Getting People Involved–Level: Critical

Involvement is key

“How do I involve people in the change?” “The change we’re implementing doesn’t really affect that department, do they need to be involved too?”

These are some questions that must be answered when you launch a change.

Getting people involved is challenging. It’s easy to think a change won’t affect another area, so limiting their involvement will make it easier. Even the smallest change sends ripples passed the department initiating the change.

Knowing how to assess these ripples is key to achieving your goals.

The best way to succeed is to know what areas will be impacted by the ripples.

For the first time, Turner Change Management is offering their Launch Lead Live: The Executive Change Leader Course online. The benefits of the regular course without the need for travel.

In Launch Lead Live: The Executive Change Leader’s Course (Online), an entire class is focused on how to:

  • assess the ripples
  • why a holistic system view of change saves time, money and prevents change fatigue
  • how to use systems thinking to improve your results

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Change isn’t going away, but you can make it easier for those involved.

At Launch Lead Live: The Executive Change Leader’s Course Online you will learn:

  • Why involvement is critical to your change initiative’s success
  • How to involve all levels of your organization so that you prevent resistance to change
  • How to include other departments so that your change doesn’t hit unexpected road blocks

YES! I WANT TO CLAIM MY SPOT!

Have a question about applying the course material, want to test something out, simply contact us. Upon completion of the course you receive 6 months of support. Dr. Turner will answer your questions, review action plans, and help you apply the course material in your organization.

Space is limited. Launch Lead Live: The Executive Change Leader’s Course (Online)!

Register by April 20th and receive an extra two months of support from Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner on how to apply what you’ve learned to your organizational changes.

Next class begins October 2016

The Value of Storytelling in Organizational Change

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Who Benefits from Change Management?

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Getting Comfortable with the Discomfort of Change

Discomfort is necessary for real change

When you are a change expert do people expect you to navigate change effortlessly? That was the question Stephanie Staples, host of the radio show Your Life Unlimited, asked when she was interviewing me about my book Launch Lead Live. The short answer was yes, people think because I’m immersed in change it’s somehow easier. The truth is I also find change uncomfortable. Discomfort is a necessary and normal part of real change. Read more

The Paradox of Change Management

Save time and Resources: Build Readiness

(excerpt from Launch Lead Live: The Executive’s Guide to Preventing Resistance and Succeeding with Organizational Change)

By: Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner

Time is an issue in every organization. Initially, if you are used to working from a resistance perspective, it can feel like it takes longer to get people ready. It doesn’t. Consider the time and energy you must spend trying to enforce compliance when you use the traditional “resistance” approach.

By focusing on building readiness instead of managing resistance, and emphasizing the needs of the change-recipients, you can actually make better use of your time and resources. You can also get a greater return on your investment.

The traditional approach to organizational change (figure 1) looks to move quickly to training and implementation.

Figure 1 Common Approach to Organizational Change
Turner Change Management Inc.

It tries to minimize the amount of time spent in the early period; the majority of the effort is at the back end of the change. This approach gives the appearance of saving time, but it top loads issues so that they emerge right around the time of implementation– when time and resources are at a premium.

You expend more energy and resources, but the return on that energy decreases as people move through the Whitespace. It’s like heating your house in the winter while leaving the all the windows open.

This kind of back-end approach forces you to manage the resistance created when the change-recipients are pushed into taking action before they are ready. The approach gives the perception of speed, while actually taking more time. I call this the paradox of change management.

Figure 2 Change-Recipient Readiness Approach

Figure 2 Change-Recipient Readiness Approach

Building readiness shifts the effort to the front end of the Event. Time is allocated to ensure the change-recipients can internalize the need, raise perceived capability, prepare, and support people through the transition. The change is built on a stable foundation. This results in a more sustainable change (Figure 2).

Launch Lead Live: The Executive’s Guide to Preventing Resistance and Succeeding with Organizational Change p. 88-90

 

 

Make the Change Journey Comfortable

A post I shared on LinkedIn about how you can't manage someone's change journey - but you can make that journey as comfortable as possible- led to an interesting comment and an important question. Why do we have to make the journey as comfortable as possible? Why does change need to be comfortable for everyone? After all, growth happens when we are outside our comfort zone. It's also where resilience can develop.  The person commenting gave examples like running marathons, climbing mountains, or lifting heavy weights. These are all uncomfortable, yet worthwhile. It's a fair challenge, and one I hear often from clients. The idea of "comfortable change" can feel contradictory. But understanding what that actually means is essential to creating lasting change.

Steady State: The Secret to Ensuring Change Sticks

Every day, we engage in activities and behaviours we are not consciously choosing. For example, your morning routine? Morning routines like getting out of bed, getting dressed, or brushing your teeth happen almost automatically. You might even order a latte and a cookie without realizing you're not hungry. Around 80% of our behaviour is driven by implicit memory, operating outside conscious awareness. That's why you can implement a change in your organization, train people on a new activity or behaviour, and not see the expected results. You think it's resistance. It's not. The real issue lies in a critical, often-overlooked phase of the change process that happens after implementation: steady state.

Build Trust When Employees Are “Resistant” To Change

Trust is a lot like our health. When we have it, we don't give it a second thought. But when it's missing, everything starts to break down. In organizations, trust is what separates those who are ready for change from those who struggle. Leaders trust their employees, and employees trust their leaders. But that trust can quickly erode when you label people as "resistant to change." So how do you build and maintain trust when it feels like people are pushing back?