A few decades ago I read a Harvard Business Review article that said the role of executives was to drive change. The article made the case that this was an executive’s only role. At the time I didn’t completely buy it. I thought of all the things I was doing to keep the organization functioning, and driving change was just one part.
Most authors tend towards the bombastic or sensationalist to make a point and entice people to read their article. These authors were a little guilty of this, but over the years I’ve come around to their perspective. In an ideal world managers are handling everything that keeps the organization rolling. The executives are thinking about change: how the organization must change and leading that change.
Knowing what needs to change is the easy part. Successfully leading that change is where good leaders separate from poor leaders. Author Seth Godin has a lot of interesting perspectives, including his analysis of organizational change, in which he examines the four cohorts you have to navigate as you propose change.
The Four Cohorts of the Status Quo
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The first group cares about the policy. They benefit from it. They’ve organized themselves around it.
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The second group cares about stability. They have limited bandwidth, and they’re not particularly interested in reconsidering everything, all the time.
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The third group doesn’t care that much.
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And the fourth group is harmed by the policy, either directly or indirectly.
Change happens slowly because the first three groups have power, inertia, and communications on their side. It makes no sense to argue with the first group. When the fourth group can create the conditions for the third group to care, then these two groups can move the urgency up the agenda. That’s when change can happen.
Thinking about these groups as you try to implement change can be really helpful—whether it be to drive the importance of technology or to encourage the adoption of a new policy or tool. We like to have consensus in higher ed. However, timely and effective change requires an understanding of the different groups in the audience and communicating with them to challenge their assumptions, and ultimately change their thinking.
So on this day when we change our calendar to keep up with reality, consider how you can better help change to keep pace with our environment.