Change Management Iceberg

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Explanation of Change Management Iceberg of Wilfried Krüger.


  

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The Change Management Iceberg of Wilfried Krüger is a strong visualization of what is arguably the essence of change in organizations: dealing with barriers.

 

The top of the iceberg

According to Krüger many change managers only consider the top of the iceberg: Cost, Quality and Time ("Issue Management").

 

Below the surface of the iceberg

However, below the surface of the water there are two more dimensions of Change and implementation Management:

  • Management of Perceptions and Beliefs, and
  • Power and Politics Management

What kind of barriers arise, and what kind of Implementation Management is consequently needed, depends on:

1. the kind of Change

     - hard things "only" (information systems, processes)  just scratches the surface,

     - soft things also (values, mindsets and capabilities) is much more profound

2. the applied Change strategy

     - revolutionary, dramatic change as in Business Process Reengineering

     - evolutionary, incremental change as in Kaizen

 

People involved in Change

  • Opponents have both a negative general attitude towards change AND a negative behavior towards this particular personal change. They need to be controlled by Management of Perceptions and Beliefs to change their minds as far as possible.
  • Promoters on the other hand have both a positive generic attitude towards change AND are positive about this particular change for them personally. They take advantage of the change and will therefore support it.
  • Hidden Opponents have a negative generic attitude towards change although they seem to be supporting the change on a superficial level ("Opportunists"). Here Management  of Perceptions and Beliefs supported by information (Issue management ) is needed to change their attitude.
  • Potential Promoters have a generic positive attitude towards change, however for certain reasons they are not convinced (yet) about this particular change. Power and Politics management seems to be appropriate in this case.

Dealing with Change

Krüger says the general management has a permanent task and challenge to deal with change. Superficial Issue Management can only achieve results at a level consistent with the acceptance that is below the surface. The base of Change Management is in both the interpersonal and behavioral dimension and the normative and cultural dimension, and is subject to Power and Politics management, and to the management of Perceptions and Beliefs.

 change management iceberg

 

Book: Michael A. Beitler - Strategic Organizational change -

Book: Linda Ackerman Anderson, Dean Anderson - The Change Leader's Roadmap -

 

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Recent User Comments
 - USA Two Books on Change to Read "A couple of new books out there that might be of interest to everyone in this forum on change management:
Blanchard, Britt, Hoekstra & Zigarmi's "Who Killed Change?" provides a detective-like story about what kills change in an organization: (i.e., problems of culture, commitment, sponsorship, change leadership team, communication, urgency, vision, plan, budget, trainer, incentive, performance management, and accountability).
Herold & Fedor's "Change the Way You Lead Change" is the result of a 10 year study on implementing change management and the lessons learned: "...change is never a stepwise or easily prescribed process. Rather, it is messy, complicated, and its outcomes are easily swayed by a host of factors. In this context, leaders need to develop and utilize realistic frameworks for organizational change."
Good stuff for furthering our understanding of change management."		    -1
Richard2212 - United Kingdom My Way to Deal with Resistance to Change "I am a head teacher in a large secondary school in Scotland. Here the trade unions are very powerful and automatically resist any proposed improvement in learning and teaching practices on the basis that it will involve increased workload. As with all other unions, their priority is of course the well-being of the staff and not the wellbeing of the pupils. Over the years I have evolved the following 5 steps with regard to managing change:
1. Come up with a good idea for improving teaching - either your own good idea or someone else's good idea.
2. Give credit to the school trade union representative for coming up with the good idea, pointing to the trade union's publicly declared commitment to pupil well-being in all things
3. Oppose the idea vehemently - no way is the trade union going to dictate what happens in your school, over your dead body etc.
4. Grudgingly give in to the idea, acknowledgeing that the trade union has you over a barrel
5 implement the idea with no further difficulty! "		    2
Jutta Kraus - Germany I'll never use the term 'Resistance to Change' again "I am working as a change manager in a German IT company. Somebody advised me the other day to read an article about resistance to change by Jeffrey and Laury Ford in HBR April 2009. The Fords recommend to view resistance to change as FEEDBACK. This gets you out of the defensive attitude in which others are blamed for not willing to cooperate.
If you consider resistance as feedback, this actually has quite a few advantages:
1. You can use it to BOOST AWARENESS about the change project
2. You can use it to RETURN TO PURPOSE (explain employees about the reasons why the change is made)
3. Obviously you can use the feedback to CHANGE THE CHANGE (improve your change initiative)
4. You can BUILD PARTICIPATION AND ENGAGEMENT (even if feedback is not useful)
5. You can use resistance/feedback to COMPLETE THE PAST (find out why previous change efforts failed and use this information to prevent failure of your current change project)."		    18
 - Ghana Reasons for Change? "Why do we really need change in the first place? What are the sources / reasons for the need to change?"    8
 - Belgium Change Balance "Quote from '10 IT challenges for the 21st century' by Joe Rosberg : It’s been said that the only constant is change. We’ll be faced with the challenge of finding that perfect balance between keeping up with change and not changing for its own sake. Change is inevitable; and change is good; but the change must be consistent with corporate objectives. Making change work for you will be the challenge."    0
Best User Comments
Jon Strickler - USA ADKAR Model "The ADKAR model by Prosci (1998) helps to deal with the people dimension of change. It can be used to: 1. Diagnose employee resistance to change. 2. Help employees transition through the change process (coaching). 3. Create an action plan for personal and professional advancement during change. 4. Develop a change management plan for your employees.
The ADKAR acronym holds that efective management of the people dimension of change requires managing five key elements:
1. Awareness of the need to change
2. Desire to participate and support the change
3. Knowledge of how to change (and what the change looks like)
4. Ability to implement the change on a day-to-day basis
5. Reinforcement to keep the change in place
For example, to prepare any change effort, you can score the status of each of the 5 elements from 1-10 and then focus first on the ones that score the lowest."		    11
 - Iran Icebergs can melt "I've been implementing the model in many cases. It seems to me that it is a general model but consider the assumption that the iceberg is floating in a liquid (water) medium. Applicability of the model needs to take the corresponding law in physics into consideration. Another way to say this is that the subject may not be an iceberg under all situations."    1
 - India Communicate Benefits of Change "Let all affected by change know how they are going to benefit. Implementation may be long lasting and should be made acceptable to all."    1
 - India Beliefs before change "It is a challenge for the change managers to identify the hidden opponents. Those who openly oppose will perhaps see reason when drawn ito a discussion. The others who do not talk out are the real problem. Change cannot be a slow process in all the situations. Trying to change people without changing self is another problem. Attitude is the key and this depends on the overall culture of the organisation."    0
 - netherlands change management in tough times "Does need to change, in tough times, imply that one has to do things different or different things? In times of tough business circumstances, the core of change mgt is best translated in a return to basics, to your USP’s: Make all co-workers aware of what you are best in; re-invent core competences; be critical on all activities that add no value for your customers: cut these costs; be sure that you provide a product, service that is unmistakable appreciated by your customers: provide clear above average price-performance; communicate without reserve your added values to all your business relations and your staff. This approach of change mgt in tough times, is core to CUSOE (cusoe.eu): improve customer satisfaction & operate excellent. It implies that smart and effective work are mainstream, that customer value = return on investment is leading, that operational excellence = efficient work processes and minimized defects result in both cost savings and a positive effect on satisfaction for employees. "    0
 - Iran Environmental Conditions and Factors "People may respond differently under different conditions of the environment."    0
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Change Management Iceberg Education & Events


 

Compare with the Change Management Iceberg: Change Model Beckhard  |  Changing Organization Cultures  |  Forget Borrow Learn  |  Change Phases  |  Appreciative Inquiry  |  Positive Deviance  |  DICE Framework  |  Force Field Analysis  |  Core Group Theory  |  Bases of Social Power  |  MSP  |  PMMM  |  Planned Behavior  |  Business Process Reengineering  |  Kaizen  |  Dimensions of Change  |  Seven Habits  | Levels of Culture  |  Culture Types  |  RACI

 

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Copyright 2009 12manage - The Executive Fast Track. V10.4 - Last updated: 11/7/2009. All names tm by their owners.


  ●  (Malaysia) Resistance to Change "The reason for Change Management is because of resistance to change, call it by any other name.
Ref. Point 2 as expressed by Richard of UK, the idea of using and giving credit to the union is a strategic art of management - getting things done through others."
  ● Wes Haydock (UK) The Way to Deal with Resistance to Change "Is Head Teacher Richard serious? Most people would see through this as a simplistic manipulative approach. Teachers are fed up with the ever- increasing schemes and bureaucracy which for the most part make little difference to the lives of pupils. The way to create change is to involve staff in the problem-solving process not to con them."
  ● Sushil Relan (India) Change Management "What Richard says is correct. But in the long run it would be appropriate to bring the teaching staff into the mainstream by involving them. My suggestions in this regard are:
(i) Start an Idea Forum to invite individual ideas and recognize the persons with best ideas public ally.
(ii) Form Teams to come out with new innovative ideas and some token awards be given.
This would ensure to manage the change smoothly."

  ● Arthis (USA) Win over Detractors "This is a great approach to tweak change process for success. As Kotter says in his 8 steps, securing and celebrating small wins can realign the detractors and distractors to join the change movement. Consistent, frequent communication creates inclusiveness and helps people relate to the change effort."
  ● Hans Vervoorn (The Netherlands) Resistance to Change is Resistance to the Way Change is Managed "I'm very happy with Jutta's contribution. There is no such thing as "resistance to change". Yes, there can be resistance to badly managed change, but that's a feedback on the way change is managed, not on change as such."
  ● Prasad (India) Avoid the Iceberg: Change our own Path "I am working as Lecturer of Human Resource Management at Malaysia. I liked the way of presenting the concept of Change Management. However according to me the symbol of iceberg is not suitable for this as it shows that instead of breaking it we have to change the path of our own (avoiding the iceberg). Does the author want to show like this?"
  ● Amos S. Calda (Philippines) FEEDBACK: Agree with Jutta "We are now on the process of putting in-place a survival strategy in our company. The "resistance to change" is manifested by employees in varying degrees as can be gleaned upon during a series of "interactions" or weekly dialogues. These "resistance" are indeed some form of "feedback (s)" from employees. If management view this as a resistance to chance, this maybe perceived by employees as a difficulty on the part of management to listen to what they believed are legit issues. Eventually, this situation may lead to the break-down of communication lines between management & employees. I agree with Jutta Kraus of Germany, lets all adopt feedback instead of resistance to change."
  ●  (South Africa) Don't throw away Barriers to Change completely "I support the ideas of feedback being part of the change PROCESS. It reinforces the 8 steps in Kotter’s change phase model. It reminds managers of the need to ASK and LISTEN and for regular PULSE TAKING. It also focuses on the principle of PARTICIPATION as essential for effective change and the usefulness of technique such as 360 degree FEEDBACK. However, dropping the phrase 'resistance to change' may desensitize management to the reality of barriers to change and the need to use an appropriate management style depending upon the stage in the process. (e.g. Tuckman Stages of Team Development, Prochaska and DiClemente Stages of Change Model). Also awareness of the most difficult barrier to manage being natural human resistance, particularly at the outset of the PROCESS (Kubler-Ross Stages of grief model)."
  ● Frans Tiel (Nederland) Resistance Might Be a Scream for Participation "The term "resistance" might be used from a perspective of applying forces to an organisation. This view asks for counterforces. If the change manager pursues this method, the question rises whether he/she is able to adapt the implementation of the change to the individual needs. It could be better to, like bamboo, bend with the winds. The "resistance" as mentioned, could well be assessed as a serious need to participate and contribute from the individuals own strengths. Why not use all those individual forces and initiatives in a convergent way to reach change objectives? The convergent bundling of these "resistance initiatives", if carried out well, can generate a tremendous boost in the desired direction."
  ●  (USA) People Oriented Change "AS stated by someone here the ADKAR model is very good to help build a way of managing change that is people oriented and is excellent to include throughout a project life cycle as well. The more we concentrate on the Human side of Change and work with that the better we will be in managing our companies. Communication is key as people can at least understand what they are trying hard to accept if we give them information."
  ● Chris Baldeo (Trinidad & Tobago) Change the Iceberg? Do We Need To? "Change is constant but it is also based on how the human dynamics interpret this concept. So basically how you see change whether as resistance or the iceberg is unique and beneficial to that specific situation. Kruger is right if you deal with the mind you can do anything. Individual's values / beliefs / norms is what needs to be targeted. Worker and manager almost connote slave and master in this century people want more than that. Maybe shareholder and manager is a better way to relate to those you manage. The model is not the problem but who implements it."
  ● Paul Sowah (Ghana) Change Management Iceberg "Surely the change management iceberg is a very visual tool that can be applied in any change process. The below the water issues are what brings lasting change. When these issues are identified and dealt with effectively, the organizational members are motivated more to own the change because their anxieties and fears are effectively managed. After all, I think that the most dangerous aspect of resistance to change are those deep in the minds of the members of the organization. I agree with author."
  ● Dr P L Narasimhan (India) Poor Knowledge Exchange and Poor Diffusion in Change Management "Please permit to add hidden things in this iceberg discussion.
1. Any change management involves knowledge exchange. In reality knowledge exchange is half heartedly done, with few sharing, few totally indifferent, few wait watch the fun.
2. Seemingly the management is interested in change. In reality proper diffusion does not take place and in the process the whole exercise is diluted."
  ● M. Shahriar Hussain (Bangladesh) Get ready to move on "From my long experience I have seen that there is always resistance whenever change takes place in the organization without having a full understanding of the cause & effect. Such resistance comes specially from trade unions and a significant part of management staff too. However, change is going to happen regardless of what you do. Let go of the past and get ready to move on. This adjustment isn't always easy, but it is necessary. Lastly I would like to quote " the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write. But those cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn" - Alvin Toffler."
  ● John Maher (USA) Resistance? What Resistance? "I agree with Jutta's comment about resistance to change. Since change violates cultural norms (be it individual, team, unit, or organizational culture), the "resistance" (our word, since it feels like that from the change agent's perspective) actually can tell us a lot about the cultural and organizational rules that maintain the status quo. Even with individuals, their "status quo behavior" has been rewarded somewhere down the line, and so they maintain it.
So we can treat resistance as feedback and as indicators of the ways the status quo is maintained. That gives us better insight into the current rules of operation that keep the organization and its members where they are now. From there, we can then start to craft interventions that address those reinforcers directly, and bypass the resistance we're spending so much time on now."
  ● William Ndwapi (Botswana) Resistance to Change "I wish to agree with the submission on resistance to change being a result of how change is managed. I just want to emphasise engaging experts when bringing change. Yes, it may be expensive, but the excercise has the potential to see change being internalised, employees owning it with complete understanding hence making it easy for supervisors to monitor. At the moment lots of time is waisted and business is compromised because of frequent workshops aimed at helping employees to better understand."



  ● Tom Marsicano (South Africa) Change Management Iceberg "The iceberg discussion is useful in that it makes us aware of the fact that projects are much more than the 'technical' elements. As Jon Strickler points out, using the ADKAR model helps us understand the 5 stages/building blocks that an individual (indeed even a group) goes through on the journey of change. However Wilfried is also modeling the state of mind of people at a point in time during the change. Also important to consider is the relationship of the stakeholder to the change. Is the stakeholder a sponsor of the change, impacted by it, its protagonist (perhaps project manager), or benefactor. Prosci's organisational change model considers this aspect (in addition to the ADKAR model) and provides guidance on how to deal with the special stakeholders."