In the last two years, the COVID-19 crisis has shined a light on the growing sense of uncertainty felt across the globe. According to Dr. Vanessa Akhtar of Kotter, this is not an anomaly—according to their research, uncertainty has been the trend for the last few decades. And it will just continue to happen.
“We need to be equipped in our industry to navigate whatever that next unknown thing is,” Dr. Akhtar said to her in-person and virtual audience during Tuesday’s keynote address, “because there will be a next unknown.”
Dr. Akhtar is a director at Kotter, where she works with the firm’s most complex engagements, walking alongside clients during their transformation efforts. She is also a co-author of the book “Change: How Organizations Create Hard-to-Imagine Results Despite Uncertain and Volatile Times,” and her address to the semiconductor industry on Tuesday encouraged new ways of thinking about and implementing organizational change in an era when it seems that’s all we ever do now.
“At Kotter, we get the question all the time: what is the new normal?” said Dr. Akhtar. “When COVID’s over, what is the new normal? What is it going to go back to? What we know now is that we’re already living the new normal. Really the only thing we know is that change is going to continue to come at us in faster and in more complex ways. So we have to be ready to build that change capability and navigate the uncertainty and complexity.”
While this likely feels overwhelming to most, Dr. Akhtar saids this also presents an opportunity. According to Dr. Akhtar, there are strategies and science to change that can help us close that gap between our fast-moving world and our struggles to keep up.
Researchers at Kotter have identified three components to the science of change. The first, Dr. Akhtar explained, involved the neuroscience of change and understanding how we, as humans, biologically respond to threats and opportunities. Working with this knowledge, Dr. Akhtar said, can help management and organization leaders maximize staff potential and create lasting change rather than burnout.
On the neuroscience of change, she said, researchers at Kotter developed a two-channel construct to create a visual about what it looks like.
“The first channel is our survive channel,” said Dr. Akhtar, “and that’s constantly scanning our environments for threats. And when we spot a threat, we go into fight or flight mode—there are chemicals released in our brains that put us into tunnel-vision, problem-solving mode.” Jumping out of the way of an oncoming car, she said, is an example of our survival channel working well. However, when this channel becomes overheated or over-activated, we go into a freeze response—and this is where we can see a lot of resistance to change.
“We’re seeing this more and more in today’s world and in our organizations,” said Dr. Akhtar. “There’s so much coming at us, and we don’t know how to handle it so we just stop. We just maintain the status quo.”
On the other end of the spectrum, however, Dr. Akhtar says our thrive channel is constantly seeking opportunities. When this is sparked, dopamine and other chemicals are released in our brains.
“That allows us to really open our aperture—to see what’s possible,” said Dr. Akhtar. “We can collaborate and innovate in new ways.”
Biologically, however, Dr. Akhtar says the thrive channel is not as strong as the survive channel.
“So we have to really intentionally nurture it and find ways to activate it,” she explained.
The second component to the science of change Dr. Akhtar outlined is around the modern organization and how it’s designed.
“The hierarchy that we know today was developed through the Industrial Revolution,” said Dr. Akhtar, “so it’s still relatively new in the grand scheme of things.”
This hierarchy, she said, was built for efficiency and reliability—what was most important to the world at the time. And while it is still important today, Dr. Akhtar pointed out that these hierarchies do not account for flexibility and adaptability, to respond to today’s world. She spoke on the need for fusing an entrepreneurial spirit alongside a traditional hierarchy, to restructure organizational hierarchies with today’s changing, fast-paced needs in mind.
The third component of Dr. Akhtar’s science of change centered on the research Kotter has gathered on organizations that are really good at transformation. According to Dr. Akhtar, only about 5% of companies exceed expectations during transformation efforts, and the researchers at Kotter found there are two key elements in what these companies do that sets them apart from the rest.
The first, Dr. Akhtar explained, is creating a big opportunity.
“A burning platform might get you to move initially, but it doesn’t create sustained change,” she said. “No one would choose that over—what is that exciting thing that we get to chase after together? Opportunity followed by a building sense of urgency—getting people to come on board and understand what will be different when we change. Remove barriers and celebrate short-term wins. Make sure that you sustain and embed the change.”
The last element revolved around what Dr. Akhtar called the four core principals.
“These really are polarities or tensions that you need to navigate whenever you’re working through change,” said Dr. Akhtar. “The first is management and leadership, and we think about these as behavioral rather than positional. We need more leadership from more people. We need people who are setting a vision for what’s possible.”
The second core principal Dr. Akhtar outlined revolved around head and heart.
“It’s important to have a rational reason to implement change,” she said, “but you have to engage people’s emotions. If you think about big changes you made in your personal life, I guarantee there was some visceral element that helped you along to make and sustain that change.”
The third is utilizing both what Dr. Akhtar called the have tos and the want tos.
“There will always be things you have to do,” she said, “but the more we create a sense of want to, the more people are going to bring new energy and new ideas and you’re going to get so much more out of yourself the teams you’re working with.”
And finally, Dr. Akhtar’s four core principal encouraged diversifying and expanding.
“We need to be engaging many more people,” she said. “You’re going to get more creative solutions if you bring more voices into the room.”
Ultimately, to weather a world where the only constant is change, Dr. Akhtar and Kotter stress the need for more organizations that have agile and adaptable cultures.
“And when you put the science of change into practice, it helps us build those cultures,” she said. “Everyone in this room has a role to play in making this a reality.”
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled Dr. Akhtar’s last name. We regret this error.