Change Management in Times of Uncertainty
Change management is essential for adapting to evolving regulations, market dynamics, and customer expectations. But, our client — a superannuation business — needed change management support during a trying period where uncertainty, ambiguity threatened to derail the organization.
The complex problem at a glance
This organization had about 120 people and offered superannuation and financial advisory services to employees of their local state government. As a state government owned entity, the leadership team had less control of the organization’s future given political decisions determined its likely future state..
The superannuation industry has undergone extensive consolidation, with larger firms becoming dominant players - calling into question the relevance of the business within the State government’s organizational structure.
Lack of clarity
Political leaders held continued and extensive discussions about our client’s future over many months, with options including continuation as is, merging with other providers, or closing altogether being tabled. These discussions and other critical communications were not made public, and the decision-making process lacked clear timelines.
This created a situation where the leadership of the organization had limited control over the processes or outcomes.
Falling engagement
With staff limited communication - some of which coming through media and political channels, employee engagement dropped as staff felt uncertain. They looked to their leaders for clarity and to provide context - which they did not have,
Putting plans in motion.
After consulting with the CEO and leadership team, we knew the company needed a multifaceted approach to change management.
Assessing the landscape with an engagement survey
Our initial interaction with this client involved an engagement survey to reveal what factors were impacting engagement. Starting here was instrumental in shaping our understanding of the leadership team's role and led to our supporting them in their change efforts.
Survey findings for leaders
- Disengaged leaders. The leadership team (six people) were disengaged — our discussions with them identified that they felt the lack of future clarity and direction as much as their teams. They too felt somewhat helpless to influence those outcomes.
- Narrow rather than broad outlook . The Leaders were hyper-focused on their areas of responsibility. They become absorbed in their own spheres of responsibility, striving for personal success and concentrating on manageable tasks. This is a natural response given they felt overwhelmed by the level of ambiguity and larger challenges facing the organization, but highlighted the narrowness of their thinking when they needed to be more strategically focused.
- Frustration and lack of fulfillment: The leadership team felt frustrated by their powerlessness, especially around their lack of ability to plan and strategize for the company and the impact on their own career aspirations.
Survey findings for non leaders
- Low confidence in leadership. There was a lack of confidence in the leadership team, particularly in their ability to set a clear vision for the future of the organization.
- Concerns about job security. Participants expressed concerns about job security and their opportunities for career advancement.
- Disengaged staff. This pattern was evident throughout the organization with individuals fixated on adhering to processes, avoiding mistakes, and maintaining a low profile to prevent drawing attention to themselves.
Following the engagement survey, leaders had an “aha’ moment — they were aware of their situation, but not the impact it had on either teams. Through 1:1 interviews, team discussions and survey debriefs, we were able to shed light on what had been manifesting over time and start to work with them up change their own and the organization’s reactions to the challenges they faced.
Solutions for the leadership team
Personal profiles, 360 feedback & coaching
To better understand how their frustrations were manifesting and the way that they were perceived by others, the leadership team completed personality profiles and provided feedback on each other through a customized 360 feedback mechanism..We focused specifically on their motivations and preferences and the aspects of their leadership styles that could derail them. We then supported them, through a program of individual coaching, helping them overcome personal roadblocks, build a personal sense of engagement to solve the issues in front of them and more effectively manage their frustrations.
A mini case study: managing disruptive behavior
The leader of the Sales Team — an extremely talented and extroverted individual — was frustrated by his situation. He had ambitious growth plans and had a preference for a positive, energetic work environment. The organization's situation and mood, led to his being bored and, to create a sense of excitement, his reaction to this was to become more controversial in team meetings, creating annoyance and frustration in his more conservative peers.
This behavior, although innocent in his mind, was disruptive and disrespectful to his colleagues. Through coaching, we gave him different strategies to manage his more impulsive reactions and reflect on his aspired impact on others. This massively helped him control his more ‘mischievous’ behaviors and contributed to more productive meetings and an improved team environment.
Workshops
After three months of one-on-one coaching, we began team workshops — four workshops, one day each, over a four-month period. The workshops were designed to create unity, connection, and team alignment through organizational change.
After each workshop, we asked participants to articulate their individual action plans and evolved our coaching approach to support their achievement.
1. Leadership team effectiveness workshop
We started with the fundamentals of leadership teams, accountability, and collaboration.
One of the bigger focuses of this workshop was a collective understanding of each other's coping mechanisms.
To function more cohesively, we worked with the leadership team to build routines and approaches that minimized frustration and gave them a framework for calling out and responding to more damaging behaviors when they arose.
2. Skills-based workshop
This was around career development and support, which was one of the drivers of engagement in the business for staff. Concerns about job security had been expressed in the engagement survey, so we worked with our client to develop their skills in finding opportunities for career development within the company. This was seen as challenging given low recruitment levels (created by the uncertainty of structure and hence future staffing needs). As a result we focused on role expansion, project delivery roles and upskilling for increased organizational and team resilience.
3. Responsibility and accountability workshop
Leaders were so lost in the constraints of their roles and that feeling of powerlessness, they’d completely lost sight of the powers and responsibilities they did have available to them. This workshop was about controlling what you can when things feel out of control. It was designed to instill ownership and empower the leadership team to see they still had many opportunities to lead and influence and were not simply responding to circumstance. This included the way that they were running the business and their focus on internal initiatives that would lead to improved customer and commercial outcomes.
4. Leading change workshop
This workshop focused on how to communicate and connect with the business when there was very little to update people on. when you’ve got nothing to say, but don’t have the luxury of saying nothing. Leaders had period of up to six months with zero communication from the state bureaucracy and politicians, but still had to update their teams. Again we worked with the leadership team to identify how they might bridge these gaps .
With our guidance, leaders began to hold staff meetings every two weeks instead of going without meetings for months at a time. They introduced small celebratory events to boost positivity, and openly shared their inability to provide political insights or clarity about future developments. They committed to provide business updates every two week, even if these constrained no substantive updates - predominantly as a mechanism to invite questions and keep a pulse on the sentiment within the organization. Their main goal was to reduce uncertainty within the organization.
Six months later…
After six months, we redid the 360 feedback which revealed that perceptions of the team — and perceptions of the individuals within and outside of the team — were improving and moving in the right direction.
- 80% of the leadership team reported feeling more connected to one another and the organization, and felt more confident as a team (up from 20%).
- 65% of employees had more confidence in the leadership team (previously 30%).
- 50% of employees believed their leaders had an appropriate long-term plan for the business (up from 20%).
- Coaching helped individual team members to overcome personal and group challenges in the workplace.
A smooth merger
Around nine months after our partnership with this organization ended, the company ended up merging with others. Although RHR’s involvement was not directly related to this, our intervention and strategies for change management helped with the transition. We’d helped create a better, more positive working environment for people, and this was carried through to the new shape of the organization after the merger.
Are you facing organizational challenges like the ones our client encountered?
Let's work together to create a more connected, empowered, and successful future for your team.
Contact us to explore how our comprehensive approach to change management — including engagement surveys, personal profiling, coaching, and workshops — can transform your organization's dynamics and lead to positive results.