Why do senior managers find it hard to lead

change?
Three traps might trip up the senior manager on the way to
managing successful change: focusing on results and not on
the process; narrow horizons that limit vision to the next
quarter only; and the illusion of being in touch with the lower
echelons. This article discusses how to avoid these obstacles
and lead a successful organizational change process.

Change is now a permanent factor in the organization's life

Change has become an integral part of every organization’s operating
routine. Globalization, technological development, abundance of
competitors and clients’ constant expectations for innovation are only
some of the factors in the contemporary business environment
requiring the organization to change in order to become more efficient,
and sometimes even to survive.
As a consultant supporting many firms through their change process, I
have heard many senior managers wonder out loud why the change
they initiated has not been yielding the expected results, and why is it
that exactly in their organization the adaptation is so long and drawn
out.
Their musings are not far from reality. Studies conducted over the past
few years have found that the success rate for organizational change
processes is only 33%, which means that two out of three drives for
change within the organization do not meet their goals.
In private conversations, many senior managers will admit that their
difficulty in implementing the change process lies with the resistance
within their organization. I am not sure that the so-called “resisters”
would agree. From their viewpoint, the difficulties arise from upper
management’s lack of ability to fully translate the practical
implications of the proposed change on the organization’s performance
to the staff.
Three hurdles to managing organizational change
Senior management bear responsibility for implementing the planned
change. Evidently, success of the change process depends on how
each of the management members conceives of their role as the
person at the helm of the process. Based on my experience I have
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identified three pitfalls facing senior managers leading change within

their organizations.
1. Taking an output-driven perception of the change process. For
many senior managers, “change” means a measurable output at
the end of the process. Whether it involves setting up a new
business unit, organizational restructuring, the implementation of
an ERP system or a change in business processes, most senior
managers are unaware of the existence of an additional phase – the
very process of transition, which is parallel and complementary to
the change process. The transition phase takes place during the
time span required for each person to adapt, change existing habits
and adopt the new requirements that derive from the change
process itself. For managers in the organization, transition means
the need to address emotional difficulty and invest more energy in
order to achieve the same performance level as previously,
especially if the change directly impacts upon the manager’s job.
Ignoring the emotional difficulties which managers and employees
experience during the transition phase is the source of the
abovementioned “resistance” from within the organization
described by senior managers.
One can understand why it is hard for senior managers to admit
that a transition phase exists. While it is possible to structure the
change process using a work plan drawn up in terms of tasks and
time schedules, the transition phase is not obvious, and is
impossible to predict or plan. It is the senior management difficulty
in coping with the lack of control of the transition phase that leads
to taking the easy way out and holding “in-house resisters”
accountable for the difficulties in assimilating the change.
2. Seeking to reflect the change in the upcoming Financial Report: In a
results- oriented business culture, where senior managers are
measured by their short-term achievements, there is no patience to
wait until the change process has been concluded. Members of the
Board wish to reap the fruits as soon as possible, and demand that
the CEO provide them with a rapid return on investment. Add the
inborn human fear of change and here it is – the motivation to “get
it all over with” as fast as possible to return to the warm, safe haven
of routine.
Changes require time. Buds may be seen in the short term, but
patience is needed until they ripen. The pressure to see immediate
results leads many senior managers to delude themselves that the
objectives of the change process have been achieved even before
the process has concluded. As they see it, loose ends will close
themselves up through intra-organizational inertia. This is erroneous

Blumenthal & Co. – Strategic Organizational Consulting. All rights reserved

2010.
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thinking; prematurely stopping the efforts to effect change would

lead to regression and a return to the starting point.
3. The illusion of being “connected”: Many senior managers will tell
you that they have a sense of how things feel in the field. However,
in the case of organizational change, the experience undergone by
the CEO and senior management is totally different from what mid-
level management experiences.
For senior management, change has a primarily strategic
significance, while mid-level managers are the ones who are
supposed to implement the change process. Studies suggest that
the senior manager's transition phase is shorter than that of mid-
level managers, and that they hardly notice it. In the senior
manager's personal experience, the change process is soon
completed, usually at the point in time at which mid-level managers
begin to experience the significance of the change in actual
practice.
This is a paradox, in which the CEO and senior management
experience a brief change process that concludes even before mid-
level management begins to internalize the significance of the task
they face in the process. These are two disparate experiences of
reality, and rarely do SENIOR MANAGERs succeed in reconciling
them.

Blumenthal & Co. – Strategic Organizational Consulting. All rights reserved

2010.
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Managing change successfully

You, too, as a senior manager may, inadvertently, be the obstacle to
the success of your organization’s change process. Four principles of
action will help you in leading the optimal implementation of change in
your organization.
1. Lead the change through to completion. Some time has passed
since you initiated the change process, and perhaps you feel that it
has come to an end. This is a false ending: most of the chances are
that the mid-level managers are still midway into the process. Given
the gaps in the perception of change between the various levels
within the organization, you, the senior managers, are required to
remain dominant, involved and, above all, committed to the
process, through to its true completion, achieving stabilization of
the entire system according to the definitions of the new status quo.
2. Be patient, even if you feel you are paying a price. Expecting
instant change is futile. The fact that the CEO and the management
team have decided that this is the turn of events that should come
to pass, is no guarantee that this will actually occur. Successful
change requires time for the organization to adapt to the new status
quo. You must understand that the labor of change is fundamentally
a Sisyphean task, and you must remain patient throughout the
change process, which necessarily moves slower than your normal
pace.
3. Empathize. People do not like change. For many of the mid-level
managers in your organization, change has been dictated rather
than consensual, but still, they must cooperate and cope with the
emotional difficulty of implementing it. Show empathy for this
difficulty; put yourself in their place and try to understand what they
are going through. By doing so, you will lessen the intensity of their
resistance to change originating in the feelings of anger and
helplessness resulting directly from having to contend with change.
4. Communicate the change. Change, by definition, is dynamic, not
stable, which increases uncertainty among the organization’s
employees. The greater the impact the change will have on an
individual, the greater the uncertainty within which that individual
must operate. Communicating the entire change process with all of
its organizational ramifications is critical in order to create an island
of certainty within the tempest of change. You must make sure to
structure orderly communication procedures to accompany the
change process, transmitting uniform, clear messages to the
organization’s workers and managers.
Organizational change is one of the most complex processes that
organizations undergo. Successfully managing change does not

Blumenthal & Co. – Strategic Organizational Consulting. All rights reserved

2010.
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depend only on selecting a certain methodology of managing change

over another; rather, it is conditional upon a deep understanding of the
overall experience, and the forging of an organizational strategy to
manage the change.
Adopting the principles described above as part of managing the
change in your organization will allow you to “beat” the current
statistics cited above, and lead your organization to growth, through
successful change.

Blumenthal & Co. – Strategic Organizational Consulting. All rights reserved

2010.