Most change initiatives donât fail in the plan - they fail in what leaders donât notice.
I want to reflect on a new Manfred Kets de Vries article: âYou look, but you donât see: leadership & the paradox of perception,â for leaders of change.
It reinforces that change initiatives are rarely governed by the âvisible layerâ (methods, metrics, milestones, RAG, governance, etc). These may appear âunder controlâ while the most decisive forces remain under the surface: anxiety, fear, grief, resentment, rivalry, shame. What is labelled âresistanceâ may be self-protection; âalignmentâ may be passive compliance; âclarityâ may be premature closure. Leading change is not only about implementing the plan but reading the emotional system the plan is landing in.
The articleâs core idea is that âseeingâ is an active leadership discipline, needing patience & humility. Change is less likely to be derailed by technical error than by psychological blindness: familiarity is mistaken for understanding, data for perception & analysis for awareness.
Curiosity must override certainty. Certainty is seductive, signalling competence, control & momentum. It also shuts down sense-making, especially if people are anxious. Curiosity keeps leaders open to contradiction & surprise. It reframes âwhatâs going wrong?â into âwhatâs being protected here?â & slows premature action.
We should use ourselves as instruments of "seeing": noticing what others evoke in us & treating it as data rather than noise. Feeling bored, confused, irritated or anxious in a meeting can be data about whatâs happening relationally (avoidance, unspoken conflict, dependency, power etc).
How can leaders of change put on leadership glasses & see more clearly?
1) Build regular reflection time into change efforts (e.g., before key decisions & after difficult meetings) so we can notice patterns rather than just react.
2) Ask, âWhat emotion is driving this?â & âWhat might people be protecting?â to look beyond stated positions.
3) Use our own reactions as data: treat our feelings as signals to explore whatâs happening in the relationship or group before pushing ahead.
4) Replace certainty with curiosity by framing early conclusions as âworking theories,â then test them with questions like âWhat doesnât fit?â & âWhat else could be true?â
5) Practise humility out loud: admit what we donât know yet, invite challenge & revise our view openly so the system learns that learning is safe during change.
Too often, we look but we donât see. âSeeingâ means practising an enhanced kind of leadership: paying attention to human dynamics beneath surface data; making space for what doesnât fit; holding tensions, contradictions & uncertainties & staying open to the unexpected. What becomes visible to those who practise âseeingâ often determines whether change becomes movement rather than just motion.
The article in
@Medium:
medium.com/@manfred.ketsdevrâŚ.