How to lead successful change

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” – Albert Einstein

People change constantly: in a lifetime everyone goes through personal transformation from infancy to young adulthood, middle age and finally to old age. A career path may lead from subordinate to junior management, middle management and eventually board level or consultancy. Organizations also mature and evolve, with major changes on many levels in policies, culture and practice. Increasing your capacity to understand and drive change could be beneficial for personal satisfaction and career progress.

Creating a change plan for your organisation is not easy, especially if you’re at the beginning of the road. Today’s leaders are trying to adapt to the realities of this fast paced world and they face a serious and contemporary problem: they must transform their organisation from an idea to a tangible product, from losing to winning, from zero to hero. All that happens with little to no time for the employees to adjust to the new way. Times of change are challenging for leaders, and even more challenging are times when they need to plan, implement and drive change.

There is little, if any, black and white guidelines that work in organisations. In order to be successful, a change process must:

• Be a multi-phase process
• Be dynamic; you need to learn or expect to make adjustments as you go
• Establish a common understanding of the performance that is required, from leadership to employees
• Create a comprehensive approach that links individual efforts to your change objectives
• Recognize that change will occur at different stages and times throughout the organisation (some employees or departments will cope with change faster than others)

The ideal change management plan combines aspects of both strategic and tactical planning. Here are five steps you can take to create it.

1. Clarify the reason behind change, the end goal, and at the same time, clarify what will not change.

Start with providing clear guidance and better understanding for your employees. Often it is helpful to create a change vision – board. Clarifying the purpose will help your team understand why is change important. Defining an end goal will help them picture what it will look like. Letting your team know what will not change will minimize the fear and uncertainty. In effect, you will be providing stability in the midst of change. Times of change are stressful.

Tips: If you are to initiate the change, make sure you work with those who are to understand the big picture and goals. Discuss how you and your team are expected to support the change. By this, you will designate who plays what role in implementing the change. This step is important because: It conveys the sense of urgency and need for change; it will help you assess readiness for change. It designs the expected end state. It builds trust and commitment.

2. Build rapport and ownership

The more you involve your team in the change plan, the easier it is for them to accept it and implement it. Acceptance is best achieved by involving those directly affected by change in planning it. Communication is vital here.

This step is important because: It helps you evaluate the impact. It identifies common themes. It creates the change strategy.

3. Design change management initiatives

By now you will be able to work on specific actions, guidelines, roles and timeline of execution.

Tip: Discuss these with your team and as appropriate ask them for feedback and inputs. Designing the activities will help you set priorities. Avoid overwhelming everyone with too much change at once.

This step is important because: It identifies specific change initiatives. The change plan becomes more tactical now.

4. Implement change

Execute your change plan and keep moving forward. Procrastination can create inertia or confusion. Timely implementation of the plan reaffirms the importance of change and your commitment to see it through.

Tip: Monitor the status of plan implementation.

5. Learn and Adjust

Throughout the change process it is important to keep the communication open. You want to get feedback from your team, you want to stay on top of any unexpected consequences that have emerged and have to be dealt with. It is necessary to have a dialogue with those affected by the change.

This step is important because: Most change plans have failed due to the inability to adjust or learn from mistakes.

Tip: Make feedback part of your change culture. Don’t be afraid to modify the plan including the time frame. Be patient. Ways to collect feedback: Change plan reviews; Informal discussion; Regular team meetings.

The best leaders are those who can deal with ambiguity and change, and those who make it easier for their team to follow through. Companies who fails to keep up with change are inevitably left behind. Successful leaders are those who not only acknowledge that change is essential, but they go an extra mile, embrace change and use it as a muscle to move the organisation forward.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often” – Winston S. Churchill