Throughout my career — as being a chief financial officer in companies big and small, as being a corporate and nonprofit board member, and after this as CEO of a fast-growing privately held startup — I’ve learned to become a change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, and something containing taught me as to what works and just what doesn’t when managing change.
Every change initiative is different, but the truths about producing change succeed are, generally, the identical. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Consider them like tools in the toolbox — you must have them readily available, you need to know how to use them so you must determine the proper time to pull them out and set the right results. That’s the change agent’s primary job.
1. Change is around people.
I lead a computer software company providing you with a game-changing connected planning platform. And even though I believe that technology might help our organizations grow, evolve and improve, change management is ultimately about people. As leaders, we will need to set the instance of the change we would like from your people around us. Because the great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your may on people. If you want the crooks to act differently, you should inspire the crooks to change themselves.” Not until you help individuals change are you able to hope to change a company.
Related: 5 Principles for coping with Constant Change
2. Take the time.
Some changes are quick, but real, transformational change can — and sometimes must — take years. We’re all amazed with how quick things alteration of Silicon Valley, as well as the ability to react fast could be fundamental to survival. But, changing hearts, minds and ultimately culture (see No. 1) often can’t be done with all the snap of your fingers.
3. Build a vision.
Stake out in places you want a transformation to look at you at the start of Kogan Page Change Management Books. Determine what success seems like. That doesn’t mean all items have to be fully baked from Day 1. The truth is, avoid doing that — as it means you haven’t engaged individuals who you need to get aboard along. And don’t be rigid, because that can impede of success. (On that in the bit.)
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4. Engage your stakeholders.
This is central to selling the vision you established. Identify the people who is going to be affected by the change, and acquire them involved and committed to the job and its success.
5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When we are inspired to change, know about the consequences. Think it is like pulling the loose thread with a shirt — it sometimes might cause a control button to leave. In the event you add resources — dollars, people, space or some different — to a single project, try and know what normally takes a back seat. And time will be the ultimate finite resource, if you ask a superstar who’s already working at capacity to take a step extra, understand that her productivity in her own “day job” may need to be shifted.
6. Work with the willing.
Nobody in your organization will probably get on board the change train. That’s natural; some people could have ways of thinking and working which can be incompatible in doing what you should accomplish. So, while it’s maybe the least fun a part of change management, sometimes you should bring in new people who share up your eyes, and release people who don’t. I don’t need to let you know that staff changes can be very expensive, but the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are very much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — and after that communicate some more.
I’ve used every medium you can imagine to speak about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — they all have a place. Sometimes, it’s appropriate to discuss internal change with people outside of your organization, it mat be most people. For example, basically we were transforming Cisco’s finance department coming from a number-crunching machine in to a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A in the Wall Street Journal on the project. People mixed up in the effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride in the work — plus some people we hadn’t managed to reach by other methods finally understood what we should were trying to do.
8. Listen.
The communication I merely described can’t certainly be a one-way street. You should tune in to individuals who’re making the change, and tune in to the people affected by the change. That doesn’t mean you value all feedback equally, or provide people who find themselves complaining more hours. But look challenging for the useful nuggets with what people show you, and plow it into the plans. In ways, this is the extended form of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).
9. Empower the silent majority to communicate in up.
When you listen (No. 8), you’re likely to hear several voices the loudest. Bear in mind that they’re not necessarily speaking for the majority of people. So, provide silent majority several methods to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys might help, but sometimes you should train and persuade folks to communicate in up. I recall one situation where someone posted an incredibly negative, scathing comment in regards to a project in an exceedingly public forum. As opposed to engage in this public platform, a basic but valued person in my team emailed him directly and extremely respectfully invited him to chat — one on one, directly — about his concerns and helped focus on an answer. This individual immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to look at back his comment on the identical public forum. He did.
Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win operational
10. Learn along the way.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the failure or success of your change management effort depends on the method that you respond to those challenges. For example, because the finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (as opposed to simply back-office human calculators — see No. 7), some people found themselves in unfamiliar territory. These were brilliant accountants, but had gaps of their business knowledge. We addressed this by creating new learning opportunities and career development paths for people in finance. The identical can be achieved in a section of your organization.
While i noted earlier, not all of these truths connect with every situation. And admittedly, none of these things is particularly novel, but that doesn’t mean they’re hard to miss. The business landscape is plagued by change management projects that failed for reasons which can be, on reflection, painfully obvious.
But, most of these truths is nuanced, and success lies in their application. The wisdom of change management is usually to know which tool to work with, when for doing things. And that’s where leadership is available in.
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