Change Agent at Work
Applying Change Leadership and
Management Principles to TDM
Ryan Lanyon
Manager, Smart Commute
November 7, 2012
ACT Canada Sustainable Mobility Summit
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Agenda
 Assessment
 Preparation
 Leading Change: Eight Stages
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Urgency
Coalition
Vision
Dialogue
Empowerment
Piloting
Tipping Point
Culture
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Assessment: Types of Change
Extent of Change
Speed of
Change
Realignment
Transformation
Incremental
Adaptation
Evolution
Big Bang
Reconstruction
Revolution
Source: Balogun
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Assessment: Culture Web
Source: Balogun
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Assessment and Preparation: Kaleidoscope
Source: Balogun
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Preparation
 Change requires:
 Leadership
• Vision
• Strategy
 Management
• Plans
• Budgets
 Organizations are made up of individuals
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Preparation: Individuals
 Awareness, trial, usage
 Consumer Behaviour Model
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 Transtheoretical Model (TTM) /
Stages of Change Theory
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Identification of a need
Information search
Evaluation of alternatives
Purchase decision
Post-purchase behaviour
 Community-based social
marketing
• Identify barriers and benefits
• Use tools to address these
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Pre-contemplation
Contemplation
Preparation
Action
Maintenance
Relapse
Preparation: Individuals
Source: Balogun
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Assessment: The Change Formula
 Is it worth moving forward?
 Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Actions > Resistance
 DxVxF>R
 D/10 x V/10 x F/10 > R/1000
 D, V, F = / = 0
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Leading Change: Eight Stages
 Adapted from Leading Change by John P. Kotter
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Urgency
Coalition
Vision
Dialogue
Empowerment
Piloting
Tipping Point
Culture
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Step 1: Urgency
 Fight complacency!
 Incent action
 Gain cooperation around an initiative
 Raise priority
 Get buy-in
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Raising Urgency
 Crisis
 Talking
 Consultants
 Move, parking supply
 Examples of excess
 Spending too much
 Frivolous mileage
 External demands
 Targets
 Municipal requirements
 Environmental, transport
 Stop “happy talk”
 Accountability
 Data
 I’m going to quit for parking
 Bombard people
 Did you know…?
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Step 2: Coalition
 Importance of Coalitions
 Need a balance of power, resources and influence
• Green teams?
 Change must be guided by stakeholders affected by it
• All business units or operating divisions
 Cross-section of the department or company to ensure
change is managed and led from various viewpoints
• CEO’s Office, HR, Real Estate, Health & Safety, Sustainability
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Building the Coalition
 Existing or new?
 Find the right people
 Power position
 Expertise
 Credibility
 Leadership
 Create trust
 Develop a common goal
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Step 3: Vision
 Purpose of a Vision
 Forced planning
 Agreement
 Clarity
 Efficiency
 Inspiration
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Creating the Vision
 Steps
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 Considerations
Draft
Develop
Engage
Revise
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Teamwork
Investment
Emotion
Indirect path
Effective Visions
 Imaginable
 Desirable
 Feasible
 Focused
 Flexible
 Communicable
 Tear down comfort zones
 Appeal to customers,
employees, stakeholders
 Take advantage of
opportunities
 Exploit no one
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Testing Your Vision
 If the vision is made real, how will it affect employees? Will
they be more satisfied?
 In a few years, will we be doing a better job?
 How will the vision affect stockholders or stakeholders?
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Vision Statement Examples
 We are going to sell healthier food to our customers.
 We are going to reduce red tape and make our customers
happier.
 We are going to move our office to be closer to our
employees.
 Metrolinx: Working together to transform the way the region
moves.
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Step 4: Dialogue
 Why is it important to engage in dialogue about change?
 Change makes people uncomfortable
 Everyone needs to be part of the change
 The change is not simple; questions arise
 Everyone needs to know, feel included
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Effective Communication
 Simple
 Through metaphor,
analogy or example
 Multiple channels
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 Repetition
 Leadership
 Address inconsistencies
 Two-way
Large meetings/town halls
Memos
Newsletters/bulletins
Posters
Word-of-mouth
Events
Mass mail (voice and electronic)
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Simple and Effective Communication
 Before
 Through a process of debureaucratization, we will
empower our frontline employees to better serve
idiosyncratic customer requirements.
 After
 We are going to throw out some of the rule books and
give employees more discretion to do the right thing for
our customers.
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Metaphorically Effective Communication
 Before
 We need to retain the advantages of economies of great
scale and yet become much less bureaucratic and slow
in decision making in order to help ourselves retain and
win customers in a very competitive and tough business
environment.
 After
 We need to become less like an elephant and more like
a customer-friendly Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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Step 5: Empowerment
 How do you empower employees?
 See: Stages 1-4
 Make them change agents
• Provide autonomy, resources and support
 Ensure their voices are heard
• Reinforces the importance of dialogue
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Step 6: Piloting
 Pilot projects create short-term wins.
 Possibility and feasibility
 Demonstrate cost savings
 Demonstrate increased revenue
 Streamline procedures
 Increased effectiveness
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Necessity of Piloting
 Sacrifices are worth it
 Provide an opportunity to
celebrate
 Fine-tune vision and strategies
 Undermine cynics and resisters
 Keep management on board
 Build momentum
 Criteria for a short-term win
 Must be explicit
 Must be visible throughout
the organization
 Must be clearly related to
the change effort
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Step 7: Tipping Point
 Change moves from a project to an operation
 More people will need to get involved
• Multiply the change agents
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Senior management needs to lead
Multiple initiatives will run concurrently
Timeframe for change will extend
Eliminate obsolete interdependencies
• Parking minimums!
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Balance of Leadership and Management
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Tipping Point Challenges
 Longer timeframe; task seems more daunting
 Deeper organizational commitment
 Personal dynamics
 Staff turnover / reorientation
 Exhausted coalition member
 Complacent manager
 Complimentary saboteur
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Step 8: Culture
 What is culture?
 Norms of behaviour
 Shared values
• Metrolinx: Commitment, Service, Working Together, Innovation
 Culture impacts
 Corporate culture affects everyone
• Subcultures are specific to subunits
 Difficult to change - Invisible and hard to address
 Linked to human emotion
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Power of Culture
 Can influence behaviour
 Is pervasive
 Exists through thousands of small interactions
 Reinforces itself
 Must ‘fit’ the organization
 Stories and legends set and maintain the tone
 Happens without conscious actions or thoughts
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Role of Culture
 Anchoring change
 Comes last, not first
 Depends on visible results
 Requires much discussion
 May involve changing key people
 Makes decision on succession crucial
 Takes time, patience and persistence
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Mapping a New Culture Web
Source: Balogun
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Mapping a New Culture Web
 Symbols
 Free parking.
 Stylish bicycle racks at the door.
 Controls
 Do we pay people to drive to meetings, but expect them to cover the cost of
taking transit? Cycling?
 A policy that provides a decision-making process favouring sustainable (and
most affordable) modes
 Stories
 Was: “I got a huge mileage check and bought a new TV.”
 Now: “I started carpooling and saved enough for a new TV.”
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Thank You!
Contact
Sources
 Balogun, J. “Strategic Change” in Management
Quarterly. UK: Cranfield University (2001).
Ryan Lanyon
Manager, Smart Commute
Metrolinx
416-874-5933
ryan.lanyon@metrolinx.com
www.smartcommute.ca

http://www.tomorrowsleaders.com/A5569D/icaew/conte
nt.nsf/DocumentLookup/ICAEWSTR0109/$file/MQ10+S
trategy.pdf
 Brown, P. A Brief Introduction to Change
Management. YouTube (2011).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jk6clmMycI&hd=1
 Kotter, J. Leading Change. USA: Harvard
Business Review Press (1996).
 Mckenzie Mohr, D. and Smith, W. Fostering
Sustainable Behaviour. Canada: New Society
Publishers (1999).
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