Have you ever travelled with a toddler? Our family’s recent trip to Portugal, which included my 17-month-old grandson, reminded me of its joys and challenges.
The trip also reminded me of the difference between espousing a set of values and demonstrating them through your actions.
Throughout our planning, our travel agent told us that Portugal is one of the most family-friendly countries to visit.
That’s easy to say, but Portugal consistently demonstrated that value from the priority line for parents and babies at customs to a baby station in the food court, and in a variety of small ways throughout our visit. They walked their talk.
It’s similar to your organizational change efforts. It’s easy to talk about your company values and the importance of managing change, but it’s your actions that matter.
People are the Important Asset
Do you tell your employees they are the most important asset in the organization?
I hear that statement from leaders often. But then the leaders’ actions don’t align with the mantra. They don’t walk their talk.
Leaders push through changes without the active involvement of the people affected. They set timelines without considering employees’ readiness levels. And when employees push back, they are told they don’t have a choice.
When it comes to your organizational change efforts, nothing can happen without the active involvement of the people who will do the heavy lifting.
For example, one leader talked about the importance of change management and hired a change management coordinator to support a large IT implementation. Only to disregard their recommendations for building readiness because he believed it would take too long.
Then, he complained that the employees were resistant to change.
I worked with one organization that consistently talked about its vendors as partners and then sent an email expecting them to transition to a new system, including training, within one week, without any advance notice or context.
Walking the Talk Leads to Higher Adoption
Contrast that with the leader who, when implementing new technology, asked what it would take to build readiness and actively engaged the managers and employees to create the transition plan.
The result: one of the fastest adoption rates the company had ever experienced.
And the leader who, when his employees were experiencing higher-than-expected discomfort, didn’t dismiss it. He assessed their readiness and created additional support to build the necessary readiness.
They met their timeline and achieved one of the smoothest technology implementations, with almost complete adoption within a few weeks.
If you have struggled with employees who are slow to engage with change or feel like you’re going into battle every time you want to change your organization, ask yourself: Are we walking the talk of building a change-ready organization?
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