“Change management” was a hot phrase some years ago. Although the term’s use has faded it’s still the case that the business environment is constantly changing and firms have to be able to implement change at all levels to keep up.
Unsettling changes continue to affect our daily lives. Mergers and acquisitions vie with corporate “downsizings” in numbers of personnel and other statistical measures like the number of a company’s service stations or bank branches.
Then there are age-related changes that those least likely to want are forced to accept. CEOs are appointed to major corporates while still in their 30s. Legions of 50-year old executives are shown the door.
Because your people are important to your success, here are some things to watch out for if you’re about to implement a program of change in your business.
1. Don’t try to impose change on the unwilling. Every organization that has succeeded in a major change program has done so because it sold its people on the need for change and made it possible for them to accept it.
2. Communication is critical to gaining acceptance of change. Your reasons need to be fully explained in such a way that everybody understands why change is important to the business. Encourage questions about what you’re planning and be sure to provide full and honest answers.
3. Develop a mechanism for measuring change that’s visible to everyone on the team. If you’re moving to a new system or way of doing things, create “milestones” and show how far along the path towards change the organization has moved.
4. Don’t use acceptance or nonacceptance of change as a means of assessing a team member’s value. Some will always be quicker to “get with the program” than others and those that lag behind shouldn’t become targets. Focus instead on the overall change program and don’t let anything become a personal issue.
5. Change often involves sacrifice. In some instances it means cutbacks in either budgets or personnel. These sacrifices must be recognized and not glossed over. Their impacts will be felt and those who run the business will have to accept the responsibility.
6. You have to change too. If your team is expected to accept new ways of doing their work you need to be seen to also change in the way you do yours. When a change program is designed it should be seen to apply throughout the business and not just to a select group that will see themselves as “victims”.
7. If change is used as a weapon it can become something that’s feared, thereby increasing resistance to it. Businesses that use a change program as a means of ridding themselves of troublesome staff are asking for problems because survivors start to ask: “Who’s next?” and that becomes their focus.
8. Reward successful change. If an organization is able to successfully implement a major program of change it should reward its people for their help. Celebrate the conclusion of the change program in a public way. Make sure the business thanks those who’ve helped it change.
9. Be there to listen. By all means ask questions throughout the process but be sure to hear the answers before making your own comments By showing a genuine concern you will lay the foundations of trust with those who are most affected by the change.
10. Have a clear vision of the future and communicate it. Don’t begin a program of change unless you know exactly what it’s going to deliver. Start with the end in mind and let everyone know what it’s going to be. Give them a chance to view it for themselves and accept it.
Organizations are made up of people, and people aren’t always happy to accept change. If change is imposed too quickly on team members it can have negative and detrimental effects, leaving them unmotivated and less productive than before. Go about it the right way and you’ll gain their support and commitment.
Copyright 2004, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.