When doing change management, you must determine what must evolve and what must be leap-frogged. Some things need finesse and need the bandaid...

This is a key lesson I have learned leading change internally or driving change in organizations as a consultant whether it be enterprise-wide, a new system or a local transformation. Like many things in business, change management is both science and art. It really takes someone or a team that has its hand on the pulse of the organization.

Too often the change process becomes a practice of white-knuckling through a particular change model. And please note, there are some really wonderful and robust change management methods and models out there. All of which have much to offer. But when the process or change tools become the focus, the practitioner no longer has to think, monitor or sense what is going on in the organization and then these tools lose their efficacy.

Pushing through a “pathway” of a model does not work because it implies that change is linear and even. Which you intuitively know is not true. One direction at one speed through the change model will not work. There are alterations and variations in speed, direction, intensity as well as rebound, misstarts and leaps. Why, because you are dealing with people. So many times, early in my career I would think a particular part of the change was significant and would be hard for the employees to embrace. In the end it was quite easy while the real ruckus was about something seemingly insignificant like the change to the soda machines in the cafeteria. (True story.)? Didn’t see that coming.? There are always a lot of things you do not see coming or you cannot totally anticipate. Or will happen in the way you think it will happen. That is why one must stay alert.

Thus, when doing change management, figure out what needs to be finessed, what needs to be processed in a deeper manner and what should be boldly pushed through. For example, if the organization is currently using an old, outdated version of MS Office, you would not go through all of the earlier versions until you come to the current version, you would simply just leapfrog to the latest version. And at the same time, some things will need significant work. That is why efforts must constantly be dedicated to assessing and tracking where people are in the process so you can adjust appropriately. Some things will go faster than you think, or the pain is so great it is best to rip off the bandage. This is particularly true if there is bandaid on top of bandaid on top of bandaid or if there is real danger mounting.

I learned quite a bit about change management from my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification. If as a WFR, you come onto a person on the side of the trail sitting on the ground, conscious, rubbing their head and able to talk, you have an entire and comprehensive protocol you work through to assess the patient. However, if the person at the side of the trail is unconscious and bleeding out, you take action! And this holds true in change management. You must assess and act throughout the process.

There will also be pain and discomfort in change. You must assess the risk and rewards. Back to my WFR, aligning the spine or a fractured femur requires immediate action even though the movement might be painful for the patient, but not doing so results in more pain, deformity or even worse. After that you take a beat, slow down and continue the assessment while responding to the needs of the patient.

So, get good at reading the situation and do not stop assessing throughout the entire change process. Adjust and intervene as appropriate and necessary with the right means. Sometime this means moving faster, sometimes slower, sometime with more intensity and sometimes with simple assurance. But always be on top of what the employees need in the moment.