Organizational change is a necessary driver of growth and innovation. Yet, not all change leads to progress. A McKinsey study found that 17% of reorganizations are initiated on the whim of the leader or because they believe they need to “shake things up.”
In an environment where change is constant, the real challenge isn’t deciding to initiate a change; it’s ensuring the change is needed and will lead to the growth and health of your organization.
Without careful consideration, even well-intentioned initiatives can create disruption, burnout, and unintended consequences.
Before launching your next change effort, it’s worth pausing to ask three essential questions.
Click the video to watch on YouTube, or scroll to continue reading.
Change Is Inherently Disruptive
Any change in your organization, even the smallest ones, is disruptive. Each one can set off a cascade of events across the organization.
When these events are not understood and accounted for before launching your change, the results can range from chaotic to catastrophic for your organization.
It’s also easy to underestimate how disruptive any one change can be, especially when you are introducing multiple initiatives simultaneously.
Asking these three questions before launching a new initiative will help you avoid burning out your employees and implementing a change that doesn’t deliver on its intended value.
Question 1: Is Another Change Initiative Truly Needed?
This question helps you address two critical factors needed to achieve your desired outcome.
The first is “faux change”. That is change for the sake of change, or worse, change for the sake of the leader or the initiator.
I have seen many examples of this over the past 20+ years. For example:
- The new leader, who needed to make a difference, implemented a series of changes across the organization without understanding the current operating environment. The result was low morale and high turnover.
- The leader who re-engineered an entire department to address a single issue in customer service. Sending the entire department into chaos.
Making the time to assess the need for the change and guard against faux change ensures you:
- Fully understand the context of the problem or situation within the operational and strategic environment of the organization
- Align the scale of the proposed change with the need, and avoid launching a major transformation when a minor tweak will achieve the desired outcome.
The second critical factor is the opportunity to leverage collateral change. Collateral change is achieving multiple outcomes with a single change initiative.
Recognizing and leveraging collateral change reduces the risk of change fatigue and employee burnout, enabling healthy, sustainable change with less effort.
We showed one organization how to leverage collateral change to consolidate 25 change initiatives into five, and still achieve their goals.
Question 2: What Is Your Organization’s Capacity for Change?
Once you decide change is needed, the next question is whether your organization has the operational capacity for change.
Just because you, as a leader, have the authority to make a change, it doesn’t mean you should.
Without sufficient capacity, even well-designed initiatives will fail to take hold.
Change capacity is “the allocation and development of change and operational capabilities that sustain long-term performance.”
To have high change capacity, it’s not enough to successfully implement any one change. Your organization must also be able to maintain daily operations without impeding future changes.
Sadly, I have seen too many times leader approach change with a “full steam ahead” mentality without considering the impact on their operational environment.
Thus, it creates employees who learn to fear and avoid change.
When assessing your change capacity, remember:
- People are hardwired to avoid discomfort. As a result, change-related work is often the first work people drop when they feel time-pressured and overwhelmed.
- All the changes must be done within the context of your current operational tasks and activities.
- Meaningful change cannot happen as a side task.
Question 3: What Support Is Needed for Adoption and Readiness?
Asking this question helps you remember and focus on two crucial aspects of every change.
The first is that every change has two dimensions. It is both an event and a transition.
The event is the decision, circumstance, or situation that created the need for change. For example, you acquire a new company to grow a missing strength in your current operation.
The transition (Whitespace) is the journey people must take to adopt the new activities and behaviours. It is in this space that we decide whether to move toward or away from adoption. It is in the Whitespace where you determine your success or failure.
The second aspect this question addresses is readiness. Readiness is not the absence of resistance. It’s the ability and willingness to move, adopt the behaviours and activities, and it’s readiness and not the absence of resistance that drives change.
Leaders often have higher readiness because they initiated the change, but success depends on the readiness of those affected.
Addressing this question before you launch your next change initiative will enable you to:
- Build realistic transition plans
- Allocate appropriate time and resources
- Support employees through the change process.
Building Healthier, More Sustainable Change
Launching change without reflection increases the risk of failure, fatigue, and unintended consequences. By asking these three questions, you create space for more thoughtful, effective decision-making.
The result is not just better change outcomes, but a healthier, more resilient organization that can adapt and grow over time.
Wondering if you need a new change initiative to achieve your strategic goals? Book a Change Strategy Call with me, and let’s find out.
