The change leader who asked ‘why?'  

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In 1951, Dr. Solomon Asch conducted the famous Asch Conformity Study to measure how individuals respond to the pressure to conform. Here’s what happened during the experiment.

A number of individuals were organized into small groups and presented with two images of lines with various lengths as shown below:

Each participant was asked to then identify which line was the longest. It sounded simple enough but there was a twist. Within each group, there was only one true participant (à la Truman Show). All other participants were actually actors who were pre-instructed to provided the wrong answer.

More often than not, the one ‘true’ participant usually always provided the wrong answer, even when they knew it was wrong. The ‘true’ participants generally chose to respond incorrectly, ignoring their own judgement. The study in very simple terms illustrated how we sometimes conform in order to fit in.

This article will build on Dr. Aschs’ study to encourage participants within project teams - especially change managers - to ask questions and explore root cause when leading or supporting change programs in organizations. Once the course and strategy for a project have been set, change managers sometimes avoid questioning the why’s of a projects in order to ‘fit in’, avoiding the inconvenient work of challenging the status quo.

The notion of root cause analysis by asking ‘why’ is not new. It probably pre-dates the era of reasoning and Socratic questioning, a few hundred years before Christ. Fast forward to today, there’s no shortage of management literature, management models ( see [‘5 Whys’]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys)) and gurus who fervently encourage us to ask ‘why’. It is now common practice for those who aspire to be strategic in their thinking to ask ‘why’ at every opportunity. It’s become an essential tactic in the practice of good change management (and an exercise in non-conformity/groupthink).

In order for a change program to be successful, it is important that all stakeholders - starting with the project team - all understand the ‘why’. Each and every stakeholder should for the most part not have doubts about the strategy, viability and success of the project they are a part of. Just because the course has been set and the project put in motion, it is essential that the drivers for change be questioned by the change manager to help elicit and fully articulate the true ‘why’.

The benefits of articulating the why on a change management engagement are numerous. First of all, it helps the team align on purpose, it creates a focus for the project, it inspires confidence and ultimately helps define what success should look like. When stakeholders understand ‘why’, there tends to be less resistance when challenges arise along the way. It becomes more about the promised land, than about the treacherous journey ahead.

Here a some steps on how this can work on a change project.

The first step is to define the ‘why’ for the change as clearly as possible. For example, on a recent contact centre engagement, messaging stating the need for an efficient, consistent and cost-effective way to help customers by phone, email and fax as the underlying driver for why the project was necessary.

Next is to define the desired outcome preferably with some quantitative context. Following the example from the first step, a possible outcome could be - improve customer satisfaction scores by 20%.

Once the need for the change and the desired outcome are clearly and succinctly spoken to, the next step is to justify the need by asking if the desired outcomes truly align with the strategy and overarching goals at the organization. This step often involves a bit of back and forth, given priorities are driven politically and the connections to strategy are often arbitrary. If this can be defined well, the answer can then be shared broadly with the organization to align on the work that follows.

Why has become the word du jour when starting a project or taking on a new job, or ‘why’ when asked to perform a task or take on a commitment. It should become a part of every change managers toolkit when guiding a project team or organization through change.