Creating Effortless Change: Transactive Leadership in a Constantly Changing World

By Marc Hanlan Ph.D.

Creating Effortless Change looks at leading change by offering a fundamental shift in the perspective of leadership. By redefining leadership and offering a new perspective for leaders, the author shows how extraordinary Change Leaders make the impossible become routine, the uncontrollable become manageable, and resistance become alignment.

What leadership does is important. How leadership is, is even more important. This book explores how leadership is.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098305017

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© 2020 Marc Hanlan. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written consent of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-09830-500-0 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-09830-501-7 (eBook)

This book is dedicated to the people I love and cherish who have walked with me on my path, lighting my way. Seann Hanlan, Kyle Hanlan, Jesse Greenlan,

Jeanne Anastasi, and others have shown me the way.

I simply follow and add my own light.

Thank you from my head, heart, and soul.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is easy to acknowledge but almost impossible to realize for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness…is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us.

Thank you to my business friends who have continued to help me grow through your support in the field and out of it. You have backed me up in times of conflict and questioned me in times of success while always remaining a family of trust and faith in each other. Together, again and again, we have made a reality of the ideas, hopes, and dreams in this book.

Thank you to each and all my graduate students who have helped me evolve over the last two decades. Your courage, strength in being open and vulnerable, and your candor throughout the years has amazed, humbled, and taught me. Thank you for your great gifts; I try to be worthy of them.

Thank you to the many reviewers and readers who have helped me with countless suggestions and ideas. Stephen Tottey, Ph.D., provided insightful questions that helped get to the heart of the book. Jakki Bennett helped keep me on track with her enthusiasm and optimism. Ioannis Sidiras shows what true leadership is like, each and every day, invisibly in plain sight. Ed Weckerly is the consummate educator who brings the people, process, and pieces together to help folks learn more than they thought possible. Natalie Nafe’s continuing quest for quality, performance, and values has helped me throughout the creation of this book. Thank you.

James Furr has been a continuous source of consulting, business, and organizational development expertise, keeping me centered and practical throughout the development of this book. His real-world management expertise and strategic perspective are unequaled. Thanks for the great editing help and for keeping me grounded, Jim.

Nicole Alger-Armstrong has a light all her own, outshining others who walk alongside her. Her unfailing faith and sunny outlook cast light that leaves no shadows. Her detailed review of several versions of this book has given me fresh ideas and continued faith. Thank you, Nicole, for your critique, advice, and always-appreciated perspective.

Jesse Greenlan, Ph.D. (c), has helped me remember my natural science training while still listening to my social science exploration. Your questions, support, and patience with me continue to help me grow and learn; thank you for teaching me in so many ways, Jess.

Kyle Hanlan, Ph.D. (c), has been a tireless supporter, advisor, mentor, and coach, in life and for this book. His wide span of real-world experience, expertise, and academic training has been crucial to the development and application of the ideas presented in this book. He is a great example of how the Leader of the Future is here today. From providing key definitions to having regular dialog on how the ideas can become a reality, you have helped me to shape, consider, reshape, and reframe many of these central ideas. I am very humbled by your commitment, support, and big heart, Kyle. Thank you so very much.

Claude Cloutier, Ph.D., has patiently listened to my ideas, then found ways to expand upon the good ones and help me self-discover the incomplete ones. A philosopher-king in the pure and just sense, he has the incredible ability to think at conceptual levels well beyond those of us in normal life – and then live them every day. I remain in awe of his mental prowess and the shadow of his big heart and soul. Thank you, Claude, for all the ways you have supported me in this book and well beyond.

Jeanne Anastasi is a Muse. Her light shines bright, yet never seems to come from a single source. Each person’s path becomes clear whenever she walks alongside. Her smile reflects her heart; her laughter and dance reflect her soul, igniting the world around her. She remains practical and anchored in today’s reality while always reaching for the right way to create the future. From the beginning, she sparked the idea for this book and has kept me focused on its central values with tireless support, editing, and help. Thank you, Jeanne, for the many ways in which you light my world.

Thank you, everyone! You remind me to Remember What’s Important in life, living, and love.

FOREWORD

Claude J. Cloutier, Ph.D.

CEO, XtremeEDA

It is a great honor to be asked by an author to write a foreword to a leading-edge book on change, but this honor also comes with a great deal of trepidation. To the reader, someone who writes a foreword must somehow also be a leading authority on the subject matter. To be sure, as a CEO and practitioner-scholar who is familiar with the author’s body of work, I do have a great deal of experience and knowledge of the subject matter, a few change management scars, and a lot of gray hair to boot, what’s left of it! However, I have my limitations, as do others and whatever wisdom I’ve accumulated pales in comparison with what the author has to offer here. Nevertheless, I will do my best to help the reader grasp why they should read this book thoroughly.

Most forewords walk through the chapters of the book in their logical sequence, but I choose in this instance to work from back-to-front starting with Chapter 7. By doing this, the reader will find themselves at the beginning of the book, by the end of the foreword. Hopefully, this somewhat novel approach provides some value up front in establishing the intended benefits and how to acquire those benefits.

Chapter 7 presents a vision of where change and change leadership are going. It starts with something of a history lesson on how humanity has changed over the millennia and how change is accelerating. It is with some irony that we can apply that to change leadership and change management theory and practice. So, it is not enough for a textbook on change to document the state-of-the-art, but to offer a vision, theory, and tools and techniques that might be applied into the future. Just as product technology needs visionaries to move forward, so does change leadership and management. The author provides just that in his vision into the future and gives change leaders and managers much to ponder as they work within the constraints of their organizations to implement change initiatives that meet their intent. It challenges us all to do our work better and differently.

Chapter 6 brings it all together. It is a final summary of the theory, tools and techniques that change leaders can adapt to their unique contexts to enhance the probability of success for any change initiatives. Most leader-managers who have been involved in change initiatives have probably asked themselves this question: Why does this have to be so hard? The author answers, it doesn’t. Change can be effortless, and even fun, though it may also be hard work. If you have grasped the material in this book, you will appreciate the summation of the main ideas in the textbook, have learned new ideas, tools and techniques, and begin to appreciate how leading change should become effortless and fun.

Chapter 5 to me is arguably one of the more important chapters to grasp. There is a popular saying about culture that reveals a general truth: Culture eats management for lunch. As correctly pointed out by the author regarding the history of change theory, the earlier theory was grounded in head language and logic and did not produce the intended results. That is to say, it produced far more failures than successes. What recent science has revealed is that the earlier theory was based on linear paradigms, and the tools and techniques reflected it. And that is why they failed regularly. Change managers were applying linear models to non-linear conditions (i.e., people). Non-linearity is the essence of the language of the heart. There is another truism about any change: Logic is how things are done, but passion is the energy that gets it done. Without the passion of the heart, change initiatives fail regularly, and so the language of the heart is an essential tool and technique of successful change leader-managers. However, that is still not enough as the author correctly points out.

There is also the language of the soul. The language of the soul reveals a leader’s authenticity and other leadership characteristics that engender trust and safety – factors crucial in successful change. It also generates a container, not unlike a womb, where change can be nurtured and emerge naturally. The language of the soul answers the most basic question about organizational culture, and I would argue the only question that really matters: How are, or will we, be with each other? Culture may eat management for lunch, but it does not eat leadership for lunch! That is why tools and techniques that are based on language of the heart and soul are crucial for enacting successful change. In that regard, the author is a change visionary, and the chapter on its own is priceless.

Chapter 4 presents the reader with modes of failure. Central to failure modes is people resisting change and adaptation. This chapter is crucial. If change leaders do not understand how change initiatives fail, then they are ill equipped to address these failure modes and improve their chance of success! Therefore, the author devotes a considerable discussion of what resistance is about, how to identify and analyse it, and what to do about it. A key solution to the problem of resistance is the concept of alignment. Alignment is incredibly underrepresented in business literature and grossly underestimated in its importance to change initiatives. It seems intuitively obvious that we need alignment and yet, it is often only superficially dealt with. After reading this chapter, the change leader will be sensitized to its importance and will have some tools and techniques to achieve greater alignment of stakeholders.

Chapter 3 is about leadership and leaders. The author makes the case for a very specific type of leader needed for change initiatives. The reader will appreciate that the author starts by making leadership and management differences very clear. He makes a compelling case for what it takes to be a change leader in the modern era and the importance of the language of the heart and soul and why these are crucial skills. He also brings into question the purpose of organization – something that most people take for granted and never question. Inevitably, organizations produce a boundary around them. How change leaders deal with the internal and external carries notions of the organizational boundary and what it means. Without clarity of this notion, modern practices that would satisfy both internal and external stakeholders (e.g., the environment) reduce their chance of success. The notion of alignment carried forward into Chapter 4 is introduced as a concluding statement about why the nature of change leadership is a unique practice unto itself.

Chapter 2 sets the stage for understanding what change is. We all experience change in our daily lives, but rarely do we ponder its essential nature. The author anchors this discussion at the level of organization. The chapter sets a solid foundation of language and meaning of what change constitutes, why it is so difficult for change initiatives to succeed, why it takes so much work, and why understanding its nature is crucial for change leaders.

Chapter 1 simply outlines the main ideas and premises of the change theory, tools, and techniques the author delivers within the succeeding chapters.

A final word. This book and its language are primarily written from a social science perspective and theory, but the author could easily have written it from a natural science perspective. He is generally aware of the advances in the natural sciences over the past decades, particularly the science of non-linear dynamics, which supports the social science theory, tools, and techniques presented here. Rest assured that what you read here is well founded in theory, experience, and wisdom ready to be adapted to your specific context and change initiative.

January, 2020

Courtenay, BC, Canada

Claude J. Cloutier, Ph.D., has held a variety of senior roles in professional services consulting, leading and managing numerous research and development projects across a broad range of products including avionics, telecommunications, networking, wireless, imaging, integrated circuits, and security for both government and industry.

Dr. Cloutier’s passion for ethics includes how we design and deploy our many electronic systems. This concern is shared by many professionals in the industry as the next wave of electronic and data integration is upon us. This will require a broader conversation within the electronics community, particularly as it relates to Artificial Intelligence and he invites other professionals who share this concern to connect with him.

Dr. Cloutier’s passion for ethical and moral leadership, and helping others succeed, is reflected in his conscious business approach. The author of The Consciousness Quotient (2013, Heartstone Press), he holds an MA in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University, and an MA and PhD in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

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