Follow the link below to watch a video about being a change leader.
It is taken from a seminar I gave to ( senior leaders and management within The Department of Natural Resources and Mines February 2014).
The Department were beginning the process of delivering a new ‘blueprint’ for service delivery to its clients in line with new government directions.
The ‘blueprint’ contained the map of how to do business differently, and the vision for what the government was wanting to be in the future.
Consequently, it not only challenged work practices, relationships and structures of leaders within the Department, but also set a new and challenging platform for all staff within the department.
The leaders of the department are charged with the responsibility of putting ‘blueprint’ into action.
So for a leader to make change, he or she needs to –
- Firstly be very clear on WHY the change; Why is it needed
- Secondly then, the leader needs to become clear on Why me- ie what is my fundamental purpose in the delivery of change. It may be as simple as, “it is my task or my role”. However, if this is as close as the leader can align his or her values and beliefs with the vision, then it will have only moderate success, if at all.
- The most important question each leader needs to address is that they have a strong belief in the vision, in this case the ‘blueprint’
I then used a personal story of delivering a joint government program called Aussie Sports for children in the early 90’s.
The vision was to have children enjoy their sporting experiences so much that sport and physical activity became part of their lives, and therefore was lifelong, rather than temporary.
I believed in the vision and WHY we would want to encourage such behaviour in children.
I wanted to be an agent of change, and so I was able to answer what was my fundamental purpose for being involved in the project.
Then the map, or the How was easy to understand and deliver, so that we could measure the success of the program – the What.
