1. Where are we headed? Though there are no maps, there are compasses. Paint a clear and visual image of the future as you see it and future opportunities that might open up. Do you see a new vision? Or just more, better, faster? If the former, don’t assume that others know it.
2. Accentuate the Positive. Publicize and repeatedly underscore the positives about the current and proposed changes. Most companies neglect or underplay this. Just because senior management gets it doesn’t mean it filters down.
3. Share what you’re thinking and what’s going on in a way they can hear and understand. Other species communicate constantly during change through touch, smell, sight and sound. Humans need to hear from you on a regular basis on at least one of those dimensions. And make sure there’s an open line back up to you.
4. Go on a Listening Tour. Tell people where you’re going and ask them how to get there and what roadblocks they foresee. Take action on their suggestions when possible. When not possible, and you forget to give feedback on why not, disengagement is sure to follow. This one step will salvage your change effort.
One Wisconsin Health Care system kicked off a system-wide lab scheduling software without consulting the individual labs. Needs were so different among the labs that bookings decreased over 45% within a month. If they had checked-in, they could have tweaked the software before implementation and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost bookings.
5. Find and keep cultural beats. Surprisingly, people can be more afraid of losing important elements of their culture than they are their status or position. Relationships with others are a central part of the glue that holds them to your company. Find out what parts of the culture are important to your people. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to safeguard and enhance these.
One real estate brokerage learned that Friday lunches were sacred. For an aerospace company, blue-shirtTuesday was important (who knew?). A large pharma had appointed rotating volunteer ‘cheerleaders’ to cheer up the workforce. An efficiency expert recommended removing the post, resulting in cries of protest. The cheerleader had become a central part of their culture.
6. Appoint Change Agents from mid-management levels around the organization who monitor, unblock and expedite change. They get silos talking and working together, push vision through blocks to the first line, identify triangles and tangles (explained later), open up blocked communication lines. These should be objective, honored and rewarded leadership training posts.
7. Follow through. Don’t make any decision without detailing who, exactly when, and how you’ll follow up and then follow up. Don’t blow this part; the start-stop nature of change efforts is how cynicism develops. Schedule follow up alerts and pop-ups in the software system. Post the people or departments responsible for action on public boards and highlight those who complete on time. Program screen savers with prompts, rewards and punishments. Execution is everything.
8. Take the lead on getting agile and efficient. How are your meetings? Long-winded and report based? That’s more ego than activity. Things happening fast enough? Anyone being tolerated who’s not up to it? People in lead positions who you wouldn’t fight for if they wanted to quit? When you play the game “Put Us Out of Business” do you always win?
9. If you are starting a new way of working, show them you mean it. They’ve been here before, are jaded and don’t believe you. Do something dramatic as a kickoff. One company starting an open door policy, burned down some manager’s doors in a parking lot (not recommended). Senior leaders who declared they were starting a Servant Leadership attitude served employees in the cafeteria with white gloves. These might not work for you, but think of something that screams: “This time is different.”
10. Establish leadership best practices and hold people’s feet to the fire to develop them. These are well documented in other areas; the point is to decide on a few that are central to you and make them happen! Many leaders write down a few practices and assume they’ll stick. They won’t.
