Change Management: A Modern Day Idiom

Idiom: An expressionthat doesn't necessarily have a definition but more of an understanding behind it.

It all started a few weeks ago when someone mentioned  reindeer games.   I’d heard the term before and never really bothered to find out what it truly meant, but I made an assumption that this just described how people were gaming with each other and maybe holding back information from others.  In fact, I was guilty of using the concept without being sure of the exact definition.  Hey!  At least I admit it. 

In preparing for this blog, I found a definition of reindeer games in the Urban Dictionary. So the dictionary’s definition is the same as what I originally suspected.  Or close enough.

Later, again at work, someone said we’d have to find a cat to put among the pigeons, and I wasn’t really sure what that meant, so this time I looked it up in the Urban Dictionary right away.  Turns out that this is also an idiom and it implies some way of creating a disturbance and causing trouble.  Now, rarely would anyone in an organization deliberately set out to cause a disturbance with malicious intent,  but as we’ve seen in previous blogs, it sometimes helps to have First Followers or others who can help instigate movement for change.  To me, that’s a step away from putting the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons, but it doesn’t seem to bother folks if idioms are used casually and can sometimes cause misunderstandings. 

All of this has had me preoccupied with idioms and cutesy catch phrases we use every day in our business lives.  One that I’m especially preoccupied with and very concerned about is how organizations toss around the concept of change management.  

I’m hoping not to come across as snobby about this, but these days, change management really is being used as an idiom, and to everyone’s peril.  As the change management field and practice evolves, there is a heightened awareness of the importance of using real change management techniques – which is good.  But the downside is how some folks clumsily toss the term around as a substitution for only the tools we use to help us achieve real change management.  When we short-change the definition of change management to single out the tools alone, then we see the resulting, weak results. 

Instead, here it is clearly defined by a reliable source at the Change Management Learning Centre: Change management is the [application of] the set of tools, processes, skills and principles for managing the people side of change to achieve the required outcomes of a change project or initiative. 

Folks, change management is about the people side of the coin.  You can only be successful in leading a change when the people involved adopt the change and adapt to it. Change management requires effective, deliberate communication about your proposed change.  For example, don’t issue a memo about a change you’ve already made and expect the same results as if you used communication as a tool and means of gaining adoption during the course of change. 

For more on the real change management story, check out Kurt Lewin on the net.  Lewin is the forefather of change management theory. Everything that’s been developed since his time is just building on his three-step model: unfreeze, change, and re-freeze.  And who is going to experience said climate change of this three-step model?  People.  Let’s get it right:  change management is all about the people.   

Thanks for listening.