Given the wealth of information that is input to your change strategy, it is important to be very clear about the process to pull it all together. Read the remaining tasks of I.E for the key decisions required to create your strategy. Remember, the top change leaders must engage enough in this work to ensure the knowledge and commitment they need to launch and lead the transformation. Change consultants and other resources can help facilitate and manage the development of the strategy, overseen by the change process leader.

Create the process for building your change strategy by determining the following:

The purpose of this task is to define the values and guiding principles of your desired culture to use to shape your change effort. Values and guiding principles are closely related. Values are the inherent qualities that lie at the essence of a behavior or action. Guiding principles are high-level rules of conduct that guide behavior and action. They are "values in action." To illustrate how to use them to shape how you lead your change, an organizational value of high involvement may get translated into a guiding principle of, "Input will be sought from all stakeholder groups." A value of openness might generate a guiding principle of, "We will communicate frequently the status of the change, even if we do not have the answers or conclusions."

Once identified, you can consciously design your change strategy, leadership style, and process plan to model your values and guiding principles. In your earlier visioning work for this change, you may have identified desired values. If you did, bring them directly into this work.

If your organization's current values and cultural norms fit your future state, use them to influence how this change takes place. They might impact decisions about structure, systems, and processes; the level of engagement and autonomy your employees enjoy; and your organization's general leadership style.

If your organization's stated values and culture are very different from the real behavior and actions of leaders and managers or do not support the future state, you will need to change the organization's culture. Caution! If you roll out your change based on your old culture, employees will say, "See, nothing has changed." But if your change strategy and leaders overtly model the new culture, employees will see direct evidence that your organization's culture is in fact changing. After you define your values and guiding principles for your change effort, be sure that your change leadership development programs expressly reinforce them.

If needed, culture change should become a formal part of your scope of change. You will be designing your new culture in Phase IV, so for now, generate the values and guiding principles you need for your change effort to be successful. Consider this task as input to the change process for the culture element in the Conscious Change Leader Accountability Model.

Leading your change effort effectively requires good governance. This entails defining roles and authorities, a governance structure, and clear decision making for the change. Because the project will be implemented while normal operations continue, you must also agree on how to handle the interface between governing the change and operations. Inevitably, there will be pinch points around resources and timelines that need attention. Engage both the executive team and the change leadership team to overtly decide how to deal with questions and issues when they arise.

In Task I.A.2, Clarify and Staff Initial Change Leadership Roles, you began naming the people you thought were appropriate to fill the seven change leadership roles we recommend. Now that the majority of Phase I has been completed, this task asks you to reassess your choices and roles, and formalize the full governance for your transformation. With the insight you now have about what is required, you can make more informed decisions about who and how to govern your change effort.

Figure 3.1 shows two sample governance structures, one hierarchical and one network structure. Either can work, depending on the needs of your change and your organization's culture. The hierarchical structure names and organizes both existing teams and functions that will support the change as well as new roles, teams, and functions tailor-made to the change. While the structure may appear bureaucratic on paper, it should be designed to function as nimbly as possible. Make sure you have the right people on the right teams—those who have the expertise, authority, and time to devote to the change.

Figure 3.1. Sample Change Governance Structures

The network structure is unique and requires skilled oversight to operate effectively. You can name any number of resources to each of the concentric circles and activate them as needed during the change process. We informally call this structure "Dial-a-Team," in honor of transformation being so emergent and dynamic in its needs over time. The right people from each circle would be tasked to work on appropriate change activities and then go back into their normal roles until they are needed again.

Design your change structure to run in parallel with operations and to best meet the needs of your change. Your governance structure will become an integrated part of your overall change infrastructure, which you will complete in Activity I.F.

After you have determined your change leadership roles, make sure that your decision-making roles, style, and process are clear. Clarifying the decision-making style and processes before heated issues surface expedites decisions tremendously and prevents change leaders from falling back into habitual or positional behavior patterns that don't support your culture change.

The change leaders may need some education about various decision-making styles, as well as initial facilitation in their use until they master each style. Figure 3.2 shows a continuum of decision-making styles to consider, keeping your desired culture in mind as your leaders select from these options.

Individual Owner

• Tell: I make the decision without input.

• Sell: I have a position and try to get others to agree before making the decision.

• Input: I make the decision after hearing your input.

Figure 3.2. Decision-Making Continuum of Styles

There are two parts to this task: identifying your initiatives, and unifying all that you can under one transformational umbrella. Your change strategy must spell out all of the change efforts that are in scope and clarify how all of the initiatives link with and support one another and your overall objectives. A unified effort streamlines the process dynamics of transformation and provides the workforce greater motivation and understanding than would separate or competing initiatives.

Your case for change, drivers of change, initial impact analysis, and leverage points for change should clarify your individual initiatives. If your organization's culture will be impacted by the change, make sure to include it as a legitimate initiative in your scope. When culture is a formal part of your overall change, you must look at how all of the other initiatives within your scope either affect the culture or are affected by a change in it. They, too, must include culture in their scope. When developing your unified theme for the overall change, consider the importance of the new culture as a theme running through all of the initiatives.

To create a unified effort, clarify the highest level outcome—the big picture within which all—or most—of the various content, culture, and people (e.g., mindset and behavior) initiatives fit. For example, you may have a number of individual initiatives occurring in the organization, such as restructuring, reengineering your supply chain, revamping your information technology, and redesigning your HR systems. Why is each of these change initiatives occurring? Perhaps you are attempting to operate over the Web, or are transforming from a national to a global company, or from distinct operating units to one integrated system. Employees must understand your highest level intent. We suggest that you use the rollout of your case for change and initial desired outcomes to tell employees the story of how everything fits together and what you are striving to create. If you have a major culture change underway, proactively drive your story line with the specific ways that your culture must change. Make sure that the theme of culture permeates every initiative you have within scope.

The purpose of this task is to scan your organization for existing change efforts to assess where this one fits and how important it is in light of everything else that is going on. The leaders may discover that this transformation is more important than much of what is underway and thereby afford it priority status. Certainly, if this is an enterprise-wide effort, it will receive top priority. Leaders can use this clarity to reduce the organization's confusion about so much change by clarifying the position and priority this transformation has among all other efforts. Knowing this helps people put everything in perspective and focus their energy on the outcomes your changes are intending to produce.

In the previous task, you looked at the initiatives within your overall transformation, taking a "down and in" perspective. In this task, you will take an "up and across" view, first looking "up" at other major initiatives that yours may be a part of, and then looking "across" at those that may be running in parallel to yours. Use this information to ensure that your effort gets the attention and resources it rightfully requires, and also to inform your project integration strategy, which is the subject of the next task.

All initiatives, no matter how critical, must work together to support your overarching business strategy and goals for change. Therefore, all initiatives that are in any way interdependent require careful coordination, integration, pacing, and oversight. We frequently call this "Air Traffic Control." You have already done the work to identify the sub-initiatives within your overall effort, and to clarify the other efforts running in parallel or over and above yours. Each of these may require—and benefit from—tailored integration strategies.

This approach is designed to minimize cost, chaos, redundancy of effort, competition for time and resources, and negative political dynamics. It is one of your more powerful ways to demonstrate the importance of your organization's overarching Big Win from change. Your integration strategy can increase speed, action, and resource-sharing across all initiatives. Designing and securing the right level of engagement in lateral integration may require some mindset and culture work among leaders who still operate within a vertical "silo" worldview.

This task creates your strategy and structure for handling project integration. You may need two distinct strategies, one that handles the sub-initiatives within your change effort and one that handles the interdependencies of the up-and-across initiatives. Set up teams to manage the interdependencies and coordinate resources and schedules. Your teams must include the process leaders from your interdependent key initiatives. Each integration team will require a thoughtful launch to ensure that it is set up for success.

Formal team meetings can be used to identify opportunities for coordination and resolve collisions between initiatives. However, many issues requiring integration decisions do not wait for formal meetings to show up. So much is emergent and dynamic that you cannot rely on handling integration issues only at face-to-face meetings. Design your strategy so that the appropriate people can get together or conference to resolve issues when they surface as opposed to waiting for the entire team to meet. When we say "the appropriate people," we are referring to those who have information, expertise, and decision authority to handle the particular issue that has arisen. This requires flexibility and conscious awareness throughout the change effort. It is therefore important to stay on top of integration needs and decisions on a daily basis.

Change leaders have two start-up challenges: (1) How to get the organization's attention to take the transformation seriously, and (2) how to mobilize the most powerful strategy to accomplish it. Getting a change effort off and running requires the leaders to overcome inertia, especially if their history was fraught with "flavor of the month" leadership. People must recognize that a transformation is underway, that it is real and big, and that significant action is required of them to make it happen.

In this task, the change leaders first determine the best way to get people's attention about the importance of the transformation. This action goes beyond sharing your case for change; it must alert or stun people into realizing that their world is changing in drastic ways. People's mindsets must be changed for them to get the true picture of what you are trying to do. In situations in which the organization has performed well for years and has become complacent about its success, or when leaders have too long ignored the wake-up calls for change, getting the attention of the organization to mobilize for change is a crucial part of change strategy.

To get people's attention, change leaders determine what we call "bold actions." Bold actions are highly visible, "outside the norm" moves that dramatically demonstrate that "things are very different around here" or, as we like to say in the United States, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!" Bold actions are emphatic signals that send unequivocal messages about the new direction, like replacing resistant leaders or closing an obsolete plant. They need to confront the existing culture and people's assumptions about their current reality. They must alert people to a change in culture and ways of operating. Think through what effect you want your bold actions to have on mindset and culture in advance, and design accordingly.

Be sensitive that your bold actions do not negate the past but rather honor it without prolonging it. They must attend to both content and people changes. Consider these examples:

One of the most important design requirements for conscious transformation is wide-scale engagement by the organization in creating its desired future. When you force change on an organization, you generate greater resistance to change than if you engage people in creating it. Change that is heavy-handed triggers feelings in the workforce of being "done to" or taken advantage of. People need some way to influence their new reality, both in the process of how it is created and in the actual new state they are to implement. Engagement accomplishes this, giving people a focus for their energy and a way to make a positive contribution.

Beyond these beneficial outcomes, engagement is required to create a critical mass of commitment to the transformation, which is a key element of your change strategy. A premise of transformation is that, until a critical mass of people break through to the new mindset and behave in new ways, the transformation will never succeed. Engagement helps facilitate the breakthrough in mindset and behavior, as well as gives your people an avenue to contribute their good thinking to the design and implementation of the desired future. In this task, you will clarify how to create critical mass and what kinds of engagement to use to accomplish it.

This task may require some education or discussion about leaders' beliefs about high engagement. The subject of participation has been in the management literature for a long time. Yet many leaders are still uncomfortable or unfamiliar with how to determine and customize an engagement strategy. Many still fear it, falsely believing that if they ask for input, they must act on everything their people request or further resistance will result.

Leaders must better understand the direct relationship between influence and commitment. Generally speaking, the higher the influence people have, the higher their commitment to the change. Change education (Activity I.D) can address these perceptions and insights.

Different types of engagement have different degrees of influence. If people are invited only to stick their toe into the transformational water, they will have a toe-level experience of influence and commitment. If they are invited to dive in head first, they will be immersed in the transformational experience. There is a range of engagement strategies, each with a different amount of influence. Any of them can be used effectively as long as the leaders make the boundaries clear before requesting input. Figure 3.3 depicts a range of six types of engagement and the degree of influence each has.

Tailor your engagement plans to the different tasks in the CLR. For instance, you can use engagement to identify design requirements, create future state scenarios, or perform your impact analysis. When determining your engagement strategies for each task, consider the ideal level of participation, whom to ask for input, and how to engage. Also, think about obtaining input from sources outside of the organization, such as customers, suppliers, or government officials. Consider using a high-participation strategy as a bold action, such as large group visioning or design conferences, blogs or Web-based social media, a World Café gathering, or an Appreciative Inquiry conference to identify compelling recommendations for the future.

Figure 3.3. Types of Engagement

Table 3.1 offers a range of audiences to consider for inviting input as well as types of engagement vehicles. Use this list to trigger your discussion.

Communication is the life force of the organization, especially in times of change. In these early days of your change effort, as soon as people catch wind that a change is coming, their needs for information and attention escalate significantly. They want to know what will happen to them and whether their job is secure. In the worst cases, leaders, enmeshed in figuring out what has to be changed, keep people in the dark or only inform them when decisions are finally made, without giving people any opportunity for input, influence, or response—just when people's need for these is the greatest. Change often causes people to react emotionally, especially when it is first communicated. People's reactions, no matter what they are, must be considered when designing how to communicate your change.

One of the most common mistakes leaders make is to assume that when their corporate communications department has sent out the announcement, they can check the box of communication. Not so! Informing people about the change is only the first step in true communication and is a long way from checking the box. Even if the change leaders give an initial face-to-face briefing, the stress of the announcement can severely limit people's ability to retain and understand the information the leaders have communicated. People need to be able to ask questions, discuss the information they think they heard with their trusted peers, think about how it impacts them, and then react and be heard. If they don't have this opportunity, their anxiety grows. A memo or a briefing may inform them, but it is sorely inadequate to engage or enroll them. How are leaders going to address these very real human dynamics?

Exhibit 3.1 shows a matrix of the Five Levels of Communication, all of which are required to accomplish competent communications during change. Applying this model has profound impact on communication planning. The model begins where most people end their communication efforts—sharing information. It goes on to four subsequent levels in the communication process: building understanding, identifying implications, gaining commitment, and altering behavior. All five levels denote that change communications is a process of engagement, not an event.

Note the reliance on engagement vehicles as the preferred way to achieve each level of communication. This is a key reason to have the people most knowledgeable about engagement be the ones to co-design your change communication plan. Your communication plan should be developed in close partnership with your engagement strategy because the goals of each are interdependent. More and more, the partnership between engagement and communications is being recognized as critical, so much so that some organizations have created a new function responsible for both—the Internal Communications and Engagement department.

Each of the five levels of communication describes its own outcome. The culmination of all five outcomes defines excellent communication—behavior change or behavior reinforcement. In scanning the model, notice that each level requires a different style and medium to achieve its outcome. You may need only some of the levels of communication at any point in time. Again, your knowledge of all of the levels will assist you in choosing how and when to use them and their strategies. Keep in mind that if you want true commitment and behavioral change, you must use strategies that produce both. Information-sharing strategies will not produce behavior change.

This task builds your communication plan and your kickoff communication strategy. It also clarifies the best communication role for your change leaders. Your leaders must be visible spokespeople, prepare messages, make presentations, and respond to employee feedback and input. They need to quell rumors, overtly model the new mindset and behavior, and be candid about their personal experiences and challenges in making the transformation successful. The authenticity of communication, its timeliness, and leader credibility go hand-in-hand at this stage. When change is in the air, employees tend to be extra sensitive to tone, candor, and concern.

Once designed, support your communication plan with the appropriate resources, meeting planning, facilitators, logistics, and follow-up.

The speed of change is an important factor in most major change efforts. Faster is typically assumed to be better, as long as you still achieve a quality outcome. Your change strategy needs to address how you will accelerate the achievement of your change results.

When considering your options, it is important to be aware of the change leaders' mindsets about what speeds up or slows down change. In these economic times, leaders are making plans for change with great urgency, attempting to press the pace by cutting corners, skipping steps, or just demanding longer hours and more output from their people. While these strategies may initially make it look like the change is happening more quickly, they risk creating serious burnout, resentment, or poor quality, and actually slowing down the change in the long run.

This task is a great opportunity for change leaders to change their mindsets and approaches to speed up change. There are far more creative, energizing, and sustainable ways to accomplish change more quickly. The more you set up conditions for success, the more likelihood you create for that to happen. The more you build in the strategies that produce breakthrough results, the better and faster your change will go. Consider using large group meetings as acceleration strategies for any of the activities in the CLR. While they take time to plan, they can engage and enroll large numbers of people in co-creating the change. Put simply, the more upfront work you do to set up your change effort for success, the faster it will go. "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later!" The more you engage your stakeholders in creating their desired future, the more they will commit to make it happen. Chapter Fourteen includes a discussion of change acceleration strategies that is worth reviewing as you consider this task.

Key questions leaders ask before committing to making a change include "How much will this cost us?" and "Will it be worth it?" These are fair questions. We make the assumption in this task that the leaders are already committed to making this change, given their investment in building their case for change and progressing through the appropriate tasks in Phase I up to this point. Until now, resource questions were a bit premature because not enough information was available about the change effort's true demands. Now leaders can make fairly sound estimates about resource requirements.

In these challenging times, leaders want to accomplish the most they can with the least resources. However, candidly, they need to assess whether the resources they do allocate will generate the results they seek. If this is your situation, create a dialogue with your change leaders concerning their assumptions about resources and what the change requires. The leaders will need to commit to securing an adequate resource base for the transformation if they truly want it to succeed. They may have to confront their tendency to have greater expectations for the end result and its speed than their resource allocation will support. Initiate a frank, "get real" conversation about this.

As noted in Task I.C.1, when you address capacity issues, you also address resources. Be sure that you discuss the whole picture with the leaders—resources needed for both change and operations. Even at this point in your change, the leaders will not have accurate numbers about how many resources the effort will require. If your change is transformational, they will never have guaranteed numbers given how unpredictable and emergent the process is. However, they will have to make realistic guesses about the resources they do require to make a go/no go decision, and they must commit to providing sufficient resources through the entire life cycle of the change. Allocating ample resources is a telltale sign to the organization that the effort is a true priority, rather than just being given lip service.

Another surprise for many leaders is the variety of resources that must be provided. The typical assumption is that they need only money and people. They may also need space, technology, training, consulting support, Web support, and so on. Make sure to cover your bases.

Change consultants may need to coach change leaders to keep their commitment for providing sufficient resources throughout the entire change process and to be creative in generating additional resources as necessary. Keep your change leaders conscious of the real implications that their resource decisions have on people's ability to deliver what the organization needs within the expected timetable.

In this task, you will complete the two remaining change strategy elements—milestone events and general timeline—and compile all of your I.E work into your integrated change strategy. The change strategy is the culmination of the leaders' assumptions and decisions from Phase I for how they would like the organization's transformation to unfold. Exhibit 3.2 shows a template of the key elements of change strategy, including a list of the critical inputs from your early Phase I work. Use it as a worksheet for your own change strategy.

Your proposed milestone events of Phases II through IX allows the change leaders to make an informed guess about the general timeline for the transformation, which is a key element of change strategy. This estimated timeline cannot be used as a rigid measure of the transformation because it will undoubtedly have to be altered.

Exhibit 3.3 shows some brief highlights of a change strategy from an organization preparing itself for e-commerce through the realignment of its product groupings, the upgrade of its IT systems, and expansion of its ability to cross-sell products among its dispersed business units.

After the change leaders have compiled their change strategy, they must support it with conditions and infrastructures required to execute it successfully. This work takes place next, in Activity I.F, and completes the leaders' Phase I work. Some of the I.F support work will influence their strategy and how they will communicate and use it. Complete this work before finalizing how best to communicate your strategy to the organization.

Ideally, the change strategy is communicated at the same time as your case for change in your Phase II launch. This tells people the complete picture of why you must change, what will be changing, and how you will lead the change. However, the change leaders may decide that they want to communicate the case for change to enroll people in the need for change long before they have completed their change strategy, which also works. Do not proceed with your actual communication until you review the tasks of Activity I.F and determine which of them will help you launch your change in the most positive way.

The leaders began planning their kickoff communication strategy in Task I.E.9. Now, with more information known, they can fine-tune their communication plan and roll it out to begin Phase II of their change process.