EUROPEAN CHANGE FORUM - 2014

Let’s talk about the resistance phenomenon during change processes!

How do we make change come alive and create communication for those who are intelligent enough to identify immediately that the upcoming change might have a negative impact on them? 
How to handle those people who have not just the feeling of losing their comfort zone but even more, have reasonable doubts about the benefits for them personally? It is not enough to tell them everything is going to be just fine! They just won’t believe it. And they are right! 
Nevertheless resistance needs to be expected in a change, but how do we respond to the ability of systems to bounce back to zero after new impulses?

Society and corporate governance need those people who resist new ideas otherwise every bad idea would win just as quickly as good ones. We need intelligent resistance in order to prevent fooleries.
But how do we distinguish between people with reasonable and appropriate resistance from those who are just reluctant to change anyway?

And how can we make use out of collective intelligence in order to steer the change in an intelligent way?
Having 26 years of business experience in change management, he has seen good and bad examples of dealing with constructive resistance. Georg Kraus is going to lead you through this topic in his unique practice and storytelling manner. Benefit from his fundamental expert knowledge.

In times of changes often arises a tendency to discredit the ones in charge – or the idea of change itself. The speech will focus on the impact an image will have on trust and behaviours of people and how it contributes to success or failure of any change process.

Media tend to present corporations and their Management Boards as ruthless, instigating change only to the worse of employees. Unfortunately this image is subsequently confirmed through scandals caused by some unethical behaviour and disgraceful practice of some top managers. Most leaders are trying to do their best for the company and its employees by aligning economic needs to the requirements of the social community. Nevertheless the mud of that ruthless minority leaves its mark also on those with best intentions.

Anybody driving a process of change needs to be aware of the subconscious field of imminent prejudice he or she is inevitably stepping into. It is not a blank page. Most people have already stamped the small print on it. So what does it need to get through this filter of fixed expectations and projections?

Carolina Serrano Archimi is going to share best and worse practices with you, providing you in her sparkling and practise focused way with clear impulses how to create a clean and encouraging image right from the beginning of the change process.

In many organizations change has become the “new normal”. The amount of significant changes has grown tremendously over the past decade and in the meantime Change Management graduates to the boardroom.
It seems that change is relatively easily designed and planned by the top management with little changes for their day-to-day lives. The real impact on day-to-day activities - based on different technology, different processes, team structure or even in the organizational culture – is on the mid-level management. In many change processes the new way of working and the new processes or ideas trickle away after the mid management level.
With their sandwich position they get the pressure from top and down and have to deal with multiple changes which are sometimes not conformable so that they are scared to lose credibility. In order to enable them to proceed and implement the changes into the organisation the change process/architecture needs to involve the whole leadership span in an appropriate way to ensure that all of them are committed to drive the change.
From this perspective, the mid-level management seems to be the tipping point to ensure changes are managed sustainable. Although they are affected so much, they are mostly not involved to build the change strategy process at an early stage.

What has to be done to engage and enable them to proceed the changes? How do we need to design a change and build competencies in order to shift this “barrier” into a supporting function?

Monika Eifert is going to reflect these issues with you in an interactive workshop and is going to share her best practice of different ways of changes in her 16-years’ experience. She supported and experienced the approach of a top down and a participating way of cultural change in various international organizations form a global and a local level and will discuss
and work on failure and success factors in her very practical and stirring manner.

Stephan Wabnegger has a background in working for owners of midsized engineering companies in an international environment. Being a dedicated sales person, Stephan Wabnegger is typically asked to increase an organization’s turnover, make use of his network, improve processes and products. Whilst this is ostensibly the task, the real work lies hidden behind a curtain of rules and silent agreements. To overcome this the leading figure, the owner, has to be convinced to lead the change – by changing his approach.

In our culture it is a common phenomenon that a boss is expected to be some kind of hero and the entrepreneur who is consistently following new and innovative paths. It is still seen as a sign of weakness to admit failures. Therefore it is not easy to listen to people who are criticizing - and even more to reflect one’s own opinion and challenge one’s own decision.

It needs courage to show constructive resistance and give feedback to the owner. Who likes to tell his boss that he is about to make a mistake or to get carried away? Employees may feel alone with their opinions and question themselves but would not dare to question their boss.

In his speech Stephan Wabnegger will share his experience with owner lead organizations and will demonstrate how important it is to create an open feedback culture on both sides.

Axel Baisch is chancellor of HHL – Leipzig Graduate School of Management, the most traditional graduate business school in Germany. In his speech he will describe the successful process of the reinvention of this Leipzig business school.

HHL, unlike most business schools, belongs to the category university (versus a university of applied sciences). Universities need to dedicate more of their time and capacity to research, which is a big cost factor not generating any immediate revenue. Universities are therefore much more expensive than universities of applied sciences and it is much more difficult to reach a break-even. Revenue is mostly generated from sponsoring for the chairs and chair holders as well as by tuition fees; hence, HHL competes for graduate students on the international market.

In order to remain competitive, HHL developed in 2011 the future-concept “innovate 125”. The idea is to reinvent and reposition the organization within four to five years in order to achieve a significant rise and turnaround in:

• growth of faculty and students
• the quality of research and teaching,
• internationality,
• profile of the school
• management and administrative processes and
• funding and financing.
   

To achieve the change agenda a clear change story, early communication and targeted employee engagement were key. The message delivered the answer to “why change?” and described the change program.

Axel Baisch has been highly involved in the organizational change of HHL. Thus, the delivery of his message is very authentic. He delivers the case in an enthusiastic, stirring fashion. Get inspired by this success story!