Unleash Organizational Change for Unprecedented Success and Growth with Revolutionize Leadership

Unleash the potential of organizational change and revolutionize your approach – continue reading for a strategic roadmap to unprecedented success. Ready to elevate your leadership prowess? Dive into the profound revelations awaiting you in the complete review.

Embark on a transformative journey with Leading Beyond Change by Michael K. Sahota and Audree Tara Sahota, a groundbreaking exploration of organizational change that promises to reshape your leadership paradigm. In this enlightening review, we dissect key insights, empowering you to navigate the complexities of change management with unparalleled finesse.

Leading Beyond Change by Michael K. Sahota and Audree Tara Sahota is a transformative guide that navigates the intricate landscape of organizational change. With a focus on practical strategies and positive leadership, the book empowers readers to embrace change and elevate their leadership capabilities. The authors’ expertise shines through, offering a comprehensive blueprint for success in the dynamic world of business.

This book stands out as a beacon for leaders seeking to master the art of change management. Sahota and Sahota seamlessly blend theory with actionable insights, creating a compelling narrative that motivates and informs. Their positive approach and real-world examples make this a must-read for those aspiring to lead their organizations through successful transformations.

Genres

Leadership, Change Management, Business, Transformation, Innovation, Management Strategies, Organizational Development, Corporate Culture, Leadership Psychology, Success Principles

Recommendation

Organizational change lecturer Michael K. Sahota and productivity consultant Audree Tara Sahota explain how leaders can help their companies evolve by evolving themselves. Their “Shift314 Evolutionary Leadership Framework” (SELF) advocates learning what’s happening in your firm by listening “to the voice of the system.” They prescribe practices for bringing about lasting, evolutionary change in your personal leadership journey and your company. The authors cover how organizations function and how business patterns intersect. They link effective organizational change to the way you grow and evolve as an aware, accountable leader, so you may be more pivotal than you think.

Take-Aways

• Most corporate change efforts are ineffective.
• A change program should encompass “results, organizational change, organizational culture, people, use of power, leadership” and “understanding reality.”
• Evolutionary leaders strive for both system improvement and higher consciousness. They lead “beyond change.”
• Leaders must be realistic, so be aware that when your brain gets overloaded, it tends to generalize, distort or delete information.
• To learn, you must keep your mind open to new ideas. Believing you know it all kills clear thinking.
• The best leaders evolve as aware human beings – a journey they embrace.
• Be accountable for the choices that define your leadership.

Summary

Organizations are failing more quickly than ever before, and many leaders know their company needs to change. However, most corporate change efforts are ineffective. The time has come to acknowledge that organizational change itself is an “outdated paradigm.” Instead of embarking on some routine change program, try to achieve “organizational evolution.”

Compulsory change seldom works. The kind of structural organizational change you’re seeking requires a shared transition into higher consciousness and “evolutionary leadership.”

“The creation of an evolutionary organization is a natural consequence of leaders choosing to be evolutionary.”

You can update your organization by helping your leaders evolve so that your company can evolve as well. Traditional change efforts often fail because leaders mistakenly view their organizations as easy to understand. They assume any change effort containing measurable, easy-to-follow steps will work.

Seek evolutionary change by using the “Shift314 Evolutionary Leadership Framework” (SELF). This strategic approach will help you improve your processes, your procedures and yourself.

A change program should map the patterns behind your “results, organizational change, organizational culture, people, use of power, leadership” and “understanding reality.”

Leaders can select among various growth patterns when they determine how to shift their companies from conventional to evolutionary. These patterns show the realistic cause-and-effect relationships that shape the life of an organization.

“Like the law of gravity, the Laws of Organizational Dynamics are always in effect. Ignorance of a law does not excuse one from the consequences when they break it.”

These patterns are based on “The Laws of Organizational Dynamics,” which show how actions inevitably lead to reactions, for example, “when you treat people well, they perform better.” These patterns form the core of the SELF program for moving from traditional change to evolutionary change. It has four aspects:

1. Maps – Leaders can use graphics to depict where their organizations are and where they need to go. For example, you can create a “high performance” map to visualize the dozens of patterns that reflect your firm’s internal cause-and-effect relationships across seven dimensions of organizational functioning: “results, organizational change, organizational culture, people, use of power, leadership and understanding reality.” Graphics also make it easier to understand how traditional change patterns differ from evolutionary change patterns in these seven areas.
2. Principles – Leaders’ beliefs and values guide their personal evolution and inform the way they evolve to become role models who spark change in other people.
3. Models – Business models grounded in data collection and analysis enable leaders to reach a better understanding of their organization.
4. Tools – Leaders can apply specific techniques to enhance their personal and organizational results. For example, your personal tools include the ability to change your behavior and improve your self-awareness. During a corporate change, you may also employ organizational tools, such as system evaluations or performance-enhancement plans.

In most organizations, managers govern by focusing on results, but they may fail to get the outcomes they want because they don’t provide psychological safety for their employees. Leaders who manipulate people cannot expect to enhance their engagement or productivity. Instead, leaders of evolutionary organizations understand that good results depend on employees who feel secure. Put your employees’ safety and interests first, even ahead of shareholder interests.

Evolutionary leaders strive for both system improvement and higher consciousness. They lead “beyond change.”

Evolutionary leadership is the next step beyond servant leadership. It has two dimensions: “Being” – when leaders commit to evolving to a higher level of consciousness – and “Doing” – when leaders commit to individual improvement (as outlined in the SELF program) that inspires people and leads to team and systemic improvement.

“Responsibility is the key factor that will lead to successful self-organization and self-management.”

Executives and managers must become self-aware in order to help their people and their organizations evolve. They must lead beyond change, which means:

• “Beyond” – Organizations with high-energy employees and superior performance are ideally equipped to manage evolutionary change.
• “Leading beyond” – Your company needs leaders who develop and evolve their own leadership styles to be able to move beyond conventional business operations.
• “Beyond change” – Base your new business solutions on your principles and purpose.

This kind of improvement requires an evolutionary process. Trying to change only a few aspects of your organization will not produce the results you want. Half measures are as bad as half-truths. Your organizational change efforts must be comprehensive and holistic, and that requires leaders who are evolving themselves.

Leaders must be realistic, so be aware that when your brain gets overloaded, it tends to generalize, distort or delete information.

Leaders must manage themselves before they can manage their companies. Many organizations become weak or fail because their leaders are unwilling to deal with disagreeable data. They ignore real-world trends and issues. These companies, like misguided individuals, operate in a state of denial. They accept a distorted picture and duck their responsibility to deal with reality. To succeed, companies need leaders who accept reality.

However, besieged leaders may have good reasons for failing to grasp the whole picture. According to neurolinguistics, when too much sensory data bombards the human brain, it deals with being overloaded by 1) generalizing much of the information, 2) distorting much of the information or 3) deleting much of the information.

Leaders have to rise above these natural tendencies to defeat denial. When corporations – and their leaders – cling to denial, they make terrible choices. Solutions derived from these bad decisions turn out not to be solutions at all. Many times, they become additional problems.

“Our perceptions are our model of reality and are often not as accurate as we assume.”

Leaders and organizations that accept reality and its consequences can deal with challenges as they arise. Leaders equip themselves to handle problems more effectively when they test their models of reality and seek sufficient information to root themselves in the real world.

All humans operate with the same basic assumption that their thoughts accurately reflect reality. Problems arise because this is seldom true. Those who fare best remain open-minded and humble; they accept that they don’t know everything and that they might have a distorted view of reality. They’re sufficiently tough-minded to question their own models.

Achieving this mindset isn’t easy. Critically examining your vision of reality may be painful or alarming, because it means calling your basic beliefs – and identity – into question. This requires having faith in yourself and in the process of growth, and it may take considerable time to achieve.

To learn, you must keep your mind open to new ideas. Believing you know it all kills clear thinking.

Having an “I-know-this” attitude keeps you from learning and being open to new ideas. A famous Zen koan presents this concept in clear terms. Nan-in was a Japanese Zen master who lived in the Meiji era (1868 – 1912). One day, a university professor visited Nan-in to learn everything he could about Zen.

“Be the change you want to see in the world. (Mahatma Gandhi)”

Before trying to explain anything, Nan-in served the professor tea. He filled the professor’s cup to the top and kept pouring. The professor protested that the cup was already full and that any tea that Nan-in added would overflow. Nan-in compared the overflowing cup to the professor’s brain, saying the professor was already chock-full of rigid ideas. Nan-in told the professor that before he could learn anything new, he first had to learn how to empty his mind and become receptive.

To gain knowledge, you must remain open to new information. The flip side of learning is “unlearning,” giving up your existing models of reality when they prove no longer useful. Many times, you cannot learn unless you unlearn first.

“When humanity shifts into a higher state of consciousness (i.e., inner peace, connection, abundance and collaboration, etc.), thoughts will change and behaviors will change.”

People are not predisposed to learn. This does not surprise neurologists. They know the human brain is set up to avoid overwork. If you ask whether your brain is designed to find the right answer or to find the quickest answer, the second option is correct. Generally speaking, the brain tends to put a stop to intense thinking because that process requires blood sugar, which the brain preserves for the body’s functioning. The brain – prioritizing survival – prefers quick answers over deep thinking.

The best leaders evolve as aware human beings – a journey they embrace.

Learning is only part of your responsibility as a leader and a thinking human being. You also need to develop self-consciousness, emotional awareness and a measure of enlightened wisdom. Without emotional awareness, you can’t attain spiritual growth or evolve your state of being.

Achieving self-awareness is a vital component of your evolving self, an essential stop on your leadership journey. Becoming more self-aware can be liberating and empowering, but taking this step requires the courage and motivation to accept the challenging process of evolving.

“The most important activity for a leader is…self-evolution.”

You’ll know whether you are growing when you see whether others in your organization are following you as a role model. Be alert to these important steps of personal evolution.

• “Discovering reality” – You have a heightened sense of curiosity and a greater appreciation for the true nature of things, particularly your company’s inner workings, its culture and the well-being of its employees.
• Unlearning – You evolve to a more substantial level of leadership readiness by moving beyond current knowledge and outmoded models.
• “You are the solution” – You understand that external challenges are linked to internal challenges and thus external victories follow internal victories.
• “Serving purpose” – You have an increased feeling of “interconnectedness and interdependence” that helps you move past your ego.
• “Letting go of control” – Self-aware leaders know they don’t always have to be in charge.
• “Increasing freedom” – You understand that everyone is a freethinking, independent human being. Working from this premise grants people the respect they deserve.
• Responsibility – Leaders must exhibit a high degree of personal responsibility to become exemplary role models.
• “Psychological safety” – People cannot operate productively unless they feel protected in their environment. Enlightened leaders provide their employees with a safe culture and a setting that accepts individual differences.
• “Equal voice” – Smart leaders let other people talk while they listen.

Be accountable for the choices that define your leadership.

When you lead beyond change, you will become aware of crucial choices only you can make. You will understand that, as a fully engaged leader, practically everything that occurs in your sphere at work reflects on your personal leadership.

“You can’t use an old map to explore a new world.” (Albert Einstein)

This accountability will include how you grow as a leader, important facets of your organization’s processes and procedures, any ongoing corporate changes, the way your firm treats its employees, and how the leaders you appoint and mentor also evolve.

About the Authors

Michael K. Sahota is a consultant and speaker on performance and organizational change. Audree Tara Sahota is an artist, poet, productivity consultant and expert in “energetic healing.” For more information and a map contrasting traditional and evolutionary change, see https://evolve2b.com.