Implementing Change – The Role Of The Change Agent In Strategic Initiatives

How does one describe a change agent? In the most general terms, they are experts at organization change. To be less general, they tend to be a person tasked with creating changes to worker behaviors that are felt need adjusting. This is job that inevitably will require intense coordinating between the various leadership functions. They will typically have to manage upwards, handle communication, and generally to make change happen

To understand the level of coordination that a change agent has to accomplish, it is necessary to be conscious of the fact that there are four separate leadership roles in larger organizations. You have the executive, top management, middle management, and the supervisor/employee level of the organization. To achieve organization change, all four levels have to focused on the same change effort.

For the change agent to be successful at this, he has to know all of those jobs inside and out. Then, they need to some things that only they know. It is not unusual for the change agent to intervene at multiple levels. When someone is falling down on the job at little at some level, the change agent jumps in to correct the problem. This job can be hazardous to a career if it isn’t handled with some subtlety.

In most cases, change agents have been given responsibility for organization change but lack the authority to compel compliance. By and large, they are not executives. Most often, they are summarily appointed to the job. This often requires them to do a lot of their work backstage, so to speak. Some of their job duties can include orchestrating events, writing scripts, and finding the skills inside or outside the organization to accomplish the task. It almost invariably demands extensive upward management.

The amount of upward management will increase with executive’s underestimation of the work involved with organization change. Often, they do not understand the challenge. In this situation, the change agent may not be provided the support, resources, or executive attention needed to make the change successful.

If this is the case, it can require very savvy diplomacy on the part of the change agent. Their task is to get the executive on board with change, visible to the organization as supporting the change, and willing to take action to enforce the change. Not going after that needed support is foolish. This requires a certain mental preparation for the idea that failure is entirely possible. This is the great risk in being a change agent.

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