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Clusters of rapid change events in local, national, and international cultures and economies are undermining traditional expectations in the workplace—and forcing leaders, especially HR leaders, to face the unknown. Countless articles cite the barrage of transformational changes facing organizations today - <a href="https://www.td.org/Publications/Research-Reports/2014/Change-Agents-the-Role-of-Organizational-Learning-in-Change-Management" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">one notes that in the year studied, one in four organizations endured significant change initiatives every other month</a>. Many have also written about the sobering reality that roughly 75 percent of all change efforts fail.
<h2><strong>Transformational Change—Not the Same as a Technical Challenge</strong></h2>
A Google search for “change management” yields more than 94 million results. Missing from the literature however, are practical approaches to objectively assessing the types of change organizations face, and the implications for how we respond as leaders.<strong> </strong>Given the new normal exhibited by an operating environment in a permanent state of change, we need to better understand the nature and types of changes we face, respond to them strategically, and develop tactical solutions accordingly. HR leaders can help others begin to see change as ongoing, evolutionary, and emergent, and look at it objectively. This opens the possibility of responding intentionally to change, rather than reacting to it.

A number of authors and researchers have coalesced around a key distinction with regard to two types of challenges. Originally described by Ron Heifetz, the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, <em>technical challenges</em> are relatively easy to define and understand, and you can organize and manage solutions to them as enterprise initiatives. By contrast, <em>Adaptive challenges</em> are ambiguous and hard to define, and sometimes even unperceivable by the people facing them. Organization development consultant <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericsvaren/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eric Svaren</a> elaborated on the distinction between technical problems and adaptive challenges shortly after Heifetz introduced the idea. A version of his work is reflected in the table below.
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<h2>How to Respond: Method vs. Mindset</h2>
Traditional change management models are useful in responding to technical challenges. At the enterprise level, Kotter’s 8 Stages (or variations on that model) can be effectively employed to manage, control, and communicate technical change initiatives both large and small. At the individual level, William Bridges’ transition model and the Prosci ADKAR model describe the psychological and emotional stages people go through as they face change. These models are important because a frequent cause of failure in change management is a lack of attention to stakeholder reactions or receptivity, as well as misaligned expectations regarding the willingness of people to “get on board.” Organizations employ these methodologies to manage reactions to change, often using a variety of models in tandem to tackle such technical challenges as an ERP implementation, a re-org, or facility move.
<blockquote>“The single biggest failure of leadership is treating adaptive challenges like technical problems.” – Ron Heifetz</blockquote>
Many of the changes organizations are facing now, however, are adaptive in nature. They require leaders to develop new mental models and mindsets that do not come naturally. Adaptive leadership often requires a change in attitudes and beliefs about what it means to be a leader—deeper work than what is typically involved in a leadership development program focused on knowledge and skill development. Yet these shifts in mindset are precisely what enables leaders to navigate increasingly complex operating environments, and move from functional leadership roles to complex enterprise or system level leadership.

As the graphic below of our leadership development philosophy illustrates, when you change deeply held <strong>attitudes, beliefs, and notions of purpose and identity</strong> the experience can be richly rewarding and transformative.
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This type of complex cognitive development results in more effective and professional performance along with a healthy dose of personal fulfillment. Such changes are often challenging, complicated, personally difficult, and time-consuming. They require stepping out of your comfort zone, which is often very difficult for leaders whose traditional leadership competence and effectiveness create a false sense of security.
<h2>Human Resources as Change Catalyst</h2>
The role of frontline HR leaders is often complicated in this context. Nevertheless, while adaptive leadership capability isn’t teachable in the traditional sense, it is learnable through intentionally crafted experiences. Executive coaching with a skilled coach fluent in these concepts is a powerful tool to accelerate transformational change and adaptive mindset development. Strategic coaching in this context goes beyond the typical stakeholder-centered process, with an intentional focus on the competencies and mindsets required for success in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.)

Learning events can also be carefully crafted to expand a group of leaders’ change leadership capability, but they don’t look like your typical classroom learning experience. To be successful, programs like this must ultimately create and mirror some of the ambiguity and discomfort that characterizes the VUCA operating landscape. My colleague Nancy Winship articulates <a href="http://blog.waldronhr.com/9-design-principles-for-agile-adaptive-leadership-development-experiences" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><em>9 Design Principles for Agile (Adaptive) Leadership Development Experiences</em></a> – a must read for anyone seeking to embed adaptive leadership principles into structured learning programs.

When developing such programs for executives, there is a tendency to cater to what the audience says they want in a program. Over time, a carefully designed adaptive leadership program will face pressure to change: to be less disruptive and uncomfortable for the powerful leaders participating in it. If this happens, the program can lose its edge. Human Resources and Learning leaders must have strong sponsorship up the chain and be willing and able to hold their ground in the face of inevitable pressure to normalize the content and experience.

While very little has been written about the specific competencies required of change leaders, there are a few noteworthy exceptions. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancywinship?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3B%2FinApmUjQeGP9TIwd5upLQ%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nancy Winship</a> describes several of them in <a href="http://blog.waldronhr.com/meta-skills-for-adaptive/agile-leadership-in-a-vuca-landscape" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><em>Meta-Skills for Adaptive/Agile Leadership in a “VUCA” Landscape</em></a>. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-ready-0243027?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BczyFzDvGSJamcno01932Sg%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Doug Ready</a> at the International Consortium for Executive Development Research similarly describes <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/01/4-things-successful-change-leaders-do-well" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><em>4 Things Successful Change Leaders Do Well</em></a>.  <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nate-boaz-233507?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BQtiLnJSPT9%2B9P0Nelc3Aow%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nate Boaz</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaarielfox?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BerS6%2BF%2BeSu2QvTOrV2MwlA%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Erical Ariel Fox</a> make a useful distinction between two types of self-awareness (one competency that serves as a foundation for adaptive leadership development) in <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/change-leader-change-thyself" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><em>Change Leader, Change Thyself</em></a>.

<strong>Building a Strategic Change Architecture</strong>

Finally, in addition to developing change leadership capabilities among key leaders, HR leaders can further support transformational change in the enterprise by leveraging whole-system engagement methodologies that generate interest in the change challenge, and allow ideas for change to emerge from the community. When leaders agree they are facing an adaptive change, a strategic change architecture can be constructed to guide and drive the change process at the enterprise level.

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gervase-bushe-b346b7?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BNLHOQweRTPWrvFctvoHZUw%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gervase Bushe</a> and Bob Marshak coined the term “<a href="http://www.dialogicod.net/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Dialogic OD</a>” and have written extensively about its practice in articles and in their recently released book, <em>Dialogic Organization Development – The Theory and Practice of Transformational Change</em>. They articulate a theory about how and why whole-system engagement methodologies (e.g., Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, Search Conference, and many more) facilitate the kind of transformational change required to meet adaptive challenges. They offer three “levers” of change, and six process steps HR can employ to support leaders in applying these levers to drive transformation. <a href="http://waldronhr.com/uploads/misc/acceleratingtransformationalchangewaldronlogo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">An executive summary of a presentation by Gervase on this can be found here</a>.

If HR leaders can increase awareness and understanding about the types of change their organizations face, they can literally drive a more strategic response to change. In this way, HR can serve as a catalyst for organizational transformation and change leadership effectiveness.

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