Throughout my career — like a chief financial officer in companies large and small, like a corporate and nonprofit board member, and after this as CEO of a fast-growing privately owned startup — I’ve learned to become a change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, and one which includes educated me by what works and just what doesn’t when managing change.
Every change initiative is different, but the truths about creating change succeed are, in general, precisely the same. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Imagine them like tools in the toolbox — you need to have them nearby, you need to know putting them to use and you must determine the correct time to pull them out and put results. That’s the progres agent’s main work.
1. Change is approximately people.
I lead a computer software company that provides a game-changing connected planning platform. Although I have faith 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 with the change we want from the people around us. Because great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your will on people. If you would like these to act differently, you need to inspire these to change themselves.” Only once you help individuals change could you aspire to change a corporation.
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 quickly things change in Silicon Valley, and also the capacity to react fast could be important survival. But, changing hearts, minds and finally culture (see No. 1) often can’t be practiced together with the snap of your fingers.
3. Create a vision.
Stake out that you want a transformation to consider you at the beginning of Change Management Books. Know what success looks like. That doesn’t mean every item has to be fully baked from Day 1. Actually, watch out for doing that — given it means you haven’t engaged the people who you need up to speed with you. And don’t be rigid, because that may get in the way of success. (More on that in the bit.)
Related: 5 Ways CEOs Can Empower Teams to build up Collaborative Workplaces
4. Engage your stakeholders.
This is central to selling the vision you established. Identify the those who will be afflicted with the progres, and obtain them involved and invested in the job and its success.
5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When people are motivated to change, be aware of the consequences. Consider it like pulling the loose thread over a shirt — sometimes it might cause a button to leave. If you add resources — dollars, people, space or anything else — to at least one project, try to determine what might take a back seat. And time could be the ultimate finite resource, so if you ask a superstar who’s already working at chance to make a move extra, know that her productivity in their “day job” ought to be shifted.
6. Work with the willing.
Not everyone with your organization will get on board the progres train. That’s natural; a lot of people will have methods for thinking and working which are incompatible in doing what you need to accomplish. So, while it’s possibly the least fun a part of change management, sometimes you need to bring in new those who share how well you see, and let go those who don’t. I don’t have to tell you just how staff changes are expensive, but the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are so much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — and then communicate a lot more.
I’ve used every medium imaginable to speak about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — each one has an area. Occasionally, it’s appropriate to talk about internal change with individuals outside of your business, possibly even most people. By way of example, while we were transforming Cisco’s finance department from a number-crunching machine right into a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A within the Wall Street Journal on the project. People involved in the effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride within the work — and several people we hadn’t had the ability to reach by other methods finally understood what we were looking to do.
8. Listen.
The communication I merely described can’t be described as a one-way street. You need to listen to those who are making the progres, and listen to the people afflicted with the progres. 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 of what people tell you, and plow them back to your plans. In ways, this is the extended type of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).
9. Empower the silent majority to speak up.
When you listen (No. 8), you’re planning to hear a number of voices the loudest. Know that they’re not always speaking for most people. So, provide silent majority a number of solutions to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys might help, but sometimes you need to train and persuade folks to speak up. Going one situation by which someone posted a very negative, scathing comment about a project in a really public forum. As opposed to engage in this particular public platform, a nice but valued person in my team emailed him directly and extremely respectfully invited him to dicuss — private, in person — about his concerns and helped focus on an answer. He or she immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to consider back his comment on precisely the same public forum. He did.
Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win in Business
10. Learn as you go.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the success or failure of your change management effort relies on how we answer those challenges. By way of example, because the finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (as an alternative to simply back office human calculators — see No. 7), a lot of 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 individuals in finance. Exactly the same can be carried out in any section of your organization.
As I noted earlier, not every one of these truths connect with every situation. And admittedly, none of these things is particularly novel, but that doesn’t mean they’re challenging to miss. The business landscape is full of change management projects that failed for reasons which are, in retrospect, painfully obvious.
But, each one of these truths is nuanced, and success depends on their application. The wisdom of change management is always to know which tool to utilize, when doing his thing. And that’s where leadership is available in.
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