Enel North America

Miguel Li Puma

As I was driving to the office in Buenos Aires, I was thinking about the success in building Pharmacia, a leading Pharma company with an impressive product pipeline that resulted from the merger of two other global organizations. My boss was a French executive still adjusting to his new role as Regional CEO. He unexpectedly calls my mobile;

Peter   Miguel, have you seen the news today?

Me       No, not this morning Peter, why??

Peter   We have been acquired, we are merging again and this company is huge! You and I                     must work on this right away, what time do you arrive to the office??

Change often happens as a surprise, a challenge nobody had anticipated, and with entirely unknown consequences. Think, for example, when you face a sudden change in shareholders' expectations, when a product that was planned to become a blockbuster fails, or when a virus forces almost everyone to immediately start working from home.

In my experience, I have found three critical approaches that contribute to successfully navigating this type of unexpected situation.

Prepare the organization for the worst possible outcome.

Preparing to manage the most challenging scenario helps raise colleagues' confidence and support. If you are equipped to get through the more complex implications of the change, you can also manage the less difficult challenges.

"Change often happens as a surprise, a challenge nobody had anticipated, and with entirely unknown consequences."

Providing colleagues with what they would need to successfully navigate the most difficult challenges helps manage anxiety and focus on the present. Some tools we use in these situations include 1) offering training on managing emotions in times of change, 2) career coaching to find a new job, 3) paid time off for investing in developing new skills, and 4) personal branding training.

In my experience, people thrive through challenging situations when they feel fully equipped to deal with the consequences, especially the most difficult ones.

Keep the long-term perspective.

Connecting medium-term goals (organizational purpose) with the present is a powerful tool to reinforce engagement and performance.

Dr. Gabriele Oettingen (Professor of Psychology at NYU) has extensively studied strategies that help align behaviors to future goal achievement. ( https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/gabriele-oettingen.html ). Her research indicates that Mental Contrasting - the technique of “contrasting a desired future with present reality leads to the emergence of biding goals, with consecutive goal striving and attainment.”

Crisis is a great opportunity to solidify commitment to medium-term goals and organizational purpose. Leaders play a pivotal role in reinforcing that connection and role modeling that commitment should be one of their top priorities in times of change. Leaders should “walk the talk” and use every opportunity to remind colleagues of the ultimate goal they are pursuing. By doing that, they will connect the future to present performance.

Be a vulnerable leader and promote cooperation.

In change processes, we often see the emergence of self-protecting behaviors that negatively impact team performance and morale. Cooperation is critical to succeed and becomes crucial when confronted with a tough and unexpected challenge.

One of the main pillars at the foundation of “trusting cooperation” is vulnerability, the ability to accept help from others. As a leader, you have to be a role model that having weaknesses and making mistakes is acceptable and that you expect others to accept help and feedback the same way you do.

There are multiple examples of the power of vulnerability as a pillar of cooperation. At Pixar, they hold “Brain Trust” meetings to assess and improve movies during development. These meetings bring the Film Director together with other executives and producers to dissect the film's flaws. A “Brain Trust” meeting is not fun; it depends completely on candid feedback, and it’s a critical step in promoting change and improving film development and success.

Successful teams move and think like one, finding their way through obstacles created by organizational change. They perform as if they were following a well-developed action plan (that they don’t have).

As we continue to face unexpected changes as part of our leadership journey, I find these three focus areas to be fundamental elements for effective change management. These approaches will help you and your teams successfully overcome obstacles and deliver on medium-term goals and the organizational purpose.