Keep Their ‘Eyes on the Prize’
I think most people agree that managing change is both necessary and difficult.
Charles Darwin, the 19th century British naturalist and scholar, said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” In today’s rapidly changing marketplace, successful organizations must not only respond to change, they must anticipate it and prepare for it.
While change management is a relatively new HR area, numerous books, studies and articles have been published about this topic. In fact, the ability to manage change with a “state-of-readiness” attitude is essential for today’s business owners.
Prepare Your Workforce for Inevitable Changes
In my work, I specialize in helping organizations lead their change-management initiatives. To remain competitive in today’s global economy, American businesses must stay ahead of the change game. And to do that, they need a workforce of people who can readily adapt and compete in a rapidly changing business environment.
Since change impacts people and it affects their emotions, smartly run businesses understand the value of change management. Even so, change-management initiatives are doomed to fail if change-management communication is either ignored or not effectively handled. Once a clear change-management plan has been carefully thought through and put in place, the process of communication plays a major role in whether or not the change initiatives succeed or fail.
Again, since change affects people and their emotions and is usually associated with loss, employers must avoid making communication mistakes. Communication is essential for building and maintaining trust. If you want people to accept whatever changes are taking place, they first must trust you and what you are saying. Effective communication is critical to earning employee buy-in, as they are the ones who will help you successfully implement the changes.
With this communication stage set, I have found that the following change-management considerations should be included in any successful change-management effort:
- Communicate a clear vision to everyone with emphases on the ‘what,’ the ‘why’ and, then, the ‘how.’ These communication initiatives set the direction and give you the momentum you need to sustain the efforts. By consistently illuminating the vision and detailing the objectives, you are more likely to be successful. .
- Encourage senior management to lead the change. This coordinated effort is critical because your senior level people have valuable influence with the rest of the organization. When properly coordinated, their buy-in will have a cascading effect on the entire employee base.
- Modify the appropriate elements of the organization’s architectural systems. These systems may need changing in order to support your new and changed environment. For instance, your rewards and performance appraisal programs may need modified in order to reflect your organizational changes.
- Pilot the initiative to demonstrate a quick success. I’ve seen organizations do a really good job of spearheading pilot initiatives so they can demonstrate a quick success. This “mini-test” allows them to take a successful pilot experience back to another group and say, ‘Hey, we tried this with the Northeast division and it was very successful.’ In other words, it’s been tried and tested. So with a piloting initiative, you gain advantages of lessons learned and, with that, you can give comfort and confidence to other groups within the organization.
- Develop equitable procedures and practices addressing the needs of “losers.” These people tend to be most vulnerable to feeling a sense of loss, and they may be unable to let go of this feeling. An organization runs the risk of these people — often identified as part of resistant groups — taking on a passive-aggressive attitude in the workplace. Make sure you reach out to these people.
- Foster a cascading commitment. As mentioned before, it is critical that senior management is on board with the change goals and objectives. Their influence has a cascading effect on the entire organization. Make sure they are given opportunities for feedback and get them to talk about their place and value before, during and after the change initiatives.
- Modify performance measure and rewards. You want programs, incentives and activities either modified or put in place that constantly remind them of the change benefits or ‘what’s in it for them.’
- Link the old to the new. Explain: This is how we used to do things, and this is how we will do them now. Acknowledge that what was done in the past worked, but it no longer applies in the changed environment. In other words, let them know that to be successful, we have to change our ways of doing things.
- Provide timely education. Educate them and, once again, explain the benefits to them. This approach helps them understand and see the big-picture goals. Use this opportunity to inspire and value them so they understand the motivations behind the changes.
- Supply adequate resources. Organization leaders need to understand the magnitude of change-management initiatives. Without adequate resources, there will be frustration and resistant behaviors.
- Do not send mixed signals. Make sure the communication messages are compelling, consistent and clear. You want to avoid sending any mixed signals or signaling doubts that this change is worthwhile.
Since communicating and maintaining trust are essential to any change-management successes, I also want to share a couple communication pitfalls to avoid:
- Don’t assume. For example, just because the leaders of the teams are fully engaged in the change effort, it doesn’t mean those feelings or motivations will travel throughout the organization. Oftentimes, the people closely involved with the change effort from the beginning stages are so familiar with it, and they also have had time to process it, they forget to give the other affected employees the same educational and period-of-adjustment benefits.
- Don’t limit or misuse communication tools. For example, some leaders will say, ‘We’ll build a PowerPoint,’ or ‘We’ll communicate this through a team meeting,’ or ‘We’ll communicate through e-mail.’ Maximize using these and other communication tools such as bulletin boards, videos, brown-bag lunches, etc., to make sure that your messages do not get lost or misinterpreted.
Finally, you want everyone to see that the change is working, that benefits are being realized and, most importantly, that everyone is working toward the same goal. The bottom line: Hold everyone working within the organization accountable.
As you can see, communication is absolutely critical to earning and keeping employee trust. Change management initiatives, no matter how much you have bought into them, will not succeed if your employees don’t trust you or buy into what you’re trying to accomplish.
In my next HRTools Insight, I will share more change-management experiences “from the field” that will help you prepare for and manage employees who are resistant to the changes you need to make.