What Great Leaders Do: Create the Conditions for Change

What type of leader are you? Are you the type of leader who insists on trying to “make change happen” or are you the type of leader who “creates the conditions for change” to occur? The difference might appear subtle, but the outcomes from both leadership (change management) approaches could not be more different.

In the Winter, 2015 edition of Stanford Social Innovation Review, Peter Senge, the famed organizational learning expert and systems thinker, stated that “ineffective leaders try to make change happen whereas effective leaders focus on creating the conditions that can produce change and that can eventually cause change to be self-sustaining.” Think about a change effort you are currently leading or participating. How is it going? Are you (or someone else) trying to ‘force’ a change onto a process OR a team OR the entire organization?

If so, this would be an example of you (or someone else) trying to “make change happen.” As the quote above alludes, this type of change approach is ineffective in that forced change (whether to process or a team or a person) nearly always results in pushback; a natural resistance to the change such that the change never sticks; is not sustainable. What best practices tell us is that people need to be a part of the change; feel they are equal partners in co- creating the new; in bringing forth the change.

By contrast, when we as leaders choose to focus on “creating the conditions for change”, our mindset and follow-on actions are decidedly different. In what ways? First, instead of unilaterally designing and deciding things (for others), we choose instead to engage others in our ideation efforts on both what is the problem and more importantly what are the potential solutions.

We recognize that we are not cornering the market on good ideas and so should engage others (“two heads better than one” logic…). Second, we ask others to help ‘co- create’ specific solution elements to ensure two-feet ‘buy-in’ and longer-term investment in bringing forth the new. Last, we maintain and encourage a climate of openness and reflection to create the necessary psychological safety for others to participate fully; to feel good about their efforts/contributions.

Know this: when we engage others in this manner to bring about change, we get investment, we get engagement, and most importantly we get what we hope for – sustained meaningful change. The good news is that either leadership style described above is a decision; a simple choice one makes. Therefore, decide today to be a leader who “creates the conditions” for change to occur.

Decide today to be a leader who co-creates the future with others. Decide today to be a leader who insists on delivering sustainable change. You (and many others) will be glad you did.

Related Reading

• Creating the Conditions for Excellence

• Creating the Conditions for Transformative Change to Occur

• How to Create Engagement by Leading in a Dialogic Way

See how these ideas come together in practice. Explore the Complexity Leadership Model, our hybrid of diagnostic and dialogic OD.