What you need to know to drive and implement change in your organization
By StarQuest Learning
Change is all around us. The pace of change continues to accelerate as businesses respond to the fluctuating marketplace and the evolving needs of their customers. The question isn’t whether or not to change; it is how to execute on the changes that have been identified. This ability to adapt quickly and effectively separates businesses that thrive from those that merely survive, or worse yet – fail.
Whether it is a new sales force system, a new comp plan, or a new customer service process—people find change to be challenging, and they will often hinder efforts to implement change by virtue of their inability, or lack of desire to change. Yet you know that you need to be a champion of change—and be able to implement more change, more quickly, and more efficiently.
Given that initiating and facilitating change is challenging for most managers, we have summarized our change methodology to help you implement change within your organization.
Build the Case
Children trying to understand the workings of the world ask “why” continuously, until their parents finally run out of answers and resort to, “because I said so, that’s why.” When faced with a change, one of the first things that your employees will want to know is the rationale for the change.
Building the case for change means helping people understand the “why” behind the change. Understanding the reason for the change will dramatically improve the level of buy-in that people feel for the change and minimize their level of resistance.
One best practice associated with building a strong case is to leverage historical data and gather evidence that proves that the change is needed. Building the case for change is much like a lawyer preparing for trial – you need to compile facts and assemble proof that shows the change is necessary.
You may want to pull your evidence and data from the competitive climate, such as what your competitors are doing, or your market share; or you may want to reference customer satisfaction surveys. Other catalysts or driving forces for change may include technological advances, employee sat surveys, financial metrics, etc. Building the case for change is about creating a sense of urgency – you have to make the current situation uncomfortable for people before they are willing to embrace the unknown, which change most often represents.
Create the Vision
Creating the vision, a clear picture of what the change will look like once it is implemented, will help make the change feel more familiar and help build genuine commitment. Vision is essential in organizational change because without it, there is no direction.
Having a clear vision also addresses one of the five universal fears outlined in Donald Brown’s book, Human Universals — fear of the future. Because the “unknown” can create significant anxiety for people, it is important that you draw clarity out of the ambiguity.
As part of creating the vision it’s important to sell the benefits of why this change makes good sense. What are the benefits people can expect to experience once the change is in place? Visions of a better future can provide the inspiration people need to implement the change!
Design the Plan
A good implementation plan needs to be in place prior to executing on a change initiative. The plan does not need to include all steps and details, but should create a framework for what needs to happen in order to implement the change. You can use a project management process, or just identify the most significant and relevant building blocks that will be needed. Identify goals and milestones as part of your planning. Also, engage your team to help you design the plan. Involving your team in the design planning stage will increase their buy-in and commitment.
Mobilize Your People
Up to this point, you have built the case for why the change needs to happen; you have created the vision of what’s ahead once the change is fully and successfully implemented; and you have designed the steps that need to take place in order to execute on the change. Now it is time to consider the people who will be involved in – and affected by – the change. This is perhaps the most important component of championing change.
There are several fundamental elements to mobilizing your people around the change. The first is to recognize that change does have a personal impact on people. Each person will evaluate change from their own frame of reference. They may need support and help to see the benefits of change and overcome their resistance.
Understand that resistance to change is human nature. Most change will meet with some resistance, even when the change is beneficial. However, there are ways that you can minimize resistance to the change from the beginning. As a leader, you can make the change far less disruptive by giving people the information they need about the change. This information comes from all of the work you have done around building the case for the change, creating the vision, and designing the implementation plan for the change. Don’t keep people in the dark or they will come up with their own ideas of what the change will be – and sometimes their ideas are pure speculation. Remember, people need information about the change and they need it frequently.
You can also make the change more readily accepted by providing people the opportunity for involvement. People will be more willing to buy into a change if they are actively involved in its execution. Successful changes always involve the people affected by the change. Your team has much to contribute in terms of their ideas and effort when it comes to executing the change.
Maintain the Momentum
Change initiatives are often introduced with energy and enthusiasm. Managers are on-hand to show their support, there are presentations, resources available, etc. Unfortunately, the fanfare will be over long before the change is fully implemented. Businesses don’t have much trouble introducing changes – but they do have trouble making lasting changes.
It’s important to recognize that implementing change is a marathon, not a sprint. The road is long, and it will take stamina and endurance. One of the most critical and perhaps most difficult parts of your job as a champion of change is to sustain the energy and keep the change initiative moving forward. We call this maintaining the momentum. It means continuing to support the change efforts throughout the implementation process.
An important piece to maintaining the momentum is frequent and repetitive communication about the change. How often should you communicate about the change? You cannot communicate too frequently or too repetitively. The change should be embedded in every discussion and meeting agenda.
No matter how detailed your plan or how diligent your communications, you are bound to need some mid-course corrections along the way. In fact, the sooner you recognize that you are off course and make a correction, the straighter the path will be. Seek feedback from your people. Feedback from your team will help you keep your finger on the pulse of the change efforts. If you keep the lines of communication open, you will hear firsthand what is and is not working.
Change can take a long time and require a difficult transition. That’s why it’s important for leaders to keep their team optimistic and energetic by finding and acknowledging steps forward. People are inspired to action when they see progress. Share positive feedback, report changes in key metrics, and compare progress against timelines as ways of acknowledging steps in the right direction.
Lastly, recognition goes a long way. In the midst of the efforts of change, it is important to recognize and celebrate progress and contributions. This will help sustain the energy and momentum you need to fully and successfully implement the change.