Champions of Change: The Essential Qualities of a Great Change Agent

I consider myself to be a change agent. I've been a catalyst for organizational change for quite awhile now, no matter what position I held in an organization or when I am brought in as an external consultant as has been the case the past few years.

Change is important, as it is what brings us from our past into our future. Change in organizations is also very hard given that organizations are complex adaptive systems filled with networks, rules, values, and lots and lots of human beings, all with their own goals, motivations, and perspectives. Given this, we need change agents to help organizations continuously reinvent themselves and evolve as the world around us changes.

So what does it mean to be a change agent? Do you need to have a formal position that declares you to be a change agent? No, anyone can be a change agent as long as they can muster the courage to raise organizational transparency and curiosity. Change agents can be powerful catalysts to drive a healthy recognition of uncertainty within the organization. Namely, they can work with leadership to move away from fixed roadmaps, tightly-held plans, and an incessant focus on efficiency and maximizing output. Instead of focusing on output, they can promote fast feedback cycles and a culture of focus on learnings, adaptations, and business outcomes.

While anyone can affect change on their immediate teams, change agents should constantly work to increase their sphere of influence because the forces that drive organizational behavior and results exist at all levels of the organization and across functional silos. If you restrict yourself to just one small part of the organization, you will be less impactful with your change than if you can influence both leadership and front-line colleagues.

Does a change agent have to be internal or external to the organization? Both internal and external change agents are important. Your organization is perfectly designed to give you the results you are currently getting, so you may need new ideas and an outside perspective to spark changes to your system. External change agents also have more "privilege" since they often are looked at as an expert coming in from the outside and often have easier access to multiple levels of the organization than an internal person does. On the other hand, internal change agents have more information about how things currently work in their organization which can be an asset in determining what kind of changes are feasible to implement at a given time. Furthermore, you need internal change agents to continue and sustain organizational change after the external change agent moves on to other projects with other organizations. In fact, you could argue that the most enduring impact of the external change agent is in developing internal change agents, or champions, to lead future change in the organization.

The best change agents are good at working with people at all levels and roles in an organization. They have a strong understanding of organizational design and organizational dynamics. Top notch change agents have organizational leadership experience which they use to empathize with the challenges that organizational leaders face. Change agents also provide guidance and suggestions to assist leaders in communicating about the need for change across the organization, how to model new behavior, and how to align incentive systems with desired new behaviors.

When change agents also offer strong, experiential knowledge of agile, lean, and technical best practices, they can work across an entire value stream, driving higher customer value and better business outcomes.

One final question - can’t organizational leadership drive change in their organization without focused change agents? Leaders certainly have a big part to play in cultivating successful change given their influence over much of the organizational design, the rewards system, and their bully pulpit. However, one thing leaders generally don’t have enough of is time. They are so busy running the day-to-day of the business and developing strategy that they rarely have the time to focus on the full-time job of catalyzing new skills, new ways of thinking, and new behavior over a period of time. Leaders are experts in their organization and in their functional field, but they generally are not as experienced in cultivating organizational change. Bringing in a specialized change agent may be the smart and economical move because the cost of failed change and distracted leadership far outweighs whatever it costs to bring in however many change agents your organization needs. You don’t need an army of change agents. Depending on your situation, you may need anywhere from one to a small handful of change agents working strategically across your organization.

If you are considering bringing in an external change agent to work with your organization, please reach out for a free initial consultation where we’d be happy to listen to your needs and share some ideas of how you can move forward with your change efforts.