A lot of us need to make changes in our businesses to improve performance and reach our goals. The problem that frequently occurs is that those changes don’t stick…they don’t become a permanent new way of operating…nothing changes. Why is that?
There are many reasons why leaders have trouble making change stick, such as:
- they lack confidence; they have their own fears of the unknown.
- they take small steps for fear of upsetting someone; ultimately they lose momentum and people lose interest and resort to their old habits and processes.
- they fail to go all the way; they do not think through all the related pieces and address them.
- they fail to manage the newness for others; they do not design and teach people new processes and behaviors in the scheme of the change.
- they do not clear all the obstacles to enable the change to stick.
- they fail to follow-through with activities and processes that reinforce the change.
Before we go too far on this subject, let me say that change management is a complex process which requires effectively managing many moving parts over a long period of time. What I am writing here is a quick sketch of some issues I have seen which typically derail change processes. There is a lot more to it.
…the less time you spend in actually MAKING the changes, the higher your likelihood of success…
When you decide it is necessary to make a change you must recognize that change brings with it uncertainty, fear and resistance. Uncertainty because change, by definition, means doing something new. Fear because doing something new means moving out of one’s comfort zone. Resistance, because people tend to want to stay in their comfort zone. Your change process must address these issues.
Let’s take each one of those pieces I described above.
They (leaders) lack confidence; they have their own fears of the unknown. It is totally normal to be cautious about those things that COULD go wrong in a change process. As the leader, though, you must convey the confidence that the change is needed, is right, and will succeed. However, confidence like that is not something that everyone naturally possesses. If you do not have it, you need to get it. Without YOUR confidence, you will NOT succeed. How do you get it? One way you can bolster your confidence is by making complete and well thought out plans, by involving key people in making those plans to ensure they are complete, well thought out, and have the buy-in of your key team members, and by continuing to monitor and update those plans through every stage of the change process.
They take small steps, lose momentum, and lose the interest and commitment of the team. Often leaders will take small steps in making changes because they lack confidence or clarity in what they are trying to accomplish…address that as above and you go a long way to a more successful change. However, there is more to it. They may want to take small steps because they want to see how the change is effecting people before moving to the next step. That is fine and appropriate. However, do not let this process of evalution slow your progress and your momentum. You can gauge the acceptance of the steps you plan to take up front by doing a thorough job of planning and involving the right people. By doing so, you will be able to eliminate some of the smaller steps and move more quickly. Understand, the less time you spend in actually MAKING the changes, the higher your likelihood of success because you will be moving people to the desired state more quickly and establishing clarity around how they need to operate within this new framework…they will be spending LESS time in a place of uncertainty and fear, and will be less likely to rely on old support structures and old patterns of behavior.
They fail to go all the way; they do not think through all the related pieces and address them. As I mentioned above, change management is complex. You must think through ALL the related pieces and ensure that the change is appropriately designed to address those pieces. For example, take what some may not even think of as a change process – you hire an additional sales manager for one of your product lines, a new position. Seems simple enough. However, it IS a change…to the structure…to people’s job responsibilities…to processes. Here are some of the related pieces that need to be thought through. Who is currently doing that job? What needs to change in his/her responsibilities and job description? How do you manage that change with them? Who reports to the person that previously managed that function? How do you inform them? How might their job responsibiltities change? What other departments do they interface with? How might their work processes change? Do any customers need to know? The list of questions goes on.
They fail to manage the newness for others; they do not design and teach people new processes and behaviors in the scheme of the change. People do not change old habits and patterns of behavior quickly or easily. Leaders often fail to recognize that change requires establishing and learning new processes and behaviors to replace the old. Without them, people will resort to the old ones. The more complete and well thought out your new process designs and behaviors are, the better the change will take hold. This requires planning, design, communication and education. It also requires monitoring to ensure that the new design is operating as expected and that any flaws in the design are modified immediately.
They do not clear all the obstacles to enable the change to to stick. Unfortunately, there are also vestiges of the old process, structure and behaviors that must be removed in order to maintain clarity about the new design being implemented. Sometimes that may mean structure changes as we discussed above. Sometimes that may mean utilizing a new piece of equipment, process changes to support it, and training to use it. At times it may mean removing individuals. Those are difficult decisions and the leadership must have the strength of conviction to make those decisions. Many times leaders feel that this will be too upsetting to the remaining employees. However, if the change is needed you MUST make those tough decisions. If you allow the old structures or individuals to stay in place you WILL find that people will move more slowly to embrace the new. In fact, though not at all intentionally, they will subvert the new process simply because it is easier to continue to work in the old familiar processes and behavior patterns. Also, for the record, I must say that it has been my observation that employees are a lot more resilient than you think. They understand the need for change and that sometimes that means that tough decisions have to be made in the interest of the organization as a whole.
They fail to follow-through with activities and processes that reinforce the change. All related activities have to change to reflect the new design. For example, job titles and organization charts may need to change, communications and marketing materials may need to reflect the changes, customers may need to be informed. In addition, progress reports toward reaching the desired state, along with a reminder of what that new desired state is, must be communicated regularly by the leader to reinforce the change.
People resist change even if it is clear that it is for the better. Change, by definition, brings something new to the table; something unknown. Research has shown that there is a reluctance to change because people fear the unknown . As a leader responsible for making change happen you must take full account of all these aspects to drive a successful change process and make it stick.