stuckinthemiddlewithyou

Laura Jerram

Whether your organisation is changing from the top down or from the bottom up, ignore your middle managers at your peril!

Many of us have been there at some point in our careers. It’s our first, maybe our second management position and we’re running a busy overstretched team. We’ve had some ideas about how things could be done better, but no one is really listening, and anyway, we’re so busy with Business as Usual that we don’t have time to develop our thoughts further.

But then we hear whispers of change, a project coming down the road, maybe the first one we’ve been involved in as a manager, and we’re excited to finally have the opportunity to share our ideas. Except instead we’re called into an “Announcement” and presented with a vision and a project plan, a fait accompli of which we feel no ownership or connection, and we’re asked to go back and sell it to our teams. Worse still, we’re assigned specific and critical project tasks and suddenly we’re delivering:

change that we’ve not bought into
that we’re not convinced will work
alongside business-as-usual responsibilities
without any extra resources

And people wonder why so many change and transformation projects don’t deliver their promises.

But what if placing your middle managers right at the heart of your change strategy became your Business-as-Usual? After all, they are using your organisation’s processes and systems every single day, and like canaries in a mineshaft, they’re often the first to sense when trouble is coming. Being closer to the action means they’ll have valuable insights into making substantive improvements, and they’re still connected to the latest trends in real time, unlike their senior colleagues who might feel the pace of change gently creeping away from them.

They are our leaders of the future with a collective energy and spirit that reminds us of when we carried the fire with the same enthusiasm and hope. Every generation can feel threatened by the one that follows, but we all remember times, early in our careers, when we were gently (and not so gently) put in our place by our older colleagues. If we’re not careful, change programmes can feel that way for our younger managers. But change is best delivered by those truly invested in it, so let’s trust the next generation of leaders. Let’s give them a real seat at the table and let them inform change strategy and not just deliver it.

If you would like help harnessing the creativity and engagement of your managers and staff to create meaningful change that enables empowerment, two-way communications and real cultural shift in your organisation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Stuck in the Middle with You

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