Should we build a Coalition or a Consensus: Agreeing on What to Agree On

Organizational Change Management (OCM) is a people-centric discipline that focuses on managing the human experience throughout the organizational change in order to facilitate adoption of the change. This requires fostering understanding and collaboration amongst the change adoption community throughout the transition process. The Change Manager (who often is dual-hatted as the Project Manager in federal initiatives) becomes responsible for leading the coordination of the organization so that they move towards the single, shared vision that has been set. This objective burdens the Change Manager with the responsibility of clarifying and establishing a common ground so that the rest of the organization moves cohesively towards the end vision. Establishing that commonality can theoretically follow one of two approaches: ‘Coalition building’ and ‘Consensus building’.

Building a Coalition
Getting a tight-knit and diverse group to buy in on a common vision. Easier to mobilize and execute (e.g., carry out a coordinated plan, influence others, etc.)

Building a Consensus
Incorporating the opinions of all parties and then, identifying points of agreement that satisfies most or all.
Inclusive of more opinions but requires majority or unanimity to move forward.

Think of it like this: your team is trying to plan a company summer theme party. Coalition building entails creating a small group of colleagues help plan the party. This party task force shares the common goal of ensuring that the event will be a hit but individuals are focused on specific tasks within their scope. The efficiency comes from the ability to pool resources and their respective expertise and efforts towards clear objectives – there is a shared sense of accountability while allowing the task force to capitalize on the strengths and specialization of multiple stakeholders. According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, coalition building can lead to a 20% increase in the chances of success in implementing organizational changes.

On the other hand, consensus building is like trying to plan a party with all party guests, including all employees and their families. You get a myriad of ideas across the spectrum of affordability and practicality to choose from and everyone vote on the best choice before decisions are made. Consensus building is technically a more collaborative and inclusive approach to OCM because it requires active engagement of all stakeholders to understand their concerns, needs, and perspectives. However, this approach can be time-consuming and may lead to delays in the implementation process. When you scale this to organizations consisting of hundreds and thousands who must move to a timesheet tool, building consensus requires the Change Manager to address individual concerns, deconflict them against other feedback and the overarching vision, and expend energy experimenting with compromises that work. Some of the inputs provided may be constructed in a vacuum that disregards organizational constraints (e.g., tools or features that comply with regulations).

While both coalition building and consensus building have their own advantages, coalition building is often more effective in situations where a specific group of stakeholders with a common interest are working towards a specific outcome quickly. From there, the coalition can expand outwards and unify the next layer of influence towards driving successful outcomes in complex and multifaceted initiatives.

NetImpact’s ParadigmSHIFT® Model is proven to drive transparent OCM organically within the Federal Government. Using a trust-based approach to building coalitions and commitment, this model uniquely modernizes change practices by integrating the interaction points between people, systems, and operations with the activities to transition the organization.

ParadigmSHIFT®’s Fast Five Tips on building a strong coalition to support OCM

Establish, Clarify, and Share the Vision: Thoroughly decompose your vision to define the vision of success, including understanding the change drivers and what the potential end states look like  (if no change occurs or if vision is achieved).

Explore and Analyze the Stakeholders: Organizations are made of people, blending complexities of values, beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, incentives, and customs that result in behaviors. Conduct an honest stakeholder assessment that identifies groups, sub-cultures, or individuals who have a vested interest in the coalition’s goals – including potential resistors and those who may not be obviously impacted. Consider their motivations, influence, expertise, and interest areas and address hidden assumptions when assembling
your coalition.

Define and Support Specific Responsibilities: Understand your coalition’s strengths, weaknesses, and explore blind spots. Participants should already have clear “day job” responsibilities (assigned as a part of their role in the organization), but you should be using your stakeholder analysis and assessments to define expectations of their desired contributions and impact through the context of the change initiative. Communicate those expectations and equip them to own their campaign with confidence and excitement.

Foster Empathy-Based Trust: Creating a healthy space, accessible platform, and the psychological safety for
adopters to communicate concerns, dissension, and curiosity is a precursor to collaboration. While we’re not aiming for consensus, it’s important to invite inputs that diversify the perspective so we can resolve thematic issues. Collaboration requires negotiation and neither can be accomplished without empathy.

Communicate with Relevancy and Intent: Despite frequently treated as an after-thought and commonly misused to be synonymous with Communications Plan, OCM is more than communication. OCM requires visioning, strategy, stakeholder management, project management, training… along with thoughtful and aligned communication before, during, and after each of these major areas. Communications should cover a range of key messages by purpose, asset variety and formats, distribution vehicles / channels, and consumer types.

Request our OCM ROI Calculator to assess the impact and value of your upcoming change: demo@netimpactstrategies.com