3 Activities To Help Change Managers Improve Strategic Thinking Today
Strategic thinking allows you to take a step back and look at the big picture. It involves analysing and evaluating a situation in order to make informed decisions about the future. When you think strategically, you're thinking critically about the long-term implications of different options and developing a plan that takes those implications into account.
So, why is this important for change managers?
Well, when you're tasked with implementing major organisational changes, you need to be able to anticipate potential roadblocks and prepare for them in advance. You also need to be able to identify opportunities for improvement and develop plans to take advantage of them.
Without strategic thinking, change managers may find it difficult to achieve their goals and meet the expectations of stakeholders. You might end up running into unexpected challenges or missing out on opportunities that could have been leveraged with a bit of foresight.
In today’s episode, I'm gonna share how you can do strategic thinking in a really visible way as a change manager. Strategic thinking is a skill like any other - it can be practised and improved with focus and dedication.
I’ll explore three really useful activities that you can start using today to incorporate more strategic thinking into your change management work. I’ll also go through the difference between a professional and an amateur that I frequently observe in the organisational change management space and the really interesting concept of second order thinking.
We’ll look how you can improve your second ordering thinking through:
Scenario planning
Red teaming
Pre-mortem analysis
I created 3 step-by-step guides for our in-house team of change managers, communication specialists, engagement leaders, and trainers for them to use when working with clients and I’m so excited to be sharing them with you today - download them here.
Tune in to today’s episode to learn more about how you can use these activities to uncover brilliant insights, build engagement and trust, and improve your strategic thinking.
Grab your free copy of the Strategic Thinking workshop outlines I mention in this episode by entering your details below:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00]: Hello. Hello. Welcome to this week's episode of The New Way with Dr. Kate Byrne.
[00:01:12] I'm so happy that you are here again for us to dive into this week's topic. You know, I was really inspired to share my thoughts on this topic because I have been thinking about the differences between early career folks and then more seasoned people, I guess, working in the change management space. I've been thinking about that a lot recently, and today I'd love us to chat about strategic thinking and how those two ideas combine. You know, I know that strategic thinking is a concept that can often feel really nebulous. But not today, my friend.
[00:01:50] I'm gonna share how you can do strategic thinking in a really visible way as a change manager. So strategic thinking is sometimes positioned, you know, it's something that folks are either born with or they're not and I just think that's crap. Strategic thinking is a skill. It can be practiced, it can be improved.
[00:02:15] And there are really specific activities that we can do in the change management space to help us think strategically when we are developing strategies and plans and recommendations and all of that kind of good stuff. And that's why today we're gonna talk about why it's important. What strategic thinking looks like in practice.
[00:02:37] And I'm also gonna share three specific activities that you can use starting today to incorporate more strategic thinking into your change management work. So before we dive in, I wanna let you know that I've actually created a how-to guide for each of the three activities that I'm gonna be sharing with you today.
[00:02:57] Strategic thinking is such an important topic for all of us, but I know what it's like. You know, when you're really inspired to give something new a go, and I hope you are by the end of this episode. But at the same time, you're super busy. And so that's why I'm really happy to share this step-by-step activity guide the guides that I use for each of these activities so that you can easily just pick them up and apply it into your own work this week, maybe even today, depending on what time of day you're listening to this.
[00:03:27] I originally developed these step-by-step guides for our in-house team of change managers, communication specialists, engagement leads, trainers, UX specialists to use when they're working with our clients. But I am more than happy to share. You can go grab your free copy of all three guides over at ever change.com.au/strategic think.
[00:03:50] So once you finish listening to this episode and you're feeling excited to give these activities a go, and I really hope you are, then just jump over to www.everchange.com.au/strategicthinking to grab the guides.
[00:04:05] Okay. Now let me tell you a story about the link between being an amateur and being a professional and strategic thinking and how they're all fitting together in my head, so I think there's some really big, obvious signs that distinguish people who are early or mid or later in their careers in this field.
[00:04:27] But something that I've come to realize is that you can be an amateur or a professional at any stage of your career. What I mean, I have known some very early career change managers and communication specialists that demonstrate techniques and mindsets. Well, some of them that I'm about to break down here for you now, but some that I would really consider to be professional kinds of mindset.
[00:04:52] And I've also seen a lot of senior change managers who have been working in this field for a really long time demonstrating more amateur characteristics. And I don't mean to be throwing shade when I'm, when I'm saying that. My hope through this episode, you see why? What I'm trying to say is that when I'm using the terms amateur and professional here, they aren't necessarily linked to your time in the saddle.
[00:05:15] Look, I've been in this field for more than 20 years at this point. And I still catch myself getting caught up in, amateur thinking and mindsets. It is a process, it's a daily practice. None of us is perfect. I recently read an old article by Shane Parish on the distinction between amateurs and professionals and, and that article is kind of, generic.
[00:05:41] It's great, but it's a very generic, it's not focused on any particular industry or kind of sports or anything like that. But I could immediately see how this concept specifically applies in so many ways in the organizational change management space. Being an amateur or a professional isn't about your qualifications.
[00:06:02] It's not about your experience, the tools that you use, or even your leadership abilities. It's not about the models or the frameworks that you use. It's not about whether you are a junior or a senior. I think it's much more about your perspective, your mindset, the identity you have and your commitment, which are of course all things that we each control and that we can each cultivate.
[00:06:27] For example, amateurs focus on knowledge and information, whereas professionals focus more on wisdom and insights. Amateurs are kind of more reactive, professionals are more prepared typically. When the Organizational change initiative is really successful, it's just amazing and everyone is thrilled with the outcome.
[00:06:49] Amateurs think that it's because of their hard work and their own brilliance, but professionals know that a lot of different factors impact the success of a change initiative, and many of those are completely outside of the change manager's control or even outside of their, I. Their work likely contributed to the change program's success in a positive way, of course, but it wasn't the only factor, not by a long.
[00:07:18] Amateurs train in terms of, and in this context, I'm not just talking about sports training, but you know, professional development capability, uplift your qualifications. Amateurs train in that kind of way to know how to deliver organizational change. They aim to achieve kind of a minimum level of proficiency where they can get through the tasks without making too many mistakes that people are really gonna.
[00:07:43] Meanwhile, professionals are focused on mastery. They aren't interested in just meeting the minimum standards, but instead their aim is really to achieve excellence by continually honing their skills and perfecting their craft. By the way, I hope it's really clear at this point that the concept of amateur is not the same as the concept of beginner or beginning for me here, a beginner's mindset can be a huge advantage for folks that wanna work in the change space, no matter at what stage of their career they're at or their role. That's not what I'm talking about here, and I hope that we are really on the same page with that. There are heaps of specific behaviours and traits that professionals demonstrate every day on the job that amateurs don't in the organisational change management space. And these are characteristics that can be embodied by anyone at any stage of their career. And I reckon that strategic think. Is one of those, it's one of the biggest ways to identify a professional change manager, and that's why I'm gonna cover it today.
[00:08:54] That's why I've been thinking about it and why it's so important. So there you go. That's my round, kind of the circle intro about how these ideas tie together for me, and I'm really excited to talk to you about this. So we're on the same page. Let's agree that strategic thinking is about thinking about the long-term goals and objectives of an organization and developing a plan to achieve those goals. And effective strategic thinking is not possible without a solid understanding of the organization's strengths and weaknesses.
[00:09:27] And of course, an understanding of the environment that the business is operating in, that all of that is an important key to being able to do any relevant strategic thinking. Anything of value strategic, think. Is really about thinking creatively. It's about identifying alternative solutions to problems, all of that kind of thing.
[00:09:48] And in the change management space, the most useful way for change managers to demonstrate strategic thinking in my opinion, is by applying a concept called second order thinking. So let's talk about. One of the most obvious differences between amateur organizational change managers and professional ones is using first level thinking rather than second order thinking.
[00:10:16] Now, second order thinking's a really interesting concept. Essentially, it means that when we are making a decision change managers need to. Not just the immediate impact, but also the any potential long-term consequences or unintended effects of whatever the recommendation might be. And by doing this, they're able to engage in a deeper level of analysis and evaluation of all of the potential solutions to come up with one that's gonna work really well.
[00:10:48] Professionals use second level strategic thinking amateurs. Don't. Let me give you a couple of examples to show you what I mean.
[00:10:56] Imagine a change manager is engaged to help roll out a new digital platform across the organization. They wanna show value and get some quick wins on the board. So they jump in and they focus on training employees on how to use the new. Now imagine that same change manager is tasked with implementing that same new enterprise-wide digital platform, and that they think about not just the technical training requirements, but they also think about the organizational change implications more broadly.
[00:11:29] They analyse the potential resistance and responses to the change from employees who are used to the old system, who like the way that things are done now, or maybe employees who. Don't realize it, but you are able to tell that they may have lower digital literacy or lower digital confidence. then that change manager is able to identify ways to involve employees in the change journey.
[00:11:54] The change manager also thinks about the impact of the new system on different divisions and different teams. Instead of diving straight into training, they focus on facilitating the flow of communication among key stakeholders to help align their interests and priorities.
[00:12:12] Which approach do you think is gonna be more. in that example. The first level thinking approach just focuses on the technical training that, needs to be done. It probably does need to be done to implement the new system. There's an immediacy to it. It's also focused on me. If I'm the change manager, it's focused on my needs.
[00:12:32] What can I do right now to show value to show that I'm delivering and to kind of soothe my own potential insecurities? Stepping into a new role or a new assign. The second order thinking approach, on the other hand, just takes much more of a strategic view on the change and considers the wider implications beyond just the technical aspects of rolling out a new IT system.
[00:12:55] Using Second Order Thinking helps change managers to identify the full range of potential barriers to adoption. This means that the change manager can really shape a much more tailored and targeted approach to the change.
[00:13:09] Second order thinking especially becomes a big deal when we are making decisions or when we're making recommendations for senior executives to make decisions. A key difference for me in second order thinking versus first level thinking is about considering the future impacts of change, interventions and recommendations.
[00:13:31] Let me give you another example to show you what I mean. first level thinking would be a change leader recommending, outsourcing a particular function or a division to cut costs. Second order thinking in that same situation would be the same change lead, thinking about all of the potential future impacts of outsourcing that function and that division before making any recommendation they'd analyzed the, not just about the costs and cost saving, but they'd consider the impact on employees who are gonna be affected by that change, as well as the potential impact on the organization's culture, values, and reputation. They're also gonna consider the impact of outsourcing on the organization's ability to innovate to maintain quality control, to retain talent and a whole bunch of other factors relevant to the long-term organizational sustainability and performance. So in this example, the change lead would work to mitigate the negative impacts of the change and to make sure that any decisions, any recommendations, align with the department's broader goals and values.
[00:14:44] So when we first, first level thinking, we're focusing on the immediate benefit, the cost savings of outsourcing. We're not really thinking about any potential future impacts. But on the other hand, when we employ 2nd order thinking, that means that change managers can take a much more strategic view of the change.
[00:15:05] They can think about the wider implications. It's not just about the financial benefits. However, important They are, or it's not just about the short term benefits, which could also be really great. It's about the whole, context of it. Think about the different insights that you'd get just from thinking about the immediate benefits of outsourcing versus thinking through the second.
[00:15:28] Third and subsequent levels and impacts of outsourcing an entire function for your organization. It's really different, isn't it? think about the different insights you'd get from just thinking about the immediate benefits of outsourcing? Versus thinking through the second, third, and subsequent level impacts of outsourcing an entire function across the organization. Just think about how different your recommended change strategy would be as a result.
[00:15:57] That's why it can be absolutely game changing for organizational change managers to use second order thinking rather than first level thinking By taking the time to think about how decisions and actions will impact the organization over time, change managers can create better plans that take into account potential challenges and opportunities that might arise in the future.
[00:16:22] Another big benefit of second order thinking is the ability to identify potential risks. You know, when you're thinking about the potential consequences of a decision change, managers are gonna be able to better identify those potential challenges and take proactive. Steps to address them in their change strategy and plans, and that can ultimately lead to a much more informed decision making process, and of course a much more successful change journey for the organization.
[00:16:52] I think it's also important to say that. This second order thinking gig also really paves the way for much more effective communication. When change managers are able to consider the second, third and subsequent impacts of a decision or a recommendation they may be about to make. They're better able to communicate their rationale behind their decisions and engage stakeholders in the change.
[00:17:18] And then of course, that can help build trust. You can build stronger business cases for any recommendations that you make or strategies that you develop. And overall, you will have more support for the change process because you've done that work. Of course, in contrast, first level thinking it's gonna be much more narrow and shortsighted and it's really doesn't take into account any of the potential long-term consequences or unintended impacts.
[00:17:44] Obviously that's gonna lead to much less effective decision making. It's gonna be a far more risky approach to take for your change strategy and potentially could lead to a far less successful change program overall. So I wanna ask you and be honest, are you more of an amateur or a professional when it comes to second order thinking? Reflect back over the last 30 days or so at work? First level thinking or second order thinking. Which approach did you use more?
[00:18:18] Whether you are more in the amateur or professional camp with this, when it comes to your approach to strategic thinking, I think that second order thinking is a skill that we can all be honing and improving constantly. remember second order thinking is the how of strategic thinking. When it comes to change management, that's why I wanna share three practical techniques with you so that you can experiment with them and start using them this week.
[00:18:45] That they're really gonna encourage you and the rest of the change team to improve your second order thinking and your strategic thinking abilities. And using these activities is going to make your strategic think. Visible, which can be incredibly powerful. So these are all different activities.
[00:19:04] You can do them yourself. I wanna recommend that you facilitate them and go through these activities with a team that you put together. I'll tell you more about it in a second, but before I dive into these activities, just remember that you can go grab your free copy of that step-by-step guide that I used to facilitate each of these activities.
[00:19:24] You can grab that over at everchange/strategicthinking. That's all. Just one word, strategic thinking. Alrighty. The first activity that you can use to improve your second order thinking abilities and demonstrate, visualize that. Strategic thinking is scenario planning. So scenario planning is a great strategic planning tool.
[00:19:48] It's something that I think is used quite widely across organisations, across different industries, and it's all about planning for the future. Basically, it helps them to think about different possible futures and what might happen if we make different decisions. So change managers can use a structured approach to scenario planning as a really great way to practice their second order thinking.
[00:20:11] So they're not just thinking about, you know, what's gonna happen right away but that you are also thinking about what could happen in the future as the result of any recommendations or decisions you take or any recommendations you make to senior executives and decision makers in the organization. by doing this change managers can identify potential problems and opportunities and come up with better plans to deal with them.
[00:20:38] It is strategic thinking in action. So let me give you an example. Let's say. That you are working with the department and they want to introduce a new leadership framework. The change lead can use scenario planning to think about what might happen if they release the framework using different change strategies or focusing on certain stakeholders in a certain roadmap.
[00:21:03] For the change journey, you could think about how the framework might go if employees don't have any people management responsibilities. What does that mean for a leadership framework? Or you might think about it if their teams are geographically dispersed, employees teams are all geographically dispersed, or what about if there's no l and d budget?
[00:21:22] So these are all different scenarios that you can consider. when planning, and by considering different possibilities like this, change managers can come up with a plan that's way more flexible and can handle different situations. And we all know that when you're delivering change, change is the only constant.
[00:21:41] You've gotta be able to roll with the punches. So that's scenario planning. it's a way for organizations to think ahead and make better decisions. I have a step-by-step workshop guide approach for this and I've, I mean, I've already told you how to grab it, so so you can do that. But, so there is a structured approach to that.
[00:22:02] The next activity that you can experiment with to really Improve that second order thinking is called red teaming. Now, if you haven't heard of this, this is a technique where a group of people, hopefully relevant stakeholders that you have handpicked, are tasked with challenging assumptions and finding potential flaws or weaknesses.
[00:22:26] In a plan or a strategy. So in your change strategy or any one of your related change management plans, change managers can use red teaming to help them practice that second order thinking by inviting a diverse group of stakeholders to critique their plans and to challenge assumptions. And this can really help you to identify.
[00:22:48] Any potential unintended consequences or risks that you just might have missed because we can't possibly know everything. So let me explain. Red teaming is a facilitated activity where you bring together a group of people to find any mistakes or weaknesses in a plan. Those people are kind of like detectives. They're looking for any clues that might help them to find a problem You know, they've got their red hats on and they're taking their role really seriously.
[00:23:15] Change managers can use red team. to help them be even better at their jobs. So even if you are an incredibly seasoned professional, This can just be such a hugely powerful activity. I really encourage you to give it a go. Now, when change managers are using red teaming, they invite a diverse group of stakeholders, together into that workshop environment.
[00:23:39] And those people might be experts in different areas or they might be just employee. That have different perspectives, but they're representative across enabling areas and also impacted areas. And by doing this, you can get feedback from lots of different people and make sure you haven't missed anything important.
[00:23:59] So red teaming helps change managers be better at second order strategic thinking because it means that they think about not just what might happen right away. But also what might come up in the future, and it helps us avoid making mistakes and just create better plans overall. For example, let's say that the organization that you're working with wants to implement a new remote work policy.
[00:24:26] Now using this technique, the change manager would assemble a team that's made up of employees from different divisions across the business. Perhaps that's including the corporate communications team, learning and development, diversity and inclusion IT property, as well as employee representatives from different regions.
[00:24:46] That kind of thing. The red team would then analyze any relevant policies, any, any kind of key information or background, and then they would look at the proposed change approach and they would identify any potential challenges, for example, Maybe there's gonna be issues with technology or with the communication channels that you've proposed.
[00:25:08] Perhaps there's something about building access that the change manager just wasn't aware of and wasn't, hadn't considered until now. Based on the feedback from the red team, the change manager might then revise the change strategy to address those concerns and to implement the new strategy. So that's red teaming in a nutshell, and it is a really, really useful technique for anyone who wants to make sure that their plans are as good as they possibly can be.
[00:25:36] The last activity that I'm gonna touch on today is pre-mortem analysis, not post more pre-mortem analysis, and this is a really interesting technique that helps change managers plan for the worst and prevent failure. Basically, it's like imagining that a plan has already failed and then figuring out why it went wrong.
[00:26:00] So you can use pre-mortem analysis to practice your second order thinking skills by considering all of the different things that could go. by doing this, you can identify potential risks and challenges ahead of time. You can come up with contingency plans to prevent failure as well. So, for example, let's say that a large complex government department wants to introduce new values and behaviours across the whole business.
[00:26:28] The change manager can use pre-mortem analysis to imagine that the launch has already failed. They then work backwards to identify the reasons for the failure. For example, maybe it was poor employee engage. Perhaps there was a limited understanding of the current organizational culture and how that was gonna impact things.
[00:26:50] Or maybe it was ineffective communication strategies. Maybe there were certain stakeholder groups that weren't engaged.
[00:26:56] Doing this work and thinking through this activity is gonna allow the change manager to come up with better change plans and strategies to prevent these issues from happening in the first place.
[00:27:07] So this would allow the change manager to come up with better change plans and strategies to prevent these issues from happening in the first place. Let me give you another example. Let's say your organization is planning to implement a new enterprise-wide e r P.
[00:27:24] The change manager could bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, such as employees from different groups and divisions, different levels across the organization to participate in a pre-mortem session. So during the session, Some of the potential reasons for failure that folks might identify when they're brainstorming, things that might come up include things like lack of employee training, maybe technical issues with the system.
[00:27:51] The group could then unearth potential solutions like providing on-demand training or running up. Pilot test of the system before implementing the entire thing and rolling it out across the entire organization. And then the change team could use those insights to create a contingency plan that includes regular check-ins with stakeholders and keeping track and watching key KPIs of some of those key issues or potential reasons for failure that were identified so that they can be managed quickly.
[00:28:25] Overall, a pre-mortem session can be a really, really valuable tool for change managers to identify potential risks, to plan for potential challenges before they happen and to develop contingency plan.
[00:28:39] Scenario planning, red teaming and pre-mortems are all facilitated activities that can help change managers practice their second order thinking and develop more effective strategies for managing organizational change. This is strategic thinking in practice when you turn these activities into facilitated workshops and other facilitated sessions and experiences, this is how you can make strategic thinking.
[00:29:08] Visible as part of your change management work. Now, like I said before, if you haven't already, go jump over to the website and grab your free copy of the Step by Step How to Facilitation Guide for all of these activities over@everchange.com. dot au slash strategic thinking. You can go grab it and then add it to your toolkit so you've got the resources ready right there in your back pocket, anytime you need it, even if you are already a master when it comes to strategic thinking.
[00:29:39] I hope that you are really inspired to give one of these activities a go this week, as well as providing a useful s. For group strategic thinking, each of these activities is gonna help you uncover incredible insights that will help you take your change strategy and plans to the next level, I promise.
[00:30:00] And they're also just really fun and they can help you build engagement and trust among key stakeholders. Now if you do run one of these activities, oh, I would love, love, love to know how it went. So please DM me on LinkedIn with your take. I wanna hear all about your experience and how you found it and how the people in the group that you brought together found the experience as well.
[00:30:22] I know that it's gonna go really great and I would just love to hear all about. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of The New Way Podcast. I can't wait to connect with you again next time. I hope that you have a wonderful rest of the week, and that's it for me. Go check out, go grab your How-to guide so that you've got these, your back pocket, and you can do those activities anytime.
[00:30:43] I promise , they're really, really useful. I've had great success with them. Okay, anyway, that's it from me. I'll catch you next time. Bye for now.
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Free Resource: 3 Strategic Thinking Workshop Outlines
CONNECT WITH KATE:
Website: https://www.everchange.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ever-change-and-communication