So, you want to be a ...

As a Change Leader, prepare yourself to look ahead into the future and make judgments about the direction of your organization in its industry.

Ask yourself following questions:

• Will the current trends in my organization take us where we must be in the future in order to survive?

• Is my organization strong enough to endure a transformation?

• Am I willing to move on after the transformation as a result of my efforts?

• Do I have the political influence in my organization to champion and protect a transformation effort?

• Am I prepared to support changes that I don’t agree with for the good of the larger picture?

If your answers to any of these questions are a resounding "No!" then you might want to reconsider your transformation role.

Change Leaders sponsor the larger picture of transformation, driven by the belief that if the organization stays on its current path, it is facing certain death in the future. As a Change Leader you will rely on faith that whatever the organization becomes will take it in a direction that ultimately serves the best interest and survival of the organization.

Just as Change Leaders have the ability to prompt transformation, they must take the responsibility of stopping it when necessary. Transformation is a wildly unstable environment that must, at some point, settle down and stabilize.

Some Change Leaders find themselves being fired as a result of their efforts or perhaps the new organization isn’t a "fit" any longer. Committed Change Leaders are prepared to move on to new challenges in new places.

Change Agents are dreamers … architects of processes the new organization will build its foundation upon. Change Agents are far from what might be thought of as flighty-artists; rather they are highly independent and skilled in separating work processes from the work of people. Change Agents are imaginative and creative, yet fully grounded in the capabilities of the organization and its people.

As a Change Agent, prepare yourself to take a long hard look at how work flows through the organization. You’ll likely be surprised at what you find – lots of repetitiveness, twists and turns that just don’t make sense, work that goes to no conclusive end, work that adds little or no value to the outcome. Once you’ve figured out what the process is, create an ideal process that gets the work done in a way that makes sense, minimizes hand-offs and adds value to the end result.

A Change Agent is a person who is perfectly at ease with releasing the outcome of their ideas. Once a Change Agent actually creates an ideal process, she hands the implementation of that idea off to Changers – effectively washing her hands of the idea. This freedom from implementation allows the Change Agent to create scores of ideal processes for waves of Changers to implement.

Change Agents have the ability to generate lots of ideas quickly. They see things from a systemic point of view, realizing that a small change in one area is likely to have huge rippling impacts on the organization as a whole. As a Change Agent you will not only rely on those ripples, you will plan for them and in fact count on them. The reality is transformation will fail miserably if the only impact to the organization is your change ideas. Those ideas must have far-reaching affects in order to create lasting and transformational change.

The Change Agent takes on the responsibility of feeding ideas to the transformation project. When Change Agents dry up or run out of ideas, the project slows and may even grind to a halt.

Changer

Changers are special people who like to make it happen. Changers actually do the work of implementing the process changes thought up by the Change Agents.

As a Changer, you will work together with a small team of other Changers to quickly implement new work processes in the organization, then disband and move on to different challenges and ideas – or perhaps not.

Changers get involved in transformation efforts for wildly different reasons. Sometimes they like the specific change idea and may never get involved with another team of Changers again. Sometimes Changers want new challenges in their day-to-day work. Other times Changers thrive on these small teams and constantly search out new teams. Regardless of why a Changer gets involved in the first place, one thing is clear: transformation would not happen without Changers.

Of all the roles you can choose to play in a transformation, Changers are the only ones who actually change anything.

In addition to causing changes in the organization, Changers are also the carriers of the transformation counter culture. With every transformation there is a dramatic change in the culture of the organization. In order to create lasting change, the transformation must produce two things: changed work processes and a new way of working, a new culture. Changers learn that new way of working in their teams and begin spreading that culture change through the implementation of change ideas. Because culture change is so difficult, Changers and their teams work closely with Coaches to assure the Changers are not only implementing new work processes, but also shifting the culture.

With every transformation there must be a dramatic change in the culture of the organization. In order to create lasting change, the transformation must produce two things: changed work processes and a new way of working, a new culture. Coaches work with groups of Changers to cement that changing culture.

Coaches are people who are comfortable with releasing the results of a change idea to the Changers. Successful Coaches concentrate solely on behavior and culture issues within a team of Changers. As a result, Coaches are unconcerned with the end product the Changers are implementing. Rather, they focus on challenging Changers to actually implement a change idea and on how the Changers are working together throughout their short time together.

A Coach finds herself working with Changers to develop intricate and strong relationships across known boundaries of the organization. These special cross-organizational relationships create a web of culture change that ripple throughout the organization. Even if every single implementation fails (and that can happen), the culture will have shifted because people throughout the organization have experienced new relationships and working together in new ways.

Coaches develop skills to challenge and confront behaviors exhibited by Changers that will inhibit transformation. Prepared Coaches will develop a skill set that allows them to work effectively with Changers. This set is comprised of five distinct skills that allow a Coach to impact the culture of an organization.

• Training to build a foundation for excellence.

• Developing to make growing and learning fun.

• Focusing to stimulate creative thought.

• Mentoring to support wise long-term decisions.

• Confronting to build respect and commitment.

Coaches are invited to participate in a free, online, interactive game that teaches these skills. The Coaching Game is located at www.changecraft.com.

Champion 

Champions are people who are adept at playing on both sides of the transformation: supporting the old structures of the organization on one hand while supporting the implementation of new changes on the other.

As a Champion, you realize keenly that the organization must maintain a certain level of functionality in order to keep the organization running long enough – and strongly enough – to survive the radical changes of transformation.

Changers rely on Champions to have the political wherewithal and influence in the organization to provide or cause resources to be provided that will allow them to implement changes. You must be prepared to say "yes" as readily as you say "no" to those requests.

Champions may find themselves serving as protector of the old way and old processes of the organization. Realizing that radical change taking places to some processes will cause the organization to collapse under the weight of that change. Champions sometimes find themselves bedfellows with Loyal Opponents while at the same time working with Changers.

Champions are actually in a unique position with the transformation. If the transformation is a success, she has been instrumental in creating the new organization. If the transformation fails – and they do – she has maintained her position in the organization.

In your role as Champion, you’ll be trading favors on what may be years of carefully built political power and influence. A Champion is a person who is willing to spend some of their well-earned political capital in the organization for the sake of changes.

Prepare yourself for tense negotiations and conflict management. Champions, more than any other role, come face to face with Loyal Opponents. Respect them and learn to listen to their concerns. Remember that Loyal Opponents ultimately want the same thing you do – a successful organization that survives and thrives long into the future.

 Zealot

 Zealots are instrumental in a transformation. They are people who thrive on change – any change so long as there is change.

Zealots are people who enthusiastically and with great energy tackle change ideas. They are people who tend to believe more change needs to happen and what changes are happening aren’t happening fast enough.

A Zealot is the kind of person who tends to gravitate to "causes." The "cause" in transformation is change. You are the type of person who not only wears the pink breast cancer ribbon, but also participates in marathons, visiting patients in hospitals, conducts educational forums (both planned and impromptu), volunteers to answer phones at the hotline, writes letters to government agencies for funding and a slew of other activities. If you aren’t this person, chances are high you know someone who is a Zealot.

As a Zealot you’ll find yourself a change activist of sorts. Pushing and calling for more changes; getting involved with multiple Changers; demanding more change ideas from Change Agents and even starting your own change ideas without a Change Agent.

Zealots find themselves at odds with Loyal Opponents. Hone your listening skills and learn to really hear what Loyal Opponents are telling you; they have valuable information for you to pay attention to.

Zealots often find themselves spending more and more of their work life being involved in creating change than they do working in their job. Be careful! Zealots can get so wrapped up with change that they neglect their jobs. Keep in mind that if you are terminated from the organization; you won’t be playing the change game anymore. Take care to balance your change activities with your job responsibilities.

Because Zealots don’t want to accept that there is a time to stop making changes, they often become frustrated, unhappy and dissatisfied when the transformation slows or comes to a halt. 

Loyal Opponents are steadfast in pointing out very logical, significant reason why things shouldn’t change in the organization. Just as strongly as the other roles believe change must happen for the survival of the organization, a Loyal Opponent believes transformation will cause irreparable harm to the organization.

As a Loyal Opponent you will find yourself working to stop or block changes from taking place. You will find yourself at odds with Changers, Change Agents, Zealots and sometimes Change Leaders and Champions.

Loyal Opponents are skilled in picking and choosing which battles to fight. An effective Loyal Opponent doesn’t fight every change in the organization, rather they fight the ones they see as most dangerous or damaging to the future of the organization. As a result, Loyal Opponents find themselves aligning with Change Leaders when the Change Leader chooses to slow or stop the transformation effort. Loyal Opponents also find themselves in agreement with Champions from time to time. Remember, Champions don’t support all change ideas, just ones they believe are good for the organization.

Sharpen your speaking skills as a Loyal Opponent. You’ll create plenty of opportunities to make your case why a change should not happen. Make sure what you’re saying is relevant and well thought out – offer alternatives to transformation that are less stressful and potentially damaging to the organization.

Loyal Opponents are necessary for the success of a transformation effort. Without Loyal Opponents, changes can happen too quickly, resulting in so much chaos the organization can’t recover. Loyal Opponents see themselves as the voice of reason.

A successful Loyal Opponent will survive a successful transformation, having consistently demonstrated herself as a protector with best interest of the organization’s future forefront in their minds.