting go of old habits, an adventurous openness to the new, an open mindset, synergy, and a transcendent purpose.
- Organizations must stop regulating, policing, controlling, and coercing, and begin instead to provide, guide, and encourage human development.
Lethargy, stagnation, complacency, accommodation, and the maintenance of the status quo with a backward-looking mindset drive an organization toward an accelerated process of obsolescence and premature aging. Certain keys to change are essential. Stephen Covey, the bestselling author, proposed several of them, which we will explore here for a deeper understanding.
Awareness
Awareness of the need for change precedes any transformation. Knowing where you are and where you want to go is fundamental to sensitizing and influencing people to move in that direction.
Involvement
Uniting personal mission with the organizational mission through involvement and participation. Each person decides for themselves what impact the transformations will have on them and on those within their sphere of influence.
Inner Security
Building and guaranteeing a sense of inner security in people in relation to change. The new reality will succeed only if individuals feel safe enough to take that step. Otherwise, they tend to perceive it as a threat.
Legitimization
It is necessary to legitimize change in the minds of people, to recognize the need for transformation and the price that comes with fulfilling it. Every change involves a personal cost, and individuals must feel that it is worth making.
Accountability for Results
People need to be committed and assume personal responsibility for the results they aim to achieve. Everyone should see in the organization a great opportunity to develop their personal competencies. Organizations must stop regulating, policing, controlling, and coercing, and begin instead to provide, guide, and encourage human development.
Letting Go of the Old
Individuals must abandon old habits and, in parallel, incorporate new and more appropriate ones. Unlearning the old and learning the new must be a constant process to sustain change and transformation.
Embracing the New with an Adventurous Spirit
Creating a shared vision for everyone and reducing limiting forces. Establishing enduring principles to underpin and support reform initiatives and change.
Open Mindset
Openness and flexibility to try the new must be present; breaking free from attachments to the old and the obsolete. Being creative requires breaking rigidity, always seeking solutions better than current ones. A creative mind is open to ideas and suggestions, free of censorship and prejudice.
Synergy
People must establish a synergistic relationship with everyone involved and invested in the process. When there is room for diversity, appreciation, and understanding of the human being, people are able to transform themselves without the need for external pressure.
Transcendent Purpose
Collective interests must always take priority over individual ones. When people sense competition or a win-lose dynamic, they focus on their own concerns rather than on broader social transformation.
The companies of today must undergo a fundamental transformation. Executives live under enormous tension, work harder than they ever have, neglect their personal relationships, and still complain about how little satisfaction they find in life. Reflect on these keys and ask yourself: which doors within you need to be, and can be, opened?
The short answer
Organizational change turns on the individual: involving people is the lever for every other transformation, and awareness of the need to change has to precede the change itself. The keys that follow are largely conditions people need in order to move, namely inner security so the new reality is not read as a threat, legitimization so the personal cost feels worth paying, personal accountability for results, and a purpose in which collective interests outrank individual ones. That asks organizations to stop policing and controlling and start providing, guiding, and encouraging human development.