Newton and Change Management

Around 334 years ago, in the year 1686, Sir Issac Newton propounded his three Laws of Motion in the “Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis”. These laws, as we all know, serve as the foundation of classical mechanics and act as the basis of all physical motion ranging from vehicles to projectiles, spacecrafts and even astronomical objects.

Newton once said, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” And like him, if we make an attempt to stand on his giant shoulders and look beyond physics, we can come to a realization that his fundamental Laws of Motion actually have a strong application in the area of Change Management.

In this article, let me try to expand on this analogy, and explain how we can apply Newton’s Laws of Motion in the context of Organizational Change Management.

First of all, let us refresh our memories on what these three laws are

• First Law: Every object persists in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it
• Second Law: Force is equal to the change in momentum per change in time; For constant mass, force is mass times acceleration (F = m * a)
• Third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

So, now let us see how these laws apply in the Change Management context

• First Law: The first law is also called as the Law of Inertia and says that unless a force is applied an object will stay at rest or in its existing path of motion. This is very true in an organizational context also where stakeholders and actions will remain unchanged or run its normal course unless there is an external force pushing for the change to happen. The force could come in the form of market factors or in the form of an internal change agent like you. And it is only this force that will make the organization change its current state.

• Second Law: The second law helps us understand the magnitude of the Force required to move an object at a certain rate. If you view this in the organizational change context, the force or organizational push required to drive change depends on the size of change (mass) in terms of the number of stakeholders impacted, the magnitude/ extent of the change and how quickly (acceleration) the change needs to be implemented in the organization. Naturally, the force will need to be much higher if the magnitude or impact of the change is very high or if the change needs to be implemented very quickly.

• Third law: The third law is probably the most popular and easiest to understand because it says that whenever there is an action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. In the organizational setup, the reaction could simply mean the rebuttal or opposition to change. But many a time it is important to understand that this is also about the magnitude of emotional energy that gets formed directly against the change and may manifest in very different forms. Hence every change practitioner needs to prepare a strategy to address this counter energy through various forms of stakeholder management approaches and active manage the reactions.

In conclusion, Newton’s Laws of Motion give us a strong perspective on Change Management and help us understand that just like physical forces move the world around is, it is "change forces" that help move our organizations ahead!

So how are you going to deploy "change forces" in your organization?

Nemawashi – Driving consensus in Executive Decision making

Thanks to one of my mentors, I learnt about the Japanese principle of “Nemawashi” and how this idea helps organizations build consensus towards change.

So, what is Nemawashi?

Nemawashi is technique used by Japanese farmers (and bonsai experts), where before transplanting a tree to a new location, they dig around the roots and introduce soil/dirt from the new location. This process helps the tree get accustomed to the new environment even before it went there. It is basically the groundwork done for successfully transplanting the tree.

In a similar way, when you do Nemawashi in your organization, you informally start laying the foundation for a change or a new idea that you are proposing, by going around, sharing the difficult proposal to relevant stakeholders, gathering support, feedback, concerns and consent in a safe environment.

In these situations, stakeholders are less insecure and will share their honest opinions with you. You hence get an opportunity to understand their concerns and address any gaps in your proposal. Most importantly stakeholders will really appreciate the fact that you showed trust and sought their inputs in confidence before placing the proposal in a meeting.

And on the D-day, when you present your proposal to your full executive team, even your die-hard critics will not criticize the idea. Because they don't feel threatened by a new idea coming in and more so because they have already shared their reactions with you. And in case you have taken their feedback and also refined your proposal, you may actually have a new advocate for the idea.

In my experience, I have seen that if you run an iterative process of successive nemawashi meetings supported by refinements to your plan, you almost always end up with a really good plan to win.

So, have I convinced you to become a nemawashi-er?

The Change Manifesto

Many years ago, a colleague shared this quote

“First They Ignore You, Then They Laugh at You, Then They Fight You, Then You Win”

This truly is one of the best quotes on change management that I have ever come across (FYI – this quote is popularly misattributed to Mohandas Gandhi).

Simply because, brevity is the soul of the wit. In just 16 words, with a bit of a dramatization, this quote captures the major states of change so very precisely. And this change need not only refer to organizational change, it could be in any other areas be it in society, personal preferences, new trends or even pandemics!

   Now if you will allow me, let me dissect this a bit and explain this for you. And for this, I would like you to imagine a hypothetical organizational change program, may be adoption of a business process or a new selling approach, a new policy or in many cases of late, a new technology platform and imagine yourself to be the champion or the protagonist of the change.

Step 1: First They Ignore You:

Nearly every business process change program that you have been part of needs this very fundamental first step of creating, the need for a change. And invariably, the stakeholders who need to participate in this change process do not have any idea that this change is needed. And let us say, you come out and speak about this need, in many cases you don’t actually get the audience to even complete your pitch. Legions of successful companies routinely have pressing on-going managerial issues that completely occupy leadership mindspace that the need for the change is often ignored.

Step 2: Then They Laugh at You:

Logically, as the champion of change, you don’t like to be ignored. And this is when you step in and try to bring this into the management agenda. And, that is when someone in the management team (usually someone influential) will make a dismissive remark, sometimes condescending but most of the times witty. Up until this point, you have still not articulated the need for the change successfully and you will need to make sure that the case or climate for change is very clearly understood by the stakeholders. And I hope to share my experiences about approaches that work in future articles!

Step 3: Then They Fight You:

With all your might, you have finally brought the change agenda to the center of the table. You have made sure that you demonstrate the relevance of the change and most importantly you have also made sure to highlight the consequences of not implementing the change. It is now amply clear where the impact of the change will be felt and which stakeholders will have to adapt the most. And then magically you see some signs of revolt. Believe me, many a times, you will see the protests coming from the most unexpected quarters. But most importantly, be very very pleased that you have got to this stage because the organization is now realizing the importance of your change proposal and now is the time for you to sustain your change energy towards implementation.

Step 4: Then You Win:

Well easier said than done, but now you are at the implementation stage. While the critics of the change may now understand its relevance, they may still not want to see the change happen and may be not see you succeed. But then, by and large, you have succeeded and you have by now rallied the organization to make the change a relevant topic, you possibly have a few sponsors and there is a mindset to invest time and resources to make sure that the change is implemented. And that is the roadmap to victory.

“They”, as villainously referred in the quote are the naysayers or the resistors. And let us remember that we all have at some point in time resisted some or the other form of change. Hence, if you ever want to champion a change, try and anticipate how “They” might respond.

Well, I have probably oversimplified the change story. And there are many many ingredients to make sure a change gets implemented and more importantly for the change process to sustain. Business Leaders, Managers, PMOs and Consultants across industries put in their lifetimes helping organizations prepare and implement change. And more importantly work on implementing a culture of adapting to ever changing business needs and the shrinking of business cycles.

In the last several years, I have been an active participant and driver of corporate change, and looking through the rear-view mirror, I (very humbly) think, that I’m finally developing some perspectives on organizational change. Honestly, I learned more through hindsight than during the change process itself. Hence, I hope that by chronicling my reflections and putting those thoughts to words and then receiving some feedback, I can improve a lot more in this journey. And possibly, in this process, some useful knowledge also gets distributed along.

So here it is, the change board has its first entry!