Do you have what it takes to bring change to the organization you care about? According to the work of Dominic Abrams, a professor of social psychology at the University of Kent, you have an extra special opportunity to bring change if you are a new leader. New leaders have what Abrams and his team call an "innovation credit."
People who are already members of a group, including leaders who have been a part of the system for awhile, are expected to conform to the group's norms. In other words, they're expected to do things a certain way just because 'that's how we've always done them.'
But new leaders have a special license to shake things up, at least at first. In fact, people expect them to. Often, groups will bring in new leadership because they know they need it and it's harder for old leadership to make it happen.
Old leaders have a harder time changing things because to do so can imply that they way things have been done in the past was wrong. To do something new can look and/or feel like an admission that "I messed up." Old leaders tend to avoid innovation because to even admit the need for change makes them vulnerable. With new leadership, however, a new direction just seems natural to people.
According to Abrams, the "innovation credit" a new leader has lasts about two to three months.
If you're a new leader, be very intentional about how you use up those credits. What purposeful questions are you asking? Are you using participative processes? Are you working playfully? How are you helping people see possibilities? How are you re-introducing people in the organization to the place (i.e., the context) they are located and called to serve? What are you doing to ignite passion in people for their common purpose? The things you do and the questions you ask right now will, in a big way, determine your ability to bring positive change to the organization that has called you to lead. Now is the time to start putting the principles of a Renewable OrganizationTM into practice.
If you're a leader who has been around awhile, is it game over? That's possible. If you've been around for a number of years and haven't brought the change that's needed, it may be time to move on. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. David Brady, a professor of political science at Stanford University, says the window of innovation doesn't close. He cites examples of leaders who brought change well into their term. Ronald Reagan, for example, didn't get his most innovative policy (the Tax Reform Act of 1986) passed until the sixth year of his administration. But it is trickier. Abrams says groups don't usually like rebels...and they like leaders who buck the system even less.
In our experience, old leaders would do well to be on the lookout for good excuses to innovate. Look for reasons to do things differently that reduce the collective sense of "we've messed up in the past so now we have to change." Frankly, to any leader whose been around awhile and has struggled to bring change to the organization he/she cares about, this economic mess could be the best thing that's ever happened. Everybody - every single organization out there - is faced with the need to respond in new and creative ways to this challenge. Everybody is innovating! The situation demands it. It is, for many of us, a matter of survival. Change or die. If you've been around awhile, leader, now's the time to help the organization you care about embrace a new way of being and doing. Now's the time to start asking purposeful questions, using participative processes, working playfully, etc.
You'll never have a better opportunity.
You can read Professor Abrams article on his research, Change Takes New Leaders,in the Spring 2009 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
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