Are you open minded enough to facilitate change?

In my article Is being an expert getting in your way?, I described that when highly skilled professionals take on facilitating change in organisations, they need to overcome the self-limiting belief that “I am an expert who should have all the answers”.  This is because as a leader of change or improvement in any area, there is seldom one single right way to do anything. And even if there was, your job isn’t to know everything!

I wanted to share an example with you from a team that had been assembled to lead a significant operating model change in a technical business area.

The business area was technical, but the change was broad ranging - structural realignment, redefinition of roles, changes to team accountabilities, process redesign, capability uplift, technology changes, and governance improvements.

Have you ever been in an organisation that tasked the most technically capable individuals with all the project work? That was what happened here.

The project team was made up mostly of engineers who had a long history in the business and a deep understanding of the current issues. This was accompanied by strong views about what would constitute success – and at times a desire to be right. Many had not previously had the opportunity to lead – or even to observe – what successful organisational change would look like. Prior restructuring decisions had been made behind closed doors, with little engagment or low understnading of the reason for change.

The team invested heavily in creating the conditions for success. They engaged a team coach, undertook human-centred design training, and adopted new team practices with regular check-ins to create shared purpose and alignment.

Central to these efforts was shining a light on how each of team member would need to show up in stakeholder engagement sessions – how they would present themselves, engage, facilitate, and contribute. This essential priming practice helps to adopt a mindset, mood, and way of being that is conducive to collaborative work.

You see, many of the project’s stakeholders were the team’s peers. The team was used to showing up in stakeholder forums in a technical capacity. Their typical role would be to provide the solution.

In this case they were explicitly being asked to facilitate a solution rather than provide one. Have a point of view, yes: but hold it lightly. Allow the process to be iterative and to reveal the most appropriate answer.

I cannot overstate how uncomfortable it was for some of these individuals to create the mindset and conditions required to show up as a facilitator.

The typical internal dialogue went something like this:

“What will it mean about me if I ask my peers to help me solve this problem?”

“What will people think of me? Will I lose all my credibility?

“I am supposed to have the answers.”

Facilitating a strategic process – particularly a co-design process, which this was - requires a different mindset and set of skills than showing up as a subject matter expert whose role is to contribute their knowledge.

There is a different set of social norms, and indeed success factors, that are required when you shift from being a participant to a facilitator.

In other words, as a facilitator, success requires you to embody a different way of being.

One of the key differences is that the expert is encouraged and expected to have strongly held opinions. They are expected to be able to strongly advocate for and defend the “right” and “true” answer to a technical problem; to represent their domain expterise and the specific interests of their business area. Facilitators, strategists, and leaders, on the other hand, are expected to be credible in their domain, but also open to ideas and have lightly held opinions.

So, what does it take to show up as a facilitator of change? Here’s my take on what lightly held opinions looks like:

Table describing the mindset of a facilitator vs a subject matter expert

The wonderful news to conclude this story is that this team went on to lead one of the most accepted and successful organisational changes I have ever witnessed. Significantly, in a highly unionised environment this team implemented an organisational redesign that had a clear purpose and had been co-designed with impacted stakeholders. There was not a single formal objection to the change. Unheard of in that environment.

Sure, the result was not perfect, and not everyone was happy. But people had the opportunity to be heard, and to contribute. The team genuinely listened and made adjustments that improved the solution. Everyone learned new skills that they continue to apply long after they’ve gone back to their technical roles.

Hi, I’m Kristine Posthumus.

I’m an advisor, facilitator, coach, and doer with a background in strategic change in large organisations.

I’m also a recovering bureaucrat who writes about my experiences of unsquiggling complex business problems, with people in mind.

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