Nothing is today exactly as it was yesterday, and nothing will be tomorrow exactly as it is today. All elements of life as we know it and their interactions have change as the only common denominator. This is true about businesses as well.
Think about any company in any market and one of two situations will be at play: the company is changing and evolving, or it is being made irrelevant (how fast or slow is another topic). Think about these textbook examples: Xerox, Nokia, Blockbuster. Now think about these other textbook examples: Netflix, Amazon, Google.
Now think about your company. What are you thinking about specifically? Most likely, you are thinking about something you believe should be changed, either by improvement, creation, or elimination. Regardless of what you thought about, the one thing you will surely need to move forward will be a change management plan.
The speed of change is increasing
In today’s world change seems to be happening faster than ever. From global pandemics to trade wars, it seems that every day business owners and leaders need to re-assess the playing field and pivot accordingly. This may be true for you and your business too.
This (understandably) rushed reaction can lead you to skip the creation of a process to manage these changes, and instead roll with the punches and think on your feet. The problem is this can have the unintended consequence of derailing your change efforts and creating anxiety and resistance in your teams.
One consideration when you are planning and executing a change is to understand the elements of what constitutes a good change management practice, why those elements are needed, and how they can be applied to generate better outcomes. From John Kotter we know that these elements can be summarised as:
- Create a sense of urgency
- Pull together the guiding team
- Develop the change vision and strategy
- Communicate for understanding and buy in
- Empower others to act
- Produce short-term wins
- Don’t let up
- Create a new culture
Tracking change is not easy
One indicator to look out for in the execution phase is the change in the level of support from different individuals or groups to the campaign as the steps are implemented. As can be expected, some elements will likely be agreeable by most (as long as step four was done correctly), others will be polarising, and others can have the potential to be downright negative and detract from the momentum that had been gained with previous steps of the process. It is important to reflect on how your change initiatives can be received by different teams depending on your planning and execution.
The sequence in which you implement the different steps of the model is important, because actions that generate a decrease in buy-in are generally those that are implemented either too early (and people were not ready for it, causing confusion) or too late (and were seen as ineffective and detracted from the experience).
Another consideration for any change management initiative is that while there is a framework and steps to follow, it is not necessarily a strict recipe or a formula you must follow every single time without modifications. The process will be slightly different every time, because the situation will be different every time, and most importantly, the people (and their current physical and mental states, relating to both work and home environments) will be different every time.
Humans are not always rational about change
Humans fluctuate between many different states of being (within a single day, or even minutes) depending on the environment, internal and external factors, their perceptions and ideas about those factors, and their mindset at that point in time. This makes every change process unique regardless of how many times you have implemented a similar approach in the past and therefore you would benefit from considering some or all of these factors when planning and executing your change strategy.
Change is something you do with people and not to people. The best outcomes are achieved when you involve the individuals being affected by the change in the process of planning it. This does not necessarily mean involving them directly as the sample might be too large and the logistics too complex.
However, it does require you to think about their current situation, their needs, what the future state might mean for them, empathise with them and figure out the best way to frame and inspire the change in a way that generates alignment with their current and future needs. In a way, you can look at the whole change planning exercise as an element of design and apply a human-centric approach to it. After all, humans are at the centre of everything that we do.
Understanding the past can help guide the future
It can be difficult to understand why things are the way they are and how they got that way without talking to people who are affected by the situation. This is especially true when trying to assess a situation and come up with a plan to change it, which highlights the need for proper scoping prior to undertaking any change, to make sure we understand what change is needed and why, as well as the events that created the current state. Taking the time to increase your understanding will give you valuable insights on how to potentially influence a different outcome.
Every initiative you run in your company will have a certain element of change associated with it, so the responsibility is on you and your leadership team to assess the magnitude of the change and apply an appropriately scaled version of the process depending on the complexity of the change, the number of stakeholders involved, and the potential impact the change will have on their lives. Empathy remains, in my eyes, as one of the most important skills to develop and apply in the process of leading change effectively, together with a human-centric growth mindset.
Scaling right down to team interactions
Change management considerations can be applied beyond large company-wide changes and be brought into the way you manage your teams. Many of your daily team experiences are in fact small changes to your current situation. Having this lens allows you to think about a scaled-down version of the change plan to ensure you have explained your reasons to do something, why it is important or beneficial, what are the next steps, etc. You get the idea.
I am not suggesting you should address every single occurrence in your life with a change management plan, but I would venture to say that as you are typing your next email announcing a change within your team, you will likely increase your odds of success if you consider the impacts of your proposed changes on others and communicate them appropriately and in a timely manner.
What is one action you can implement this week as a result of reading this article? Give it a go and let me know how you go!
