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By Phil Eastman
As a young executive in the banking industry, I was on the rise in my career when the family that owned the small Idaho bank I worked for decided to sell to KeyBank of Albany, New York. You can imagine my shock when I heard the news. I had hoped to build a banking career with a small Idaho community bank. In fact, I had chosen to work for Idaho Bank and Trust (IB&T) because I knew the executives and respected what they had built. With the abrupt change in ownership I was thrown into the "topsy-turvey world" of bank mergers. This was to be one of many mergers and acquisitions to follow. In our work at Leadership Advisors Group on change
management, (helping organizations achieve their
business results by effectively managing the people side
of change) we help our clients understand and
effectively deal with the resistance that is inevitable when
change occurs.
So when my little community bank was sold in 1988, I had
not ever experienced resistance for myself. I remember
vividly my reaction to the announcement that the name of
the bank would be changed from Idaho Bank & Trust to
KeyBank. I thought to myself and stated out loud in
meetings that if the folks from Albany changed the name
of the bank to KeyBank, we would lose all of our
customers. I said there would be "a mass exodus of our
valued clients into the streets of every town where we did
business and our competitors would rejoice that our small
community bank was being taken over by a group from
New York. Forget that you are from Albany not New York
City, it is all the same in Idaho."
I even took my protest of the name change into a forum of
KeyBank acquirers. I stated my objection and concern for
all to hear. I said "you don't understand how things work
in Idaho. It's Different Here! If you take down our
IB&T signs we will lose all our customers." The new
owners in the room politely but clearly stated for me that
even though I was objecting they would be changing the
bank's name. Still firm in my resistance I went back to
work and waited for the catastrophe to begin.
Banks are ranked in size by the dollar amount of their
assets. When KeyBank purchased IB&T we were a $500
million dollar bank based on assets. Within three years of
the name change we were a $1.5 billion dollar bank and
experiencing success that surpassed anything we could
have done on our own without new ownership.
Last week while working with a client that has a
global reach, the audience for our work included people
from four continents, multiple nationalities, and several
languages. During our discussion of a new business
process implementation one of the people stated "this
process will not work because, It's Different Here!"
Well you can imagine my mind reeled back to 1988
when I said the same thing about my situation.
The truth is that it is not different here (wherever here is
for you). At a micro level each of us live and work in
unique situations but at a macro level people are people.
When you think about this, it is actually quite comforting
because it means we can be reasonably predictive about
the way people will handle change. Since change
management means helping organizations achieve their
objectives by effectively managing the people side of
change we can use tested processes and tools which
make managing change less mysterious and more
predictable.
If you would like to learn more about how we help
organizations achieve their objectives by effectively
managing the people side of change just give me a call or
drop me a note. You can reach me at 208.344.0471 or by
e-mailing phil@leadershipadvisors.com.
Phil Eastman is the founder and
president of
Leadership Advisors Group, a Boise-based
consulting firm. Phil combines more than 25
years of leadership experience with his passion
for consulting, coaching, and teaching to develop
leaders, build teams, and improve performance.
It is his desire to enhance leadership
effectiveness for all of his clientele.
Phil earned a Bachelors of Business Administration
degree in Management and Organization from Idaho State
University. He is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking
School at the University of Washington where he is also
an instructor. Phil also holds a Master of Arts degree in
Theological Studies from Bethel Seminary.
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by Lorene Rasmussen
At Leadership Advisors, we spend a good portion of our consulting practice working with clients examine the human side of change management. Whether the change is something that is needed and desired or it's being forced upon an individual/organization, the most common and natural reaction is resistance. As a beginning runner, I have both resisted and embraced
a myriad of changes in order to achieve my ultimate goal,
which is to cross the finish line at the Marine Corp
Marathon, injury free and with a smile. I have been diligent
about my running posture, training schedule, and
Saturday morning runs. I have changed my nutrition,
hydration, and my socks. And over the last few months, I
have even changed my attitude from "I have to run" to "I
get to run" which is no small feat. I have adapted and
adopted leadership and change models to work
specifically for my situation. I have felt like "a force to be
reckoned with."
So when our family's international trip came up in March, I
was sure the only thing that would change in my
training was the locale. Well as you can imagine, I was
more than wrong (again).
Argentine summer humidity, torrential rains, flooding, and
two lane roads with three lanes of cars were just a few of
the surprises that awaited me. Then there's the whole
thing about supper time. The restaurants don't even open
until 8:00 pm which is considered early seating. Most of
the time we ate dinner around 10:00 pm, which is my
normal bedtime in the states.
Now, I am not complaining, but those beautiful people
never go to bed! No wonder they still honor the traditional
siesta time. Add all those differences up, mix in some jet
lag, and multiply it with the fact that as a blond hair, blued
eyed, North American woman, my host recommended I
not run in their middle class neighborhood. I bet you
can't guess who was resisting change?
As I mentioned earlier, I have adapted and adopted many
of the models we use for leadership development and
change management to help explain the process I have
been going through. The model that I have memorize,
studied, cussed, and flexed the most during the last 4
months is ADKAR.
Before I get into the acronym and explanation of the
principles, let me tell you a little bit about its origin.
ADKAR was developed by Jeffrey M. Hiatt, the
president
of Prosci Research and founder of the Change
Management Learning Center in Boulder, Colorado. Jeff
has lead research for over 900 companies from 59
countries. My partner Phil is a certified executive trainer
with Prosci and uses these methodologies when our
clients need to lead change of all different scopes.
With that said, let me share the acronym and principles
behind the ADKAR model.
In his book, ADKAR, Jeff Hiatt
writes, "The
elements of the ADKAR model fall into the natural
order of how one person experiences change.
Desire cannot come before awareness
because it is the awareness of the need for
change that
stimulates our desire or triggers our resistance to that
change. Knowledge cannot come before
desire because we do not seek to know how to do
something that we do not want to do. Ability
cannot come before knowledge because we
cannot implement what we do not know.
Reinforcement cannot come before ability
because we can only recognize and appreciate what has
been achieved."
At this point I could go into great detail about how I have
applied each point to my running but I want to focus on the
fourth element of the model, ability and how this
trip hindered my capability to implement the changes I
have made in my running.
Ability is, the demonstrated achievement of the change.
There are several factors that can impact a person's
ability to implement the desired change. Psychological
blocks, physical abilities, intellectual capabilities, available
time needed to develop skills, and availability of resources
to support skill development.
If you've been following my story at all, you know I have
made ample changes in my run/walk methodology. You
have suffered through the cold, the shin splints, my
mountain runs, modifying my gait, correcting my posture,
and some of my private pathos. You have heard how I
have wanted to quit and how I have been elated when
everything comes together.
Until my trip, I had made great strides through the
ADKAR
model and was moving comfortably into reinforcement.
Then I flew South-East of the Andes for my youngest
son's wedding and everything changed, again. I still had
my posture and gait in tact but my ability was severely
impaired by the new environment. It's like, being the
world's best swimmer in a desert. Without water, you
can't demonstrate your achievement.
By day 4, I was thankful when my oldest son agreed to
run, so our host took us to a "safe park" near the
university and we put in 45 uninterrupted sweaty minutes.
It was glorious! As fate would have it, on day 5 it started
to rain. I am not talking about a little drizzle here and
there, I am talking RAIN! People run in rain all the time,
right? This was a gully washer.
Luckily the rain rested some on day 6, which happened to
be the wedding day, but it returned on day 7 and kept all of
us inside. By day 8 it hadn't stopped and on day 9 my
running partner needed to leave. Day 10 wasn't any
different and by day 11 and 12, the rivers and reservoirs
were pouring over their sides and some homes were
being evacuated. My host had never seen that kind of
rain in his whole life living in Argentina.
But day 13 was different, we woke up to the most spectacular sunshine and fresh air. I bounced out of bed, put on my running gear, went out to kitchen and declared, "Sam, take me to the park and let me run!" I didn't care if I had to do it alone. By that point, the only thing I was afraid of was losing all my conditioning and running skills. After 6 miles, I decided to return to my host's car where he was graciously waiting for this very sweaty but happy lunatic. The next day we left for home. Leading change within an organization is about working
with the individuals to help them manage their resistance
to change. It's about increasing the probability of a
project's success by meeting/exceeding the business
objectives as well as keeping projects on schedule. It's
about building a change competency into the DNA of your
organization so whether the project is big or small,
everyone is equipped with the tools to handle change.
Just as I have become a "force to be reckoned with" in
pursuit of my personal goal toward the Marine Corp
Marathon, the individuals within your organization can also
adopt and adapt change management principles so they
too can lead the way to success.
Running Through Argentina is # 4 in a series of
articles that are being featured throughout 2007 in The
Leadership
Advisor.
In May, we will explore team building and how it got
Lorene to the Robie Creek Race.
Lorene Rasmussen is the Partner for
Business Operations which guides and supports
the daily and strategic operations of Leadership
Advisors Group. She combines a unique sense of
fun and organization to insure operations "run/walk"
smoothly and that clients receive the highest
quality service possible.
Lorene earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in marketing from Boise State University and is a certified Life Coach through Genesis Enterprises in Seattle, Washington. Lorene is currently attending the school of hard-knocks as she continues down the path to MCM 2007. ** Photo courtesy of Luanna Rozentals **
Running Children was taken in Cordoba, Argentina |
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"The greatest waste in the world is the difference between
what we are and what we could become." ~ Ben
Herbster
 Phil Eastman & Lorene Rasmussen
Leadership Advisors Group
email:
phil@leadershipadvisors.com
phone:
(208) 344-0471
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