Just how good is Internal change?

Change from within has always been considered in a very positive light.  But does it live up to that reputation?

There’s no question that being engaged in improvement initiatives is mandatory if positive change is to be effective and sustainable, but there are a number of aspects that work against change of any sort, and particularly change brought about through purely internal means.

It is generally accepted that a key requirement for change is clarity of vision and a strong champion.  A lack of vision results in confused efforts that doom the process from the start and even a clearly understood  change program without a powerful champion is likely to be derailed as the resistors to change look for ways and stronger champions to sideline or water down the program.  In addition, internal programs are often delegated over time, losing both clarity of the goal and power of the original champion.  The goals are often “safe” and to ensure success, rules may be bent and the gains may be offset through compromises and shifts to other areas.

Being very good at or having deep experience in specific aspects of a job are often key criteria in being selected for an internal change team.  (These skills are the same reason why people are often pulled back to their day jobs from their change jobs to help out with “fires”.)    Our experience challenges this, placing far more importance on skills associated with change management.  One such skill is motivating people to want change and overcome their natural inclination to resist change.

Another change management skill is understanding how to put together a change program Action Plan that will keep the program moving and on schedule so as to counter that most powerful killer of change programs, the Day Job.  The Day Job takes precedence over all other work, and rightly so, but unless there is a powerful force aligned with the change program, days, weeks and even months may go by before anyone has “spare time” to re-engage the change program.

Some years ago, I was involved with a well known multi-national client who had a very strong, formal and established internal change team.  The client put us into an area that they had just consulted yet we found a number of very significant opportunities that had been “left on the table”.  Subsequent discussions  revealed that the internal team’s project was one of a number of routine engagements – their day jobs – and that they had achieved all of their goals.  The internal consultants had been chosen, mainly for their former day job skills.

There are many successful internal change programs and there are many that are not.  Failed programs are difficult to forget, as are highly successful ones.  Make sure that yours is good memorable.

We invite your comments, questions and experiences with both good and bad internal change.