Creating Real Collaboration with the Change Management Green Zone
Laura Cole is a Solution-Focused practitioner who works with organizations to build resilient, empowered cultures during times of change. She founded Your Latitude and created innovative leadership tools, including Watson’s Rule: 3 Essentials to Empower Action.
There is a critical moment in change management when all the strategy and decision-making culminates in the change initiative as the new software is launched or the department merger is implemented. It may have taken months of planning to reach this moment, and the strategy team may feel relief and exhaustion as the change initiative concludes. But we all know what often comes next: resistance and tension as the team struggles with the challenges of the new change. The Change Management Green Zone helps explain why this happens and offers a creative solution to create real collaboration.
The misunderstood timeline
Before understanding the Green Zone, let’s first revisit the scenario presented above. After months, or in some cases years, of planning and decision-making, the strategic team reaches a crucial moment with the software launch or the department merger, which signals to them the conclusion of the change initiative.
Then what happens? The carefully crafted change is handed over to the teams responsible for implementing it, and in many cases, the participants in this second group were not involved in the communications, decision-making, or strategy that brought the change to this moment. Visualizing this scenario, we can see Strategy Group A handing over the change to Participant Group B.
The challenge isn’t the handover, or even that Participant Group B wasn't involved in the strategy and decision-making. It is unreasonable to assume every member of an organization should be involved in strategy, and it is a myth that the only way to get buy-in is through direct involvement in planning and decision-making.
The challenge is a misunderstood timeline, with Strategy Group A communicating what feels like an ending when Participant Group B is just now experiencing the beginning. The resistance and tension that take place between these two groups reflect the problematic timeline more than the actual change, with Strategy Group A saying, “What are you all complaining about? We spent months putting this together!” and Participant Group B saying, “All we see is your idea, and now we have to work with it, and we don’t see ourselves at all.”
What if instead of looking at change as a linear handoff, we consider colour theory to provide us with a more meaningful visual of what real collaboration could practically look like?
Real collaboration in the green zone
As mentioned above, it is unreasonable to include every member of an organization in strategy and decision-making, and it is a myth that this is the only way to gain buy-in, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need collaboration.
Consider Strategy Group A handing a change initiative over to Participant Group B, and this change initiative is a big yellow ball. Strategy Group A spent months, even years, putting together this big yellow ball, and they are proud and excited to present it to Participant Group B. Sounds the same as above? Not quite. In this scenario, Participant Group B is supported to interact with the big yellow ball to find strengths and new opportunities, and encouraged to find holes and weak spots. In this scenario, the final change will never look exactly like the big yellow ball. Instead, it will be a much stronger shade of green after this group adds their blue.
Strategy Group A knows this, so they are not defensive when weak spots start to show on the yellow ball. Participant Group B knows this, so they can acknowledge the positive attributes while also feeling empowered to offer suggestions for improvement. Knowing this is part of the process also removes defensiveness from Participant Group B's communication, supporting them in discussing holes and weak spots in a collaborative, productive way.
The Green Zone supports real collaboration by empowering action on both sides, giving a sense of direction and purpose. The final change will include some of both the yellow and blue, with each group seeing itself in the final green outcome.
Creative communication in the green zone
The Green Zone also provides opportunities for creative communication with lots of engaging ways to incorporate the colour metaphor into team check-ins. Knowing that the ultimate change initiative will include some yellow and blue, how does this influence how team check-ins are facilitated? What difference would this make to the types of questions being asked, and how they are being answered?
One of the most common frustrations in change management is resistance. Strategy Group A interprets resistance as a signal that people don’t like change, or as complaints and procrastination about implementing the new initiative. Or worse, views it as intentional sabotage of the new strategy. Participant Group B often uses resistance to communicate a loss of control that they are unsure how to otherwise express.
The Green Zone offers a unique metaphor to inspire shared language for creatively expressing feelings of resistance, tension, or uncertainty.
Start here with a change management Green Zone mindset
A Green Zone Mindset supports leaders and team members on all sides of the change by helping them visualize a healthy, collaborative relationship even while experiencing the challenges of change. To start cultivating a Green Zone Mindset, consider the following:
The final change outcome cannot be purely yellow or blue, it is a measure of both: this visualization provides meaningful roles to everyone.
Collaboration can happen at many different points in the change initiative: it is a myth that equal involvement in strategy and decision-making is the only way to gain buy-in.
Resistance is a sign of hope, not defeat: it is an indication that one of the change members is looking for a deeper understanding of the colour equation.
The Change Management Green Zone encourages real collaboration, giving all members of the change initiative meaningful direction and purpose. This mindset encourages dialogue with shared, creative language that helps to generate hope in times of change. What difference might the Change Management Green Zone make in your next change initiative?
Read more from Laura Cole
Laura Cole, Solution-Focused Coach, Speaker & Professor
Laura Cole is a Solution-Focused leadership and communication coach, and the creator of tools and frameworks designed to empower action, transform conflict, and build collaboration in times of change. She created Watson’s Rule: 3 Essentials to Empower Action, an innovative leadership tool inspired by Equine Assisted Learning. Laura is a professor, facilitator, executive coach, and international keynote speaker with a degree in Communication and an MBA in Innovation.
