4 Immediate Steps to Take When Change Seems Impossible

Hi everyone. Today I found a great article in LSA Global that I know many of you will enjoy reading or possibly relate to. The original article can be found here -  https://lsaglobal.com/4-immediate-steps-take-change-seems-impossible/ - if you’d like to read the article there, or I’ve pasted parts of it here to share it. It’s well worth a read.

When organizational change seems impossible to accept and overcome, it is up to leadership to ease the path for employees. Management needs to understand how it feels as an individual employee to hear that organizational change is needed, that it is required and that they must be part of successful change or risk being left behind.

Our organizational alignment research found that factors relating to employees’ positive responsiveness to the changes needed to remain competitive accounted for an almost 5-to-1 difference in performance. In our twenty years of helping clients manage organizational change successfully, here is what we have learned about successfully navigating the rough seas.

1. Plan and prepare.

When you as leaders have determined that change is required to succeed, you need to develop a clear and compelling message for the troops. No longer can you just dictate what needs to happen. You must try to inspire your employees to understand your vision and fully commit to it. Tell a captivating story that explains the rationale for change and what success will look like at the company, team and individual levels. Make sure the story you tell is relevant, simple and straightforward so that it can be easily and accurately cascaded throughout the organization.

2. Provide forums for questions and discussion.

Few will jump aboard the bandwagon at the outset. Most will react with denial at first and then with resistance. It is as if employees don’t want to face that the change is real. Initially it is easier to hold on to the past. And then, when they realize that change is going to happen, they resist it. Why? Because it is often much easier to hold on to what was comfortable and known than to meet the challenge of the new and different.

The best way to guide employees from change denial and resistance to change acceptance is to be available to answer their concerns and questions about what the change will mean for them as a group, as a team and as an individual. They want to know specifically how the change will affect them personally. Tell them what you know, what you do not know yet and when you will be able to fill in any information gaps.

3. Provide support and resources.

Once employees accept that change will and must occur, be there to encourage them and to supply whatever training and resources will help them move forward. Understand that change can be hard work for some and that individuals will go through change at different paces. Some will be excited to explore what the change can do for them and others will still be uneasy and lack confidence as they try to learn new skills and a new process.

4. Encourage commitment.

Use your best performance management techniques to reward the behaviors that lead to change. It won’t be long before the change has become embedded in employee attitudes and has become familiar and natural.

This author seems to write some great stuff and well worth following.

If there is any other info you’d like me to search out and share in the world of Professional Training and Coaching then please let me know. Or, if you have any other pressing needs in my area, feel free to reach out on (0404) 056-788.

Thanks,

Steve