Change involves getting to the roots

What has gardening got to do with change management anyway?

It has been a busy few weeks at PacSol towers so the opportunity to get out into the garden in the beautiful February sunshine over the weekend was most welcome. It was the first real chance to take stock after 12 months of building work to look at the space and assess the changes to be made.

It was whilst into my second hour of digging up an old cherry tree root that the idea of my efforts in the outdoors formed as an analogy for change in business. Both are hard work – trust me.

Clear the path

Before embarking on the process of change, you need to understand what you are dealing with, the current state if you will. As I endlessly forked over, dug and scraped away the soil I uncovered far more root structure than anticipated, stretching away from the tree’s original site and deep into the ground with several smaller roots branching out sideways.

As it is with any established process within a business, the influence of that process not only cascades down through all levels of the department it also connects across many areas of the business, creating small but important interactions for many that nurture and support their processes. To understand where those connections are is fundamentally important before attempting to change anything.

Simply pull it out?

I could have chosen to just grab the root on the surface and simply break off what I could. Quicker in the short term but this would leave me with several pieces of the old structure lying just under the surface. There is a risk that given enough root and appropriate conditions, I would simply be allowing a new sapling to rise, unregulated from the ground. Worse still, when I come to rotavate later, laying the new foundation for the transformation, I would be continually snagging on the old structure – forever slowing the process of the next step, causing a need to revisit root digging and potentially breaking the equipment.

And so it is with business, to simply pull a process out will leave missing linkages, other processes without references or departments without a data source. When this occurs, people will always look to find a way to replace that missing link as quickly and easily as possible. There will be no attention to due process, regulations or future impact – simply solve the issue. Much like the sapling that will rise and grow in place of the missing tree, it isn’t meant to be there and will require further work to remove it properly. Worse still, as the transformation continues or when the next update to process occurs, these remnants are going to cause consultancy to stop whilst everything is unpicked and maybe even cause a project to fail (overruns / compliance issues / conflicts).

Root out what you can

Inevitably with a root system this large I was never going to get it all out. Where the roots headed straight down I had to decide where I could cut them off and where they endlessly branched sideways, inevitably a few smaller pieces broke away, however these should be insignificant enough that they won’t cause a problem and will easily be swept up in the next phase of the garden works.

Within change Management there is always a scope, the limits of that project’s reach. Ensuring that where the project scope stops there is a defined, clean break is crucial. Whether simply informing partners of the cessation of services, providing alternative arrangements or guidance on how the new version can be integrated, actions need to occur to ensure it is a managed ‘clean’ divorce from the old. For some of those really deep rooted processes, guidance will be required on what, why and when the change (severance) will occur and possibly a sub-project to properly address. For those smaller fragments, it’ll no doubt cause a few ripples for a short time but the department processes will cope.

The transformation

The root (or the majority of it) came out to the cry of “STUMPFEST” and was unceremoniously cast aside, its usefulness providing nutrients and stability to an old tree long since passed. But these final moments are not the end but rather the evolution of our garden space. Now the rotavator can move freely across the space, the ground can be levelled, improved with conditioner and topped off with some new top soil. Grass will be sown, new shrubs and flowers planted, a nature area with a pond will be constructed and the garden will once more bristle with life. Not only that, despite this short disruption, the local wildlife and our environment will get far more positive benefit once the changes have matured. This transformation will not be instant, it will require nurturing to be as successful as planned. 

Why would you take that away? What will we do without it? How will this be better? All questions that should be answered within the planning but definitely become apparent once the transformation has started to mature as the new way within the business. Just like the new garden, after the initial transformation, the changes will need to be supported and nurtured in order for the full potential to be realised.

As the old adage goes, you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs, just as you can’t transform a garden without disruptive groundwork and just as you can’t transform a business process without some disruption..

The key is delivering the promise whilst supporting those who need to see the outcome to believe. (And cups of tea, lots of tea / coffee whilst working (implementing). Biscuits are good too.)

Toby Gilbertson, Director of Operations. February 2023

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