The Greek letter Delta is the symbol for “change” in mathematics.  For those of you who remember algebra, the way to calculate the slope of the a line was to divide the change in the “y” coordinates by the change in the “x” coordinates.  Delta y over Delta x.

Delta is basically a triangle.  If you look at the logo for Delta Air Lines, its primary shape is a triangle.  The airline took on its name when moved from its  beginnings as a crop dusting service in Macon, Georgia to a new headquarters in Monroe, Louisiana, and identified itself with the Louisiana Delta, an area of land that is always changing due to erosion from water of the Mississippi River and sedimentary deposits.

Interestingly, though, in another branch of mathematics, geometry, the triangle is the most stable of geometric shapes.  To continue the airline analogy, older airports had their runways designed in a triangular shape to help reduce crosswind difficulties in an aircraft’s takeoff and landing.  Airplanes have their wheels aligned in a triangular fashion, with a set of wheels under each of its wings, and a set under the nose of the plane to give balance and steering.

Isn’t it ironic that the symbol for change is also a shape that is associated with stability.  Perhaps the lesson we can learn is to remain stable, some type of change is still necessary.  No change, therefore, doesn’t necessarily mean stability; it can lead to stagnation, and stagnation leads to decay.  While decay can also be viewed as a change, it’s a change that usually isn’t a desired one.  If change is necessary to maintain stability, then it is certainly needed to enable opportunities for growth.

The graphic that’s featured with this article shows a cycle that is quite common when an enhancement is requested for an existing piece of software or a new functionality is suggested for an app.

But there are other types of changes that are prevalent within schools today which accompany new programs, new processes, and new assessments.  The Change Management Process to introduce something new to a school’s community of learners (which includes every life-long learner of the school’s community) also consists of five steps:

• Assess
• Prepare
• Plan
• Implement
• Sustain

In researching change management, there are several models one can find on the Internet, each of which have a different number of steps (from three to eight or more), and some of the steps can be rearranged (for instance, in some models, Prepare comes before Assess).   The five steps mentioned above create an interesting series since the previous one can be related to the next one.  Working backwards:

• Sustain the implementation
• Implement the plan
• Plan the preparation
• Prepare the assessment
• Assess the sustainability

Notice how the system then has no beginning and no end, supporting the assertion that the only constant is change.

Let’s take a quick dive into each of the five elements of the system, with a 6th one to move the cycle back to the start.

Assess

When you think about it, I think you’ll agree that something has to happen to indicate a change is necessary.  But when you think about it further, if the indication is there that a change is necessary, then whatever has been happening has been changing, once again supporting the claim that change is constant.  The difficulty is that you may see that change is necessary, but it will be difficult to convince others that change is necessary.  That’s where the preparation for change happens.

Prepare

You need to build the “case” – the “why” – change is necessary, and convince your stakeholders and audiences that continuing along the current path will lead to a situation with a significant negative impact.  Perhaps the organization is receiving fewer and fewer contributions every year; perhaps the school’s enrollment has been slowly eroding.

By the way, if you’re thinking your enrollment has stabilized because the number of students in your entry grade equals the number of students that graduated from your school, your thinking is leading to a catastrophic event.  Send an email to me at [email protected] with the words “Stabilize Enrollment” in the subject line if you’d like to know why.

You may see the need for change, and can even provide an analysis of what’s been happening, but the problem with most change preparation conversations is that stakeholders and audiences haven’t yet felt the effects of what’s been happening.  In the case of enrollment erosion, perhaps tuition has increased, resulting in the departure of a few families, but schools are diligent about holding the line on tuition and cutting expenses wherever they can.

Unfortunately, there may come a time when the announcement of merger or closure takes the community by surprise.  That’s because the school hasn’t shared what’s been happening with the school’s customers, and may have only had the difficult discussions with the board, finance council, or other advisory and/or administrative structures.  The fear is that sharing difficulties will lead to an exodus once customers (the members of your school’s parent community) are aware of what’s going on.

While many organizations can offer the analysis of why a change is necessary, many organizations don’t take the next step and show a projection of what may happen if what is currently happening continues to happen.  You’d think we’d have all learned the value of this exercise after being exposed to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” seeing what the future could bring if things are allowed to continue along their current path.

This is why trust in your school’s parent community is essential, and why this step is incredibly important.  As Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” states, you must “Face the brutal facts, but never lose hope.”  You must prepare your organization for change – without necessarily knowing what will change.  Simply offering a plan for change skips this important step.  Once the projected path is shared, those concerned will want to have input regarding the plan, which then engenders buy-in to the planned change.

Plan

Now the planning begins, and the investigation of all the possibilities can take place.  Often, this step comes before the previous one, where the plan is created and only then are constituent groups prepared for the plan’s implementation.  When “Plan” comes before “Prepare,” resistance is usually the result.  With the necessary preparation, trust becomes the foundation, and allowing stakeholders to have their concerns be heard before any planning takes place means a plan can begin to take shape.  At that point, arguments can occur, and should occur, because everyone is working on creating a plan that provides the best result for the organization.  When “Plan” comes before “Prepare,” arguments are fueled by the desire to protect the status quo, resulting in politics rather than agreement.  The result of this step is the strategic plan, which then needs to be implemented.

Implement

A successful implementation is the result of a well-crafted and executed operational plan generated from the strategic plan.  The key to a successful implementation, however, is accountability.  There needs to be one person who is responsible for successful implementation, just as there needs to be someone responsible for enrollment growth, for development revenue increase, for retention success and for the financial health of your school.  The interesting dynamic that occurs when one person is accountable is that everyone then holds everyone else accountable.  When there is “shared responsibility,” then no one is accountable, and, unfortunately, blame can result.

Sustain

Once a change has been made, process must be monitored.  Building upon the fact that change is constant, more changes may need to happen, but let’s not call it change, since the process would have to repeat itself.  Instead, let’s use a phrase that high school marching bands use when rehearsing their field drills for competitive performances – “check and adjust.”  Constant attention to the situation, followed by small adjustments is a more prudent course of action than simply letting the new process get to the point that a complete overhaul is once again necessary.   Think of driving a car down the highway, and then encountering a stretch really rough road.  You may have to slow down a bit, then steer though potholes and bumps in order to keep moving along the path.  Failure to do so and simply “powering through” the obstacles could cause significant damage to your vehicle.

Similarly, if you’re accustomed to driving a 5-speed transmission, you can’t just shift from first to second gear, or from second to third.  You need to take your right foot off the accelerator, depress the clutch with your left foot, shift to the next gear, then release the clutch as you once again depress the accelerator with your right foot.  Practice is necessary to ensure this is a smooth process, or else one would need to alert your passengers be prepared for potential whiplash.

Move Forward

While change is an iterative process with each of the steps leading to the next one and the last one leading back to the first, it’s important to get buy-in before developing the plan.  Once the plan is in place and implemented, you may find that there is the need for change in another system to be able to take full advantage of the new change which was just implemented.  The change management process will then extend to other systems within the organization, which is the essence of “transition,” rather than simply “change.”  While it it may be easier to allow dysfunctional systems to continue, what’s easy isn’t always right…and what’s right isn’t always easy.

As we continue to think about this, that first step, Assess, probably isn’t necessary, since the consideration of changing means that you’ve already assessed that something isn’t working the way that it should, or the way that you want it to.  When we do that, the Move Forward step becomes the assessment stage of the next iteration, taking these six steps back down to five.  Further, I’m not a believer in “plan” (even though planning is essential).  Since I’m a systems thinker, I think in terms of “machine” rather than “plan,” and machines often need “retooling.”  So, if we call it that, an interesting and very appropriate acronym results:  PRISM: Prepare, Retool, Implement, Sustain, Move Forward.  Just as a prism breaks apart light into a spectrum of color, so do we need to break things down to analyze where the problems are within the machine, and then implement corrections, mindful of the fact that machine must continue to function, and function more efficiently.

“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names” – Chinese Proverb

Words are interesting.

Actually, the meanings of words are interesting, especially since they change over time.

Consider the words used to describe something that evokes a personal positive emotional reaction.  If we look at the 1950’s, it was “cool.”  In the 1960’s, it was “hip,” and we didn’t “like” it, we “dug” it (which is interesting since “dig” also meant “understand”).

Then, other words came to be used. “Neat” or “neat-o” and “groovy” eventually became “bad,” which eventually became “sick,” “wicked,” “awesome,” or “sweet.”  There are a host of others too, even some which contain profanity.

My favorite change of the meaning of a word has been “swipe.”  What once meant taking something without paying for it is now, thanks to technology, a way to pay for something.

Because “change” has such a negative and frightening connotation, perhaps we shouldn’t use it as freely as we do.  Change is constant, and we don’t like to be reminded of the obvious.

When we look at the first four words offered as potential replacements for the word “change” in the title of this article, they all pertain to an instance.  An adjustment, revision, modification or shift are all, in today’s verbiage, a “tweak.”  It might be small, it might be large, but all five of those words (including “tweak”) speak to “change” events.  If change, however, is constant, there can be multiple “change” events which must occur to bring about desired results.  And no one likes lots of changes – even though everything around us, as well as our own selves, is constantly changing.

Transition, on the other hand, implies a process.  Transitions can have one, a few or many change events grouped together.  Transitions can also be viewed as having a beginning and an end, a starting point and a goal.  As for “change,” it’s constant, usually viewed as “big,” and, many times, may deal with unknowns.  For these three reasons, change is often feared.

A successful transition process is possible and not as feared when it can be planned for and communicated, and people are open to the potential which exists.

Visionary leadership is necessary to show what the goal of the process of the change will look like, or, at least, is planned to look like.  It involves taking the “dream,” and making it somewhat “concrete.”

Will the transition ever be completely concrete?  No, because change continues to happen.

Once a dream is achieved, another dream is necessary, engaging the elements of advancement, and the people involved in and engaged with an organization.  If something becomes completely concrete, and there is no ability to change, it can crumble when battered by the elements surrounding it.

As the Zen Proverb states, “The strength of a tree lies in its ability to bend,” adapting to the changes it experiences.