Most people are naturally resistant to change, especially when they can’t see how the change positively impacts them. This presentation describes how you can lead change in your organization by showing others the benefits of change and successfully implementing change in a forward-thinking and powerful way.
A majority of employees, most managers (75%), and virtually all top executives must honestly believe the status quo is unacceptable.Understand the facts and look for obvious signs of misalignment.
Ways NOT to lead change:Drop your change announcement on people in a big meeting.Put together a plan, hand it to people, and try to hold them accountable.Make a decision and demand that others accept it.
People respond to change differently – be empathetic, be ready.Sense of loss (familiarity, established routines & relationships, sense of competence).See this a lot in mergers/acquisitions. Old way of doing things vs. new way. Some people never adapt.One person’s idea is another’s surprise.Context canyon – you and peers worked through ideas for months, others just beginning their mental processing. Defensiveness from the get-go because it feels like you’ve sprung it on them.Something I wasn’t ready for with D30M changes. I thought everyone would see the value and immediately be thrilled we were working on them.Eventually, people change to retain something they value (process, teamwork, quality, their jobs).Undercover Boss - lets people at top see the realities on the ground.“This is how we do it.”; “This is how we’ve always done it.”
Trust that people want to do the right thing.Avoid those with large egos and snakes who promote mistrust. Work with people to step back and recognize others’ roles.Examples – cross-functional teams, get members from all areas.D30M – Eng people, work with PM as needed.Doc team changes – PM, up the food chain in your dept., etc.Example: web-hosted help – we own the doc and help, we own the decision. But it affects others (Dev, PM, customers, etc.). Should have brought in PM sooner to help us sell the idea to Dev/QE.
Vision:Clarifies general direction for change.Motivates people to take action in the right direction.Helps coordinate the actions of different people in a fast and efficient way.Examples:Web-hosted help – customers can interact with us, provide direct suggestions, foster a community, update on the flyUsability – customers have a better experience, reduce maintenance costs of doc, call support less often
Remove structural barriers.Fragmented resources and responsibilities (functional silos).Mistrust among managers and employees.Fear of confrontation when reorganization is needed.Provide needed training.What new behavior, skills, and attitudes are needed?Get the best bang for your buck in training – have first round trained train others.Align systems to the vision.Agile methodology, processes used, idea of core teams for product developmentDeal with troublesome managers.Have an honest dialogue. Don’t let manager unwillingness to help discourage employees and stop momentum.Must remove those that will never buy in. It’s hard to lead change when principals don’t believe in it.
Major change takes time. Short-term wins are essential to show the effort is paying off.Example – reputation of D30M - PMP templates for upcoming training, moving to rubber stamp team.Start with one thing.For example, find a way to stop printing your documentation.From there, move to working on presentation of your online documentation.Finally, move to web-hosted help that you can update on the fly.For example, find a way to get all of your customers using a new tool available with your Software Product A.From there, move them to using other pieces of software that integrate with Software Product A.Finally, sell them Software Product B and Software Product C.Don’t fight everything with force. If something comes at you that can be tweaked to fit with one of your change goals, do that – it’s a gain to the team. When we have success, reiterate what the end goal will look like.
Anchoring change in culture comes last:Depends on results.Requires a lot of talk.May involve turnover. scary to a lot of peopleMakes decisions on succession crucial.
Leverage the momentum of things that fall in your lap, use your increased credibility to promote more change. Hire and develop people that help you implement and continue your change.