Since 1995, TSI has worked with organizations that struggle to go through change. Big, small, fast-growing, non-profit, higher education, you name it. I was reflecting on a recent project involving an organization that is struggling to go through a period of change. This is a great organization with talented leadership and hard-working, driven teams. In fact, their success in driving sales to new heights, along with other internal transformational projects, is the exact reason why they need to change.
I have been involved with change-oriented initiatives for decades. Not only have I read many books by the best-known organizational change management (OCM) gurus and authors, I helped create TSI’s internal OCM methodology. Even after spending many hours learning about how to process change, I struggle to recall anyone providing suggestions on how to PREPARE for change.
Too often, change is portrayed in an overly-simplistic manner that assumes if you have a kickoff, communicate to stakeholders, have a party or two to celebrate something good, then it will fall into your lap. I can honestly say that from my involvement in over 250 transformation projects, I have never seen this happen. Sadly, truthfully, change is messy.
We periodically lead OCM training workshops for our clients and a variety of OCM practitioners. Oftentimes, someone will make a remark that the OCM lead has “earned their glass of wine” at the end of the week. And if there are any experienced practitioners in the group who truly know how hard the change is, they will say, “I think you mean they earned a case of wine, not simply a glass”.
Given my experience leading transformations, and having earned a glass or two of wine myself, I have some suggestions for Executive Sponsors, Project Leaders, Team members, and Subject Matter Experts.
- To Executive Sponsors – get yourself prepared emotionally that change will not go perfectly. When it doesn’t, don’t freak out. When you hit bumps in the road, that is your signal to lean in and see how you can support change even more. As some folks might say, “You need to Boss up!”. Your involvement will make a difference. Keep in mind that every change-oriented project is about your organization’s culture – what it is now and what you want it to be.
- To the Project Leader – make sure you are giving yourself some mental and emotional capacity to regroup and take several swings at this; maybe more than several swings. If you lose traction and want to give up when it doesn’t go perfectly, you are merely reinforcing a culture of status quo.
- To the Team Member and/or Subject Matter Expert – As the next wave of leaders, you MUST support change initiatives. How are you going to do that? Are you an advocate of change or chirping about what doesn’t work? Your involvement needs to accentuate the positive, and if you see gaps and problems (and you will), position yourself to help fix them.
With these suggestions in mind, I leave you with this thought: change can be exciting and does not need to be feared. It can get ugly at times due to the unknown, but don’t forget that with change comes opportunity! Being able to adapt as an organization and move in common alignment will not only reap direct benefits of change, but will stimulate indirect benefits like growing deeper bonds as a result of tribulations and hardships.
