Leadership of Change

Introduction

Given the fast pace of change in just about every industry today, one of the most important ways that leaders communicate is by leading for change. Leaders who are effective at this task do a good job of communicating what the change will be (or already is), how that change will affect both the company and its employees, and what employees need to know in order to get the resources they need to respond appropriately and feel that their contributions are an important part of the change.

In this activity, you’ll see how change comes up and how a new leader — you! —responds to it.

Your First Day

Congratulations! Today is your first day as a manager at a large technology company called CapraTek. Although the company is based in Sunnyvale, California, it has several manufacturing facilities across the United States. In your new role, you will manage part of one of those facilities.

You’ve got an email from the person you’ll be reporting to: Plant Manager Mark Cranston. You’ll want to read that now.

Email Inbox

Inbox – (1)

New Mexico plant – your first challenge

From: Mark Cranston

To: Abby Williams

Welcome, Learner. I hope you’re settling in and having a good first day. That said, I’m going to have to ruin it for you. I hope you like being thrown in head first, because that’s how we roll around here!

So I don’t know if you know this, but our last two quarters have been disappointing. We haven’t seen the revenues we wanted, we’ve had some other problems, and people are a bit on edge. We didn’t really think about that when we scheduled a meeting to announce your promotion, and we kept the purpose vague so that the meeting would be where they found out about it.

Well, that didn’t work; they’re all riled up and what’s worse, they’re making something out of nothing. I’ll forward you an email string I’ve seen, and you’ll want to check out the *Team_General Slack thread too.

Once you’ve seen all of it, I’d like you to let me know how you plan to respond. I’m sorry to put something tough on your plate on your first day, but this seems like a situation we should get out in front of as soon as possible.

— Mark

The Water Cooler

You settle in to read what your new direct reports have been saying to each other since the meeting announcement was made.

Email Inbox

Inbox – (1)

Mystery meeting???

From: Tessa Drummond

To: *NM-Manufacturing*

Does anybody know what’s going on with this meeting we all have to go to later today?

From: Janice Keller

Isn’t it just an announcement about the new manager?

From: Briana Twyha

What new manager?

From: Janice Keller

Doesn’t anybody read around here? 😁 The new manager for the plant! I mean, I don’t know, but I heard they’d decided on someone.

From: Tessa Drummond

But why not just announce it? Do we need a meeting for that?

From: Janice Keller

And, cue the conspiracy theories…

From: Tessa Drummond

I’m just saying it’s weird. That’s all.

From: Daniel Fox

I’m not saying it’s weird. I’m saying it’s obvious that you dumbasses have your heads in the sand and when the layoffs come down, you’re going to be shocked when you shouldn’t be.

Slack Thread

*Team_General

8 Members

Ed Finch Tuesday 2:08 PM I am so sick of these meetings that pop up and we have to go to on short notice.

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:12 PM Right? Just send us an email and leave us alone!

Brianne Twyha Tuesday 2:14 PM I wish we knew what it was about. I don’t mind the short notice, but it’s weird when they’re all, "Meeting at 2! Very important!"

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:15 PM Right? If I didn’t know better I'd wonder if they were trying to make sure we didn’t find out what it’s about.

Briana Twyha Tuesday 2:16 PM Why would they do that?

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:18 PM So we only find out in the meeting, so they can control the narrative.

Briana Twyha Tuesday 2:21 PM But don’t they always do that?

Lorraine Hughes Tuesday 2:22 PM Not in person! That’s why I’m worried this is no ordinary meeting.

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:23 PM Meaning…

Lorraine Hughes Tuesday 2:29 PM It’s been awhile since we had layoffs around here.

Janice Keller Tuesday 2:35 PM Would you stop that? There’s no reason to think they’re going to announce layoffs.

Lorraine Hughes Tuesday 2:38 PM There’s no reason not to think it, either. This is how they announce layoffs: Very suddenly, in an environment where you all learn about it at once. They’ll probably take our phones as we go into the meeting.

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:40 PM Nobody’s taking my phone!

Janice Keller Tuesday 2:41 PM Nobody’s getting laid off, either!

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:43 PM Bullshit. You’ll find out, Janice. And if you get laid off I’m dancing on your grave.

Janice Keller Tuesday 2:45 PM What is wrong with you????

Lorraine Hughes Tuesday 2:46 PM Janice is right, Daniel. Dial it back. Nobody knows anything about this meeting and that includes you.

Daniel Fox Tuesday 2:48 PM Dancing on your grave too!!!

Conclusion

As you saw in this activity, leading for change takes more than communicating at the employees and other stakeholders you lead. It takes responding to how people feel about change, correcting misimpressions about that change, and honoring how that change will affect different people.