What strategies can you use to prepare your team for a major organizational transition?

In my experience, it is most important to communicate what is changing and what is remaining the same for the team. Sometimes the impact is not only from the direct organization change to the team, but it could also come from other teams that are being reorganized. This impact assessment needs to be comprehensive and requires you to look at the organization change through the lens of the team instead of what's being communicated from senior leadership.

To start with I disagree with the six step approach the outline requires you to buy into. If you are in step 5 "managing resistance" you have already failed. Your approach should NEVER be to plan to fail and create resistance. Organization change is often biz code for mass lay-offs. If that is what you are doing then as Nike says "Just do it". Go watch George Clooney in "Up in the air." and prevent the Kubler Ross Trauma curve by doing it as quickly as possible. Hours, not days weeks or months. If you want to do an org to change the way your company works. Use ProSci's ADKAR in an iterative approach with an Active listening Campaign. Focus messaging on WIIIFM "What Is In It For Me". E.G. the Benefits to each employee from THEIR view.

I would strongly recommend hiring someone (or have an advisor) who has done this successfully in the past. Too often I see 'programme managers' asked to run change and while there is overlap it requires different skills and experience. I would also insist on using a clear methodology. Kotter is the best I've seen. If you do that and have the right skills and experience then you have a good chance of success. All the pieces around 'communication' and the like are covered well by Kotter, so take that and adapt it - don't try to create your own method!!!

Remember that behind every organisational change in a human being. Organisations don't change, it is the people who need to change, therefore, all effort must be put in understanding the human side of organisational change. Where possible, write down the name of an individual (not just role) and identify what do they currently do, what skills they have. They identify what is it that they would be doing differently, 'instead of ... they will do...'. Then identify the gap in their skills and provide the necessary training to suit their needs. Please remember, every individual is different and tailor your engagement and communication to suit their needs

In my extensive experience, to prepare a team for a significant organizational transition, the leader must present a well-defined vision, explaining the reason of change, accompanied by a clear execution plan. It is vital to communicate the destination where the team is heading and support it with a relevant execution plan that outlines the steps required to move toward the goal. This strategy will ensure a smooth implementation and help get the entire team on board.

A comunica??o consistente da Vis?o da mudan?a é o principal fio condutor , que manterá todas as a??es e iniciativas coordenadas e o time desempenhando de forma resiliente e engajada, durante todo o processo. Destaco 4 pontos : - profissionais valorizam comunica??o transparente e respeitosa. Sentem-se e s?o incluídos no processo. - situa??es impopulares, difíceis ou erros acontecer?o, mas a rea??o é mais rápida e menos dolorosa quando a vis?o é clara para todos - ambiguidade e incertezas s?o melhor gerenciadas , com uma vis?o clara. Os resultados vem mais rápido. - a saúde mental dos profissionais e da organiza??o é priorizada e gerenciada

Siempre debemos evitar utilizar el poder meramente coercitivo, del estilo "debemos realizar estos cambios por que yo lo digo". La postura a adoptar siempre será la de informar las razones y motivos detrás, no a modo de justificació pero si para garantizar el entendimiento de todo el esfuerzo de cambio. No hay nada más dificil para un colaborador que asumir un cambio significativo con la cnosecuente salida de su zona de confort cuando no entiende el motivo del mismo y además éste no tiene una justificación para el.

Most of us serving in leadership roles have experienced organizational transition throughout our careers. Your communication strategy is the foundation for a successful transition including internal stakeholders, external stakeholders, and the community engaged in your organization. As a leader, you set the tone for the transition by creating a positive vision and transparency throughout the organization from the very beginning and after the transition as well. Be consistent, positive, and timely to alleviate the concerns for your teams. Be their leader, their support system, and their confidante.

In my experience you can express the urgency of communicating the change, please note everyone in the process is not onboard. Be careful of hidden agendas and those who are not experienced in the visionary process. Lastly, there are also those who believe they are the subject matter experts (SMEs) and don’t want to see progress. Don’t let shortcomings keep you from the overall mission of the majority of internal/external benefactors.

Preparing a team for a major organizational transition requires teams to understand the reasons for the transition and how they fit in the new organizational structure. Though ideal, this doesn't necessarily mean they have to agree with the reasons, but they do need to understand the intent. Leaders then provide the initial framework which defines essential tasks and outputs. The team then can work together to refine the framework with required inputs to yield the desired outputs. The teams should also help leaders evaluate whether the appropriate people are allocated/functionally aligned to the required tasks and outputs. Leaders shouldn't underestimate how much the team values providing feedback on major changes.

In my experience communication is everything as there's nothing worse than feeling out in the cold and feeling like you're being done to. It's essential to gain the Team's involvement, hold workshops, survey or just sit and have a coffee and ask for their feedback. If you can understand the pulse of the Team, you can get a better view of both the blockers and enablers to a smooth transition.

Siempre que sea posible, debemos no solo informar a nuestro equipo de los cambios y desafíos futuros sino también que formen parte, preferentemente del proceso de planificación, pero si esto no fuese posible al menos del proceso de implementación. Quizá lo más complicado sea no poder ajustar la planificación según las sugerencias que realice el equipo, pero resultará crítico que puedan contribuir desde sus diversos puntos de viad en el proceso de implementación. Esto disminuirá las barreras de cambio y las resistencias naturales que tengan los colaboradores.

Embracing an organisational transition requires visionary leadership and inclusive collaboration. Big changes start small, and they start with people. I like to harness the collective wisdom in the organisation by involving people from the beginning and creating conditions for them to participate. By running experiments early on, we generate success stories to build the momentum to scale from small shifts to large-scale transformations.

One method for consideration is to draft a transition plan to share with your team. Using the outline for your transition plan draft, seek your team's insight for each step in the plan. You could even invite your team to write a section or portion related to their position. This gives them insight into the importance of organizational transition. The best part is you may learn something through their questions, participation, and insight.

Change management affects people, systems, and processes, yet people bear the whole brunt of the change. We know that staff are overly underutilized in most workspaces. The leaders of change management processes need to appreciate that the people within the organization have more capabilities that would be valuable for the proposed change environment. Communicating the planned changes and inviting staff to contribute to the content and process makes the staff feel part of the process and work to make it work. Otherwise, fear of the impacts of change makes humans consciously or subconsciously resist and/or sabotage change processes.

Sometimes, resistance stems from the fear of the unknown. Hence it is important to allay such fears and boost confidence. Open house sessions, workshops, etc. can help the stakeholders, address their concerns. It is vital that they don't feel threatened by the change. One on one meetings can also help the people who have lingering concerns.

Robust post-Go-Live support is not just important but crucial for the lasting success of any change project. It reinforces new behaviours, prevents fallback to old practices, and facilitates continuous improvement through ongoing training, resources, and support. Without sustained strategies, the risk of reverting to former habits increases, potentially wasting invested resources. Thus, post-Go-Live support must be a top priority for any organization to ensure the long-term success of their change initiatives. #ChangeManagement #PostGoLiveSupport #ContinuousImprovement

A good change management process acknowledges the existing organizational capabilities and the new skills and knowledge needed to effectively implement the proposed change. The change leaders need to provide resources for the retooling of staff. This is a clear message that the management team intends to continue with their current staff in the implementation phase. In it's communication to staff about the change, management may also encourage staff to self-sponsor themselves in building additional personal masteries to fit in the new changed environment effectively.

Support, support, support. Provide many different formats and time horizons for employees to get supported through the change. Too often, a change is made and then there is an expectation that everyone should get it and be on board with it - after one quick 15 minutes all hands. Since we are human beings we are dynamic and complicated beings and will all metabolize the changes in our own ways. One of the tactics I have seen work is to provide various forums (office hours, 1:1s, peer ambassador support, trainings, etc) for people to come and ask questions, be heard and get supported - days or even weeks post change announcement and then continually through online the change.

In my experience this is another opportunity for team involvement in the change and a smoother transition by way of developing team members as trainers of the changed technology, process or mission.

- Be transparent, informative and kind during the change process. - Create a vision of the future and develop strategies that move your team in the right track. - Clarify the change in terms of the realities of what is driving it. - Connect, involve and empower your workers during these initiatives. - Stay optimistic about the change.

It can be helpful to keep David Rock's SCARF model in mind: Status Certainty Autonomy Relatedness Fairness when helping individuals navigate major changes. In particular, helping a person see their new role and where they can contribute in the new organization and giving them opportunity to participate in aspects of shaping that new future can be highly valuable for all. Additionally, listening and providing fair and equitable opportunity in the future state organization also provides greater satisfaction and certainty for the individual in them setting themselves creating value in their potentially evolving role and knowing they can positively contribute and have impact in the future.

Managing resistance to change is certainly crucial for a major change initiative and requires prioritization. Gladwell's "Tipping Point" provides rationale for prioritizing your approach to resistance to change. Working to understand why some are resisting so vociferously is crucial to refining your communications and training, BUT spending too much emotional energy and communications on the 10-15% that will likely never totally buy in squanders your limited time and emotional energy. Rather focus your time and communications on the 70-80% sitting in the middle, waiting to see which way the wind blows. Moving those "middle of the roaders" toward the necessary changes will provide the greatest opportunity for a successful change process.

Establishing safe spaces is crucial to foster open and honest dialogue among team members, encouraging the expression of emotions without judgment. Normalizing emotions during change is essential; reassure the team that experiencing a range of feelings is normal and provide resources like stress management workshops or employee assistance programs. Focus on storytelling and communication, emphasizing the favorable aspects of the change and its potential benefits for both individuals and the organization. Encouraging optimism and a shared vision of goals further contributes to a supportive and positive environment during the transition.

Si el cambio es sustancial, no solo se debe realizar un abordaje grupal, sino también facilitar instancias uno a uno con cada claborador para garantizar que incluso las voces más tímidas puedan ser escuchadas. Muchas veces nos encontraremos con personalidades más discretas que no manifiestan su disconformidad en grupo, pero la tienen y luego esto impacta directamente en su desempe?o futuro.

Touchpoints in conversations individually and as a team is important to share the progress of the initiative. Communication should be shared by the organization holistically, and once milestones or the initiative is complete, celebrations help to bring it to a successful close.

In my experience, managing an organization transition takes tremendous planning and communication to manage to the "go-live," but the success of the initiative will often hinge on monitoring and evaluating the change. Of course, this will rely heavily on collecting effective data, conducting appropriate analyses, and identifying areas that will require more reinforcement (training, stakeholder management, intense and repetitive communication, etc.). The greatest failure point for most change initiatives is here as projects that are communicated with grand fanfare often deliver less desirable results initially. Plan on adding more resources to the project post-implementation to ensure that value is being measured and communicated.

Monitoring and evaluating organization transitions is critical to ensure the planning is on track. This strategy will also instill in your team how important leadership believes in the transition process and ultimately cares about the staff. To ensure you accurately evaluate/monitor, there should be a survey done prior to the actual transition with a focus on what the expectations are. The collection of data in the future will now be benchmarked with the actual transition plan. As you analyze the data/feedback, you can begin to report to your teams the accomplishments made with the transition. Validate the success through meaningful celebration with the teams showing them you care and appreciate their support and commitment.

I typically have two change management plans for any organizational design. The first is the implementation plan and covers how you notify those who are impacted and deal with their feelings around the transition. The second plan is the "now what" plan. It covers how the workload transition, retraining, re-engaging the workforce, and getting back to business as usual. The second plan is the one most organizations skip and it's actually the most important part. You get no value from a new organization design if you don't teach people how to get the most out of it.

HONOR THE HUMANITY of those you lead. As human beings, transitions involve an inner process that includes mourning the loss of what's familiar and accepting the unfamiliar. Humans going thru any transition, including any change in the organization to which they belong, must process inwardly. Honor the process of individuals navigating Endings and New Beginnings.

Good or bad, It is important to listen to the workforce. Have one on one conversations with your team about how they are feeling about the organizational change. Giving them space to be heard will go a long way in the implementation of the change. Giving employees the opportunity to voice their concerns privately may open doors to issues that may not have been considered by leadership. This will also help create workforce buy-in to the change. Employees will begin to feel valued and part of the organization’s change. One more thing….the greatest critics of the change will experience a shift because their feelings were considered. They will then be in position to shut down the naysayers of the change and thus create a smoother transition.

Any transformational effort will be rooted in a business need ie: growth, downsize, acquisition, merger etc.. but the path to transformation is human. Don't dismiss humanity, but rather find the balance of business need and humanity; they can be in partnership.

Applying Prosci's ADKAR model —a framework that outlines the five building blocks of successful change: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. To foster Awareness, communicate the need for change effectively, perhaps by presenting market data that shows the necessity for a digital transformation within the company. To build Desire, engage with team members to understand their motivations and address any apprehensions, using one-on-one interviews or workshops to align their personal goals with organizational objectives. To equip the team with Knowledge, develop comprehensive training tailored to their roles, such as providing detailed instructions and support for new software being introduced.