Episode #579: Leaders Embracing Change In Japan

Is change good or bad? When I was promoted or received a big bonus, I liked the change from my previous situation. When the big boss changed at the very top, the person who hired me got fired the negative ramifications ultimately cascaded down the line. Eventually I had to look for another job and I didn’t like that change much.

Often organisations go through major internal changes and the middle level leaders are expected to rally the troops behind the change. How do you do that if you don’t agree with the change or don’t like the change yourself? If you buck the system and refuse to follow the changes, then you are automatically identifying yourself as someone who has to leave the organisation and the machine will crush you.

Change is such a tricky area for everyone, but it is so common in business. Markets change, clients change, supply chains change, currency rates change – the list is long. You would think that with all of these “normal” changes in business, we would all be excellent in adjusting to change. However, that is not true, is it?

The status quo is so attractive to most of us because it is known and safe. We have been doing the same thing for quite a while and we are good at it. We are doing skilled work in the current formation and suddenly we are being asked to change and are being pushed out of our Comfort Zone. Japan, in particular loves continuity and no change, because all the risk has been shaken out of the system and what we are left with is the lowest risk alternative.

As leaders we have to make a decision. If we fundamentally disagree with the new approach then we should find another place to work, where we can be happy and in agreement with the direction. The chances of us doing our best work there dramatically improve, compared to if we stay and conduct an underground personal resistance to the changes. Ultimately, we will be outed by an ambitious rival or subordinate and probably fired.
If we are not willing to move companies, then we have to be willing to go with the new direction. Here is the issue – a half-hearted compliance isn’t going to work well. Our team members will feel the lack of commitment and enthusiasm to the cause. They in turn, will not rally around us as the leader and charge into the fire together.

How can we make this change work within our small cog in the machine? The big bosses set the direction back at headquarters, but they can never get their hands dirty with the daily minutiae at our section level. That application piece is within our control. We may be buffeted by the winds of macro change, but the micro where we deliver the change is within our grasp. We have almost total control over how we do it.
What we are feeling about the changes is no doubt being felt by the team members as well. Turning up one Monday morning as some mealy mouthed, apparatchik mouthpiece of the machine isn’t going to go down well. Cynicism is already rampart in modern society and this will push some people over the edge, as we try to order them about what they need to do. All we can expect is resistance if we take this road. How can we approach this to get everyone behind us and the changes?

Rather than being definitive about how to make the needed changes, we need to have the “change” discussion with the team. In Stage One we need people to be able to air their concerns and fears and be taken seriously. Stage Two is where we move on to how we as a team can implement the change in our world. Getting from Stage One to Stage Two is no easy feat, because many will remain unconvinced and unmoved. They will want to keep going with the old way of doing things.

For the “never changers”, we need to have private one-on-one discussions and have them make a decision about stay or go. If it is “stay”, then they need to be part of the team decision-making process and contribute to practical solutions to make this work in a way we can all live with the changes.

Just telling them to “suck it up and get back to work” is always a bad idea. It communicates you are not important. We are saying, “I have three stripes on my sleeve and so you have to do what I say, because I am pulling rank on you”. They may in fact stay, but they will join the underground guerrilla movement against the changes. We will wind up fighting each other internally when we need to form a united front against our competitors in the market. We need converts not resisters.

So as the leader we need to get the discussion out in the open and get team ownership of the way forward. Maybe we all have to hold our noses against the stench of the changes, but we will hold them together and find a way through.