September, 22nd
MANAGING CHANGE: 5 PREPARATION STEPS
Leading a change intervention requires preparation
Before all else…know where you want to go
- You must be ABSOLUTELY clear about where you want to take people and why. Work at developing clarity by interacting with trusted others – before you engage the organization as a whole. The process of having your answers questioned in advance is enlightening and will broaden your capacity to lead. Engaging trusted others in deep conversation will solidify your focus and prepare you to transform resistors. Preliminary dialogue will also generate ENERGY that will be apparent once you start asking people to support your change initiative. (for this purpose, I advise CEO’s to join a non-competing group of peers – groups such as Vistage)
- Reflect on your organization’s history in terms of what has fit and what has not—do it before you try to communicate what needs to change if you are to meet future challenges.
- Know where your organization currently is. Are you in a survival, hold, or a growth mode? What makes you think that? Do you have evidence that supports your conclusion? A consistent distillation of your perspective is essential when you are initiating major change. Followers will expect you to make a consistent and solid case every time.
- Getting from ‘here to there’ using the same tools, frameworks, and strategies your organization has always used won’t work. “Doing what you’ve always done will give you what you’ve always got.” To cast out the debilitating ghosts of industrial-age habits, you may require something akin to a corporate exorcism. People will not grow until they let go. !
- Directing a change initiative is no place for the faint of heart. To break through the status quo you have to assertively take the reins. It’s your job to help others understand why the current culture or operating methods are no longer acceptable. How will you approach the tough issues that are sure to occur? What challenges do you anticipate? How will you engage others in problem solving? What are the consequences for people who are unwilling to change? If you had to make a prediction – who may have to go?