Get Booked – Jennifer Bryan, Leading People In Change, A Practical Guide 050224

You're listening to Get Booked with me, Hazel Butterfield, for Women's and Men's Radio Station. Welcome to today's show. Joining us on the show today, we have Jennifer Bryan, a published author, TEDx and global speaker, and managing director of Change and Leadership, who has worked with over 40 different organizations across multiple industries. She's also a vice president of the Association of Change Management Professionals UK. She has a passion for putting people at the heart of the decision-making room. She has developed a holistic approach to change and created a unique leading change framework, the AB Change Model, and uses her commercial insight to help lead people in change. That brings us on to today's book, Leading People in Change: A Practical Guide. I've been working my way through this book and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's aimed at the ordinary line manager just as much as the director of a large company. This book is a short, simple account of practical steps to lead people through change successfully. Drawing on the author's own tried and tested AB change model, Leading People in Change. And this practical guide is both thought-provoking and practical, packed with quick and easy chapters and pertinent case studies that will help you to find the change strategy that is right for your business. And sometimes, this is what I love about books like this, it just helps us realize why even ourselves we might resist change in our workplace, and it just helps us to understand each other a little bit more. I think you're going to really enjoy today's chat. Okay, now on Get Booked, we have Jennifer Bryan, the author of today's book, Leading People in Change: A Practical Guide. Leading People in Change is a practical business guide that teaches professionals to lead people through change successfully. Drawing on the author's tried and tested AB Change Model, Leading People in Change: A Practical Guide is both thought-provoking and practical. It's packed with quick and easy chapters and personal case studies that just help you to find the change strategy that is right for your business. In a world defined by dramatic technological and economic shifts, business organizations large and small are finding themselves having to adopt and transform at an unprecedented pace. And while these demands have led to numerous theories of change management, often with overcomplicated methodologies and purely technology-focused approaches, the fact remains that change is primarily about people. Jennifer, welcome to the show. How are you? Hello, Hazel. Thank you so much. I'm really excited to talk about how we can put people at the heart of decision-making. Do you know what? I've been working my way through this, and it's interesting because it's not— this book isn't just for leaders who need to implement change management. It's also quite it's helpful for people who are going through changes at work themselves to help them understand why they're resisting, because sometimes we resist things, no idea why. We didn't like the way things were run before, but we just, we were just resistant to change because it panics us. And so I've enjoyed kind of flipping it on its head a little bit as well. Yeah, no, resistance is our favorite word when it comes to change. We, we absolutely adore it. But the thing is about existence. It is that it's natural. It's— we don't need, you know, we don't need to worry about it and, and, or beat ourselves up about it at all. Because even if it's a positive change, if we were to say, uh, oh, we've, we've bought a lottery ticket and we, we sit there and someone goes, I think you won, you're like, no, I didn't. And then you check the tickets, you're like, no. You're looking at it again, you look at it again. I mean, we doubt, we, we And that's a level of resistance. We doubt even a positive change from that front. It's just— the thing is, change is very emotional. Yes. And we will resist whatever it is on that front. And it's fine. What we need to understand, though, is where, as you started to say, where is that coming from? Why is that happening? I mean, I had a positive change last year in the autumn. My, my, my firstborn went off to university and, you know, which is fantastic. It's her first choice. It all went well. Great. Yeah. Woo woo. But she's left me, you know, so it's— and so I really struggled with that. I really did struggle with it. And that's a positive change. And I'm someone who deals with change all the time. And yeah, it's so— it's not so much we need to worry about whether there's going to be resistance to change, because there will be. That's a guarantee, flat out guarantee you 1,000%. There will be resistance to whatever change is going on. The thing is to know, well, where is it coming from? How may it manifest itself?? Because when we know that, then we can take a look at how we can manage it. And that's the thing, isn't it? There's so many different case studies in this book that kind of explain that, you know, not one shape fits all. I mean, I guess we need to start with the biggie, don't we? What is the AB Change Model? So the AB Change Model is a leading change model that combines 2 big theories together that the research I did brought them together, and that is Daniel Goleman's leadership styles, because, um, at the time they were really quite popular, and that was the, or the ones the organization I was work doing the research in utilized, um, on that front. But also because, uh, he connected it to skills, um, as well, each of the styles. And what I did is I mapped those skills to, um, uh, uh, uh, Rosabeth Kanter's change skills. And from there, with the research, I was able to pull together and say, right, if you're dealing with this type of change, this is the leadership style you need to be demonstrating. This is the most important change skill you need to be focused on. And here are the other change skills in order of importance. And there's two pitfalls that I have found through all of those case studies and many others with the model. And that is, first off, if you look at the framework that the model sets out, because it lays out— once you know what the type of change is, it lays out everything else for you in regards to leadership style and change skills and so forth. But if you look at the framework and say, "Ooh, I like that leadership style. I'll go with that. That means it must be this change," you're going to go horribly wrong because a leadership style does not define the type of change you're dealing with. The type of change defines the leadership style you need to be demonstrating, not the other way around. So that's the first pitfall that a lot of people do. The second one is if they focus 80% of their time on the least important change skill rather than the most important change skill, I can guarantee it's going to go wrong as well. Wow. Those are two of the biggest pitfalls with it. You need to— and because people need to spend the time, and leaders do struggle with this, that they need to spend the time of really understanding what is the type of change they are dealing with. What is it that they're really What is the— at the root of what they're trying to do? And so that defines the type of leadership style and, um, sorry, the change— type of change, type of change. And, um, once that's done, then, then the model does everything else and you can follow the model. But the big question, and I even asked this in my book, is, well, so what? You know, that, that's It's the model is just a model like any other model. The big kind of aha and the real power behind any model is what does that then mean to you? So if, for example, you are, you've decided you, the change you're dealing with is an improvement change. You're trying to make an improvement within the organization. Then you need to be demonstrating a coaching leadership style. Well, what does that mean to you? Because what, how I define a coaching leadership style and how you, Hazel, would define a leadership style and how someone else would will be slightly different. So we've gotta define that for themselves. We have to say, okay, what does that look like? What does that feel like? How will I know I'm doing it? How will others know I'm doing it? And, and then if I need to be focused on building trust with people, well, who do I need to build that trust with? And how do I know I've done it? And, oh, by the way, it takes a while to build trust. So how does that play into the timelines of the actual change itself? So those are the kinds of questions we need to be asking ourselves once the model's defined everything. It sounds really nice. The model's defined it for us. We don't have to think about it. But we do. We do. Because we got to say, so what? What does that mean to me? It's interesting because you have this model, but there is no workforce that is the same. You know, you could have 2 people that you need to manage through change, or you could have 2,000. You could have 20,000 people. Or 90,000, which I've done as well. Oh, wow. Well, that was fun. And not everybody has the same resistance issues and worries, and some people will be excited about the change, and sometimes it's just not going to work for that person, you know, whether it's a takeover or working from home or a relocation. Um, and it's— but the main thing is, I suppose, is communication. At the end of the day, if people are communicating what their problems are, or, or the leaders are communicating why this change needs to happen, people feel involved. And that's all about the buy-in, isn't it? Yes. Um, but it's— I, I would take— I'd go— I take a few steps back, um, from that. And first of all, you can have the exact same person or people in the exact same situation And depending on any given day, they will react and resist and so forth differently. That's because people are human, you know. There is no formula to people. And I, I've used this analogy with a lot of engineers and saying, you know, A plus B does not necessarily equal C when it comes to people. And so that's, that's the first and foremost, but that needs to be, that needs to be recognized. But once we've— okay, fine, I get that, we'll move on. There needs to be a real understanding of what's going on with people at the moment. And I talk about a little bit in the book, the holistic approach and a holistic change. And what that means is holistic means all-encompassing. So we need to take a look at the external influencing factors that are going, like external politics, national politics, international politics, legislation, um, economics, um, environmental, societal, technology, all of these things And how are people thinking and feeling about life at the moment? And then we can start to say, OK, well, if they're feeling really nervous because there is an energy crisis and they're not certain if they're able to pay the bills and this, that, they're not going to feel very confident, then how are they then going to feel about a change, this particular change? We need to put that into context. And then we also need to take a look at the internal influencing factors. The processes, the systems, the policies, the politics, um, the leadership, the teams, the capability, the IT. Do we have things in place that are going to help people with the change and the change itself, or are they going to hinder it? You know, many times people are trying to put a policy in place, um, for example, with, um, hybrid working, or when the Ukraine war broke out, in trying to get people out, but they didn't have the policies to back them up to enable those things to happen. So, you know, we need to take a look at what all we have that influences the change externally and internally. Then once we've understood that, then we can start to ask ourselves, okay, so based on all of that, what is it that we want to achieve and how different is that to now? And as a result, what are we trying to do with it? And once we've bottomed all of that information out, then we can say, all right, what is the type of change we're dealing with? And then when we got— have that and we use the Abby Change Model and so forth, we can then start to say, okay, based on all of that, we need to be looking at the communications in this way. This is how we need to be communicating. This is the type of communications we know we're going to need to do multiple different mediums when it comes to communications. That goes without saying. We've all talked about, you know, it's got to be social media. There's email, there's the intranet, there's the— there'll be a dedicated page, there'll be posters, there'll be pull-ups, there'll be town halls, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, there'll be multiple mediums we need to utilize the communications. And but many times when it comes to change, it's how we communicate And not just what we say, but how we say it and what we're not saying. And, um, those things are really, really key when we are communicating anything, much less a change. Um, from that standpoint, you know what, it's quite interesting because I'm, um, another place that I work, we've just gone through an acquisition and they have clearly used the services of a change management specialist to help them implement the acquisition and keeping people informed. And people just want to feel as if they have been thought about. But half the time, I mean, there's all these conferences and Zoom calls where all the bigwigs are to explain, hey, we've just bought this company and we're super excited and da da da da da. And the people, everyone's been invited, everyone everyone's been, um, involved in the whole process. And, and half the staff are just like, yeah, we can't really be bothered. But if they hadn't been given that opportunity— oh, people, there would have been riots. Yeah, it's so funny, isn't it? But, you know, it's, it goes back to that, um, that saying that, you know, a lot of leaders think that people don't like change, and a load of people just say, oh, people don't like change, do they, Jennifer? They just don't like it. And I'm like, no, they like it just fine because guess what? We all deal with it every single solitary day. And we need to keep on changing to make sure that we're evolving with correct practices or moving with the way life is. Can you imagine if we just all ran businesses the same way as we did 30, 40, 50 years ago? Yeah, but even beyond that, you know, you wake up in the morning, you're not feeling well, and hence you don't going in. You change all your meetings being online rather than being face to face, or you're— or someone who you're taking care of wakes up and isn't well and, and you have to maneuver something. Or, oh, there's been, um, trees have fallen down that road, so now you can't go that route, you got to go this route. We deal with change all the time. It's, it's not change that we have an issue with. What we don't like is being changed. Without our consent, I suppose. We want to be a part of that. We have to have that decision. We've got to have that autonomy. We— so that we decide to change. And, you know, there's loads of, um, models out there. There, quite famously, with, um, Prosci Professionals of Science, the ADKAR model. You know, there's— you have to first have an awareness about the change. Um, but then you— it's the desire. People need to have the desire to decide they want to change. That desire, you know, you can sit there and, um, talk till the cows come home, they're not going to do it. You know, see, I, I'm quite intrigued when, in, um, when you come across people who, uh, need to be, uh, helped with their change management. I mean, it's such a buzzword. Even, even 15 years ago, I worked for a company, um, and they got bought out, and there was no change management. It was very much that kind of, um, retro way of, yeah, we've been bought out, you still have a job, like it or lump it, you know. You should be thankful you've still got a job. And it was interesting, and funnily enough, I decided not to go with the new company. And it wasn't because it— I didn't want to deal with the change. I was just like, you know what, it's time to go. I'm not really that important. Um, it's time for me to try. It's time for me to jump ship. And it was an excuse. It— I just was looking for one. And because I wasn't a second thought, And, and that's, that's why it matters, I guess. Well, there's several things to unpick there. So one, you're right, you know, once upon a time, people just— if some, if a company decided to do something, you either want it or left it, you know. And, and, and that's the way it is. The thing is, now there's been multiple shifts that have happened, societal shifts but also psychological shifts in expectations have changed. Because to be fair, even 15 years ago, a lot of people, they would stay with the company 10, 15, 20 years, certainly wouldn't leave less than 5, and all the rest of it. And as a result, you know, the mentality was, I come in, I do a job, I, I do these things, you pay me for that, those things, and, and whatnot. But over the last 15 years particularly, that has gone away. The psychological contract between organizations and people have changed, and the— there's— people don't— people as well as organizations don't really expect people to stay, stay for long periods of time. It's not to say that people don't, because they do. Yeah. And there's still a lot of that that happens, but not at the same level as it used to. That it's not unusual for people to stick around 2, 3 years and then move on to something else. And the— as a result of that, the expectations have changed. And also with the pandemic, people have started to question what they want even more, um, from that standpoint. And those have changed a great deal. And so if organizations want to hold on to their talent, and if organizations really want to ensure that productivity maintains the same, if not at best get better, if they don't want to drop in it, then they've got to focus on the people because otherwise people will walk. Yep. And that's— and that is costly. Yeah. And it increases the how much the other employees are uncomfortable in their business. Uh, a happy workforce, you know, is definitely more productive. And I think, you know, people are opening up to that. I mean I think it's— I'm sure you don't come across as many people these days that just say, why do I have to do this? People know why they need to do it. They know why they need to manage changes properly. Yeah, well, there's that. It's, as you said, that it is really costly to get it wrong because, A, your overheads will increase, your and your, your costs obviously from recruitment and what all that means, but your productivity decreases. And when your productivity decreases, that hits your bottom line. And it takes a while for everybody to kind of gel as a team and feel okay and confident to actually get things back to where they were. And you know, the— so the big thing is, in order to try and keep things not just keep things going, but as you said, when people are happy, when people feel confident, when people feel good about themselves and what they're doing, they do a good job. You know, they, they are productive. They, they then want to do it because they're like, yeah, life's good, let's move on, woo-woo. Whereas if they don't feel confident, if they are continuously second-guessing themselves, what they're doing, how they're doing it. They think, oh, any day I could be out on my butt and no money coming in, and then how do I pay the bills? And oh my gosh, this is coming up and that's going, and how am I— oh, people just go, okay, I'm just going to put my head down and just do, just do what I have to do to, to just survive. That's that doesn't create a high level of productivity. It just doesn't. But the more we understand people, the better we can run a business. I am now interested in kind of on the same tone as well. In Chapter 4, you discuss more about the kind of holistic elements of the leadership model, and I'm sure there's many people listening or people that would read the book that would see the word holistic and immediately kind of think of wind chimes and a woo-woo approach, and it's not the case, is it? No, no, it's very, very practical. It's very practical. Um, and I've actually developed the approach further than when I wrote this book, um, from that standpoint, because it's been a little while now, and it's incorporating— to put technical terms on it— It's incorporating foresight tools and organizational development tools into play. And, and as I said, it's looking at, at this internal external factors. And the reason why that's important, the, the reason why it's important, once upon a time, um, 15, 20 years ago, we were still talking how change is constant, but we would sit there, we'd have a rough idea what the change would be. You know, we may not know all the ins and outs, but we had a pretty good idea of what was coming down the line back then. The thing is, now we don't. There's a higher level of uncertainty. You know, things are moving really fast, um, and they have been moving fast for a while, but there's quite a lot of rocks along the way. And, um, and although we can see a little bit down the road, we can't see quite around the corner. No, there's— it's definitely a life of curveballs, isn't it? Exactly. The degree and levels of uncertainty and complexity have hugely increased, um, from 15, 20 years ago. And the cherry on top to a degree is that it's not going to slow down anytime soon. And in fact This is the slowest and the most certain it's going to ever be. So it sounds so negative, but it's so true. That was a conversation I was having this morning with, with a friend of mine. It's like, um, there always seems to be something, always seems to be juggling. I was like, yeah, it's not gonna get better. Exactly. And that's just it. So what are we going to do about it? Well, we need to get comfortable with how we deal with that. We need to actually, uh, you know, it's like putting on the jumper or a pair of socks in the morning, or shoes, or whatever it is, grabbing our bag. It's that automatic. We need to build the level of resilience and the muscles and skill sets so that we can deal with that on a regular daily occurrence, because that's That's where we're at. And the only way we can do that is by looking at things as a whole picture. If we look at things from a narrow perspective and going down our tunnel, we are gonna get blindsided by all kinds of stuff constantly. Whereas if we open up the lens and look at, at the horizons and in our peripherals every now and then, look back, you know, at just like we have to do as we're driving down the car, especially if we're on the M25. We're looking sideways, we're looking behind us, we're looking forward, we're looking, we're looking in every direction. We need to take in all of that information so that we can anticipate what could be coming down the line. We're not going to have a crystal ball, none of us do. And if you do, by the way, please let me know, because I want to see it. But none of us really actually have a crystal ball, so the The thing is, what we can do is take a look at what else is going around us, see what's happening, and then we can prepare and say, okay, well, if that happens, I'll go down this road. Oh, if that happens, I'll go down this, which we do all the time in lots of other elements of our life. Oh, well, if the trains are messed up, I'll take the bus and do the tube. And if that's screwed up, maybe I'll walk to this and I'll do that. You know, we think of these things all the time. We just need to bring them to the fore of our businesses and our organizations and, and what we do on a— in our personal lives, bring it to work. So the key is, I mean, the holistic approach, it's just multifaceted, and it's just— the key word is, is building resilience. Yes. And that, that's just— it's absolutely perfect. Now I want to— I've got an interesting question for you. The process of writing the book, did you have a particular chapter that you just loved more than the others? Did you just go, oh, I love writing about this, I love kind of just bringing this to my readers? I— well, I'll be honest, the whole book was like another child. It was like another child. And one after university, and then you, uh, yeah, it was, um, so it was something I've been wanting to do ever since I created the AP Change Model. I knew as soon as— well, backtracking, when I was doing my master's dissertation, this is going back over a decade, um, I knew I wanted to create something that was, um, practical. I didn't want to do just something theoretical. I, I don't see the point in that. And I was coaching a load of different senior leaders at the time in the civil service, and they would come and say, yeah, yeah, Jennifer, I know about Kotter and stuff, but what the heck do I do with this thing on my desk? And so I decided that was the question I wanted to answer. What the heck do they do with this thing on their desk? And, um, and so that's what I set out and hence created the AB Change Model. And when I created that, I said, I want to share this with everybody so that they know what they need to do when this thing lands on their desk, you know, kind of thing. But being the practical person I am, I also wanted to show a load of case studies. Yeah, the bad, the ugly. And I decided in order to really show all those different levels of case studies and different elements and, and lots of different industries and so forth, I need— I needed 24, 24 case studies. And, um, and that took a while to collect. I can imagine, because there's a lot of analysis. I really found the case studies quite interesting because of the analysis you went into as well. And there's— I'm sure there's many people who are going to buy the book and they'll read about the model and then see it put into action and recognize the same change issues that they need to implement themselves in these case studies. And doing 2 or 3 wasn't just not going to cut it, was it? Yeah, well, that's just it. That's just it. I— and that's— that was the real kind of heart for me, um, were the case studies, because I wanted people to be able I'm, you know, even with 24 case studies, I haven't hit every industry, I haven't hit every specific kind of change situation and so forth. But I'm, the hope is that there is enough similarities for people there to go, ah, that's similar to what I'm facing and what I'm dealing with. And this actually, she shared, went really horribly wrong, or that was a little ugly, or actually that was fantastic. 'Let's— I'm one— let me see if I did that, maybe that would work. Let me just play that out in my head,' you know. So that's the kind of thing I wanted, I wanted to do, um, from that standpoint. So I, I guess, I guess in many ways it was the case is I want to get them right, and I wanted there to be a lot of them, and I wanted them to be, um, I wanted them to be able to really speak to people. I think throughout the book and not just the case studies, you're helping people ask the right questions, which is key. Where can people find out more about you once they read the book and they say, ah, I need to, I need to hear more from Jennifer? Right. So there's, there's several outlets. I have my website, which is jenniferlbryan.com. Um, there I'm also very active on LinkedIn, so people can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm there, I'm on LinkedIn every day unless I'm on holiday sipping cocktails somewhere on a beach. Oh, that sounds lovely. I would like— I know, I know, we're sitting here in January and it's a beautiful blue sky, but it's cold. So, um, that's the only time I'm not on LinkedIn is when I'm, I'm sitting by a beach with some cocktails. Uh, but other than that, I am on LinkedIn, so people can reach out to me there. And, uh, they can get the book. It's in all the online, uh, stores in the UK. That's Amazon, Waterstones, and WHSmiths. And then it's the online stores across the globe. So pretty much Amazon anywhere. And then, you know, if you're in the States, it's Barnes Noble. If you're in Asia, it's Times. Um, so, uh, yeah, so it's in all online stores. Yeah, brilliant. Well, I must say, I really have enjoyed reading it. I thought it was succinct. You got straight to the point, and you didn't just talk for talking's sake to beef up a book. I just think it was beautifully put together, and it was well structured, which you already know that anyway. I'm sure you're getting some great feedback from people that have read the book already. No, thank you very much. I appreciate that. No, it's very kind of you to say, very kind of you. I mean, there's a lot out there on change. The thing that I think that's the trick is there's so many books on change and leadership and leading change and change management. But my own personal experience, so many of them are really big and thick. And when you're someone who's trying to tackle a change in any way. You know, we don't have all the time in the world to become an expert in it. I just need to know what to do. Just tell me what to do. And so that's what I really wanted to help with, is I wanted to be really short, quick, concise. You know, here's what you can do. This is what you do. You know, ask yourself these questions. Think about this, have a think, you know, have, have a think about the, the different elements, the people, what's going on for them, how's it, how's that going to manifest for them, what's that all about. Oh, and by the way, here's a whole bunch of things that— the good, the bad, the ugly, you know. Let's, let's learn from each other, let's, let's share our experiences, and, and that way we can just do— get it right. And the hopefully the first time and, and do it the best way we possibly can, um, from that standpoint, rather than sit there and dive into loads of theory and theory and theory and go, I still don't have a clue what to do. Well, I must say, I think that although the book is absolutely fantastic for leaders, as I said at the beginning of our chat as well, I think it's really good for people to understand just generally why there needs to be change management, understand the obstacles that possibly the leaders of a company that people are working for has to go through these particular hoops. And just, I think knowledge is power. So it's a great book for many different people. Now, I do have a question I like to ask all the guests on Get Booked, and that's— and I'm sure you're going to come up with some crackers for this one— do you have 3 top tips on just maintaining good mental well-being? Ah, good mental well-being. Yes, I do. I mean, I think mental— doing mental well-being, at the root of it, is doing things you love to do. Um, because when we love to do something, we feel good about it, and we feel good about us doing it. So for me, I, I love to dance. And I used to be a dancer once upon a time. I was a ballet dancer, and so I, and I still love it. I absolutely, if you, you sat there, you could get me on the dance floor in a matter of 3 seconds, you know. But that, so I feel good when I, when I dance. So I do a ballet class once a week locally, and that makes me feel good. I go to the gym as well. I don't enjoy the gym as much, nearly as much. I find it a little tedious, but I feel I got to go so I can get the exercise. I really love walks as well, out in when it's a beautiful day like this, go in the nature reserve, walk in the woods. I really like that. I think it— I just think spending time with ourselves also is good. So If we can have a few moments alone on our own, and that's not easy to do many times. You need to put that into place. That's something that you need to plan for, but it is important. It is. It is. So, and, and whatever that means, even if it's, you know, 15 minutes while you're having a cup of tea and staring out the window, that is your alone time to just let your thoughts go all over in your head. And, and that's, I think, really, really important. So that is our kind of my top tips for well-being. Yeah, sometimes you need— it's such a powerful tool if you know what's going to bring you round, whether it's watching comedy, going for the walk, doing the work. I know sometimes if I'm feeling ridiculously lethargic You're right, going to the gym isn't always amazing, but you know you feel better afterwards. It's always going to help. But, um, yeah, they're brilliant. Thank you so much, Jennifer, for joining us on Get Booked for Women's and Men's Radio Station. I've really enjoyed chatting to you. Thank you very much, Hazel. I loved talking to you and about putting people at the heart of decision-making. It was really fun. I really enjoyed this. And please, listeners, go and pop on to jenniferlbryan.com. To find out more. Thank you for listening to Get Booked. No worries. Thank you. See you later. That was today's guest, Jennifer Bryan, who now is going to read us a little extract of today's book, Leading People in Change, a practical Guide. Leading People in Change: A Practical Guide by Jennifer Bryan. Chapter 1: Isn't change management simply good communication? One thing is certain: change is all around us and is always happening because the world is constantly changing. The big motivator for change is to make things better in one way or another, whether this is because of a crisis, high performance, reconciliation, market fluctuations, etc. The specific reasons vary, but the overarching aim for organizations is predominantly the same: to make things better, which— this is to increase profit, market share, differentiation, whatever that may be. The desire for us as a society at the moment to make things better is enormous. All you have to do is visit the very large self-help section of any bookshop, online or otherwise. We are constantly looking to others to show us how we can be better than we are now. For example, by losing weight, or controlling stress or anger, or you fill in the blank with a range of self-improvements. Our desire for improvement extends to our professional lives, and the organizations in which we work. In these instances, the overarching driver for change or improvement is leadership. Statistics have proven that the most common reason an individual would leave or remain within an organization is due to the relationship, or lack thereof, within their line manager. The components of change management. So, how does leadership impact change? To start, let's discuss what change is and how it happens. At its most basic, change is what happens when you move from one state to another state. It is not a perfect process and cannot always be planned. Even when change is managed, it does not always go according to plan. A range of factors such as circumstances, finances, and people can impact how change occurs. The way people react to change has a great impact not only on the approach or levels of resistance to change, but also on whether the change is actually applied and happens. Taking into consideration that some people cope with unpredictability better than others, it is critical for managers to remember first and foremost, the people they are leading and managing. After all, they are the people who will actually make the change happen, one way or another. The way change happens is very dependent on the behavior of people. As a result, there will be a strong focus on the behavior of leadership in this book, as it is through behavior we can understand what we should or should not do as leaders in change. When it comes to organizational change, or change within an organization, there is a dependency on the skill and ability of leaders to flex their leadership styles. For example, Sally was a senior leader in a regional office and her natural leadership style was coaching. When she first started out in the role, she wanted to coach the culture of how her team contributed to and resolved business challenges. She wanted them to take more responsibility and collaborate as a team. In the beginning, her coaching leadership style was not enabling the change she wanted to make. This was due to the team not being used to working in this way, and they were skeptical of her motives and approach. The previous leader used a telling or commanding approach, so they were used to someone telling them what to do, not asking them what they thought they should do. Sally realized she needed to flex her typical style to help the team make the transition and demonstrate that she genuinely wanted their thoughts and ideas. It took some time and took longer than Sally originally anticipated for the change to happen, but she eventually got the impact and result she was aiming for with the culture change. Organizational leaders need to recognize that change is complex, imperfect, and dependent on human behaviors. Managing change also requires flexibility in leadership styles. Many managers believe that if they tell people what the change is, then people will come and do or use it. However, experience has demonstrated on multiple occasions that this is not the case. People need to be brought along on the journey of change. They need to understand not only what the change is, but how different the new state is in comparison to the current state, and how that specifically has an impact on them, not to mention why they should cooperate with the change in the first place. Individual behavior has a great impact on the outputs of change, and it only really happens when people are willing to make the change. To continue the above example, if Sally carried on applying her typical leadership style of coaching rather than flexing her approach and using different styles to help her team through the change, then she would not have achieved the result she was aiming for. This is because she needed to help the people in her team to change their behavior and want to make the change. She needed to be confident and reassure her team that there would not be negative repercussions Her ask of the team was genuine and wanted. The role of the team in understanding and dealing with the change was critical to managing the shift towards a better culture. Peters says we should not discuss change but organizational revolution. Argyris talks about change management as flawed advice. Kotter puts forward a top-down change transformation process, and Beer, Einstadt, and Specter discuss a bottom-up process. With all these different ideas on managing change, is it no wonder the subject is confusing? So, perhaps the best way to start is to take into consideration the different approaches to managing change. If the view that organizations are complex open social systems is accepted, then those systems will impact the results of change within organizations. As we have already mentioned, it is well known that change only really happens within an organization if the individuals are willing to make the change. The congruence model of organizational behavior defines a set of 4 inputs that lead to a transformation process within the organizational components, which then lead to the outputs of change highlighted by Organizational Organizational Performance. According to this model, essentially, an organization takes inputs and then generates outputs. So, it is within the transformation process where change occurs. It is during this phase that leadership behaviors and skills are critical to the outputs generated. To change anything requires the cooperation and consent of the groups and individuals who make up an organization, for it is only through their behavior that an organization can change. Quotes from Burns, 2004. The question is, how can leadership and change skills be linked together to give managers a roadmap to follow when implementing change? Utilizing the model above, there are some key questions that should be asked at the start when working with, managing, or dealing with a change. 1. Who needs to be involved? 2. What tactics or methods will best deliver the change? 3. How ready is the organization and its people for change? In my experience, the first two questions are typically asked within an organization, which is why stakeholder management and communication are two key elements within any change management job description. However, the third question, how ready is the organization and its people for the change, is one that is not asked very often and can have huge impacts on the success of the change. It may seem obvious, but it is a common mistake within an organization for a person to decide a change needs to happen, pull together a project team without asking whether the organization is ready for it. For example, do they have all the right processes, procedures, policies, tools to enable the change? If the organization is set up for the change, do the employees have everything they need? How ready are the people? Do they want the change? What is in it for them to change? Why would they want to make the change? Many times the "What's in it for me?" also known as "WIFM" question is posed at a much later state in the change process when actually it needs to be factored should be put in at the very start of the change, as this will drive the vision, communication, motivation, and hence the people through the change. All of these questions should be used and asked by every leader or manager of change. This will help greatly when it comes to applying the ABC change model and driving the change down a path of success. Thank you so much for joining me for today's webinar. Today's Get Booked. I'm Hazel Butterfield, and you can find out more about the books that I've been reading at hazelbutterfield.com and my specific book Insta feed at @getbookedwrs for bookstagram porn. I'm Hazel Butterfield, and you've been listening to Get Booked for Women's Radio Station and Men's Radio Station. Catch me here every day of the week at 5 PM for women's and 4 PM for Men's Radio Station. And of course, you can catch up on previous shows at womensradiostation.com/shows/getbooked and on our SoundCloud. Right now, here's a little bit of a teaser, sneaky peek of last week's show if you missed it. Thank you so much for listening. Right now on Get Booked, we have Russell Dumper with Britannia Rises: Ruling the Waves Was Just the Beginning. This is book one. It's a dystopian of sorts, thriller of underworld and underhand tactics to gain control and amass power for the British Empire. A mixture of economic obfuscation, civil liberties distortions, enemies created to suit an agenda, and way too many true-to-life parallels to feel comfortable with. It's brilliantly written, excellently researched, and seemingly very well clued up on military combat and operative knowledge that just got you hooked. It's very clever, and what a great debut. Not for those who dislike graphic violence, for sure, but I'm all over it. Uh, welcome to the show, Russell. How are you? I'm very good, thank you. Yes, good to be here. Thanks for having me. You're very welcome. Um, I was, I was surprised when I first saw the book. I thought it would be quite, uh, historically based, And as I said, I was quite hooked, and there are some really, really dodgy parallels that just kind of make you think, I wonder where he's got this information from. It's quite interesting because the book has been written, um, well, I've really— I sort of had the idea for it 20— when I was a teenager, so what, 30 years ago now. Oh wow. And I'm written it and rewritten it when I've been failing to find a publishing house for it. Um, and, um, actually a lot of the themes in it are from the original material written 30 years ago, so it's quite interesting. Maybe a little, uh, a little worrying how accurate some of it is turning out to be. Well, yes, because I, I assume the beginning is, uh, something that was quite a new idea because the way that you described um, the Queen and the monarchy taking over just seemed like there was about 95% parallels there. Well, no, the, um, actually, it was— I was sending it out to people before the Queen died, and, and I've— I do think probably the reason it actually got picked up was because that happened. Um, so it's, um, but I researched the because the, the Queen had a plan for the funeral, and that was not that difficult to research what was actually going to happen in that. So I researched that before I wrote it, and, uh, yeah, I changed a few bits, um, and, um, yeah, it was, uh, turned out to be quite accurate, I think. Uh, very accurate, yeah. Although a lot of people predicted what would happen, I guess. With our current and real-life princes as well. Even 10, 15, 20 years ago, they kind of could see the writing on the wall a little bit. Do you agree? Um, maybe. I mean, I personally didn't see what— didn't see the recent, um, should we call it conflict? I didn't see that coming. But, um, yeah, um, it worked quite nicely because, uh, that's kind of what I wanted for my story. So, uh, So, uh, yeah, they've done me a favor there, I think. Well, yeah, probably intentionally. Yeah, yeah, sure. I'm sure they're fans already. Um, and what else was quite an eye-opener for me was the more intricate and dangerous concept of economic warfare, which you actually described quite easily. It was quite I found it easy to get on board and to understand the concept. I mean, I know certain elements of it goes on, but just the concept of so many underlying themes and workings going on to put a particular country on the back foot, you know, prior to taking them over, and how to mess people over economically is the main tool of war. Yeah, and, um, it's been, it's been quite interesting actually because, um, when you talk about Imperial sort of novels and films and any sort of media, um, there's not really— I've not seen this done before. And it was an idea that interested me a long ago, um, because I studied economics at university and, um, I found the idea intriguing then, um, And then when this sort of story started developing, I thought, well, this is a slightly different way of going about things, and I think it could be interesting for the, for the book. And the tricky, the tricky thing about it is being that actually with what's going on in the world these days, particularly what's going on in America, you can see that kind of thing actually sort of starting to happen now. And it was completely fiction when it was first conceived of, but now it's not quite so fictional. It's a bit odd to see it occurring, not the way it does in the book, but so you see the beginnings of it, don't you? And it's a bit peculiar, but yeah, good, maybe good for sales. So I shouldn't complain too much. Yeah, I just find it interesting, the fact that you can look out for these things. I think knowledge is power, and sometimes it's nice to know what's going on, to understand a little bit what's going on around you. Um, even if it is a little bit scary. And I did say in the intro that it's a dystopian book of sorts. Do you see what I mean about that? Because it's kind of— I don't think you actually specify a year, do you? And it can't be— no, that far in the future. But I think it's as if we started going that way a bit further back. Yeah, it's a bit Because, um, I mean, the, um, when it— when I sort of, um, got and started working with the Combo Press on it, um, they described it as dystopian. But I'd never done that really until then, because to me it was just a thriller novel. Um, and I sort of— when I originally set out, started writing it many years ago, um, the whole idea of having it in the near future so that you could make it more believable as to what's occurred. Um, and, um, I invented all this sort of technology. Um, and when I came to rewriting it a few years ago, once my children were a little bit older and I have the time to do it, um, actually a lot of the technology I'd invented now existed. So it was a bit— it was a little bit weird that I had to change all of the technology in it because we had everything that I'd sort of made up. Near enough, not quite all of it. You predicted the future. But dystopian, I suppose, is the bracket it falls into. But I think it's not just a dystopian novel. It's definitely a series that's— I had a good description said to me the other day, actually. And it was somebody on social media described it as if The Crown, Game of Thrones, and James Bond got together and had a baby. And I thought that was quite good. Who said that? Um, I was— somebody on social media. I couldn't— I couldn't tell you the name, but I quite liked it. I thought that was quite a good one. I'm gonna steal that and use that. Do you know what? I think the best thrillers out there are the ones that are way too true to life. Yeah, it's very conceivable, isn't it? Yeah, and, um, it's been, it's been quite nice because I've had quite a lot of feedback about sort of— because there's quite a lot of these sort of, um, stories out there, but nothing's quite been done like this before with the British Empire and what could have happened if it hadn't fallen apart.