Alan Watts, the British born philosopher, writer and speaker once said, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”. Easier said than done, right? In a perfect world, everyone would love change. We could just send out an email announcing a change, and people would jump in with both feet, no questions asked—there would be no resistance and no complaining.
Communication during a change is imperative, but in our Change Management Consulting experience we see a lot of the same missteps being made time and time again. Here’s a list of the five most common communication mistakes we see, plus a few great tips on how to fix them!
In any given organizational change, you have two options: You can either invest in readiness now, or spend your resources managing resistance later. There is no other alternative, and there isn’t a “no payment” option that we have seen in our 30 years of change management consulting.
Do your Leaders say they support a transformational change, but then don’t have the time to participate in critical meetings? Is it like pulling teeth to get Leaders to make a decision? Is your organization plagued by infighting and politics between Leaders?
What’s a Change Implementation Plan? Well, would you start out on a road trip without looking at a map or setting your GPS? Would you begin renovations on your home without a clear, thought out blue print? We think not. That’s why we find it rather puzzling when organizations today will initiate any type of change, whether it’s transformational or a simple procedural change without a Change Implementation Plan.
Getting the Sponsorship you need is the single most important success factor for any project implementation. The fact is Sponsorship is the most critical success factor in ensuring a fast and successful implementation of any type of business change, but it is also largely misunderstood.
Making certain you have the appropriate number of Change Agents, with the desirable skills, in the proper places is a critical component of organizational change management and achieving value realization for your project. In other words, creating a Change Agent Network is crucial for implementation success.
Resistance to change is a natural part of the transformation process. But, yet, so often leadership is taken by surprise when they become aware of it. Over the years, we’ve witnessed many “ah ha” moments from our change management consulting clients regarding the resistance they’ve experienced within their own organizations.
How does a change management methodology help ensure value realization for technology regarding a software/technology upgrades? On a recent call with a prospective client, we heard an all too familiar scenario. Here’s how the conversation went:
After over 30 years of change management consulting, Don Harrison, President of IMA, has a lot to say about implementing transformational change. In IMA's recent webinar on The Human Side of Transformational Change, Don shared his tips on how to improve execution success of these big, complex changes. He touched on topics such as:
