Archive for April, 2008

Creating organizational readiness for change can be illustrated with a story of our child’s first day at school.  We needed to make her, aka – the organization - ”ready,” as she was about to experience the biggest change in her life to date.

So what did the change leader in us do?  Even though I was not a change expert at the time, I certainly didn’t sit her down on Labor Day and say, “Tomorrow, your role in this family is changing and you won’t be in this house most days.” 

We took a much different approach:

• Through the summer, we created awareness that change was coming, and September would be a new and exciting time.
• Helped her understand what school was.  We took her to the school in late August to see her room and meet her teacher.
• Stood at the bus stop with her, and then drove to the school to meet the bus.  In short, we participated in the process of going to school with her.
• “Measured” and celebrated her success so she would exhibit the same behaviors in future days.

The same concepts apply to creating organizational readiness for change in an adult setting.   Create awareness, enable understanding, encourage participation and measure performance.  (I guess the big difference is in the appropriateness of videotaping each second of the change!)

Unfortunately, many organizations have the Labor Day type conversation and expect change to occur overnight.  Those organizations certainly get change – but not the results they wanted.

If you are accountable for your organization’s change program, there are five steps you need to take to ensure success.

1. Fully understand why your organization needs to change. The reasons behind your organization’s need to change will drive many of your decisions. What are the events placing new demands on your organization? Are these events internally – low employee engagement – or externally – downward shifting economic trends – driving the change?
2. Establish what must be done. At this stage you need to:
   • set a vision for the change project
   • define your guiding principles and imperatives to ensure each decision made or step taken on your path to change is the right one
   • set measurable objectives and goals and determine how you’ll measure your progress
3. Plan how the change will roll out:
   • identify the major actions and timing necessary to achieve your objectives.
   • establish the strategies necessary to reach your vision and objectives
   • identify and obtain the resources you need to achieve the objectives.
4. Align senior managers. Granted, the change was likely their idea, but the execution is all yours. You must have them aligned on the how and when of your program. Do this so they walk the talk.
5. Initiate a measurement program to track your progress and adjust plans as necessary. Provide feedback processes to gather information about your progress, and rewards to engage employees.