There are four words you need to keep in mind as you launch and move through every organizational change.
You’ll find them within my definition of change management, which is: the process needed to enable people in an organization to transition from their current environment and adopt the new work environment or intended outcome.
And they can help you stay focused on the right things while guiding your thinking as you enable change in your organization.
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Leading and managing change is not always easy. It can be difficult to know what to do in every situation, even when you have a change management methodology in place.
That’s why I like to rely on keywords to help focus and guide my thinking. You can do the same when leading and managing change.
Let’s take a closer look at these four words and what they mean for leaders guiding change.
The First Word: Process
Change is a process that begins with an event or a decision. Understanding and working with this process is critical to success. One reason change fails, even when leaders use a change management methodology, is that too much attention is paid to the methodology’s steps and not enough to people’s responses to the change process.
Consider a simple example. A leadership team decides to implement a new sales technique. At that moment, no change has occurred. There has only been a decision to make a change.
Change happens as leaders and employees move through the process. It begins with understanding the need for the change and the intended outcome. It’s only then that people become willing to let go of their current way of working. They can start unlearning and learning new sales techniques. As they gain comfort and confidence with the new approach, they can realize the desired outcome, and the change becomes real.
The Second Word: Enable
The process of change is a personal, internal journey for every individual. Because of this, it is not possible to manage another person’s journey through change.
What leaders can do, and what their role truly is, is create the conditions and environment that encourage, motivate, prepare, and support people so that their journey through change is as comfortable as possible.
One example comes from a client who used a physical move to help drive a business transformation. Instead of simply announcing the move, the organization began by engaging employees in conversations about the need for the change and how the new location could support the transformation.
They built a model of the new workspace using the actual furniture the employees would use. The employees spent time exploring the space and openly discussing the advantages and the challenges of the new layout. At the same time, the organization aligned its existing processes, policies, and procedures with the desired business model.
By the time employees made the planned move into the new space, much of the business transformation had already begun.
The Third Word: People
Organizations do not change unless people change their behaviours, work activities, attitudes, and thinking. Every organizational change requires individual change.
To make that possible, leaders must focus on people readiness.
People readiness is different from organizational readiness. Organizational readiness refers to the conditions within the organization that must be in place to complete an event, such as constructing a new physical space or purchasing new hardware and software.
People readiness refers to the willingness and ability of individuals to engage in the activities and behaviours required for the change to become integrated into everyday work.
An organization can have high levels of organizational readiness without people readiness. But without people readiness, the likelihood of success is very low.
When people feel ready, when they have tapped into their positive core and feel heard, strong, and capable, they move toward change rather than away from it.
The Fourth Word: Adopt
To sustain change and for your organization to realize a return on its investment, people must adopt the new behaviours, attitudes, and activities as their normal way of working.
Many leaders talk about helping their teams adapt to change. But adapting and adopting are not the same.
When people are adapting to a new situation, they hold onto the hope that things will eventually return to the way they were. They may create workarounds that make new processes, technology, or environments feel more like the old ones.
Adoption is different. When people adopt a change, it becomes their new normal. They stop looking for ways to return to the past and instead fully commit to working and living in the new environment.
Focus on What Matters Most
When you keep these four words (process, enable, people, adopt) in mind, they will help you:
- Set up each change initiative for success
- Create more sustainable change and get a greater return on your investment
- Reduce the strain change has on the day-to-day operation of your organization
- Increase your organization’s and your team’s willingness and capacity to handle future changes.
If you’d like support applying these four principles to your next change, book a Change Strategy Call today.
