How to change: Top down, bottom up, or a middle method?

When it comes to change, top executives decide, while middle and line managers implement.

Is that how it works in your organization? If so, you could be missing a trick.

Middle managers usually have a better understanding of front-line operations than their colleagues in the boardroom.

Research shows that when middle managers are involved in shaping strategy, you get better decisions, more consensus, improved implementation, and better organizational performance.

Top down doesn’t work

Top-down initiatives often fail to deliver.

Senior leaders may have vision and authority, but they can lack the ‘feel’ of frontline operations.Senior leaders may have vision and authority, but they can lack the ‘feel’ of frontline operations.

This can lead to impractical plans which don’t work on the ground.

Moreover, top-down mandates may overlook good ideas.

Implementation is crucial

In his book How to Run a Government, Michael Barber argues that policy accounts for 10% of success, while implementation constitutes 90%.

This principle applies to most organizations.

Deciding strategy may be exciting, but implementation (which is hard work, time-consuming, and less glamorous) is more important.

Middle managers play a key role in implementation, but are stereotyped as change blockers.

That image is false.

For example, a study of a Nordic insurance company revealed that middle managers, dubbed ‘The Gang of Four’, sabotaged senior management plans for a new claims handling process.

They created their own effective approach instead, leading to better outcomes – this is typical.

The success of change led from the middle

Research by Insead indicates that 80% of transformation programs led by middle managers succeed, compared to only 20% of those led by senior management.

Middle managers’ close relationship with their teams, and firsthand knowledge of operational challenges, make them more effective at selling and implementing new working practices.

The employee experience

Remember the saying ‘people don’t leave their job, they leave their manager’.

Middle managers are responsible for creating the conditions – the enabling environment – that determine job satisfaction and customer experience.

A study of 128 large organizations found that only 22% of major change initiatives improved both financial results and corporate reputation.

Success in both areas was linked to a focus on employees, emphasizing teamwork, collaboration, culture, empowerment, compensation, and diversity.Success in both areas was linked to a focus on employees, emphasizing teamwork, collaboration, culture, empowerment, compensation, and diversity.

Notably, successful companies had higher female representation, especially in management roles.

How things have changed

Directive supervision is out, creating a supportive environment is in.

The core competencies for front line and middle managers today include:

• Coaching
• Mentoring and reverse mentoring
• Managing older employees, bringing on newer employees
• Understanding and accommodating cultural differences
• Problem solving, from diagnosis to action
• Change management (e.g. implementing hybrid working, and AI).

Today’s middle managers are also your source of tomorrow’s top team.

Look for three performance indicators.

First, low staff turnover shows an ability to create a supportive environment.

Second, meeting and exceeding targets demonstrates a focus on business goals. Third, innovation and improvements point to someone who is not content with the status quo.

These are your future senior executives.

Challenges in the middle

Middle managers face a number of change implementation challenges.

HR can help through support in these areas:

Resistance: Middle managers need to be behind change. Fears of increased workload, power shifts, or job insecurity need to be addressed.

Effective communication can overcome this resistance. Transparency and consistent messaging are important.

Authority and resources: To drive change, middle managers need authority and resources.

Some of those resources come from the organization’s culture: openness, trust, respect, flexibility. HR is often a custodian of these properties.

Skills and capability: Middle managers need the skills and capability to drive change.

Badly handled change leads to increased workload, stress, and burnout. HR must diagnose and address capability deficits in their management cohort.

Strategic alignment: Ensuring that middle management goals are aligned with corporate strategy is crucial.

Danger points include competing priorities, ill-fitting change management processes, organization politics, and stakeholder conflicts.

Pressures arising from short-term focus and lack of follow-through are factors which can also undermine long-term success.

Meeting these challenges requires a comprehensive, holistic approach, including communication, learning and development, and practical support for middle managers and their teams.Meeting these challenges requires a comprehensive, holistic approach, including communication, learning and development, and practical support for middle managers and their teams.

HR needs to be vigilant to the risks and problems, and provide support.

Supporting accidental and hidden managers

With current trends and pressures, a renewed focus on management development is needed. How many ‘accidental’ managers do you have?

Promotion to management often depends on how well someone has done the front line work.

Accidental managers may have had little management training and will face a steep on-the-job learning curve.

Do you have ‘hidden’ managers? Experienced but unpromoted staff often ‘act up’ when a manager is absent. These hidden managers are unlikely to have had any training for the role.

HR must ensure that all frontline and middle managers are given appropriate development opportunities.

This might involve formal programs, in-house and external.

At implementation, coaching and mentoring by existing managers and management forums (online and in-person) for exchanging experience and ideas are highly effective.

Time for a refresh in the middle

It’s time to rethink the organizational role and contribution of the middle.

When empowered to contribute to strategic decision-making, middle managers bring practical knowledge and insights that make a key difference to the effectiveness of change initiatives.

With the right support from HR, they can increase employee motivation and performance, and drive strategic change.