WHITE PAPER

From theory to practice:

Five case studies of change

Katie Warriner
Kelly Walsh
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Five case studies of change 3

Executive Summary

This report provides an insight into five Acknowledgements

organisations’ experiences of significant change. A
case study approach was taken to explore what we
can learn from real-life, in-depth stories of business
transformation. These case studies describe different
experiences of change, including technological,
cultural and structural initiatives in addition to a
merger and an acquisition. They were developed
through one-to-one interviews with senior leaders
involved in the change, and a combination of focus
group data and survey data from individuals affected
by the change as well as relevant performance
indicators such as profit, cost-savings and employee
engagement levels where available. Each case study
was analysed to extract the key themes, challenges
and examples of good practice.
This research project would not have been possible
without the support of senior leaders in each of the
five case study organisations and the two change
experts who we interviewed. We are grateful to these
individuals for sharing their organisation’s stories of
change and their own experiences of what works and
what doesn’t work. We would also like to thank the
Lane4 team who helped us identify and connect with
potential case study organisations and to the Lane4
Research Team for their support in analysing the data
that was gathered.

The results highlight the criticality of leadership to

successful change, with leadership alignment and
managing resistance emerging as key challenges.
Managing continual change, creating a vision that
inspires people, getting people engaged with change
and understanding the role of organisational culture
also represented important areas for leaders looking
to deliver significant change. Insights from Lane4’s
broader research programme into the people side of
change are provided, including a series of coaching
questions, for anyone involved in leading and
managing change. The findings are presented
alongside insights from Lane4’s research in the area
of organisational change.

This report is written for anyone involved in leading

or implementing organisational change.
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Five case studies of change 4

Contents

Introduction 5

The Current Study 8

Results 9

Key Learnings for Our Approach to Change 16

Recommendations for Leading Change through Engagement 18

Appendix 1: Coaching Change 19

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Five case studies of change 5

Introduction

Lane4 is committed to remaining at the cutting edge
of performance psychology and organisational
development. To this end we have conducted
significant research in the area of organisational
change – a topic which is at the heart of our
consultancy. This report shares the findings of our
latest project.
Change and how organisations manage it defines
organisational life. Some organisations transform
themselves with agility and efficiency, whilst others
are crippled by resistance and inertia. Furthermore,
whilst competitive pressures are forcing
organisations to deliver change faster and more
fundamentally than before, research suggests that
only a few are managing it successfully1. Our own
research suggests that for every 10 change initiatives
undertaken within organisations, four will fail, five
will produce some of the desired results and only one
will be truly successful2.
providing more insight and allowing us to
continually refine our approach to change. The major
stages include:
 A comprehensive review of the performance
psychology literature in the area of change
 One-to-one interviews with leaders,
managers and employees in the midst of
change
 Focus groups with change practitioners to
understand the practical challenges
This work culminated in the development of a
framework that details the key areas leaders need to
focus on to engage their people with change and
therefore achieve the results they are striving for
(Figure 1).

Why do so many change programmes fail?

Researchers have searched extensively for the answer
to this question and whilst many explanations have
been given, the most compelling evidence points to
our tendency to ignore, defer or underestimate the
significance of people issues during change 3.

Therefore, in developing our research in the area of

organisational change, we have focused, in
particular, on the people side of change. We have
explored why people engagement is so important
during change, what the major challenges and
enablers are in building engagement and how leaders
can dramatically increase their chances of leading
successful change. There have been a number of
different stages in our research programme, each

1
Berman, S. et al., (2008). Making Change Work. IBM
Corporation, New York; Korsten, P. et al., (2008). The Enterprise
of the Future. IBM Corporation, New York.
2
Lane4 (2009). Emerging Stronger: Strategic Insights for Leading
in Tough Times. To receive a copy, please contact Kelly Walsh
(kelly.walsh@lane4.co.uk).
3
E.g. Harding, D. & Rouse, T. (2007). Human Due Diligence.
Harvard Business Review, 85, 124-131; Krug, J. (2003). Why Do
They Keep Leaving? Harvard Business Review; 81, 14-15; Lane4
(2009). Emerging Stronger: Strategic Insights for Leading in
Tough Times.
 A Lane4 White Paper
Five case studies of change 6

Figure 1: The Lane4 Change Framework

The Framework positions engagement at the centre of successful change. Engagement must be developed at the
level of buy-in. meaning and capacity (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Three pillars of engagement

RATIONAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOUR

ENGAGEME ENGAGEME AL
Buy-in Meaning Capacity
“I am equipped and
“I understand the “I care about this
have the opportunity
need to change” being a success”
to take part”

Leaders generate engagement by developing and
communicating the story for change, enabling people and
shaping an effective process. Successful change is
virtually impossible without people engagement, but
we know from research and from experience that the
people side of change is often neglected or regarded
as little more than an afterthought.
The current study describes the latest stage of our
research programme – an in-depth analysis of five
case studies to further our understanding of the
dynamics of organisational change and to explore the
validity of our approach. Case study research is a
powerful method for studying real-life examples of
organisational change. We were keen to explore how
real-life case studies would add strength to what we
already know, through our research and consultancy,
about managing change. This was also an
opportunity to see how the theory of leading change
A Lane4 White Paper
Five case studies of change 7
through engagement stands up in practice and to
generate new insight that would enhance and
develop our approach4. Our research questions were:
 How are organisations currently managing
change?
 What are the key challenges and how are
organisations tackling them?
 How can we further support and challenge
ourselves and our clients to manage change
with greater agility and success?
In the rest of this report, we outline our method,
share the key themes that the study generated,
summarise how the study has informed our
approach to change and offer recommendations for
leading change through engagement.
4
Dooley, L.M. (2002). Case Study Research and Theory Building.
Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4, 335-354.

The Current Study
This project is based on interviews with two highly
experienced change practitioners and in-depth case
studies with five different organisations that have
experienced substantial change in the last two years.
The selected organisations were known to Lane4,
either as clients or through personal contacts of Lane4
consultants. These organisations had diverse
experiences of change with varying degrees of
success. The case studies allowed us to study change
in the following contexts:
 The merger of two major international travel
leisure companies
 Business transformation at a major global
utilities company
 A human resources restructure at an
international manufacturing and distribution
organisation
 An acquisition in the financial services
industry
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Five case studies of change 8
 A technology systems change at an
international professional services firm
To develop the case studies we conducted in-depth
interviews with senior professionals involved in
leading change in each of the case study
organisations. To deepen the insight we also analysed
survey data (either from a bespoke Lane4 survey or
existing organisational survey data), findings from
focus groups about the change under investigation
and other performance metrics related to change.
Two Lane4 researchers were assigned to each case
study to encourage objectivity and each case study
was checked with the interviewee for accuracy. The
individual case studies were then analysed by two
Lane4 researchers to extract the main themes and
inform our recommendations. The main themes are
outlined in the results section below with insights
from experienced change practitioners woven in as
appropriate.

Results
The five case studies presented in this report support
the idea that organisational change is rarely ‘good’ or
‘bad’ but lies somewhere on a continuum, displaying
pockets of both. To facilitate movement towards the
good end of the continuum we have summarised
common themes from the case studies, highlighting
the key challenges and what can be learnt from them.
These are presented below:
The Criticality of Leadership
Recent Lane4 research (2009)5 found leadership issues
to be among the most common barriers to change.
The current case studies reflect this pattern,
highlighting how leaders can make or break change
initiatives.
Key challenges include:
 Leadership alignment – Ensuring all leaders
were ‘on the same page’ was particularly
challenging when change occurred at a rapid
pace. Leadership alignment was particularly
pertinent in the context of mergers and
acquisitions where leaders needed to be
engaged in the change, share the same vision
and understand the history and culture of the
legacy organisations for people to really
believe in it. Furthermore, leaders needed to
be communicating this aligned, consistent
message, often in a rapidly changing
environment.
 Role-modelling - Saying the right things is
one thing but doing them is another. Role-
modelling proved to be more of a challenge
when the change did not directly affect the
leaders.
5 challenges for the planned projects.
Lane4 Research Report (2009). Emerging Stronger: Strategic
Insights for Leading in Tough Times. To receive a copy,
please contact Kelly Walsh, Research Manager
(kelly.walsh@lane4.co.uk).
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Five case studies of change 9
Case Study Learning
 Nurture informal leadership - it doesn’t
always need to come from the top. Informal
leaders close to the ‘coal face’ can have a
powerful impact on behaviour change.
 Develop resilient leaders - Leaders are only
human. Support them in developing their
resilience and ability to cope with ambiguity
so that they are able to manage their own
change effectively and support others
through their journeys.
Case Study Excerpt Process and System Change in a
Professional Services Firm
Leadership Alignment, the Elusive Element
Thirty-nine percent of respondents did not agree that
the leaders were aligned behind the change. The lack
of leadership alignment hindered the change for a
number of reasons. Perhaps most importantly,
responses to qualitative questions in the survey
suggest that it lead some employees to doubt the
criticality of the change. One respondent noted: “I
would have preferred to have… a clearer
demonstration by company leaders of the importance
of all users’ responsibilities to the system and how it
is an important part of our strategy for growth”. The
reported lack of leadership alignment, alongside a
lack of leadership role-modelling, seems to have
contributed to a disconnect between the stated and
perceived criticality of the change.
The Ubiquitous Nature of Change
It will come as no surprise that case study
organisations found their change efforts swamped by
competing initiatives and marred by those which had
gone before. This treadmill of change held various

Key challenges included:
 Change weariness – people were physically
and psychologically drained by having to
cope with constant change leaving little
energy to effect the new change or continue
business as usual.
 Change saturation – The business was trying
to implement so many changes that it
struggled for resource. Employees also
became increasingly sceptical in the face of
seemingly relentless waves of change. The
mentality that “there will be another change
along in a minute” created apathy and
represented a significant barrier to
engagement.
 Isolated Change – Multiple projects were
badly co-ordinated or conducted in isolation,
neglecting the system in which it was
occurring.
Case Study Learning
 Co-ordinate change projects centrally – This
enables the sharing of learning and
resources.
 Prioritise organisational change projects –
identify which changes are genuinely
‘business critical’ and resource accordingly.
People will not buy into limitless change
projects.
Case Study Excerpt: Process and System Change in a
Manufacturing and Distribution Organisation
The Ubiquitous Nature of Change
Change is rife within most organisations and in this
case, a total of 17 other change projects were
occurring at the same time. To manage this
complexity, the organisation created a Business
Transformation Office (BTO). The BTO was tasked
with coordinating the various change projects and
ensuring that they fitted together from an employee
relations point of view. To support this goal, a change
calendar for the whole business was created, cost-
benefits were identified and the people impact was
studied. Projects were also prioritised to avoid
change overload.
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Five case studies of change 10
Despite this focus, the senior leader that we
interviewed acknowledged that “people are getting
very wary about changes that keep coming up and
they want to see the bigger picture”. The lack of an
overall vision linking the various change initiatives to
a higher purpose mean that employees noticed
various independent changes but were unclear about
how these changes related to each other, or even
why they were initiated in the first place.
Developing the Story for Change
If people are going to change they need to know why.
A compelling vision is a non-negotiable if you want
your people to buy into the new future of the
organisation. People need to understand the business
case, ideally including facts and figures, to truly
comprehend the need for change. But facts and
figures are often not enough.
Key challenges include:
 Creating an inspiring vision –‘Building a
more cost-effective HR function’ may well
appear logical and clear but it doesn’t exactly
pull at the heartstrings! Visions developed
by some of the case study organisations
remained on a purely rational level and
failed to tap into the emotions of their
employees which resulted in feedback that
the vision was uninspiring and failing to
generate engagement.
 The story isn’t always a happy one -
Developing a compelling story is particularly
challenging in a declining market, even more
so when the change is about cost-cutting and
redundancies. But not telling a story at all is
far worse.
Case Study Learning
 Create a clear and compelling vision – People
need to see that the ‘post-change’ future will
be better in ways that are meaningful to
them.
 Employees are adults – People are more able
to deal with difficult situations than we often
given them credit for. The challenge for
leaders is to articulate compelling reasons,

whatever the change and to communicate
them with integrity.
 Face facts - Use data and evidence where
possible.
 Respect the past – Even the most exciting
picture of the future may struggle to compete
with the romance of the past. People need to
see the change building on what has gone
before rather than completely replacing it.
Case Study Excerpt: Managing a Merger in the Travel
Industry
Creating a Shared Vision and Set of Values
As soon as the two businesses had come together, the
Group Chief Executive, launched an initiative to co-
create a vision for the future. The first part of this
focused on the development of a new set of values
that would underpin the new organisation.
Consultation began across the whole group (50,000
employees) to identify the values. The new values
were launched in February to the top 500 managers
across the whole group. Jacky explained: “I feel
strongly that a common set of values sets the
foundation for a shared culture and way of working
together.”
A Group vision was also developed to represent the
mission of the new organisation. The Group CEO
took time to understand the strategy of both
businesses before developing the new Group vision,
‘Making Travel Experiences Special’, and to ensure
that it was aligned to the values of the Group. Each
business then took the Group vision and translated
it into something meaningful for them and their
customers. The Group Values and Vision helped to
start building a new culture for the merged
organisation, one that replaced but did not discredit
legacy cultures. The senior leader that we
interviewed explained that: “we were absolutely
keen to ensure, right from the beginning, that we
didn’t rubbish the past and that people still felt
proud of what they had achieved before merging”.
The Rapid Pace of Change
Change is not always fully within our control.
Organisations are often at the mercy of outside
forces; burning platforms or unmissable
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Five case studies of change 11
opportunities that require swift action. A number of
our case study organisations experienced this need
for pace.
Key Challenges Include
 Speed of decision making – Organisations
were presented with opportunities and
challenges that required a quick reaction.
This meant little time to gain buy-in from
employees.
 Mobilising change - Large scale change,
particularly in the case of a merger resulted
in the need to rapidly change structure and
operations.
 Co-creation - Organisations were unable to
engage employees in creating the new story
due to time constraints.
Case Study Learning
 Make the change before it happens to you –
Despite the challenges arising from rapid
decision making, the case study
organisations that made timely decisions
rather than sitting on them showed improved
performance and were able to proactively
make the change rather than reacting to
forced change.
 Real change takes time - A merger or
acquisition, for example, can happen very
quickly but this is not the end of the ‘change’.
Culture change, re-structures, system and
behaviour change all take time. Make sure
you are clear about where the finish line is.
Case Study Excerpt: Managing an Acquisition in the
Financial Sector
Rapid Decision Making
One of the remarkable features of the acquisition
was the speed and surprise with which it took place.
The acquisition was finalised within 48 hours –
astonishing but essential rapidity that reflected the
uniqueness of the opportunity afoot. “It had to be
done so quickly, and the complexity of the situation
required highly specialised knowledge”. As a
result, change was led from the top-down.

The Human Side of Change
Lane4 research (2009) supports the commonly cited
6
view that people present the greatest barrier to
change. Conversely, when leaders engage skilfully
with the human side of change, they find that people
become their greatest asset. However, it is these
people factors that are commonly neglected, resulting
in resistance.
Key challenges include:
 Managing resistance –To varying degrees, we
all resist change but how we express it varies
from one person to another. All our case
study organisations experienced this, often in
the form of scepticism, change weariness and
reluctance to let go of old ways.
 Managing transitions - Transition is an
internal process that people must go through
to adapt to change. Transitions are personal,
subjective and relatively intangible. Until
people successfully transitioned from the old
way to the new way, real change couldn’t
happen.
 Equipping employees to cope with change
and ambiguity – The fast pace of change
provided difficult conditions to supply large
scale, individualised support.
 Engaging disenfranchised employees –
Passive resistance can be as damaging as
active resistance. The challenge was to
maintain employee engagement through the
change.
Case study learning:
 Accept and embrace resistance – Resistance is
a natural reaction to change. The question is
not whether you will get resistance, but how
you will respond when it arises. Dismissing
it is to ignore or overlook potentially useful
information and a resource that unlocks new
ideas and better solutions.
 Understand individual causes of resistance
(e.g. threatened identity, genuine concern
about the appropriateness of the change) in
6
Lane4 Research Report (2009). Emerging Stronger: Strategic
Insights for Leading in Tough Times. To receive a copy,
please contact Kelly Walsh, Research Manager
(kelly.walsh@lane4.co.uk).
A Lane4 White Paper
Five case studies of change 12
order to improve your ability to support
transitions.
 Acknowledge that change is hard and equip
people to cope – Too often, struggling to cope
with change is dismissed as a weakness or
the result of a negative attitude. In reality it
is a common issue that, to varying degrees,
will always occur. By showing empathy,
encouraging people to talk through their
experience and supporting people to develop
their change capability you are more likely to
engage people with the change.
 Up-skill managers – Managers need to
manage the change and experience it
simultaneously. Support them through their
own change and help them develop the skills
to improve the change capability of their
teams.
 Monitor engagement – Use a combination of
formal methods (e.g. surveys, ‘town hall’
meetings) and informal methods (e.g.
walkabouts and water cooler conversations)
to understand engagement levels.
Case Study Excerpt: Business Transformation at a
Utilities Company
Securing a Mandate to Invest in the Human Side of
Change
Many leaders initially underestimated the likely
impact of the transformation project on their people.
“It really amazed me that so many project leaders
suggested that there would not be any major
impact”. Many felt that it was just a systems and
process change, and that people would not be
significantly affected. This was particularly
challenging because working in an IT function,
typically, people are even more technology-focused
and less people-focused: “it has taken a huge amount
of time and effort to engage people”.
Feeding back information from the surveys and focus
groups helped to raise awareness about the
importance of investing in the human side of change.
The mandate to invest was ultimately secured by “a
lot of time, hard work, and resilience. By not giving
up and by trying things in different ways until we
got the result we wanted”.

Working with Organisational Culture
Organisational culture presents both opportunities
and threats. Whilst an enabling culture can expedite
change, initiatives that challenge core tenets of the
culture can receive fierce and often damaging
resistance.
Key challenges include:
 Merging cultures – Creating a new culture
that was respectful of the merging
organisations’ heritage and fit for the new
future required great commitment from
senior leaders.
 Change legacy – The legacy of previous
change initiatives, particularly poorly
handled or unfinished change, affected
employee opinion on the current change.
 Shifting cultural mindsets - Often change
programmes were counter-cultural which
upped the stakes, making it even harder to
embed new behaviours.
Case study learning:
 Understand your organisation’s change
legacy - Invest time in understanding how
organisational culture may inhibit or enable
change This will provide valuable insights
(e.g. into how employees are likely to react to
change) and will save you a lot of time
further down the line.
 Take a closer look at the culture– culture
exists on different levels depending on which
lens you look through. Does the formal,
espoused culture match the reality of
everyday interactions? Who are the real role-
models and what behaviours are they
encouraging?
 Be prepared - If the change you are
introducing is counter-cultural, expect more
resistance and resource accordingly.
Case Study Excerpt: Process and System Change in a
Manufacturing and Distribution Organisation
The Impact of Organisational Culture
Culturally, the organisation was fast-paced and results-
driven, characteristics which encouraged rapidly
instigated change with little focus on review and
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Five case studies of change 13
learning. The focus was on the here and now, and the
delivery of immediate benefits. Future-thinking was
scarce. This made it difficult to get the resources and
funding that were required to adopt a more consultative
approach to change because the benefits of such a
strategy would not be immediately demonstrable.
Difficult conversations were also avoided as a result of
the organisational culture. As a result, the process of
involving people in the change was delayed and
avoided until the senior leaders had found the ‘right’
solutions. This ‘command and control’ culture meant
that only a small number of people were involved in the
design and planning of the project and the rest of the
organisation felt left behind.
Resourcing the Change
Often change initiatives are seen as sideline projects,
with people managing them alongside their day-job.
However, to effect successful change it takes time,
effort and dedicated resource. This is not always
readily available and case organisations cited the
following challenges:
Key challenges include:
 Securing resources - Change agents often
performed this role alongside their ‘day-job’
leaving little or no time to focus on the
change.
 Building the team – In some cases,
individuals from different parts of the
organisation were put together as a ‘change
team’. These teams sometimes operated
more as a group of people working in
isolation on their piece of the jigsaw.
 Equipping change agents – Change agents
often had little or no experience of this role.
They either required training before they
were able to support others or they were
expected to learn on the job.
Case study learning
 Change is a full-time job – To properly effect
large scale change it is vital to resource it
properly. These jobs might not be permanent
and may be best filled by secondments.
 Use external experts to fill knowledge gaps–
The change team can benefit from external
experts in areas such as change management,
employee engagement, internal

communications and transition coaching.
These individuals can provide a credible way
to gather feedback and capture an accurate
perception of the opportunities and threats at
various stages of an organisation’s change
journey.
Case Study Excerpt: Managing a Merger in the Travel
Industry
Learning Anxiety
The amount of change required to make this
transformation a success created notable test for some
employees, which in turn represented a challenge for the
implementation team. One employee reflected: “I am still
in the transition phase of adjusting to the new system. I’ve
got a basic understanding of the new system but I’m still
making more mistakes than I would like”. Getting to
know an unfamiliar system or process is notoriously
testing, in part because it can make people feel
incompetent. When this is not managed, it can become a
significant source of resistance.
The Disruptive Nature of Change
Change is a huge distraction. It erodes employee
motivation (Employee productivity has been
estimated to fall by 25% to 50% during large-scale
change7) and takes excessive amounts of physical and
mental energy. In short, managing or coping with
change is a job in itself. This presented various
challenges for the case organisations:
Key challenges include:
 Delivering business as usual – The demands
on individuals and teams rarely changed yet
they had the extra pressure of the change and
its implications.
Case study learning:
 Create breathing space - create space away
from business as usual to help people make a
success of the change.
 Be realistic about timeframes – Set people up
to succeed by setting timeframes for the
change that can realistically be achieved
7 tapped into through regular pulse surveys,
Tetenbaum, T. (1999). Seven key practices that improve the
chance for expected integration and synergies”, Organizational
Dynamics 28, 22 – 36.
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Five case studies of change 14
alongside the day-job. If this is not possible,
recruit extra resources in the short-term.
Case Study Excerpt: Process and System Change in a
Professional Services Firm
Effecting Change Whilst Developing As Usual
Employees reported struggling to effect change among
their existing responsibilities. One respondent reflected:
“the biggest hurdle is finding the time to fully understand
the new system”. This was exacerbated because “we all
underestimated the time it takes before you feel like
you’re getting anywhere near the vision or even any of the
smaller goals”. Maintaining productivity whilst grappling
with natural learning anxiety can hinder successful
change, as well as compromise employee well-being.
Creating a Communication Flow
The message seems to be clear when it comes to
communication; you cannot do too much. This
involves formal, structured communication balanced
with an authentic engagement with the informal
messages and myths that are inevitable products of
ambiguity and change.
Key challenges include:
 Challenge of consultation – Often decision
had to be made quickly, leaving little time for
consultation.
 Engaging with the unstructured side –
Organisations found this time consuming
and particularly difficult on a global scale or
where numerous sites were involved.
 Communicating a constantly changing
message – inconsistent stories eroded trust
and leaders felt under pressure to have all
the answers
Case study learning:
 You cannot communicate too much – Take
every opportunity to keep people updated
and be as visible and accessible as possible.
 Make the communication 2 way – People will
have views on the change and need an
opportunity to voice these. This provides a
valuable source of feedback and can be

focus groups, Q and A sessions and informal
conversations.
 Don’t wait until you’ve got the perfect
message – Be transparent and communicate
both the ‘knowns’ and ‘unknowns’. If the
story has changed, be clear about why.
 Engage with the formal and the informal –
Don’t be afraid to engage with the messy,
informal conversations that are inevitably
occurring as this is where people begin to
make sense of the change.
 Don’t forget non-verbal communication –
Role-modelling has a huge impact on
behaviour. If the displayed behaviours do
not mirror the talked about behaviours you
are unlikely to embed the change.
 Make the communication meaningful -
people care most about what the change will
mean for them so make sure that
communication is tailored to the audience
where possible.
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Five case studies of change 15
Case Study Excerpt: Process and System Change in a
Manufacturing and Distribution Organisation
Engage with the informal unstructured side of change
Most communication about the change was formal
and structured in the shape of management edicts,
emails and official presentations. This was mainly
due to time and cost constraints. “Given the time, I
will naturally spend time with my team informally,
talking to them about how the last initiative landed
for them and what they think about the current
change. It is amazing what you get out of those
conversations, in terms of feedback and data to tell
you what people are and are not understanding,
which you can convey back to the leaders... That said,
I don't think I have done this for 6 weeks. I
understand it and to a certain extent I am motivated
to do it, but I haven't felt able to recently”.
Whatever the barriers, informal unstructured
communications, such as 1:1 or 1:few briefings, play
a major role in delivering successful change. They
allow employees to make sense of what the change
means for them, raise questions and offer feedback.
Investment in this area is likely to have improved
buy-in across the business.

Key learnings for our approach to change
The current study has strengthened and enhanced
our approach to organisational change, both within
Lane4 and in consultancy with our clients. In this
section, we briefly summarise how this project has
supported aspects of our current approach and
outline the ways in which it has added new insight.
The Story
This research has reiterated that developing a strong
and coherent story is critical to building engagement.
Stories that produce engagement are likely to contain
a compelling vision, a strong purpose and clearly
articulated business drivers.
Leaders’ approach to developing the story typically
fall somewhere on a continuum from ‘telling’ to ‘co-
creating’. When people are able to contribute, they
are more likely to engage.
The Process
In the organisations we studied, the process for
change had a substantial impact on the amount of
resistance that was experienced. The organisations
that excelled in this area paid significant attention to
communication, stakeholder engagement, transition
management and co-creating the change.
Leaders also worked to ensure that formal systems
and structures were aligned with the change they
were trying to make and recognised the importance
of influencing the informal elements of their
organisation (e.g. personal networks, water-cooler
conversations and office politics) to build support for
the desired changes.
The People
The organisations that managed their change most
effectively invested heavily in their people with the
goal of equipping them to make the change a success.
This included the technical skills that would be
required in the ‘new normal’ and the psychological
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Five case studies of change 16
skills that would help people continue to perform
throughout periods of uncertainty.
Transition teams were successfully used by a couple
of organisations with the expressed goal of helping to
build trust in the change and supporting people to
make sense of what it meant for them without undue
pressure to comply.
This study also confirmed that organisational culture
must not be overlooked in the planning and
implementation of organisational change. To varying
degrees, culture both enabled and hindered change –
what made the difference was the extent to which
leaders understood and influenced the impact of
their organisation’s culture.
Adding to Our Current Approach to Change
In this section, we outline two particularly
compelling ways in which the current study has
further deepened our understanding of the
challenges involved in leading organisational change.
Co-creation: In theory and in practice
The message from the research is clear: when leaders
adopt a co-creative approach, involving people in
developing the story for change and the process for
implementation, engagement increases and success is
more likely. However, the current study reminds us
that the path to co-creation is rarely smooth. Three
obstacles in particular must be overcome:
 Lack of time (in one case study the decision
to merge two financial services companies
was taken in 48 hours)
 Lack of opportunity (legal restrictions
associated with the merger of two leisure and
travel companies prevented co-creation at the
beginning)
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Five case studies of change 17

 Lack of inclination (organisational culture in across hierarchical levels, not heroic individual
at least one instance cast co-creation as a sign leaders, that exerts the greatest influence of
of weakness; leaders were expected to have engagement with change8. The current study has
all the answers) therefore sharpened our focus on the importance of
leadership alignment.
These barriers, whilst significant, do not change the
fundamental premise that change can be distressing
when it is ‘done to us’ and exhilarating when it is
‘done by us’. Furthermore, when people have been
involved in shaping the purpose and process for
change, they are more likely to work together to find
solutions to problems as they arise. When change has
been imposed, we are more likely to disown the
initiative and blame the leaders when challenges
arise.

In light of this complexity, we recommend a broad

approach to co-creation. While it may not be possible
to involve people the in the early stages of
developing the story, there are many opportunities to
encourage such engagement in understanding the
need for change, developing the vision for change,
contributing to the process for change, evaluating the
strengths and weaknesses of the implementation
process, identifying development areas to up-skill
employees and establishing effective communication
practices. Often, it is our beliefs about the viability or
value of co-creation that need to be challenged.

Leadership alignment: Elusive but critical

Organisational change can stretch even the best
leaders to their limits. They must uncover and
express compelling reasons for change, build support
at all levels of the organisations and role-model the
desired behaviours on a day-to-day basis. They must
make tough decisions that impact their people and
convey confidence in the change amidst inevitable
ambiguity. They must generate excitement for the
future whilst demonstrating respect for what has
gone before. At the same time, leaders are employees
too and therefore have to deal with their own
reactions to the change and the role they are playing
in it. It is perhaps unsurprising therefore that
leadership alignment was one of the most common
challenges noted in our case study organisations.

Leadership misalignment sends mixed signals to

employees about the importance of the change or
how it will take place. Employees will already be
making sense of the change in very individual ways,
add mixed signals into the equation and the
likelihood of engagement drops again. Researchers
have shown that it is the alignment of leadership
8
Khurana, R. 2002. Searching for a Corporate Savior: The
Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University press; O’Reilly, C.A., Caldwell, D.F. & Chatman, J.A.
(2005). How Leadership Matters: The Effects of Leadership
Alignment on Strategic Execution. Stanford Graduate School of
Business, Research Paper Series, No. 1895.
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Five case studies of change 18

Recommendations for change through engagement

To summarise the varied insights that our research has produced, we have chosen nine leadership activities
(Figure 3) that are fundamental to success and to leading change through engagement.

Figure 3: Critical Leadership Activities for Leading Change through Engagement

Be meticulous in the
Involve employees in
Create an inspiring planning and
developing the story
vision for change responsive in the
and approach
implementation

Understand and
Support employees Communicate
engage with
to develop relevant continually, formally
employee reactions
technical and and informally
to change, including
psychological skills
resistance

Establish and Learn from previous

Embed change for
consistently change experiences
the long-term before
demonstrate before embarking on
moving on
leadership alignment new ones

These activities will allow people to go on their own personal journey of change, working towards active
engagement. With effective leadership, conversations in the organisation are likely to shift from:
 Why do we have to change? to What new opportunities will this provide?
 Why are you doing this to me? to How can I shape what happens?
 What will I lose in this change? to What could I gain?
 I bet this won’t work to I can imagine what this could look like

The nine activities represent critical performance goals. The processes through which they are achieved will
depend on diverse factors such as the will and skill of leaders in the business, stakeholder interests, the nature
of the change and the culture of the organisation. To start the conversation and create a platform for success,
we have identified a series of coaching questions for leaders to consider, using the Lane4 Change Framework
as an organising structure. An introduction to this resource is provided in Appendix 1. Ultimately, our research
propels us to do something different, to be courageous in how we lead change and to strive for alignment and
engagement throughout.

Appendix 1: Coaching change
This appendix provides an introduction a coaching
approach to change. Questions are structured around
the core components of the Lane4 Change
Framework and offer a supportive guide that can be
flexed according to each unique situation of change.
Example questions only are provided. For more
information, or to discuss how Lane4 can help your
business manage change, please contact Fran Nash, Client
Relationships Consultant [fran.nash@lane4.co.uk; 01628
533 733].
Establish the context of the change
Be clear on the nature, relevance and impact of
contextual factors such as organisational culture,
changes in the wider business environment,
competing business priorities and the organisation’s
change legacy. Example questions include:
 What is the nature of the change that you are
implementing/experiencing?
– Is this a distinct change or part of a series
of changes?
– To what extent do people in the
organisation understand this context?
 Why now?
– What is driving this change? (e.g. internal
v. external forces, burning platform,
survival, keeping ahead of the game? Do
you have a choice/is this opportunistic?)
– What will/ won’t happen if you don’t
change now? What are the likely
consequences?
 How will you know when it has been achieved?
– What will be different? (e.g. cultural,
behavioural or attitudinal differences)
Develop the story for change
Invest time in developing a strong and coherent story
for change, including a compelling vision, a strong
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Five case studies of change 19
purpose and clear business drivers. Co-create and
involve employees as much as possible. Example
questions include:
 How clear is the business case for the change? (to
you/to your team/to all employees broadly
impacted by this change?)
 How might employees interpret the reasons for
change?
 What are the subsequent risks and
opportunities?
 To what extent do the leaders agree on:
– The need for this change? The importance
of the change? The vision for this change?
 What will success look/be like from different
stakeholder perspectives? (e.g. the business,
employees, shareholders)
Shape an effective process for change
Clarify goals, milestones and accountabilities in
making the change happen, including how, what and
when to communicate, how to manage transitions,
engage stakeholders and co-create the process.
Example questions include:
 What are the key messages, how will they be
communicated and what are the timeframes?
– What forms of communication are most
effective in your organisation?
– How willing and able are leaders and
managers to help people make sense of
the formal communications about change
in informal, every-day conversations?
– How will leaders role model the change?
 How will you monitor the on-going impact of this
change?
 What information would be useful?
 How will you collect and use this
information?
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Five case studies of change 20

 To what extent have managers considered and

planned for what it
will be like for employees going through this
change?

Enable the people involved in the change

Consider the technical and psychological capabilities
employees will need to manage the change and
succeed in the ‘new normal’. Identify ways to build
engagement between teams and develop trust and
momentum through the organisation’s natural
relationship networks. Example questions include:

 In the ‘new normal’, what technical skills will

employees need to succeed and progress and how
will the organisation support their development?
 To what extent do your people understand the
emotional and physical impact of going through
change?
 What opportunities are there for people to make
sense of the change together?

Secure engagement for the change

Continually find ways to help people understand the
need for change, feel connected to its success and be
equipped to take part. Examples questions include:

 To what extent are people ‘on board’ with the

business case for change?
– Do they understand the risks and
opportunities of succeeding and not
succeeding?
 To what extent do people/ you believe this change
will be a success?
– What can you do to create greater belief in
this change?
 Are the leaders fully committed to making this
change a success?