Successful organisational change? Train your team managers on the job
The success of an organisational change depends on the behaviour of the managers and employees who have to implement it. But how do you make them skilled in ‘successful change’? A unique intervention by the Leiden Leadership Centre may offer a solution.
How does leadership related to organisational change affect a team? And what role does working according to the purpose (ed. the social mission) of the organisation play in achieving this change? Both questions are central to the intervention ‘Changing with purpose’.
The intervention was developed by researchers Johan Jan Beukman, Bahar Heinis and Ben Kuipers of the Leiden Leadership Centre (LLC) as part of the research programme Furthering Public Leadership (FPL). The aim of the intervention is to strengthen the change leadership of team leaders and thereby the entire change capacity of teams. Heinis: ‘We want to gain more insight into the effects of leadership on organisational change, but also how people use the purpose of the organisation in the process.’
Performing assignments on-the-job
The intervention consists of five practical executable assignments that will appear in the mailbox of team managers in the process of organisational change over a three-week period. The assignments are directly applicablein the workplace, for example during a team meeting or lunch. Beukman: ‘Work pressure plays a major role within organisations, for both managers and employees. We took this into account when designing our intervention and ensured that team leaders only need to allocate limited extra time to carry out the assignments.'
'In one organisation the idea of a licorice jar was suggested.'
One of those assignments is to encourage team members to think outside the box. Team leaders conduct interviews with individual team members to pick up innovative ideas that will help implement the organisational change. Kuipers: ‘These can be very small practical suggestions that stimulate the implementation of the organizational change. In one organisation, for example, the idea of a licorice jar was suggested (the popular Dutch "droppot"). Colleagues did not visit each other enough and got stuck in sending e-mails. By placing a licorice jar on someone's desk, there was extra motivation to stop by, exchange information and grab a licorice straight away'.
Good coordination
The intervention has now been deployed at three different partner organisations of the FPL programme to measure whether and how small change assignments have an effect on the leadership behaviour of team managers. One of these organisations, the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), is currently working on the organisational change ‘Working according to purpose’ and would like to use the intervention to gain insight into how this change is lead and whether it is landing well within the organisation.
Marisol Schaap (SVB): 'Since September last year, we have been participating in the LLC's research into leadership behaviour, of which this intervention is a part. So far we have found the collaboration to be very pleasant! There is good coordination and the researchers take into account the work pressure that our managers and employees experience, both in planning the research and the interventions. We hope to use the knowledge from the research to make organisational changes (more) successful.'
'There is a great need for very practical tools in the daily work of leaders at our partner organisations.'
Public Leadership with Perspective
Currently, the research team is busy analysing the questionnaires they distributed to participating middle management, team leadership and team members after the interventions. The results will be presented at the Dutch conference ‘Public Leadership with Perspective’ that concludes the research programme Furthering Public Leadership. Beukman: ‘We know that there is a great need for very practical tools in the daily work of leaders at our partner organisations. This intervention builds on our previous research and is another important step in developing a useful tool that can be used for various change challenges.'
Image: Sociale Verzekeringsbank