Throughout my career — being a chief financial officer in companies small and big, being a corporate and nonprofit board member, and today as CEO of the fast-growing privately operated startup — I’ve learned to turn into a change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, the other which has taught me as to what works and just what doesn’t when managing change.
Every change initiative is exclusive, however the truths about producing change succeed are, more often than not, the same. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Imagine them like tools within a toolbox — you must have them close at hand, you must know how to use them and you must determine the best time for you to pull them out and set them to work. That’s the progres agent’s responsibilities.
1. Change is around people.
I lead an application company providing you with a game-changing connected planning platform. Although I believe that technology will help our organizations grow, evolve and improve, change management is ultimately about people. As leaders, we must set the example in the change we’d like through the people around us. Because the great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your may simp people. If you want these to act differently, you should inspire these to change themselves.” Only if you help individuals change is it possible to aspire to change a corporation.
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2. Make an effort.
Some changes are quick, but real, transformational change can — and sometimes must — take years. We’re all amazed with how quick things change in Silicon Valley, and the capability to react fast might be vital to survival. But, changing hearts, minds and ultimately culture (see No. 1) often can’t be achieved using the snap of the fingers.
3. Create a vision.
Stake out in which you want a transformation to consider you at the beginning of Cheap Change Management Books. Determine what success seems like. That doesn’t mean every item has to become fully baked from Day One. Actually, watch out for doing that — given it means you haven’t engaged the people who you need on board along. And don’t be rigid, because that will impede of success. (Read more about that within a bit.)
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4. Engage your stakeholders.
This can be central to selling the vision you established. Find out the individuals who will likely be affected by the progres, and acquire them involved and committed to the job and it is success.
5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When individuals are motivated to change, know about the consequences. Consider it like pulling the loose thread on a shirt — often it can cause a button to fall off. Should you add resources — dollars, people, space or some different — to 1 project, attempt to know what normally takes a back seat. And time may be the ultimate finite resource, if you ask a superstar who’s already working at ability to take a step extra, recognize that her productivity in their “day job” might need to be shifted.
6. Assist the willing.
Not everyone inside your organization is going to get on board the progres train. That’s natural; some individuals will have ways of thinking and working that are incompatible in doing what you should accomplish. So, while it’s possibly the least fun a part of change management, sometimes you should attract new individuals who share how well you see, and released individuals who don’t. I don’t need to tell you just how staff changes are very pricey, however the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are really much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — and after that communicate more.
I’ve used every medium imaginable to communicate about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — each one has a location. In some cases, it’s appropriate to share with you internal change with people away from your small business, it mat be the public. As an example, each of us were transforming Cisco’s finance department from the number-crunching machine in a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A in the Wall Street Journal on the project. People active in the effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride in the work — and several people we hadn’t been able to reach by other methods finally understood what we were wanting to do.
8. Listen.
The communication I simply described can’t be described as a one-way street. You should tune in to the people who are making the progres, and tune in to individuals affected by the progres. That doesn’t mean you value all feedback equally, or provide those people who are complaining added time. But look hard for the useful nuggets with what people let you know, and plow it to your plans. In ways, this can be the extended sort of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).
9. Empower the silent majority to talk up.
If you listen (No. 8), you’re prone to hear a few voices the loudest. Be aware that they’re not invariably speaking for most people. So, provide silent majority a few solutions to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys will help, but they can you should train and encourage people to talk up. I recall one situation in which someone posted a really negative, scathing comment with regards to a project really public forum. Rather than engage in this public platform, an abandoned but valued member of my team emailed him directly and intensely respectfully invited him to talk — private, face-to-face — about his concerns and helped develop an answer. He or she immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to consider back his reply to the same public forum. He did.
Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win in Business
10. Learn as you go along.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the failure or success of the change management effort depends on the method that you react to those challenges. As an example, because finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (as opposed to simply back office human calculators — see No. 7), some individuals found themselves in unfamiliar territory. These folks were brilliant accountants, but had gaps within their business knowledge. We addressed this by creating new learning opportunities and career development paths for individuals in finance. Precisely the same is possible in different section of your organization.
While i noted earlier, not every one of these truths connect with every situation. And admittedly, none of such things is specially novel, but that doesn’t mean they’re hard to overlook. The business landscape is littered with change management projects that failed for reasons that are, looking back, painfully obvious.
But, most of these truths is nuanced, and success lies in their application. The wisdom of change management is always to know which tool to work with, and when to use it. And that’s where leadership will come in.
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