With crippling inflation, global competition, disrupted supply chains, geopolitical upheaval, and complex demands from the workforce, never has the need for rapid, enduring organizational change been stronger. Whether we are redesigning how we work, implementing ESG, exploring virtual employees, or making large scale improvement, we need to be as efficient and cost effective as possible in planning change and in making sure it sticks.
Even when change is well planned and implemented, that does not necessarily mean that the change will stick. Let’s assume your organization has followed best practices in planning and implementing a large scale change by making the case for change, including key stakeholders, involving employees who will be impacted by the change, utilized the best communication processes for keeping employees in the loop which the change was planned, utilizing and streamlining technology so that any changes in workflow make sense and improve efficiencies.
You’re still not done because in making change stick, the organization needs to overcome inertia of the past and consciously put mechanisms, processes, and systems in place to keep the pressure on so that the organization does not revert to prior ways of doing things. If you take the pressure off, people revert to their old behaviors.
1. Demonstrated top management support
Top managers need to frequently communicate their support for the change with very consistent messaging. Leadership needs to promote a united front and ensure the messaging is clear. Most of the large change initiatives that I’ve helped organizations implement started at the top, with executive leaders comprehensively defining the need and expectations for the change and defining the future state. Because of their involvement and buy in early on, demonstrating their support is a common sense outgrowth of the planning process. Communication needs to be thoughtful, consistent, and very frequent. In one global pharmaceutical company, I coached leaders to say something in support of the change in every meeting of any type.
Part of demonstrating top management support is the selection of a Champion to be the face of the change. Using a Champion for the change demonstrates that leadership is making a financial commitment and is establishing a role whose primary responsibility is to drive, own, and support that change. Different organizations define this role differently, but in general, the Champion role works best if the person holds a leadership position in the organization and carries a great deal of credibility across the entire organization. The champion helps to marshal resources and win support for the change across the organization. If there are departmental areas to resist or fail to support the change, the champion has the credibility to run interference and remove obstacles.
2. Clear measures
From the inception of planning the change, various leaders and teams have likely discussed goals, outcomes, expectations, and measures for success for the change simply because most changes help organizations move from a past negative situation or performance to a new way of doing things. The change addresses the gap between the past and the future desired state. Regardless of the type of organizational change, progress needs to be measurable. The measurements need to help the organization determine whether the adoption is successful, and if so, how successful. For each change, the measures will be different.
3. Targeted training
Many change initiatives require changes in behavior. To support the change and make it stick, the organization needs to define the training needs, develop the curriculum, and implement it as appropriate across the organization. Training usually includes not only the competency and skill development needed to support the change, but also the principles and concepts underlying the change itself. For example, if you’re implementing a new management system, you’ll not only develop skills employees need relative to behavior change, but you’ll also include information about the management system itself and why it’s better than the old way of doing things. Training should have occurred among the layers of the organization while planning and implementing the change, but it needs to continue.
4. Continuing communication and feedback sessions
Once a change is in place, it’s tempting to overlook continuing communications with key leaders, internal customers, end users, and stakeholders. Communications should continue well into the future to continue soliciting input, sharing information, and making improvements. Communications should be two-way. Even if a change appears to have gone well and is achieving key measures, it may not stay that way. Continued communications should include information sharing and, more importantly, significant agenda time for employees to provide input to help identify issues and make improvements. Post merger, one company scheduled regular meetings that had been promoted as feedback loops for the changes in the organization. Over time, the meetings became one way. There’s no time for Q&A for employees and no opportunity to provide input for improvement. It’s not surprising that morale is poor and employee churn is increasing.
5. Feedback, accountability, incentives, recognition to support the change
Organizational improvements generally require changes in performance goals, processes, behaviors, etc. Organizations often forget to evaluate and adjust their feedback, accountability, and recognition methods. If employees continue to be incentivized and promoted as they were in the past, they will be much less likely to make needed changes. People in general do what they are rewarded to do, so making change stick may require significant changes to these methods and systems.
For over 20 years, I have been in the business of helping companies design and implement change—from restructuring, operational improvements, and strategy-culture realignment to implementing new management systems and leadership programs. When well planned and executed, changes can stick and yield the successes that were intended. For a complimentary 60 minute strategy session to discuss how your organization can address strategy, structure, and change planning and implementation, please contact me or message me in LinkedIn.