Why Winning the Hearts & Minds Is the Key to Accepting Change

Jack Welch, the legendary chairman and CEO of General Electric once said: “Change before you have to.” 

Welch’s line takes on a whole new meaning in the digital age what with change coming at warp speeds. Of course change is not always easy, especially when it comes to your employees. In case you’ve forgotten, these are real people with real emotions and feelings.

 They are human and as we all know we humans can be reluctant to change. And the cold hard truth is that in a digital world of constant state of change, companies need to win over the hearts and minds of their employees in order for them to accept and adopt change.

 And although more companies are moving to the cloud, their journey isn’t simply about a shift in technology. Moving to the cloud also represents a dramatic shift in organizational processes and culture that requires an entirely new mindset by all those involved. How customers approach and manage this shift—how well they and their employees adapt to the pace of change brought on through continuous innovation—can quickly determine their level of long-term success.

“Change before you have to.” - Jack Welch

Employees have to want to do all the things that change requires for if not, any resistance to change surely leads directly to a decrease in productivity. We’ve seen it a million times. As I’ve written in the past, many companies can struggle to build adaptable organizations and face lost productivity and disengagement in the face of ongoing change.

Roll With the Changes  

 A cliché for sure but nevertheless a fact. Companies today must be prepared to roll with the inevitable changes. They must be prepared to help their employees embrace change.  That’s where the right Customer Success (CS) team can help by providing value-add services that give customers strategic perspective and insight needed for effective transformation. And the right CS team can also help companies overcome the challenges they encounter when trying to maximize their cloud investment.

 The best CS teams in the world:

• Work very closely with their customers to change the hearts and minds of employees and drive support for critical changes.
• Support customers and guide them in ensuring that their employees have the right training and communications in place for smooth, widespread adoption.
• Work with their customers to build a culture that is agile and innovation-focused by creating peer-to-peer networks, sharing content, and helping the customer maximize on thought-leadership events.

This Just In

It is hardly breaking news, but the cloud is in a constant state of change and reinvention and navigating through this change is daunting. That’s why it pays to partner with a Customer Success team that is laser-focused on helping you win the hearts and minds of employees so they embrace change.

While this may sound like a cliché or even wishful thinking in terms of getting people to embrace change, it is also a fact. In order for ANY company to have long-term success that same company must have a system and plan in place that allows for the inevitable changes that will come… and keep coming.