Organisation Change: The Function Of Change Agents And Achieving Balance In Leadership

In an ideal setting, there are already the three major types of leadership present, when a change agent finally decides to attempt organisation change. A waterwalker will be at the forefront of the company. Then there's the bridgebuilders who will execute the vision. There will be the truck driver leadership in place to carry out the tangible details of the plans. This ideal is rarely the case in the working world.

In most organisation change situations, the change agent will find the leadership situation is out of balance. Either there will be a missing link in one of the leadership types, or there will be too much of one leadership type, or even both. This situation is common in industries that are relatively stable. In cases like this, a visionary leader can be deemed not necessary. There's no goal to reach because the company is not undergoing progressive changes. Without the vision of a waterwalker, the role of the bridgebuilder is undermined as well. The truck driver mentality of leadership predominates because only incremental changes are necessary to remain competitive.

However, no company will remain stable forever. World events and the changes in the corporate marketplace can always catch up with stable companies and pressure them towards organisation change. This situation becomes a special challenge to the change agent. Without the waterwalkers and bridgebuilders, it's up to them to come up with ways to make changes that is acceptable to leadership that is not necessarily comfortable with big, quick changes.

The use of innovative changes will be key in fostering readiness for innovative change in this situation. The change agent's role in this is to create ways to develop the organisation change project in such a way that it is presented in small, little steps. Each step should then be both needed and adamant. This is for the purpose of setting up the company and preparing leadership for an inevitable change that comes from smaller evolutionary changes.

For more information, please see our website: Organisation Change