Can I get change please?

Change is hard ... well it can be, but it can also open you up to opportunities you never would have had, provide you grand experiences, and enable you to grow.  In short ... change is inevitable and it can be very good.

When I was much younger I used to lament change and try to avoid it at all costs.  Now I find myself living in an ever changing environment whether that is professionally with the fast paced field of technology or personally as my wife and I move to new countries with our two daughters in tow.

I never would have thought that I would be the type of person to move around the globe as much as I have ... to travel as much as I have ... and now, as I take a sabbatical to continue this journey with my family, to be the one to step away from well traveled path and live a life less ordinary.

I guess you could say I have changed ...

But what makes change successful?  Lots of people and lots of companies set out to change but are not successful.

Change does not mean progress

It is all too easy to come in to a situation and just begin making changes in the name of "progress".  To many leaders this feels like they are making their mark ... they are making a difference.

Before you begin making changes you need to understand why you are making them.  Ask yourself, "what result are you trying to bring about" and just as importantly "how will you measure whether you have succeeded".  If you don't do this you are just changing a wall from white to blue for no reason. 

You need a plan

In 1970 General Ne Win the leader of Myanmar decided quite literally overnight that he should shift the whole country from driving on the left side of the road to the right side of the road.

There was no plan.

There was no thought given for how to communicate this to citizens, what signs needed to change, how to address buses like the one above that would not have people exit directly into traffic, or how to deal with the fact that almost all the cars in Myanmar come from Japan which has the steering wheel on the right side of the car.

He just made the change ... without a plan.

Thankfully the people of Myanmar are highly adept and flexible people as they have found a way to make this work, with great struggle I am sure.  But you should not put your organization through the same struggle.  You owe it to them to have a plan, it is critical that your stakeholders are part of the change management process and they understand and support the change.  It is well worth the time investment.

You have to deliver

The last and most obvious element for successful change is that you have to deliver ... early and often.

When people tell you they "hope to be done by Friday", or "are trying to wrap things up", or they "think they can be done by October" you should be very concerned in what they are telling you.  

They are not saying that they have a plan ... that they know what it will take to succeed and they will bring about that success.  They are likely headed towards missing the deliverable.  

Instead they need help.  Hope is not a plan.

 So don't be afraid to change.  Have good reason for the change, plan it out, and sweat the details so you deliver.

Success will follow.