Implementing Change Powerfully and Successfully
Change is the only constant.
- Heraclitus, Greek philosopher
What was true more than two thousand years ago is just as true today - we live
in a world where "business as usual" is
change. Cost reduction exercises, new initiatives, project-based
working, technology improvements, staying ahead of the competition -
these things come together to drive ongoing changes to the way we work.
Whether
you're considering a small change to one or two processes, or a
systemwide change to an organization, it's common to feel uneasy and
intimidated by the scale of the challenge.
You know that the change needs to happen, but you don't really know how
to go about delivering it. Where do you start? Who do you involve? How
do you see it through to the end?
There are many theories about how to "do" change. Many originate with
leadership and change management guru, John Kotter. A professor at
Harvard Business School and world-renowned change expert, Kotter
introduced his eight-step change process in his 1995 book, "Leading
Change." We look at his eight steps for leading change, and show you how
you can apply them to your change project, below.
Step One: Create Urgency
For change to happen, it helps if the whole company really wants it, so
you need to develop a sense of urgency around the need for change. This
may help you spark the initial motivation to get things moving.
This isn't simply a matter of showing people poor sales statistics or
talking about increased competition. Open an honest and convincing
dialogue about what's happening in the marketplace and with your
competition. If many people start talking about the change you propose,
the urgency can build and feed on itself.
What you can do:
* Identify potential threats, and develop scenarios showing what could happen
in the future.
* Examine opportunities that should be, or could be, exploited.
* Start honest discussions, and give dynamic and convincing reasons to get
people talking and thinking.
* Request support from customers, outside stakeholders and industry people to
strengthen your argument.
Tip:
Kotter suggests that for change to be successful, 75% of a company's management
needs to "buy into" the change. In other words, you have to
really work hard on Step One, and spend significant time and energy
building urgency, before moving onto the next steps. Don't panic and
jump in too fast because you don't want to risk further short-term
losses - if you act without proper preparation, you could be in for a
very bumpy ride.
Step Two: Form a Powerful Coalition
Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong
leadership and visible support from key people within your organization.
Managing change isn't enough - you have to lead it.
You can find effective change leaders throughout your organization -
they don't necessarily follow the traditional company hierarchy. To lead
change, you need to bring together a coalition, or team, of influential
people whose power comes from a variety of sources, including job
title, status, expertise, and political importance.
Once formed, your "change coalition" needs to work as a team, continuing
to build urgency and momentum around the need for change.
What you can do:
* Identify the true leaders in your organization.
* Ask for an emotional commitment from these key people.
* Work on team building within your change coalition.
* Check your team for weak areas, and ensure that you have a good mix of people
from different departments and different levels within your company.
Step Three: Create a Vision for Change
When you first start thinking about change, there will probably be many
great ideas and solutions floating around. Link these concepts to an
overall vision that people can grasp easily, and remember.
A clear vision can help everyone understand why you're asking them to do
something. When people see for themselves what you're trying to
achieve, then the directives they're given tend to make more sense.
What you can do:
* Determine the values that are central to the change.
* Develop a short summary (one or two sentences) that captures what you "see"
as the future of your organization.
* Create a strategy to execute that vision.
* Ensure that your change coalition can describe the vision in five minutes or
less.
* Practice your "vision speech" often.
Tip:
For more on creating visions, see our article on Mission Statements and Vision
Statements.
Step Four: Communicate the Vision
What you do with your vision after you create it will determine your
success. Your message will probably have strong competition from other
day-to-day communications within the company, so you need to communicate
it frequently and powerfully, and embed it within everything that you
do.
Don't just call special meetings to communicate your vision. Instead,
talk about it at every chance that you get. Use the vision daily to make
decisions and solve problems. When you keep it fresh on everyone's
minds, they'll remember it and respond to it.
It's also important to "walk the talk." What you do is far more
important - and believable - than what you say. Demonstrate the kind of
behavior that you want from others.
What you can do:
* Talk often about your change vision.
* Openly and honestly address people's concerns and anxieties.
* Apply your vision to all aspects of operations - from training to performance
reviews. Tie everything back to the vision.
* Lead by example.
Step Five: Remove Obstacles
If you follow these steps and reach this point in the change process,
you've been talking about your vision and building buy-in from all
levels of the organization. Hopefully, your team wants to get busy and
achieve the benefits that you've been promoting.
But is anyone resisting the change? Or are there processes or structures that
are getting in its way?
Put the structure for change in place, and continually check for
barriers to it. Removing obstacles can empower the people you need to
execute your vision, and it can help the change move forward.
What you can do:
* Identify, or hire, change leaders whose main roles are to deliver the change.
* Look at your organizational structure, job descriptions, and performance and
compensation systems to ensure that they're in line with your vision.
* Recognize and reward people for making change happen.
* Identify people who are resisting the change, and help them see what's
needed.
* Take action to quickly remove barriers (human or otherwise).
Step Six: Create Short-term Wins
Nothing motivates more than success. Give your company a taste of
victory early in the change process. Within a short time frame (this
could be a month or a year, depending on the type of change), you'll
want to have results that your team can see. Without this, critics and
negative thinkers might hurt your progress.
Create short-term targets - not just one long-term goal. You want each
smaller target to be achievable, with little room for failure. Your
change team may have to work very hard to come up with these targets,
but each "win" that you produce can further motivate the entire staff.
What you can do:
* Look for sure-fire projects that you can implement without help from any
strong critics of the change.
* Don't choose early targets that are expensive. You want to be able to justify
the investment in each project.
* Thoroughly analyze the potential pros and cons of your targets. If you don't
succeed with an early goal, it can hurt your entire change initiative.
* Reward the people who help you meet the targets.
Step Seven: Build on the Change
Kotter argues that many change projects fail because victory is declared
too early. Real change runs deep. Quick wins are only the beginning of
what needs to be done to achieve long-term change.
Launching one new product using a new system is great. But if you can
launch 10 products, that means the new system is working. To reach that
10th success, you need to keep looking for improvements.
Each success provides an opportunity to build on what went right and identify
what you can improve.
What you can do:
* After every win, analyze what went right and what needs improving.
* Set goals to continue building on the momentum you've achieved.
* Learn about kaizen (members only) - this is the idea of "continuous
improvement."
* Keep ideas fresh by bringing in new change agents and leaders for your change
coalition.
Step Eight: Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture
Finally, to make any change stick, it should become part of the core of
your organization. Your corporate culture often determines what gets
done, so the values behind your vision must show in day-to-day work.
Make continuous efforts to ensure that the change is seen in every
aspect of your organization. This will help give that change a solid
place in your organization's culture.
It's also important that your company's leaders continue to support the
change. This includes existing staff and new leaders who are brought in.
If you lose the support of these people, you might end up back where
you started.
What you can do:
* Talk about progress at every chance that you get. Tell success stories about
the change process, and repeat other stories that you hear.
* Include the change ideals and values when hiring and training new staff.
* Publicly recognize key members of your original change coalition, and make
sure the rest of the staff - new and old - remembers their contributions.
* Create plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. This will help
ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten.
Key Points
You have to work hard to change an organization successfully. When you
plan carefully and build the proper foundation, implementing change can
be much easier, and you'll improve the chances of success. If you're too
impatient, and if you expect too many results too soon, your plans for
change are more likely to fail.
Create a sense of urgency, recruit powerful change leaders, build a
vision and effectively communicate it, remove obstacles, create quick
wins, and build on your momentum. If you do these things, you can help
make the change part of your organizational culture. That's when you can
declare a true victory. Then sit back and enjoy the change that you
envisioned so long ago.
