Whether your organization is seeking to implement transformational change or "garden variety" changes, you are going to be confronted with a simple but compelling choice. You can either invest in readiness for change, or pay for it in resistance. There are no other options! 
In a webinar on Tips for Building Readiness for Change: Tactics and Strategies Based on the AIM Change Management Methodology, IMA President Don Harrison offered 10 tips that change agents can apply on transformational and other types of change:
1. Target your resources early-- for the maximum impact in the shortest amount of time. One of the mistakes that project teams make is that they wait far too long to start to build readiness for change. Resistance to change starts very early on, so you do not want to wait until it is running rampant to put strategies and tactics in place to manage it.
2. Don't under-estimate the fear of the unknown. Readiness is not built from the perceptions of the project team-- it is built from the perceptions of the Targets. There is an old saying that "the pain of uncertainty is greater than the certainty of pain." As change agents, we need to constantly remind ourselves that we need to be in touch with the various Frames of Reference of Sponsors and Targets.
3. Make the first step easier to take by using pilot projects to soften the transition to the future state. One way to overcome the fear of uncertainty is to use pilot projects rather than taking an immediate giant leap. This provides a level of "psychological comfort" that can help create readiness for the more significant changes ahead.
4. Make sure that communication and context are translated down to the Targets' Frames of Reference. You can't keep all the communication from the 50,000 foot corporate level because you won't be answering the most critical questions every Target has about any change: What's in it for me? What does it mean to me? How does it all fit?
5. Remember your Targets must have willingness before you can have effective training and skill building. Targets must have a clear picture of what success will look like, how this change solves a problem for him or her, and what the rewards and consequences are.
6. Don't overlook the importance of practice and feedback when you are trying to build new skills. Confidence in the new ways is built at the individual level through repetition, a safe learning environment, and by providing immediate feedback on performance. For this reason, it's often helpful to position super-users right in the Target groups so that new learners get the immediate feedback they need. People will be reluctant to try out new skills unless they are confident that they will be successful!
7. To build confidence for the current change you must be transparent about weaknesses of past history. One of the greatest ways to build trust is to openly acknowledge past mistakes, married with symbolic demonstrations about how this time is, in fact, different. It's much more powerful to show people the difference rather than to just talk about it. Sponsors can do this in a number of ways-- by demonstrating prioritization, by communicating differently, and by offering new types of reinforcements.
8. Develop involvement strategies to create a sense of control. When people have a feeling of control, there is less fear, and less resistance. We will often involve the biggest resistors by putting them on the project team! The AIMprinciple is simple: If you can't get people involved in deciding what to change, get them involved in how to change it.
9. You can't build readiness in others until you have readiness in the project team. Remember that "everyone is a Target first," and that includes members of the project team!
10. Your communication methods must symbolize what you are trying to create. Gandhi famously said, "Be the change." This means, for example, that if you are implementing a collaborative transformational change like Shared Services, your communication methods must be collaborative.
There is no doubt that it takes time, energy, and resources to build readiness for change. But readiness and resistance are two sides of the same coin. Which side of the coin is your organization betting on?
