Leading through Change

• Apr 3, 2025
• Higher Education, Leadership, & Work
• 4 minutes reading time

My workplace is set to undergo a mammoth change over the coming months as two universities (UoA and UniSA) become one. This is not my first rodeo when it comes to large-scale change at a university, and I've been thinking about the role of leadership in change management. This is mainly because Change Management has become a formalised process with texts instructing you how to behave and what to do and creating a formulaic way in which Change happens. From my experience, this formula creates more problems than it solves, and it isn't necessarily the right approach. Leaders can (and should!) step in and intervene, not to undermine the process but to enable it to happen, knowing that change is not a simple process. So here's my anti-Change Management approach to leading through change.

Change should be a shared experience.

One of the defining features of formal Change Management processes is their attempt to create "others". This is often along hierarchical lines, management vs workers, but it's also common to create divisions along faction and team lines. Allegiances become weaponised, and any sense of togetherness quickly evaporates.

To counter what is almost an inevitability in any change, leaders have to be part of it. This isn't something happening to specific people, but it's a shared experience. This requires leaders to feel a sense of belonging, that they have to be part of the experience and that means listening, engaging and empathising, but also in acknowledging that this is a problem shared. We have to build trust in each other, or at least define where we need a sense of trust. Leaders should have a sense of solidarity in the process. There should be a clear understanding of what "We" means.

Clearly define what the change is.

More often than not, a formal Change Management process doesn't ever describe what the change actually is. Change Management is more so focussed on the process that it tends to push aside what is actually changing. For example - structural change does not mean jobs or the underlying work is changing, it might just be reporting lines or where people sit. Leaders have to spend time defining the change, because knowing what isn't changing is as helpful to know as what is.

Explore what's possible.

Formal Change Management assumes that by following a defined process ,you'll end up where you want to be. That's a really simplistic way to think about change, but it does allow you to write a book and get paid to deploy the same tactics at every workplace. But let's face it, most team and organisational environments are not simple. Just the fact that they have people involved means they are inherently complex. A better way for Leaders to work is to involve their team in thinking through the challenges. For example, reporting lines are going to be changing - so how could teams and people move more effectively? Getting people involved in the process, gives them an opportunity to tell you what they need in order for change to occur. Don’t just look for “pain points”, look for opportunities. Work on possible scenarios and show people how this could work. Explore what the change can do and think through what you could do rather than just what you have to do.

Address all concerns.

This one is pretty simple. As a Leader you have to listen. If change is going to effect people, then they need to be heard. Even if it is just allowing staff to express their feelings, people deserve the courtesy to be listened to. Not listening and talking through concerns immediately casts you as uncaring and unwilling to share the experience (see above). This doesn't have to be a passive part of the process. You can create a system to work through. For example, using the knowns/unknown framework, just being able to communicate what is known now, what will be addressed later and what you don't know and will need to be escalated for an answer is a good start. Coming into this process proactively with answers points to you being part of the team, and willing to engage with them and what their needs are.

Establish measures.

It's important for change not to be for its own sake, and so Leaders have to define what Successful Change looks like. When it comes to change - survival is not the same as success. Leaders need to be able to make that distinction, and they need to develop clear metrics for a successful change. This provides a goal, something to aim for, something to track progress. Change is a process that happens over time - so you need to provide measurements to demonstrate how far you've come, and where you've been. Wandering directionless in the desert is different to walking a path. Knowing you're 2kms from the finish makes a hell of a difference than not knowing that you are 10kms away.

Any more suggestions? Feel free to post them via the comments below.

• Tim Klapdor
• Adelaide, Australia
• posts, Change, & Leadership